I have a painted board in my kitchen above the cupboards that reads: "Love is patient, love is kind, love never fails." This is one part of the most oft quoted line in the Bible, a line that seems almost universally known. It shows up in wedding ceremonies from the most religious to the most secular. It comes from a passage in I Corinthians. I spent my high school years staring at a hand carved version of this famous passage--an enormous wooden plaque at the front of the chapel at the boarding school I attended. The chapel did not have any religious images. This passage, apparently, was not deemed religious.
It is interesting that it strikes such an interfaith note, that people from all backgrounds are drawn to it. There is no reference to God or Spirit or Jesus in the passage, simply Love, but this Love that is written about is quite different than your garden variety. You may love gummy bears and warm summer days and bubble baths and chocolate, but this Love distinguishes itself through some incredible qualities. The one I am thinking of tonight is contained in the words: "love never fails."
How amazing! Something that never fails. Something that never fails is something that always succeeds, no matter what. In my own life, there are a number of areas in which I strive and labor and work to succeed. In trying to succeed I often get tired or irritable or irritated or grow helpless. But Love does not fail, nor does it grow weary or bitter or angry.
Sometimes, with my children, I can try every kind of method to calm them down, to repair a crises or squelch a tantrum, without any success. Then, one word of love, genuinely spoken from my heart, changes everything. While we cannot, in our own strength and wisdom, succeed every time we do something, Love can, Love does, and Love will. Try for yourself, the next time you have a challenge or a conflict. Instead of using your head knowledge, your will or your wit, tap into the Love of the Universe. (Imagine the love of every person on the planet put together and combined. Imagine the power of all of that love and we might get a glimpse of this greater Love.) How do you do that? I don't always know. Pausing, breathing and remembering that Love never fails can help. Love can accomplish what needs to be done. Even a moment's meditation on such a powerful thought might be enough to open us up to allow the Love that knows no failure to move through us and work in us.
--Reverend Sam Wilde
Monday, June 27, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Relationships Bring us Toward God
Love never dies and no relationship is a mistake.
Love changes form and all relationships serve us on our journey to learn to love. Before we mature in love, and learn to love without expectations, conditions, and demands on another human being we can come into severe conflicts in relationship. When we learn to have our own needs met in ways that go with the flow instead of against it, we can let other people be who they are and appreciate them for who they are. We take responsibility for our own emotions and perceptions and give others room to be themselves. If we need to remove
ourselves from a situation, we do that calmly without blaming the other person for our discomfort. Relationships help us get closer to God.
We encounter over and over again that nobody can meet all of our needs. No one can be exactly who we want them to be. God helps us to come into our wholeness. God helps us feel loved and not alone when we are needing to be held in unconditional love. Over time relationships teach us, through rubbing us and scrubbing us clean of our childish demands. We become peaceful and appreciative of all of our relationships once we can see how each relationship has helped us grow, feel and experience what it like to be truly human.
We love the people in our lives for all of who they are...their quirks and their wondrous qualities. We accept ourselves with our quirks and our wondrous qualities. We are comfortable inside our own skin and our love never dies and we are grateful for each of our unique relationships and how they have made us who we are.
--Reverend Supriya Hermenze
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Seeing the Good (Weather)
This past week our area suffered from the effects of several tornadoes. While my town was not touched by the strong winds, many towns close by had immense damage. During the storm, I certainly knew what I wanted to pray for--my own safety, the safety of my children, the safety of all those around me, for, actually, good weather, the sort of beautiful, early summer day we enjoyed today.
Who makes the weather? In the aftermath of a storm, there is so much talk. Some talk about the "wrath of God." Some talk about global warming. Some talk about our crazy weather patterns, how we have changed the world, how we are now victims of a cruel Mother Nature.
I don't know. But in the past few days, I have been wanting to stay close to my original prayer, for the safety of myself, my children, all children and people everywhere that we may collectively SEE the good weather.
A few weeks ago, the world, at least according to one man, was meant to end. I do not find this sort of prophecy laughable, I find it historically intersting. People have thought, for the history of all human time, that the world would end on such a day--a Saturday, a day next week, in ten years, surely in their lifetime. I have also heard people say, on many occasions, that things in the world were getting "worse." And we hear that, of course, about the weather. The weather is getting worse.
Why are we all such doom-sayers? What is the appeal in that? For one thing, we could well be wrong. Yes, it is unusual to have a tornado in Massachusetts, but I learned we had one most recently in 1995--not so incredibly long ago. Is the world really in a worse place than it was ten years ago? Thirty years ago? Three hundred? I happen to think we have more peace now than ever before, more consciousness of kindness, more humanitarians, more hope, more spiritual thoughts and greater spiritual work. But ultimately, what I SEE is only a reflection of myself, my opinions, and my feelings about my own life.
I have had friends reflect to me a sense of doom about the world--while depressed. Those same friends, in a different state of mind, have such a sense of optimism about the globe.
I wonder if this can translate to our sense of the weather. Shall we just talk about the "terrible" state of Mother Nature? Or can we consciously, purposefully, actively and often SEE the good weather, anticipate a greater peace within nature, a harmonious relationship between humans and the earth we walk on? Let's not forget how powerful our thoughts are, how strongly they effect our lives, and let's not exclude even our thinking about weather, any more than we do our thinking about God, and the other great mysteries around us.
My husband said to me: "You could be picked up by a tornado and set down somewhere else without being hurt. It's the stuff--debris, pieces of car, futniture, house--inside the tornado that does the most damage."
What an interesing thought, that even a tornado could hold a sort of gentleness in the absence of our endless life accesories. Perhaps it's a useful metaphor as we go forward, to keep seeing the kindess in Mother Nature, and to keep clearing our own landscape of unnecessary and damaging thoughts so that we may accurately see the Good around us.
Who makes the weather? In the aftermath of a storm, there is so much talk. Some talk about the "wrath of God." Some talk about global warming. Some talk about our crazy weather patterns, how we have changed the world, how we are now victims of a cruel Mother Nature.
I don't know. But in the past few days, I have been wanting to stay close to my original prayer, for the safety of myself, my children, all children and people everywhere that we may collectively SEE the good weather.
A few weeks ago, the world, at least according to one man, was meant to end. I do not find this sort of prophecy laughable, I find it historically intersting. People have thought, for the history of all human time, that the world would end on such a day--a Saturday, a day next week, in ten years, surely in their lifetime. I have also heard people say, on many occasions, that things in the world were getting "worse." And we hear that, of course, about the weather. The weather is getting worse.
Why are we all such doom-sayers? What is the appeal in that? For one thing, we could well be wrong. Yes, it is unusual to have a tornado in Massachusetts, but I learned we had one most recently in 1995--not so incredibly long ago. Is the world really in a worse place than it was ten years ago? Thirty years ago? Three hundred? I happen to think we have more peace now than ever before, more consciousness of kindness, more humanitarians, more hope, more spiritual thoughts and greater spiritual work. But ultimately, what I SEE is only a reflection of myself, my opinions, and my feelings about my own life.
I have had friends reflect to me a sense of doom about the world--while depressed. Those same friends, in a different state of mind, have such a sense of optimism about the globe.
I wonder if this can translate to our sense of the weather. Shall we just talk about the "terrible" state of Mother Nature? Or can we consciously, purposefully, actively and often SEE the good weather, anticipate a greater peace within nature, a harmonious relationship between humans and the earth we walk on? Let's not forget how powerful our thoughts are, how strongly they effect our lives, and let's not exclude even our thinking about weather, any more than we do our thinking about God, and the other great mysteries around us.
My husband said to me: "You could be picked up by a tornado and set down somewhere else without being hurt. It's the stuff--debris, pieces of car, futniture, house--inside the tornado that does the most damage."
What an interesing thought, that even a tornado could hold a sort of gentleness in the absence of our endless life accesories. Perhaps it's a useful metaphor as we go forward, to keep seeing the kindess in Mother Nature, and to keep clearing our own landscape of unnecessary and damaging thoughts so that we may accurately see the Good around us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)