Category Archives: a new light

the rest of the story . post 7

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Every time i went to the dining hall for a meal, i would sit with someone i had not sat with before to be able to meet more of the people who were attending. My roommate and i would walk to meals together and then split up. It was something we did without any conversation about it. Our relationship was very easy and comfortable. On the last night we did actually sit together though.

Later on Saturday evening, i made my way to the studios thinking that it would be nice to hang out there awhile. No one was there, i went in and spent some time opening the cabinets, looking at all the supplies. After that i cleaned up around the sink a bit washing some brushes out. I spotted a pile of cd’s, so i put on some music. It was relaxing just puttering around. I found some pastels and some paper, and found a space to play, and did a little piece about a vessel and light, and then cleaned up what i had gotten out. I was going to turn off the music when a younger man came in for a few minutes and then left. I was pretty much done, washed my hands, took my paper, and turned out the lights. The studios are on the far side of the Cody center, and i decided to go through the center on my way back. Going into the entry, i put the pastel on one of the stone wall shelves. The wall is made of stone and there are a few stones that are part of the wall but stick out a bit like a shelf. Leaving the pastel there was one more little art surprise to add to all the others, that had appeared over the weekend, before going home in the morning.

As i headed out the other side of the Cody center i saw the lights of the fireplace area through the trees and could hear some music and voices. I had not joined in on the late night gathering yet, so this was my last chance. I started up the path about five steps and the lights in the trees around me went out. I couldn’t see my feet, i couldn’t even see my hands. It was really dark. I thought…well maybe if I’m careful i can make it down the path. Two steps and i ran into a big rock. At that point i started to consider plan B. I turned around and there were still lights on in the entry area of the Cody center so i carefully made my way back there and went in.

Then it came to me…sticky tack! When i was looking for the sticky tack on Saturday i opened every drawer and looked all around the office. I remembered seeing matches in a drawer and a candle in a little vase on a desk in the office. The door was unlocked, so i went in and got them, brought them out and lit the candle. I started for the path and the light was in my eyes, so i held the candle up above my head and could see down the path just far enough to take about three steps. Perfecto. I walked down the path thinking…this is not my light, but, it is my light.  Ah…this is shining my light, that is not me. This is seeing just far enough to take a couple of steps. This is holding up the light that i am given…my Light that is Jesus.

I followed the path to the clearing, joined the group, put the candle on the table and enjoyed the company and music, until it was time for me to hit the hay. It was good.

And that’s the rest of the story.

I left Laity, to travel back to Oregon, refreshed and with new thoughts.

Thanks to all who planned and worked and cooked and made beds and were just plain caring.

✜

choice

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A choice is made. But, it takes a person ages to realize the immensity of it. We know that it was a choice to follow Jesus. We are brought to a place of awareness that, somewhere along the line, we have made the choice that our heart knows is right. And we find that choice being renewed over and over again as our minds and hearts are being renewed.

We had no idea what changes would take place in our heart. We did not know of all the breaking and comforting; or for that matter, all the Grace.

We start a process of being retaught, sometimes forgetting just who the teacher is, we are constantly being brought back on track as God speaks to us. He speaks to our spirit with His Holy Spirit. He speaks with a soft voice to our heart. And when we don’t listen, He waits…until we are ready to listen again.

Eventually we understand that we are to listen to His voice, and to do what He says. It must be His voice. And we know His voice. Our heart has always known his voice. And still we are constantly brought back on track. That never changes.

And one day we look around and find just how much change has taken place. It can be encouraging, and sometimes scary. But, still, our heart knows that we are in good hands.

If we are quiet and we listen, we know who God is, and who we are. And we know that the immensity is a very great Love that brings us home.
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✜

t.v.

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continued…from yesterday’s post

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( 1.. Watch life instead of television. )

I have gone through the fact that there are better things to do in time and space than to give my attention over to television. Now, for the instead part.

Watch life. Look at life. Pay attention to life.

When i just want to sit down and soak up some tube rays, i can instead look around me and take in life. Listen to the sounds that life is making. Investigate. Create a thought that is not one of my ordinary thoughts. Be creative, sly, cunning. Fly.

I’m wondering how many lonely people would not be so lonely if more people went face to face instead of face to television.

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next up: #2

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t.v.

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This is the first of seven changes that i am think-writing about.

Braun HF television receiver, Germany, 1958

1.. Watch life instead of television.

I read via wikipedia that the concept of electrically powered transmission of television images in motion was first sketched in 1878 as the telephonoscope, shortly after the invention of the telephone. At the time, it was imagined by early science fiction authors, that someday light could be transmitted over copper wires, as sounds were.

Although television become more familiar in the United States with the general public at the 1939 World’s Fair, the outbreak of World War Two prevented it from being manufactured on a large scale until after the end of the war.

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I was very young when a television entered our house. It lit up the room with images dancing around in black and white. I remember watching Popeye the Sailor Man and another show with a lady holding a magic mirror saying “mirror mirror tell me today…” which i think was Romper Room.

I was hooked.

I’m still hooked. But, questioning. For a long time now, i have been wondering just how much damage this wonderful invention does in the hands of writers, programmers, marketing experts, and the advertising of big money backers. I know it’s too late to turn back but, i can at least turn it off more often.

I ask myself what difference would it make if i watched life instead of television.

I use television as a kind of escape, to relax by, a thing i can do and not think…not think, kind of like sleepwalking while sitting down. I use it as my entertaining companion that i don’t need to talk to. Actually, it lulls my brain and fills it with crap. It also does this to children. But, as an adult, i think that i’m immune. But, i’m not.

There are a few programs on our Oregon Public Broadcasting station that i don’t consider to be crap. But, still, does it align with my beliefs? Also, it’s a choice of watching the program or doing something that i am beginning to consider “real” life.

How many times do i put attention to television over someone else in the room? And if i wasn’t giving my attention over to the television, what would i be doing instead?

One could find things on television that look real, but, the television is not a real or living thing. It is not a person or an animal or even a plant. It is not something that listens and feels and reacts. It does not care about me or know me, or my family, or anyone. But, it does a fine job of telling me and my family what to be and what to buy.

Television programs and commercials do not represent what i am to be as a Christ follower.  Not even the “so called” christian programs can do this.

Just who am i listening to?

✜

( to be continued… )

 

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up

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Growing up in the world means getting closer to the world.  Taking on a shell.  Understanding how dangerous the world is.  
Replacing innocence and trust in people with something else.  Fitting-in becomes an intense desire, because we are born with
a need to be Loved to be accepted.
 
God wants us to grow up and grow close to Him.  Like a flower growing toward the sun.  Having faith is like the turing of
the earth to allow the sun’s rays to reach petals and leaves. The transformation is growth, in the way it was made to grow.
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shining a new light . 5

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 We can choose to do some things now.  like in the book “radical,” we can choose to do radical things.  fast and huge changes in our living style that will produce fast and huge results.  i have often thought of selling a lot of my stuff that i have kept over the years.  the money made in this way can be used to give to children, widows, the poor.   it could be used for radical change if many people did this, even to a small extent.
 Yet, what is even more radical is new life and the change that the Holy Spirit makes in the heart of the believer.  the Holy Spirit living in us and changing us, now that is radical.  they are changes that we can’t make ourselves.  these slow sure changes to the heart and mind cause the life of the believer to become different.  continually we see our life and what we do in a new light.  we do things that we would never have done before.  certain things are not as important or precious as they once were.  it can even get to a point that selling our belongings and living simply doesn’t seem radical at all.  i think that these kind of changes don’t come in a fast and huge way, they’re made over time and in what seems like small ways and not what would be called our ways.  i think the changes have to be made in us, before we do things more in the way of Love and less in the way of man.  it takes time to be shown Love and just what, and who, it is.  comes a time, though, we catch a glimpse of this Love in something that we do, or in something someone else does, and we are held in an instant of pure recognition.

shining a new light . 4

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IMG_5956
can we do anything better than to Love God, and Love others?  if anything that we do becomes more important than that, i suppose that is where we get into trouble.  it may not look like trouble, but, your heart will be aware of it.

all of the other things that we do are to stem off of that most important thing.  if we are fretting or afraid or worried about something that we do…or that we want to do, then it takes that first place.  if we think about one thing over all the other things because we like to do it so much, or think that we would, then this could very well slip into that special first place meant for God.

we can keep God first in our love and in our fear of what we do.  we can be aware our feelings in each thing we do.  we can make sure that no one thing that we do gets to be most important in time or need or Love over the time, need or Love that we have for God.

if we get uptight, infatuated, fearful, worried, or stuck on something that we want to do, or that we already do, this thing takes center stage.

also… if we do not have that special Love, we gain nothing.  just sayin’.

so, if we want to do something, remember Love, don’t worry about the doing too much, don’t need to do it a lot more than other things you do,  do a number of things that you want to do and some that you don’t really want to do,  and do them all in Love.  and number One stays number One.

if you want to try something creative, go ahead, put that step in the dance, along with your other steps.
the steps will all blend together.  you can add steps and take away steps, and continue to do a dance of Love in God.

probably will be continued…

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shining a new light . 3

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what happens to us, what we do, and who we are, is effected by where our faith and fear is placed.

if our faith and fear is placed in God, then we will become and do things differently than if we place these things elsewhere.
as we continue to live and do, our faith and fear must continually be dealt into the place of God.
being created by God, we are creatures that live in time.  thus we are in continual change.
this is a precious gift of God, the ability to change.  as i read “the knowledge of the holy“*, it pointed me to this, that the possibility of redemption lies in the ability to change.  as we live with time-passing effects like growing old and loss, we can also realize a way God is using change and the passing of time.
“…change works for the children of the kingdom, not against them.  The changes that occur in them are wrought by the hand of the in-living Spirit.”
“In the working out of His redemptive processes the unchanging God makes full use of change, and through a succession of changes arrives at permanence at last.”
it is a process that takes faith, time, and God.
to be continued…
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*page 51-52

shining a new light . 1

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IMG_5960

shining a new light on doing things that are different
from the things that we usually do.

so, what are some things that you think you would
like to do?  whatever it is, take a step.
don’t get your panties in a twist.  just do a little
of whatever it is.  dip your toes into the water.

to be continued…


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this is the first installment
of that rewrite i was speaking about
in the previous post, a starting point.