Cosmic Kindergarten: Lesson 10: EXPERIENCE HOLY GROUND

In our series on earthly lessons for a heavenly life on earth, we have reached lesson number 10 today.

Experience Holy Ground.

But before I get into the lesson, let me clarify something. Some people have asked me why are you focusing so much on the earth, and not enough on the bible? And I ask: “Which came first, the earth or the bible?” The bible is only 3000 years old. The earth is 3.5 billion years old. The bible was written by man. The earth was created by God. But I do it for few other reasons too. It is smart, spiritual and simple.

It is the smart thing to do. I came to the USA 30 years ago. Had I not learned English, my life would have been extremely difficult here. I love Indian food. But I cannot go into Olive Garden and demand chicken curry and rice. I cannot get into my car and decide to drive on the left side of the road, because that is what we do in India. If I do that here, you know how that will end. America is my home now. Following its house rules would be the smart thing to do for a harmonious life here. It is the same with the earth. Earth is our home. You will be happy earthlings, if you follow her rhythms and rules.

Secondly an earth based spirituality is simple and sustainable. You don't have to learn any foreign language or spend hours studying obscure scripture passages and scrutinize the nuances of Hebrew and Greek. You could be illiterate and still follow an earth based spirituality. Because,

Divine revelation comes in two volumes: Nature and Scripture.

God is revealed first through the universe around us and secondly through the scriptures. In the bible you are reading about God through the experiences and language of other people. But you can look at nature around you and experience God directly.

That is why book of Job says:

But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air and they will tell you; speak to the earth and it will teach you or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? (12: 7-9)

For starters, every day, sit still, close your eyes for five minutes and think about the fact, that you are traveling in space around the sun at 66k miles an hours. That feeling will give you a sense of freedom, fearlessness and trust. Because you are not attached to anything, God is holding you in the palm of His hands. When you breathe you are in communion with the plants around you and also in communion with all the people around the globe, all of 7 billions of them which should fill you with unity consciousness. It will make you feel connected and related and not alone and isolated in this vast universe. It will prompt you to love everybody, without needing a commandment from the bible to love your neighbor.

Look intensely at a plant and feel the emotions that evoke in you. I told you I have 18 varieties of plants in my front yard and sometimes, I just pick one and study its color, texture and beauty. How did the mud beneath the plant transform into a beautiful flower on top?

Which brings me to today's lesson, experiencing holy ground.

When you hear the word “holy ground,” you are most likely to think of a church or a holy place such as Jerusalem, the birth place of Jesus, which by the way is called the holy land. A Catholic might think of Lourdes in France and Fatima in Spain as holy places because Mary, mother of Jesus, is believed to have appeared there. Mejagore in Yugoslavia and Guadalupe in Mexico are considered to be holy places for the same reason. Thousands of people go on pilgrimage to these places to feel close the presence of God there.

The country of Jesus' birth is actually called the Holy Land. 2 million visitors went to holy land last year. You have heard about organized tours to the holy land..I lead such a tour in 1984 with 40 people from my parish church in Toronto. We spent 7 days there, visiting the holy places associated with the life of Jesus. We went to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, to Nazareth where he grew up, to the river Jordan where he was baptized, to the sea of Galilee where he taught and walked on the water, to the garden of Gethsemane where he prayed and Calvary where he was crucified.

Sometimes it was so hard to feel holy in those places, because it is so commercialized. There are vendors everywhere selling candles and other holy objects. In the town of Cana, they were selling bottles of wine, in memory of the first miracle of Jesus turning water in to wine.

So for Christians, Jerusalem is definitely holy ground. For Moslems it is Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Every year millions of Muslims go to Mecca on pilgrimage. It is one of the five pillars of Islam.

For Hindus, river Ganges...pilgrimage to Varanasi and taking a bath in river Ganges is the life long dream of every Hindu. Liberation from karma.

Another place we consider definitely holy is the church. That is why we sing We are standing on holy ground...The word sanctuary comes from the Latin word, sanctus, which means holy. A sanctuary means “a container for holy things.”

So in our human thinking, holy ground is one of those designated places far away from our home, in other countries or in special buildings. You rarely think of your home, your office, or the Coral Square Mall, or the hard rock casino, or 1-95 or University drive as holy grounds.

But if you read the bible closely, you will find that the book does not designate any special location as holy.

What makes a place holy is not the location itself, but the presence of God in that location.

Since God is present everywhere, every place should be holy. In fact every place is holy. It is our thinking about it that makes it either holy or unholy.

Do you know where in the bible does the phrase holy ground appears for the first time? It is an amazing passage..every time I read it I get a chill..Read Ex: 3:1-6

The bush was burning because God was there. The ground was holy because God was present there. Since God is present everywhere, every place should be holy right?

But It is hard to believe that inner city America where gun violence is rampant, is holy ground. It is hard to believe that a bar where people are drunk and profanities are exchanged is holy ground. How do we even consider seeing a house of prostitution as holy ground? Or a home where children are abused or a spouse is battered? It is not easy to see a decimated village in Iraq or a terrorist haven in Syria as holy grounds.

So we always have that dual reality in our mind, some places as holy ground and others as unholy. I invite you today to break down that wall of separation between holy and unholy places. The separation between sacred and secular. I want you to see every inch of this planet as holy. You know why, because God created this planet and he is present everywhere.

It is the presence of a Holy God that make a location holy. Yes our world is so breathtakingly beautiful and so painfully broken. And God is in BOTH places.

God came to Moses in a burning bush to remind him that he stood on holy ground regardless of the fact that he was on a suffering planet, filled with people who live in slavery, who need freeing, who harm one another through injustice, inequality, exploitation, and war. Take off your shoes, God said. This is holy ground where humans are in bondage.

You can imagine why Moses was trembling. Hard to believe. Yet believe you must. That is the only way you are going to change this world. Marking off large areas of the world as unholy, ungodly, filled with terrorists, rapists and murderers is not going to change the world. When you do that, you are saying that God is not in those places. That takes away from God one of the prime qualities of God: Omnipresence.

Our notion of holy ground should expand beyond the four walls of a church or a mosque or a temple and extend to all corners of the earth. I

In the eyes of God, there are no reserved places. The earth that God created and found to be good, should not be any less good and holy for us.

When you look at the entire earth as holy ground you will have a renewed respect for environmental concerns. Polluted rivers and shrinking forests will bother you. Seeing the amazon fires will break your heart. You will be so conscious of how you drive and how much you drive, because every time you drive you are leaving a carbon footprint on earth.

You will walk more and drive less. You will shut of the engine rather than idle for long periods of time. You will refrain from throwing things from the car to the street.

Ever since I became conscious of earth as holy ground, I cannot even throw a gum wrap on the ground. In olden days, I used to think, this little gum wrap is not going to hurt the earth. Now I will put it my pocket and take it home and empty it into a waste basket.

The image that helps me to be so conscious of it is imagining the face of my mother. I love my mother so much that I would never think of pasting mud on her face, slapping her or disfiguring her face.

Every time you mistreat the earth, you are mistreating your mother—holy mother earth.

Considering the earth as holy ground can be extremely beneficial to a congenial life on the ground. As a hospice chaplain, I have had great breakthroughs with difficult patients when I walked into their homes imagining their home as holy ground.

Looking at shopping malls as holy ground has helped me find good parking spaces and enjoy positive shopping experiences. Seeing congested highways as holy ground can make driving less stressful. Experiencing our homes as holy ground can help make family life harmonious.

The notion of earth as holy ground will help us ease the grip on parcels of property as “mine.” We will be less likely to yell at a kid who walks through our yard, or curse a neighbor who lets his dog pee or poop on our grass.

When we walk on holy ground, we are unlikely to hold a gun in our hand and stand our ground. We know what that did to Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida in 2012. If George Zimmerman had considered his neighborhood as holy ground a great tragedy could have been averted. Instead, as a neighborhood watcher, he saw the little swath of real estate he occupied, as his ground that needed to be protected from others at gun point.

When we love the earth as a whole, there is no part of it that needs to be barricaded and claimed exclusively as ours, because we are here only for a short period of time because the earth ultimately belongs to God.

Between our birth and death is a span of time, called life. It is a millisecond compared to the life-span of the earth. The earth has been here for billions of years. And it will be here after we are gone.

If you are struggling and wandering in the valley of tears you may want to cultivate a love for the earth, by meditating about our home planet. Walk on it barefoot, not on concrete side walk, but grass. Feel the warmth.

Imagine a mother tightly embracing her child, holding him closely to her. That is exactly what mother earth does to us every day.

Think of gravity as mother earth holding us closely to her bosom.

It is that loving embrace from the earth that grounds and sustains you. Every time you walk out of your house, say in your heart that you are going to walk, and drive on holy ground. See how your life changes with that awareness. That is a great way to live fearlessly in the world.

The heavens proclaim the glory of god. Keep your eyes open and your ears tuned to see and hear that proclamation.

Cosmic Kindergarten: Lesson 9: EXPERIENCE ABUNDANCE IN YOUR LIFE

In Dec.1973, Johnny Carson was doing his Tonight Show. He made a joke about facing a shortage of an important staple.  “You know what’s disappearing from the supermarket shelves? Toilet paper. There’s an acute shortage of toilet paper in the US.”  The next morning, many of the 20 million people who watched him on TV, went out and bought all the Toilet Paper they could find.  By noon, most of the stores were out of stock!   People panicked and hoarded.  Carson later had to apologize for scaring the public.



We see the same thing happen when there is a hurricane on the way. Home Depot runs out of batteries, plywood, and generators. Publix runs out of caned items and water.



We hoard stuff because we are afraid things are going to run out. The fear of not having enough makes us hoard. That behavior comes from what psychologists call, the scarcity mindset. The thinking that there wont be enough to go around. It may be justifiable during a crisis like a hurricane, but there are people who live their entire lives with a scarcity mindset.



It is not just limited to hoarding more than they need or will ever use. It is deeper than that. It is a way of thinking. They see life as having only so much, as though there were only one pie out there. And if someone were to get a big piece of that pie, it would mean less for everybody else.



People with scarcity mindset have a very hard time being genuinely happy for the success of other people. Jealousy is the biggest sign of scarcity mindset. You are jealous that others have more money than you have; you are jealous that others drive better cars than you do; that others live in better houses than you live in. A person with scarcity mindset would be very stingy with money. They won't give it away to help others, because, they think if they give it, then they won't have enough. They will be very reluctant to give compliments.


Years ago, I lived with a scarcity mindset. I used to be jealous of friends who lived in bigger houses in gated communities. I will compare my small house with thin walls and cheaper doors and one car garage, with their big houses with sturdy walls, expensive doors, and a three car garage. I was jealous that their driveway can accommodate six cars while mine is barely wide enough for two. I was not generous about giving compliments to my friends.



At the end of the day, scarcity mindset only made me sad and depressed. When you are sad and depressed, nothing goes right, you are devoid of joy you are good for no body. Life becomes tiring and tedious.



That is when I began to think about the principle of abundance, which is a lesson I learned from observing the earth and the universe and how they operated. I began to look around and I realized that planet earth is filled with abundance. Earth doesn't operate from a scarcity mindset. Everything you will ever need, the earth has in abundance. When you wake up in the morning, have you ever worried about not having enough air to breath?



Have you ever said to yourself:



There are billions of people on earth, they are going to use up all the air, and there won't be any left for me.



No, wherever you go, there is plenty for you. You don't have to take it with you, (unless you have COPD) there is an abundant supply.



Get outside your house and look up...the sky is vast and abundant. Go to the beach and look at the ocean, the waters are abundant. There are 2 million species of animals on earth, There are 99 thousand species of birds and 30 thousand species of fish, 82 thousand specifics of reptiles and 950 thousand kinds of insects. There are 297 thousand varieties of plants and trees on earth. So the earth is huge and abundant.



We humans have replicated that abundance through our creativity and innovation. Do you know how? Visit a Walmart Super Center or a Super Target, or Publix Supermarket. We call them Super for a reason...they are flowing with abundant supply of everything you will ever need. There are 387 types of breakfast cereals available. There are 193 types of soups...There are over 150 types of beer. I did a google search. That is just 3 items.



Every Saturday morning I go to BJ's to drop off my son for work. And I walk around the isles of this humongous store looking at the stuff displayed. It is a mesmerizing experience of variety and abundance. I make that experience into a prayer. If humans can create all that, how much more awesome and abundant is God.



I remember visiting the Coors Brewery in Golden Colorado. They produced 45 thousand barrels of beer in 2015. Each barrel is 300 bottles which means they produced 13.5 million bottles. It was a mind boggling experience being in the middle of that beer factory watching thousands of bottles and cans traveling non-stop thru those conveyor belts,..an amazing display of abundance. That is just one brewery and there are more than 4000 breweries in the US alone.



If you want to experience abundance locally go to a Cheese Cake Factory...and watch the mountain of food that is placed in front of you..



The point I am trying to make is that there is abundance all around you...If you don't see it or feel it, it is because you have a scarcity mindset.



As Wayne Dyer says, abundance is not something we acquire, it is something that we tune into. So there is abundance on earth...do you have abundance in your life? Do you feel abundance in health and wealth? Do you feel an abundance of love for the people around you? Do you feel abundance of compassionate and joy? It all starts with an abundant mindset.



How come the earth we live on has abundance and we earthlings don't? What is wrong with this picture?



How do we tap into the abundance of the universe that is all around us? Jesus promised his followers an abundant life. The very purpose of his coming on earth was that. He said: “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly (Jn10.10). How do we experience that abundance that Jesus promised? I found the secret to abundance a few years ago. It was a huge awakening and it changed my life. I found it in a story called the Tale of Two Seas..the sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.



In the land of Israel, there is a river called Jordan..the river where Jesus was baptized. The Jordan river runs from North to South. On its way south, it flows into the sea of Galilee. Now the Sea of Galilee is a body of water that is clean, serene and blue; It is thriving with life, both in it and around it. There are all kinds of fish in that sea. That is where the future apostles Peter and John were fishing when Jesus called them. There are all kinds of plants and grass and flowers all around the sea of Galilee. It is brimming with abundant life.



About 80 miles down south is another sea..It is called the dead sea. Do you know why it is called the Dead sea? Because it is dead...there is no life in it or around it. Obviously there is no fish in that water. No vegetation around. The water is salty and thick you can float in it. There is no life guards around dead sea, because you cannot drown in it even if you try.



Do you know why the sea of Galilee is alive and abundant and dead sea is dead and empty?



In the case of sea of Galilee, the water flows into it, nourishes everything in it and round it, and the water flows out. In the case of the dead sea, the water flows into it and is stuck there. Dead see takes in the water, but it doesn't give it away. It cannot, because it is the lowest point on earth. 1400 feet below sea level. It doesn't have the energy or mechanism to share its water. It gets stuck and saturated and dead. When you live with lower consciousness such as scarcity mindset, poverty consciousness, victim mentality, anxious feeling, you won't give anything away.



What are you like? Are you like the sea of Galilee or are you like the dead sea?



If you want life and energy, and abundance in your life, be like the sea of Galilee. Let the blessings that flow into you, flow out of you.



That is the meaning of the song we sing every Sunday. Praise God from whom all blessings FLOW... we don't sing: Praise God from whom all blessings “come.”



So the blessings in our lives are supposed to flow...but often they don't because of our scarcity mindset. People believe that they aren’t enough… good enough, pretty enough, successful enough, that they don’t have enough.



“If you want love and abundance in your life, give it away”- If you want something, give it away. If you want love, give love, if you want peace, be peaceful, if you want joy, be joyful. I know it sounds counter intuitive, but that is the secret. You only get to keep what you give away.



Before I learned the lesson about the abundant universe, it was very hard for me to give compliments or feel truly happy about the success of others. Then I realized that when others have happiness and success, God is not taking it away from me to give to them. God has plenty go go around.



I realized that instead of having a stingy spirit, if I have a generous spirit, blessings will flow my way too. That is why Jesus said: Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap (Lk.6:38). But in order for blessings to come to you, you have to give it away. Before more water can flow into it, the sea of Galilee has to let the water already in it, to flow out.



So, give, like you know you will never be without...whether it is money, compliments, compassion, love, forgiveness,. There is no reason you ever have to feel like there is not enough to go around. The vast, unending, unfathomable universe exists purely to manifest more and more creation through our being.



Jesus proved that thru the miracle of feeding the 5000. You know the story. One day there was a large crowd of people listening to the teachings of Jesus. It was getting late in the evening. The apostles told Jesus: “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and find some food and lodging.



Do you know what Jesus said. He said: “You give them something to eat.” And the apostles replied: “We have only 5 loaves of bread and two fish...5 loaves and 2 fish for 5000 people...impossible..the apostles were thinking from scarcity mindset. They wanted to keep those 5 loaves and 2 fish for their dinner. They didn't have an abundant mindset.



But we know what happened. Jesus asked the crowd to be seated in groups of 50 each. Then the story says, Jesus took and blessed the loaves and fish and gave to them and they all ate and were satisfied. The story doesn't say how it happened. People think it was like bread and fish falling from the heavens.



I think this is how it happened. In those days, when people went to listen to teachers, they packed food with them. There were no McDonald's or Burger king those days. Every family would pack enough food for the the members of their family. Jesus inspired them to open their lunch bags and share...when 5000 people opened their lunch bags and shared what they had with everyone around them, there was plenty to go around and then some. We see this at potluck dinners every time. There is an abundance of food when it is shared. The story says,”the disciples picked up 12 baskets full of broken pieces that were left over....abundance.



So the universe is abundant. The planet we live on has everything in abundance. If only we share what we have, there will be plenty for everyone..



Always remember that when we give something to others..be it money, compliments, love, compassion, forgiveness, it is not like we are deducting from what we have...we are only channeling it through us. We give so that we can receive; we empty ourselves, so that we can be filled again.



Think of yourselves not as a CONTAINER but as a CONDUIT through which the blessings of the universe keep flowing....

Cosmic Kindergarten: Lesson 8: SURRENDER AND ENJOY THE RIDE

In our series of sermons about “Earthy lessons for a heavenly life on earth” we have come to lesson number eight: Surrender and enjoy the ride. To learn this lesson, we have to see the earth as a living, moving organism. It is easy to see animals on earth as living beings. Some people can also see plants as living. But most people don't see earth itself as a living thing. At least that is not their conscious experience.

We usually see it as a strong, stable platform permanently located in one place. We don't just see it; we experience it that way, because when we wake up in the morning, and look around, our house hasn't moved. The street in front of the house is the same. All the buildings in the city are in the same place every day.

All that is true, visually speaking. But scientifically speaking, it is not true. In order to understand the truth that everything is actually moving when nothing is apparently moving, you have to go to a deeper state of awareness about life. You have to look and see life in a totally different way. When you do that life changes, in a beautiful way. And it is not that hard. All you have to do is to pay attention. Let me tell you how I do this.

When I drive to work in the morning, I am driving east and the sun is in my face. When that bright morning sun blinds my eyes, I try to adjust the visor in my car. When I return home I am driving west and the bright evening sun now blinds my eyes. It feels like the sun moved from east to west to annoy me at the beginning and end of my daily commute. But I know the sun didn't move. The earth moved. It is because of the the rotational movement on its axis. But it also moved in the orbit. During the 8 hours I was at work, the earth traveled almost half a million miles in its orbit.

So the earth has an axis speed and an orbital speed. The axis speed is about 1000 miles an hour and the orbital speed is 66K miles an hour. One spin around the axis is called a Day and one spin around the orbit is called a year. So the earth travels about 565 million miles a year.

As inhabitants on planet earth, we are on a ride, a magical carpet ride orchestrated by the creator of the universe. That is why life is often called a journey. We are riding along.

The question is: Are you enjoying the ride?

If surveys are any indication, many people are not enjoying the ride. They don't appreciate their fellow riders.

If you are in a bad relationship with your spouse, or you have conflict in the family or discord at workplace, you are not enjoying the ride.

Imagine going on a road trip with your family and not saying a word to the family members for the entire trip. Imagine everyone getting out the car and enjoying the sites on the way and you refuse to get out of the car. Imagine checking into a hotel in Grand Canyon National Park and in the morning everyone in your group goes out to see the grand canyon, but you stay in the room and sleep. That is how a lot of people treat their ride on planet earth. It is a chore rather than a celebration.

The eighth lesson to learn from living on a revolving earth is to surrender and enjoy the ride. Let me explain that using the analogy of a roller coaster ride. Life is often compared to a roller coaster ride. I don't have to explain to you how it works. But for a person living in a rural area in a developing country, it is not a familiar thing. That was me 35 years ago.

In 1981, I was visiting Disney world. And one of the main attractions there is the Space Mountain in Magic Kingdom. I had no idea what to expect. I thought it would be like one of the smaller rides like the Ferris Wheel or the carousel. I had never heard of roller coasters let alone ridden on one them. I stood in line totally clueless about what was to come.

I was strapped inside the car, and it began to move. As you might know, the space mountain ride takes place totally in the dark. I was so terrified that I held tightly to the hand bars holding for dear life. My glasses flew off my face, my hands were shaking and my heart was pounding and I was turned upside down physically and mentally. After a terrifying minute, I came out at the bottom of the mountain, furious and disoriented. It was not my idea of fun. I don't like roller coasters.

But for the people in front of me and behind me, it was a totally enjoyable and exhilarating experience. So I asked myself: What is wrong with this picture? How come everyone else enjoyed the ride and I didn't? What happened that day was that I had no idea what a roller coaster was about and how to ride it.

Is it possible that most people don't enjoy life because they don't know what life is ultimately about and how to live it meaningfully and joyfully?

We have traveled 250k miles into outer space and touched the moon. But we have not traveled less than 12 inches into our inner consciousness and touched our soul?

We are the most advanced generation ever to live on the planet with all modern comforts and conveniences, but we are not the most joyful generation.

Back to my roller coaster ride. I got scared and tried to control the ride by holding on tightly to the hand bars and ended up angry, upset and miserable. My fellow riders relaxed, let go of the tight grip and came out excited and exhilarated, screaming in pleasure with their hands high up in the air. The roller coaster has its own rhythm, its own twists and turns, ups and downs, and it is going to go with its own pace, regardless of how tightly you hold on to the bar.

There is a thrill and a power in simply surrendering to the ride and fully feeling the ups and downs of it, letting the curves take you rather than trying to control them. When you try to control the ride, resisting what is happening at very turn, your whole body tightens up and you become anxious and terrified. When you go with the flow, accepting what you cannot control, exhilaration and joy follows. I can go for the ride enjoying its rhythms or let myself be dragged, kicking and screaming through life.

As inhabitants of this spinning planet we can, either let go of our perceived controls and enjoy the ride (life), or hold tight, grind our teeth and try to control life. Getting off the ride is not an option unless you choose suicide.

Sharon Janis, author of Spirituality for Dummies explains how surrender helped her to be happy and content: “I wanted to be in tune with the universe. Clearly, the all-pervasive intelligence that guides the atoms and galaxies to move with such perfection could choose the best path for my life. My best course of action was to get out of the way of its flow and to be happy with whatever unfolded. Unknowingly, I had tapped into the secret of surrender as a path to happiness.”

If you really want to enjoy a peaceful life, you need to let go of your need to control the events of your life. You think you can control life events, but the fact of the matter is that you can't. Let me tell you a story.

I have a face book friend who is a staunch member of the NRA and we have heated discussions about guns. He owns several guns and I don't own any. And I have no plans to ever own one. He can't understand that. He tells me that he owns the guns not to hurt anybody but only to protect his family.

That is a jargon you hear from a lot a gun owners.

I told him that trying to protect the family by owing a gun is like a guy trying to protect his horses by guarding just the gate, while there is no fencing around the barn. Let me explain:

My family consists of my wife Judy, and two sons Johnny and Tommy. On weekdays, Judy goes to work at 730 in the morning. She drives 7 miles to her office, driving thru 37 intersections one way and that is 74 intersections a day. Who is protecting her from a possible collision that could happen in any one of those intersections? Who is protecting her from the hundreds of cars that drive in front of her, behind her and beside her? At work, who is protecting her from a possible office shooting that could happen? When she is having lunch with her friends at the nearby Chili restaurant, who is there to protect her from a possible suspect? When she is crossing the street from the restaurant to the office who is protecting her from a possible drunk driver?

You get the idea.

My son Johnny goes to a work program ten miles away and he is being driven by a guy from Jamaica, I don't know anything about. There are 10 other kids in this van that doesn't look that road worthy. He is exposed to the same possible dangers on the road and the workplace like my wife.

Then my son Tommy is 300 miles away in college in Evansville. I have no idea or control about where he drives each day. Once he drove to Tallahassee to visit his friends and ran out of gas...was stranded somewhere in the middle of the night. There is no way to control where he goes, who he is with and what influences and interactions and challenges he faces on a daily basis.

So the life of my loved ones are exposed to so many so called dangers and vulnerabilities. It is impossible to protect them from all possible eventualities of life on a daily basis. It is a miracle that we are safe and secure each day and it has been that way for all these years. I have no illusions about controlling the events of life to ensure the safety of my family.

Because, I am constantly aware of the fact that we always live on the edge of uncertainty and fragility.

Yes, as my fried suggested, I can buy a gun and keep it under my pillow. If and when some one breaks into my house, which has not happened in 28 years—I could shoot that person and protect my family. May be. I could be confused and disoriented and shoot the wrong person. Let us say it works out as planned. But I have that perceived control only at night. What about during the day when my family is exposed to the world which is in fact much more dangerous than the home?

I think we should give up this perceived notion of control and surrender to God and enjoy the ride. Holy mother earth which flawlessly, rides along its orbit for billions of years is urging us to do just that.

The bible is full of examples of individuals who let go of the controls and surrendered their lives to God. We have Abraham who left the familiarity of his village and traveled to a foreign land totally trusting in god. We have Moses who surrendered to the plan of god delivered his people.

Look at Mary, the mother of Jesus the greatest example of surrender in the New Testament. When she was chosen to be the mother of the messiah, this 16 year old girl knew that it was not in her capacity to control that event. She was a 16 year old illiterate village girl. She was confused and frightened by the announcement from the angel that she was going to be the mother of the Messiah. Despite her doubts and fears, she said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word.”

Look at Jesus surrendering to his father on the Cross: At the most terrible time in his life, bleeding on the cross and dying, he said; “Father into thy hands I commend my spirit.”

When we look the faces of the of the people on a roller coaster, there are those with horrified faces fiercely gripping the hand bar and those laughing out loud with their hands in the air, enjoying the ride with excitement.

This powerful image reminds us that very often, the only control we have is choosing how we are going to responds to the ride.

Cosmic Kindergarten: Lesson 7: LIGHT ALWAYS FOLLOWS DARKNESS

I have been talking about 10 earthly lessons for heavenly life on earth. Today's lesson is about what the earth teaches us about hope.

Considering what has been happening in this country this week it is an appropriate lesson to learn. But it is so hard to preach about hope when there is such feelings of hopelessness all around. You saw videos of brutal killings of two black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. Both were heart wrenching to watch. How do we speak about hope to the families of those victims? How do we talk about hope to the African Americans in this country who think that racism is alive and well 50 years after civil rights bill was signed? How do we talk about hope to the police officers who have to go out there every day to do a very difficult job in such hopeless situations?

What happens when we lose hope as individuals and as a nation? Hopelessness leads to despair, which leads to desolation, which leads of destruction which leads to death. Without hope, life is scary and meaningless. Without hope, life will spiraling into a hell hole of anger and frustration.

I run a weekly grief support group. Every week someone will complain about the insensitive things people say to the bereaved. There are a list of things you don't say to a grieving person. “He is in a better place.” “You will get thru it, be strong.” “Cheer up everything is going to be okay.” “Everything happens for a reason, life goes on;.” “God never gives us more than we can handle.”

Through each of these statements, people are trying to offer hope, but they don't work. That is why

it is so hard to preach a sermon on hope. Because whatever you say to someone who is in the middle of a hopeless situation, is not going to stick. It will be taken more as a cliche than comfort.

Few months ago, I was counseling this woman who had suddenly lost her job. She is a single parent with two children. Her daughter is a freshman at Marquet University and her son is in a local high school. She has no family in this country. She had a job making 50k a year and suddenly one day, she was let go. It was more than the loss of income; It was loss of self-esteem, loss of purpose, loss of dignity. She began visualizing her car being repossessed, being evicted from her apartment, having no money to put food on the table...She felt totally hopeless and was in a panic mode. It is very hard to be with a person who is losing hope.

Similar scenarios of hopelessness are felt by people all the time, in all places. It could be loss of job, loss of life of a loved one, getting a terminal diagnosis, getting into a serious accident, termination of a relationship, end of a marriage, end of a dream,

The scenarios are endless. I am sure you had situations in your life when you felt beaten down in life and felt helpless and hopeless.

How did you survive those situations? How did you keep hope alive? Scripture passages can be helpful, but unless you trust what the bible says on a gut level it is not going to make any difference.

For example, to the woman I was counseling, I talked about Mathew Chapter 7 where Jesus talks about God taking care of the birds of the air and clothing the lilies of the field but she was not convinced.

“Yes, but...When you are trying to give hope to some one, there is always , YES, but...

Years ago when I was feeling so down and out in my spiritual journey, I had a talk with my spiritual director. He said: “I have good news and bad news for you.”

The bad news is that life is a continuum of plateaus, peaks and valleys that goes on and on and on until you die.” And the good news is that “life is a continuum of plateaus, peaks and valleys that goes on and on an on until you die.”

The point is that, regardless of how you choose to see it, life is a journey, a cycle of ups and downs and in-betweens, and you will never get to the ups without the downs, that you are guaranteed to go through some valleys before you get to the top of the mountain. That is reality; there is no way around it. The sooner you get used to that idea, hope will spring in your lives.

The problem is that we like to stay on the peak all the time, living a life with no hassles, or frustrations, or set backs, or failures, or disappointments, or losses, or death. But the reality is that life is full of unpleasant experiences and painful feelings, such as despair, depression, isolation, loneliness and fear.

In spiritual language such experiences are called the dark night of the soul.

St. John of the cross is the saint who made that phrase famous by describing his own strenuous spiritual journey. Mother Teresa who the world considers the greatest saint of modern times talked abut being abandoned by God and losing hope several times in her life. But she stuck with God.

This is why the 7^th earthly lesson is so important.

What does the earth teach us about hope?

What is the earthly lesson about dealing with the dark night of the soul?

Look at the surface of the earth. It is true that unless we make a conscious decision to meditate about our planet, we don't see more than what is around us. We live in Coral Springs, Florida and we see the area around us. Our thoughts don't usually go beyond our usual surroundings. 70 percent of the earth's surface is water. Of the renaming 30%, one third is barren desert with no sign of life or solace.

But it is also true that there is always oasis even in the middle of a desert. As inhabitants of this planet, we should expect periods of desert-like experiences when nothing goes right: our plans are thwarted, our goals are undermined, dreams are lost and we feel like spinning our wheels with no hope. During such times, we should remember that there is always oasis in deserts and light at the end of the tunnel.

Which brings me to consider another truth about the earth. Every day, the earth goes into darkness for a few hours. We have this expression, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But actually we only have about 12 hours a day, depending on day light saving time, it fluctuates, but we don't have 24 hours of day...almost half of of it is night. It is pitch dark.

Being in the dark on a regular basis is part and parcel of living on earth.

Darkness is necessary for rest, regeneration, regrouping and rejuvenation of life. You cannot avoid it. You cannot get around it. It is necessary for our very survival.

But the good thing about experiencing darkness is that the light is surely on its way. It is 100% guaranteed that the sun will come up and it will be day again.

As earthlings, we should expect nothing less when we face hopelessness in our lives. The clouds will move away and the sun will shine again. It is true that when we go through hard times, it will feel like the sky is falling. Around the clock cable channels and pontificating pundits don't help. The explosion of social media postings can be good and bad. The whole media sensation can cause anxiety, fear and hopelessness. But we know that the sky never falls down. When the clouds move away as they always do, the sky is bright again.

We know that day always follows night—all the time in all places.

Biblical hope is very similar to this earthly lesson. If you stick with God, a positive outcome is guaranteed..there is no ifs and buts about it—to stick with God, when there is no human rationale to do that. It comes from the conviction that “If God is with us who can be against us (Rom 8.31)

The Christian has a hope that is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1)

We see assurance and conviction playing out in all the so-called hopeless situations in the Bible. In Noah's time, after 40 days and 40 nights of hopelessness, the torrential rain finally ended and the land was restored. For Abraham and Sarah, a barren life of childless life was restored with the birth of Issac. For the Israelite, 40 years of suffering in Egypt ended with the exodus and entrance into promised land.

Look at Jesus, when he was crucified and buried like a criminal, all hope was lost. But as we know, death was defeated and he rose again from the darkness of the grave. Hope sprang up again in the hearts of the dispirited disciples.

Letter to the Hebrews talks about the nature of such hope. “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” (6.19)

So biblical hope is not superficial; it is not wishful thinking; it is not “I hope so;” It is not “maybe, may be not;” It is not about a “50/50 chance”.

It is an “anchor for the soul.” Think of the anchor of a big ship that holds it in place when the waters are raging all around it. There is a 90 mile an hour storm hitting the ship. The waves are ferocious. There is a lot of tossing and shaking, but the ship stays in place because of the anchor.

That is what it feels like when you are in a hopeless situation, with emotional storms all around. That is when hope functions as “anchor for your soul.”

There are several scripture passages that talk about hope. The one I like the most, the one phrase that helps me get through some painful, hopeless situations is in Psalm 23. “Yea, though I walk thru the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for Thou art with me.”

I want you to pay attention to a key phrase, “Walk through”

It says, Yea though I “walk thru” the valley of the shadow of death. It doesn't say Yea tho I “end up” in the valley, or “stay” in the valley, “stuck” in the valley...or “trapped in the valley” but “walk through” the valley.

Our problem is that when we are in a valley—a hopeless situation, we get stuck there through our constant recriminations, and feelings of anger, anxiety and hopelessness.

Instead of “walking through the valley” which implies movement, and change and journey, we build a condo and stay there. We sit there and marinate in our misery.

That goes against the rule and ethos of the earth. The earth keeps moving, bringing us day and night, light and darkness, rain and shine. If it says in one place, we would be dead.

integrate the ebb and flow of the earth into your life. Accept the ethos of the earth. You will have a much better time living on the earth. In fact, you will experience heaven on earth.

So, walk through the inevitable and unavoidable valleys of life knowing that God is holding on to your hand. You are not holding on to God, God is holding on to you.

What is the difference if you are holding on to God or God is holding on to you. The equation seems to be the same. No. If YOU are doing the holding, you could lose the grip for a variety of reasons: you could feel tired, you could fall down, you could lose the grip, or lose hope and let go of the hand of God. But if GOD is doing the holding, He is never going to let go. Even if you fall down, He is going to pick you up. That is why the psalm says: Yea tho....Thou art with me, not “I am with you.”

Think of the image of the good shepherd in psalm 23. It is not being dragged by the shepherd from behind. The shepherd is not beating the sheep in front of him to tend them in a specific direction. The sheep is being carried on the shoulders of the shepherd. It is safety, security, and ultimate protection from all the elements and enemies.

That is the image of God I want you to have in your mind every time, you feel down and out, angry, frustrated, helpless and hopeless.

Even tho I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou are with me!

Cosmic Kindergarten: Lesson 6: CELEBRATE SAME OLD...SAME OLD

The earthly lessons I am talking about can help us create heaven on earth, because we are part of earth. We came out of the earth. To survive, we eat food produced by the earth. We breath the air, processed by the plants on earth. Elements of the earth such as iron, calcium, magnesium, oxygen, hydrogen nitrogen..they are all in us. Earth is 70 percent water. Our bodies are 70 percent water.

So if we follow the rules and rhythms of mother earth, we will be happier children; not frustrated kids fighting with each other. We talked about three lessons. Today's lesson, lesson number six is: Celebrate same old same old or Enjoy Boredom

It makes no sense, at least at the outset. I am telling you to enjoy boredom. I am telling you to appreciate same old same old stuff. It is a counter intuitive message. It's just the opposite of what the world tells you. The world hates boredom. In fact it will do all it can to avoid it. But hear me out. I will explain to you how to enjoy the so called sameness of the earth and still find joy in it.

What is boredom? Boredom is apathy, lethargy, lack of interest in anything, lack of excitement, a feeling of same old same old. We don't like it; we can't stand it. So what do we do? We do everything to get out of it.

One survey reports that 54% of all Americans go to work primarily to escape the boredom of life at home. And 70% of American teenagers say they are bored with school. The survey also reported that 25% of teenagers said they got drunk on the weekend because they were so bored. Teenagers get easily bored and they do all kinds of crazy things to deal with it.

During the spring break this year, a group of teenagers in Lauderhill decided to vandalize the apartments in the neighborhood. One of the victims was a nurse on my hospice team. They broke in, stole her TV, and damaged the bed room by breaking furniture and lamps. When they were arrested, the reason given for their behavior: we were bored.

Boredom is a combination of weariness, listlessness, and unconcern that causes a person to feel like doing nothing or doing something destructive. You can be so bored and drink too much. Or gamble too much. Or smoke too much.

We see this in relationships as people go from one person to another looking for the perfect mate. There is no perfect mate out there. Marriage is a union of two imperfect people trying to make a perfect union, patiently dealing with the drudgery and monotony of the daily grind. It is hard work and that is why these days, young people don't want to make a commitment. They don't have the patience and diligence required to appreciate the seeming monotony of being with the same person. (Monogamy is monotonous for them)

We also see it when people hop from one job to another, hoping to find the perfect fit.
People move from one city to the other hoping that life will be better in the new place only to find out after a few months, it is the same stuff again. Lot of people don't attend church on a regular basis, because they say church is boring.

It is human nature to look for adventure and excitement. We get easily bored by monotonous schedules and ordinary routines. Nobody revels in repetition and so we relentlessly request relief from redundancy.

Advertisers prey on our tendency to get bored when they urge us to buy more, buy new, buy now. That is why people go shopping to buy things they don't need. They think the new gadget is going to make them happy. They buy clothes they really don't need, only to realize that the new has become old in a few weeks.

Some people replace their good working phones every year. There is nothing wrong with the I phone 5, but I am bored with it. I need the I phone 6. Or I have become so bored with the Samsung Galaxy S6 and I need to buy the Galaxy S7 edge. I need a new car. There is nothing wrong with my car, but I am bored driving it.

In our country, about 50 percent of married people get rid of their spouses and replace them with new partners, only to find out in a few years, the painful fact that, there is nothing new under the sun, after all. There is very little perseverance and maturity to discover the newness of the old.

We think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. But we don't have the wisdom to realize that the grass is greener where you water it. As we look for constant drama in our lives, the predictable becomes unpalatable.

Let us face it. Most of life is routine, boring, predictable stuff. We have to get up every day and do certain routine stuff. Go to the bathroom, wash your face, brush your teeth, take a shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, watch TV, eat dinner, watch some more TV, go to bed, get up in the morning and repeat steps one to nine again.

Don't get discouraged. Don't be in a hurry to bring excitement into life. Get used to the boring routines of life. Appreciate the stability. Keep on doing the same thing over and over and learn to experience the newness of the old. That is what the earth does. As inhabitants of this earth, we are expected to do the same. Fighting against it is only going to make us miserable.

The book of Ecclesiastes says: 

All things are wearisome; more than one can say. What has been will be again. There is nothing new under the sun. (1: 3-9)

As the holy book says, the earth’s routine is pretty predictable. It goes around in the same orbit, with the same speed every day. It doesn’t change speed and say, yesterday, I was going too slow, let me put the gas to the pedal and speed up. We see young people doing it with their cars and often get into accidents killing themselves and sometimes others too. The earth doesn't do that. It is the same boring speed every day, for millions of years.

The earth doesn't get bored and say, “It is the same route every day; I need to change the orbit today. need a to take more scenic route. If it does that, life as we know it will be over. If the orbit gets one inch closer to the sun, we will be incinerated. If it goes one inch away from the sun, we will be frozen. It has to keep the same steady path, day after dad, year after year.

Grass grows in wet grounds, plants take in carbon dioxide and give out oxygen; ripened leaves fall to the ground and disintegrate; fish always swim in the water; night falls as predicted and day breaks in as anticipated. No surprises; nothing out of the ordinary, just the same old boring stuff, day after day, year after year.

So how do we get respite from the repetitions? How to find excitement in ordinary day to day realities of life? How do we find newness in the old? How do we stay faithful in our faith when there are so many challenges to our faith all around? How do we keep on going to church Sunday after Sunday, when all you hear is the message, church is boring?

In his book stumbling on Happiness, psychologist, Daniel Gilbert says:

“Wonderful things are especially wonderful the first time they happen, but their wonderfulness wanes with repetition.”

What he reminds us is that, true and lasting wonder needs to be renewed regularly, even daily.

Otherwise, life's inevitable formula will be be: “WonderFULL is followed by wonder- half full, which is followed by wonder-quarterfull, which quickly becomes wonder-less.”

If you want to make your life happy everyday, instead of a lethargic existence, you must take preventive action. Otherwise you will end up as a wonder-less wanderer and life will cease to be joyful adventure.

The preventive action I am talking about is called mindful living, or mindfulness. If you want to live joyfully, in the midst of mundane, routine stuff, you have to have the stability, routine, patience and perseverance of mother earth. You can't afford to be fickle and flimsy. You will end up frazzled and frustrated with life.

A bored person is usually a superficial person. They focus on the external. They pay attention to the outside. One of the best ways to bounce back from boredom is to spend quiet time with yourself.
Spend 30 minutes a day in silent meditation, and your life will perk up. When you meditate you are focusing on the inside. Just focus on your breath and be thankful that you can breathe.

On average, a person at rest takes about 16 breaths per minute. That means we take about 960 breaths an hour, 23,040 breaths a day, 8,409,600 a year.

Of course we don't count them. We don't notice them. We take it for granted. Same old same old...until we lose the ability to breath...then it is not same old any more.

I have several patients on oxygen.  The oxygen tank is always humming in the room. They don't have the freedom to walk around because wherever they go, they have to take the tank with them.
One day I asked a patient: If I had a magic wand grant you just one wish, what would it be? And she said: I wish I could breathe...that is all she wanted. Didn't want money, a luxury car or expensive vacations. Nothing. Just breathe freely.

We usually appreciate the value of something that is steady, predictable and boring, only when we lose it.

Let us say you feel bored, depressed and sad and you go for your annual the physical; another boring routine right? Imagine the doctor tells you that you have cancer. Instantly, you will wish that you could get your old boring life back.



You will appreciate the value of something you take for granted, only when you lose it.



Protestant theologian Samuel Miller wrote:

 “In the muddled mess of this world, in the lethargy and the boredom, we ought to be able to spot something—an event, a person, a memory, an act, a turning of the leaves, the flight of a bird, the waging tail of a dog, the weariness of the weak, a ray of light coming thru a cracked window, the faint sound of the falling rain—something, where we ought to pick out a glory to celebrate.”

Everyday, we ought to pick out a glory to celebrate...

And there is plenty to pick...if we have eyes to see them!