Sunday, April 22, 2012
Holy Ground Vs Stand Your Ground
Monday, March 26, 2012
Repent: Think Different!
One of the first words out of the mouth of Jesus is, Repent; According to Mt. 3:2, It is THE FIRST word that John the Baptist uttered. Your hear this word repeatedly during the season of Lent But “Repent” is likely the most misunderstood word in the Bible today.
Many people think it means “feeling sorry for sins” or“turning from sin.” That is not the biblical definition of repentance.
To understand its real meaning, we have to look up meaning of the Greek word which is the original language of the bible. In the New Testament the Greek word that we translate as “repent” is a compound word: Meta-noeo.
“Meta” means change “noeo” means thinking. Noeo is derived from “nous” which means mind. So, metanoeo means to “change your mind.” or “change your thinking” Change your mind in such a way that you will change your behavior.
Repentance as traditionally understood, which is, “feeling sorry for your sins or bad behavior” does not really change anything. Take for example, the case of domestic violence. A husband beats up his wife and the next day he will feel so bad about it, apologies and bring her flowers. Two weeks later, he will beat her again and then go thru the same pattern. In domestic violence it is called the cycle of abuse. Unless he goes into therapy and finds out the root cause of why he is doing what he is doing, by engaging his mind, he will never stop the behavior.
This is true of repentance in religion too. People commit sins; they feel sorry; they ask forgiveness; and they go and sin again. During my 13 years as a priest, I have heard thousands of confessions. Ninety nine percent of confessions are the same list of sins by the same people, almost repeated in the same order, month after month, year after year. Nothing really changes in their lives.
That is why today, I like to explain the biblical meaning of Repentance: as “change your mind”. Jesus said: “Repent and believe in the good news.” There is no mention of sin there. What he is saying is, change your mind about what you have been thinking so far about life, and start believing in the good news about the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is not a far away place, as you may have thought before, but it is right here, in the midst of you. The values of the Kingdom are very different from the values of the world. To know that, You have to change your mind about a lot of things.
So, Repentance is the act of changing your thinking or having a different mind than the one you are having now. Changing your mind can change your outlook and caning your outlook can change your life. Let me give you an example.
I have a patient on my hospice team who is 75 years old. He was a successful businessman who worked so hard to make money so that he could have a great retirement. He even worked on Xmas eve. His daughter told me that when she was young, she had to wait for daddy to come home in the early hours of Xmas day to open presents. Now this man has cancer and is on hospice care.
His wife is very sad and upset. This is her thinking: “He worked so hard all his life; now we have enough savings; this is the time to travel and enjoy life; but look what happened; it is not fair; why is God punishing me like this?” She is angry, anxious and depressed.
The daughter, on the other hand, thinks differently: She said: “I feel sad that my parents cannot enjoy their retirement together; but I am not angry with God; we should not postpone life today, to enjoy it later; The later might never come; each day has to be lived to its fullest.” The daughter is much more at peace. She has a positive outlook on the situation based on her spiritual thinking.
Two different ways of thinking about the same reality. If the wife could change her mind about the situation, she could experience some peace. That is what repentance really means. Change your mind so that you can change your life. Apostle Paul says in Romans: Do no conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind”(12;2)
Don't be afraid to use your mind in spiritual life; Faith is important; but we are supposed to have a faith that seeks understanding. Unfortunately, for many people, mind or the brain is the least used organ in their body. When it comes to spiritual life, many people refuse to engage the mind. They don't think about what they believe or why they believe what they believe; they just believe either because it is the tradition or they are told by preachers what to believe.
An open mind is capable of deep reflection and it has the capacity to engage in new and creative ways of thinking and understanding. Let me tell you a story.
A man who was on a scavenger hunt knocks at the door of Mr. Smith at midnight. The man says to Mr. smith: “I am on a scavenger hunt; I need a piece of wood 3 feet by 7 feet and I will pay you $10000 for it.” Mr. Smith thinks for a moment: “It is midnight; Home Depot and Lowes are closed. There is no wood in the garage” He tells the man: “I am sorry, I can't help you there is no wood in the house.”
The man leaves and Mr. Smith goes back to bed; but he can't sleep. He had all kinds of thoughts going thru his mind; “If only I had bought some wood during my last trip to the HD, I would have been rich by $10000 now.” He thought about all the things he could have done with that money; his fantasy went on and on and he began to fall asleep. Suddenly, Mr. Smith jumped out of his bed...and said to himself, the door... the door... He had half a dozen doors in his house, all of them made of wood, 3 by 7. He could have removed a door and given to the man!
What happened here is, that in Mr. Smith's mind, when he heard the word “wood,” he could only think of wood on the shelves of HD or Lowes. His mind did not have the capacity to expand and include the fact that the door is in fact, wood. He had put door only in the category of door.
We do this all the time in our spiritual life and that is why our faith gets stunted, our spirituality becomes choreographed to fit the confines of the church, our experience of God is limited to the reading of one holy book and our encounter with Jesus is often within the four walls of the church. As a result, we rarely feel the joy and freedom of the children of God. Spirituality becomes a boring and monotonous enterprise. The season of Lent comes and goes, but nothing really changes. It doesn't have to be that way.
Let me tell you the story of a lady I met the other day. She is 60 year old widow; she attends daily mass and receives communion. She never dated for years, until she met this nice guy and they fell in love and he wanted to marry her. But there was a problem. He is a divorcee. The Catholic church does not approve of divorce and if you marry a divorcee, you cannot receive communion.
So she was in a dilemma. She could not imagine not being able to receive communion for the rest of her life; but she also wanted to marry this man. So she went to see her parish priest. Unfortunately, the priest was so legalistic and could not think outside the rules of church. He told her that if she married this man, she should not receive communion. She was devastated.
So this nice lady, wanted a second opinion. She approached a priest who was a friend. And that priest told her: “I can't marry you in the church, but get married elsewhere and let me see what I can do?” So, she found a protestant minister, who blessed her marriage in the club house of her condo.
The next day, the couple came to the church, the priest took them inside gave them a blessing and gave her permission to receive communion. But told her, “Don't tell anyone that I did this for you”
The woman was very confused. She told me that every time she approached the communion table, she was afraid and uncomfortable, worrying and wondering if Jesus would approve of her and come into her heart.
What is going on here? The first priest, in his mind, could not reconcile the reality of divorce and communion at the same time; The second priest did so, but was not comfortable about it; They were thinking in either or categories. They could not think of both. Their minds were mired in the teachings of the church rather than the teachings of Jesus, which can be contradictory at times.
Let us see what would Jesus do in such a situation? Lets check the gospels: In Mk: 10: 11, Jesus clearly says that divorce is bad;
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her” and according to the Bible, adultery is a sin that deserves to be punished by stoning to death. . Based on that passage, the priest concluded that this woman has sinned and she cannot receive communion.
Now read the story of the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4. What is Jesus doing there?Against the consternation of his disciples and the utter surprise of the woman herself, Jesus enters into a dialogue with her. A man talking with a woman in public is bad enough; But here is a Jew talking to a gentile, which is scandalous. And she is a divorcee too, which makes it beyond the pale of a holy man. She is not just divorced once, but five times, and the man she is now living with is not even her husband.
So, Jesus who teaches against divorce can at the same time, enters into a dialogue with a woman who is divorced five times; Jesus could do this because he had a mind that was open to the mercies of God; the mysteries of our existence, and the possibility of change; This is the Jesus I want to get know; this is the Jesus I want to follow; this is the Jesus I want to worship, a Jesus who can entertain the opposites in life, a Jesus who can deal with contradictions in life, a Jesus with a wide open maind that can accommodate the complex realities of complicated lives.
Let me add a word about the lady in the story. Why would she even go the priest to get permission to receive Jesus? This is because, in her thinking, the priest “controls” whom Jesus go to. How absurd is that? If she were to “change her thinking” and believe that the Jesus who came to seek not the just but the sinners would have come to her heart, she could have received communion.
William James, the most famous American spiritual writer of the century said this: “The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can change his life simply by changing the attitude of his mind”
I just finished reading the biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson. It is a huge book with nearly 700 pages. Steve Jobs was a genius often compared to Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. He had a phrase he always used when talking to his employees at Apple: “Think different.” (Grammatically it should be think differently, because it is an adverb). But Jobs wanted it to be “Think Different.” to be “different” I guess.
Instead of thinking of the cell phone as a devise just to make calls (that is the traditional thinking about the phone) he wanted to think different. As a result he made the phone into a devise to listen to music, take pictures, browse the internet, send and receive emails, play games, cook your dinner, mow your lawn and more, ( I just made up the last two)..the I phone..Steve Jobs used his mind to think different and brought into this world some very exciting products to change our lives in the ways we connect, communicate and interact.
Our excitement and innovation does not have to be confined to the material realm. Our spiritual life can be exciting too, if we are willing to repent; if we are willing to think different about our pre-conceived ideas about God, and Jesus and the Bible and life itself.
Very often, our minds are narrow, judgmental, opinionated, suspicious, revengeful, stubborn, small and even closed. As a result, we feel like victims, we see world as a hostile place, and experience life as a struggle. It doesn't have to be that way. Change your thinking and change your life; In Gospel terms, Repent; As Apostle Paul would say, put on the Mind of Xt and be transformed!
(Sermon delivered by Dr. Paul Veliyathil, Royal Palm Christian Church, Coral Springs, FL 33071, on March 25, 2012)
Many people think it means “feeling sorry for sins” or“turning from sin.” That is not the biblical definition of repentance.
To understand its real meaning, we have to look up meaning of the Greek word which is the original language of the bible. In the New Testament the Greek word that we translate as “repent” is a compound word: Meta-noeo.
“Meta” means change “noeo” means thinking. Noeo is derived from “nous” which means mind. So, metanoeo means to “change your mind.” or “change your thinking” Change your mind in such a way that you will change your behavior.
Repentance as traditionally understood, which is, “feeling sorry for your sins or bad behavior” does not really change anything. Take for example, the case of domestic violence. A husband beats up his wife and the next day he will feel so bad about it, apologies and bring her flowers. Two weeks later, he will beat her again and then go thru the same pattern. In domestic violence it is called the cycle of abuse. Unless he goes into therapy and finds out the root cause of why he is doing what he is doing, by engaging his mind, he will never stop the behavior.
This is true of repentance in religion too. People commit sins; they feel sorry; they ask forgiveness; and they go and sin again. During my 13 years as a priest, I have heard thousands of confessions. Ninety nine percent of confessions are the same list of sins by the same people, almost repeated in the same order, month after month, year after year. Nothing really changes in their lives.
That is why today, I like to explain the biblical meaning of Repentance: as “change your mind”. Jesus said: “Repent and believe in the good news.” There is no mention of sin there. What he is saying is, change your mind about what you have been thinking so far about life, and start believing in the good news about the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is not a far away place, as you may have thought before, but it is right here, in the midst of you. The values of the Kingdom are very different from the values of the world. To know that, You have to change your mind about a lot of things.
So, Repentance is the act of changing your thinking or having a different mind than the one you are having now. Changing your mind can change your outlook and caning your outlook can change your life. Let me give you an example.
I have a patient on my hospice team who is 75 years old. He was a successful businessman who worked so hard to make money so that he could have a great retirement. He even worked on Xmas eve. His daughter told me that when she was young, she had to wait for daddy to come home in the early hours of Xmas day to open presents. Now this man has cancer and is on hospice care.
His wife is very sad and upset. This is her thinking: “He worked so hard all his life; now we have enough savings; this is the time to travel and enjoy life; but look what happened; it is not fair; why is God punishing me like this?” She is angry, anxious and depressed.
The daughter, on the other hand, thinks differently: She said: “I feel sad that my parents cannot enjoy their retirement together; but I am not angry with God; we should not postpone life today, to enjoy it later; The later might never come; each day has to be lived to its fullest.” The daughter is much more at peace. She has a positive outlook on the situation based on her spiritual thinking.
Two different ways of thinking about the same reality. If the wife could change her mind about the situation, she could experience some peace. That is what repentance really means. Change your mind so that you can change your life. Apostle Paul says in Romans: Do no conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind”(12;2)
Don't be afraid to use your mind in spiritual life; Faith is important; but we are supposed to have a faith that seeks understanding. Unfortunately, for many people, mind or the brain is the least used organ in their body. When it comes to spiritual life, many people refuse to engage the mind. They don't think about what they believe or why they believe what they believe; they just believe either because it is the tradition or they are told by preachers what to believe.
An open mind is capable of deep reflection and it has the capacity to engage in new and creative ways of thinking and understanding. Let me tell you a story.
A man who was on a scavenger hunt knocks at the door of Mr. Smith at midnight. The man says to Mr. smith: “I am on a scavenger hunt; I need a piece of wood 3 feet by 7 feet and I will pay you $10000 for it.” Mr. Smith thinks for a moment: “It is midnight; Home Depot and Lowes are closed. There is no wood in the garage” He tells the man: “I am sorry, I can't help you there is no wood in the house.”
The man leaves and Mr. Smith goes back to bed; but he can't sleep. He had all kinds of thoughts going thru his mind; “If only I had bought some wood during my last trip to the HD, I would have been rich by $10000 now.” He thought about all the things he could have done with that money; his fantasy went on and on and he began to fall asleep. Suddenly, Mr. Smith jumped out of his bed...and said to himself, the door... the door... He had half a dozen doors in his house, all of them made of wood, 3 by 7. He could have removed a door and given to the man!
What happened here is, that in Mr. Smith's mind, when he heard the word “wood,” he could only think of wood on the shelves of HD or Lowes. His mind did not have the capacity to expand and include the fact that the door is in fact, wood. He had put door only in the category of door.
We do this all the time in our spiritual life and that is why our faith gets stunted, our spirituality becomes choreographed to fit the confines of the church, our experience of God is limited to the reading of one holy book and our encounter with Jesus is often within the four walls of the church. As a result, we rarely feel the joy and freedom of the children of God. Spirituality becomes a boring and monotonous enterprise. The season of Lent comes and goes, but nothing really changes. It doesn't have to be that way.
Let me tell you the story of a lady I met the other day. She is 60 year old widow; she attends daily mass and receives communion. She never dated for years, until she met this nice guy and they fell in love and he wanted to marry her. But there was a problem. He is a divorcee. The Catholic church does not approve of divorce and if you marry a divorcee, you cannot receive communion.
So she was in a dilemma. She could not imagine not being able to receive communion for the rest of her life; but she also wanted to marry this man. So she went to see her parish priest. Unfortunately, the priest was so legalistic and could not think outside the rules of church. He told her that if she married this man, she should not receive communion. She was devastated.
So this nice lady, wanted a second opinion. She approached a priest who was a friend. And that priest told her: “I can't marry you in the church, but get married elsewhere and let me see what I can do?” So, she found a protestant minister, who blessed her marriage in the club house of her condo.
The next day, the couple came to the church, the priest took them inside gave them a blessing and gave her permission to receive communion. But told her, “Don't tell anyone that I did this for you”
The woman was very confused. She told me that every time she approached the communion table, she was afraid and uncomfortable, worrying and wondering if Jesus would approve of her and come into her heart.
What is going on here? The first priest, in his mind, could not reconcile the reality of divorce and communion at the same time; The second priest did so, but was not comfortable about it; They were thinking in either or categories. They could not think of both. Their minds were mired in the teachings of the church rather than the teachings of Jesus, which can be contradictory at times.
Let us see what would Jesus do in such a situation? Lets check the gospels: In Mk: 10: 11, Jesus clearly says that divorce is bad;
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her” and according to the Bible, adultery is a sin that deserves to be punished by stoning to death. . Based on that passage, the priest concluded that this woman has sinned and she cannot receive communion.
Now read the story of the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4. What is Jesus doing there?Against the consternation of his disciples and the utter surprise of the woman herself, Jesus enters into a dialogue with her. A man talking with a woman in public is bad enough; But here is a Jew talking to a gentile, which is scandalous. And she is a divorcee too, which makes it beyond the pale of a holy man. She is not just divorced once, but five times, and the man she is now living with is not even her husband.
So, Jesus who teaches against divorce can at the same time, enters into a dialogue with a woman who is divorced five times; Jesus could do this because he had a mind that was open to the mercies of God; the mysteries of our existence, and the possibility of change; This is the Jesus I want to get know; this is the Jesus I want to follow; this is the Jesus I want to worship, a Jesus who can entertain the opposites in life, a Jesus who can deal with contradictions in life, a Jesus with a wide open maind that can accommodate the complex realities of complicated lives.
Let me add a word about the lady in the story. Why would she even go the priest to get permission to receive Jesus? This is because, in her thinking, the priest “controls” whom Jesus go to. How absurd is that? If she were to “change her thinking” and believe that the Jesus who came to seek not the just but the sinners would have come to her heart, she could have received communion.
William James, the most famous American spiritual writer of the century said this: “The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can change his life simply by changing the attitude of his mind”
I just finished reading the biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson. It is a huge book with nearly 700 pages. Steve Jobs was a genius often compared to Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. He had a phrase he always used when talking to his employees at Apple: “Think different.” (Grammatically it should be think differently, because it is an adverb). But Jobs wanted it to be “Think Different.” to be “different” I guess.
Instead of thinking of the cell phone as a devise just to make calls (that is the traditional thinking about the phone) he wanted to think different. As a result he made the phone into a devise to listen to music, take pictures, browse the internet, send and receive emails, play games, cook your dinner, mow your lawn and more, ( I just made up the last two)..the I phone..Steve Jobs used his mind to think different and brought into this world some very exciting products to change our lives in the ways we connect, communicate and interact.
Our excitement and innovation does not have to be confined to the material realm. Our spiritual life can be exciting too, if we are willing to repent; if we are willing to think different about our pre-conceived ideas about God, and Jesus and the Bible and life itself.
Very often, our minds are narrow, judgmental, opinionated, suspicious, revengeful, stubborn, small and even closed. As a result, we feel like victims, we see world as a hostile place, and experience life as a struggle. It doesn't have to be that way. Change your thinking and change your life; In Gospel terms, Repent; As Apostle Paul would say, put on the Mind of Xt and be transformed!
(Sermon delivered by Dr. Paul Veliyathil, Royal Palm Christian Church, Coral Springs, FL 33071, on March 25, 2012)
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Will This Christmas be Different?
Christmas is once again around the corner. We just had Easter, the other Sunday, it feels like time is flying and these celebrations come one after another with so little time in between. Everything familiar with Christmas can be seen all around: the music, the tinsel, the stress of shopping, the crowded supermarkets with their glut of food, the parties, the strain of forced family togetherness when often the chemistry isn't there, the religious rituals with their words of peace in a world that knows no peace, the joys, some real some feigned, the griefs of those somehow left out etc. etc.
Will this year's Christmas be any different from that of a year, two years, ten years ago?
In spite of the Nativity scenes, the carols, the services, the sermons or the "smells and bells" of packed churches, will we have come any closer to the real meaning beneath it all? Or will it be yet one more telling of a simplistic tale? A charming tale of a virgin giving birth? A rustic tale of shepherds hearing the sounds of angels singing? A magical story of three wise men traveling to find a baby in swadling clothes? We have heard it all, many times.
What do these stories have anything to do with my life today, in Hollywood Florida, with my aches and pains, my sicknesses and sadness, the stress of poverty and unemployment around us, the fear of terrorism around the world? What has these stories to do with any of that?
Aren't these stories utterly remote from one's deepest fears, longings and hopes, remote from the grit and pulse of life as we and every other person on Earth must live it daily?
A vast segment of humanity has been telling itself this same story of a baby born in a manger in Bethlehem for many centuries now; Almost half of the populations of this planet, that is three billion people are Christian and they have been telling this story of peace and goodwill towards all peoples.
But nothing has changed. Bethlehem itself has become synonymous with violence. There is no real peace in the very land where the prince of peace was born; what are the sounds we now hear above the very sky that was filled with the music of the angels first Christmas song: Glory to god in the highest, and peace to men of good will? What sounds do we hear now? The sounds of rockets that the Palestinians hurl at the Jews and the bombs that the Jews drop on Palestinian homes.
Just now, as the Christmas fervor is being driven towards its annual climax, once-Christian nations are waging war against other countries. There are 34 wars going on right now in the world; We only hear about two of them, Iraq and Afghanistan.
What is the deeper story of Christmas that has somehow been twisted wholly out of shape? The story that is layered over with fraudulent wrappings that the real gift is rarely ever seen, let alone observed and gratefully received?
Is there, or, was there ever some precious thing of matchless beauty, power and grace at the very heart of Christmas, something-with flaming potency to transform our lives, our world? The answer is a resounding, all-embracing yes, but it's not won by glib or lazy wishful thinking. Mere repetition of literalistic tales and pious traditions can never get us there. One can go through the entire process of advent, by rote or on automatic pilot, and miss the "whole point of Christmas.”
This brings us to what many may find to be a tough medicine or even drastic surgery. But if one is to pass beyond the childish and the external to the core of what Christmas is all about, it's an essential step. What one has to realize first of all is that the tale of the birth of Jesus is a “symbolic” story. Underline the word, symbolic. That means it has a deeper meaning beyond the obvious.
No, not a fairy tale, not a legend, not a piece of fiction to be seen through, but a spiritually symbolic story; in other words, a truth so vast and so important to our human condition that it can only be told in the most profound language of all, the language of symbolism, and metaphor.
Symbols are so powerful and when we understand the meaning of it, it will transform our lives. Let me give you an example. Take the American Flag, with it stars and stripes. Suppose you give it to an illiterate person living in a hut in the Amazon jungles. He has never heard of America or does not even know what a flag is. You give him the US flag and what will he do with it? Most probably use as a blanket during the cold amazon nights. For him, it means a piece of cloth, a blanket
But for a US citizen who understands the meaning of the flag, it is a whole different experience, he will die for it because it represents much more than a piece of cloth.
Christmas stories are something like that: the stories of Virgin birth, singing angles, happy shepherds, curious magi, and the star in the sky are profoundly symbolic. If we just believe them as stories that happened 2000 years ago, it won't have any transforming value for us. It will be just like using a flag as a blanket.
Let us just look at the symbolic meaning of the story of virgin birth. It is a common story found in almost all ancient cultures of of Egypt, Sumeria and other Mediterenean cultures in the period before Christ. What is really being said by it has nothing to do with bypassing natural biology.
Rather, the meaning lies in the truth that whatever else this birth is, it is an act of God. It says that Jesus was being sent as the Word of God, the son of God. The Virgin Birth was not known to Paul, Mark or the author of John's Gospel. It was clearly not part of the earliest preaching in Acts.
The Christmas story tells us that Jesus was born of God and that ultimately we all are too. However, unlike Jesus, the majority of us have not yet consciously had this Virgin Birth, or awakening in our souls as to what or who we have been created to be. In the birth of every baby, the Word is "made flesh." That's the ultimate meaning of Christmas.
The Christmas story is your story, and that of your husband or wife, your child, your sibling or parent, your neighbor, and the people of Iraq and other nations experiencing turmoil. It's the story of our human family. So when you hear that one billion people in the world are starving or 200 million babies die every year in Africa due to malnutrition and lack of health care, all you can say is, I have my problems too, the story of Christmas has not touched your heart. God dwells in every heart. The joy of Christmas means awakening to this fact.
In order to awaken to that fact, we have to do something about it. It is not just enough to tell and retell old stories; it is not even enough to believe those stories. There has to be some action on our part and that is where today's reading comes into play.
Here John the Baptist is preparing the way for the Lord. He is preaching to the crowd as to how to receive Christ. He doesn't tell them any pious stories; he doesn't mince words, he is cutting it to the chase: H calls them brood of vipers. That is a pretty harsh name to call his audience. He chided them for pretending to be good people based on their ancestry.
It is like saying, we have been disciple all along, we have been faithful to this church for years, we come here for worship every Sunday. John told them that believing, and pretending and claiming are useless when it comes to preparing the way for the Lord. They had to DO something. There had to be some ACTION, there had to be some BEHAVIOR change. That is why the crowd asked him: “What should we DO then?
And John pointed out some specific behavior changes they had to make. To the crowd he said: “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.” It is not a suggestion or a recommendation, but a command. They MUST do it. You MUST share what you have, especially if you have more than you need. Now that is a behavior that welcomes Christ..
To the Tax collectors who asked what they should do, Jesus said: “Don't collect any more than you are required to.” During those times, tax collectors cheated the ordinary people, they intimidated them and extracted more money than they should have,and put the extra in their pockets. They were the IRS of those times. Again, John is asking them to change their behavior.
To the soldiers He said: Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely, be content with your pay.
Here again, John is asking them to change their behavior. To do things differently.
So, during this advent, I want you to ask one question and you can ask that directly to Jesus, because he is already here. You don't have to ask John the Baptist. Because, Jesus is right here. Ask him, what must I DO, other than decorating the church, lighting the advent candle, making the manger, sending Christmas cards, having family gatherings? We do that every year.
If you sincerely, ask that question to Jesus, he will tell you. You may not want to hear what he has to say. You may not want to do what he asks you to do. Because, it is hard.
Unless we DO something different than what we normally do, this Christmas will come and go, and we will remain the same.
Will this year's Christmas be any different from that of a year, two years, ten years ago?
In spite of the Nativity scenes, the carols, the services, the sermons or the "smells and bells" of packed churches, will we have come any closer to the real meaning beneath it all? Or will it be yet one more telling of a simplistic tale? A charming tale of a virgin giving birth? A rustic tale of shepherds hearing the sounds of angels singing? A magical story of three wise men traveling to find a baby in swadling clothes? We have heard it all, many times.
What do these stories have anything to do with my life today, in Hollywood Florida, with my aches and pains, my sicknesses and sadness, the stress of poverty and unemployment around us, the fear of terrorism around the world? What has these stories to do with any of that?
Aren't these stories utterly remote from one's deepest fears, longings and hopes, remote from the grit and pulse of life as we and every other person on Earth must live it daily?
A vast segment of humanity has been telling itself this same story of a baby born in a manger in Bethlehem for many centuries now; Almost half of the populations of this planet, that is three billion people are Christian and they have been telling this story of peace and goodwill towards all peoples.
But nothing has changed. Bethlehem itself has become synonymous with violence. There is no real peace in the very land where the prince of peace was born; what are the sounds we now hear above the very sky that was filled with the music of the angels first Christmas song: Glory to god in the highest, and peace to men of good will? What sounds do we hear now? The sounds of rockets that the Palestinians hurl at the Jews and the bombs that the Jews drop on Palestinian homes.
Just now, as the Christmas fervor is being driven towards its annual climax, once-Christian nations are waging war against other countries. There are 34 wars going on right now in the world; We only hear about two of them, Iraq and Afghanistan.
What is the deeper story of Christmas that has somehow been twisted wholly out of shape? The story that is layered over with fraudulent wrappings that the real gift is rarely ever seen, let alone observed and gratefully received?
Is there, or, was there ever some precious thing of matchless beauty, power and grace at the very heart of Christmas, something-with flaming potency to transform our lives, our world? The answer is a resounding, all-embracing yes, but it's not won by glib or lazy wishful thinking. Mere repetition of literalistic tales and pious traditions can never get us there. One can go through the entire process of advent, by rote or on automatic pilot, and miss the "whole point of Christmas.”
This brings us to what many may find to be a tough medicine or even drastic surgery. But if one is to pass beyond the childish and the external to the core of what Christmas is all about, it's an essential step. What one has to realize first of all is that the tale of the birth of Jesus is a “symbolic” story. Underline the word, symbolic. That means it has a deeper meaning beyond the obvious.
No, not a fairy tale, not a legend, not a piece of fiction to be seen through, but a spiritually symbolic story; in other words, a truth so vast and so important to our human condition that it can only be told in the most profound language of all, the language of symbolism, and metaphor.
Symbols are so powerful and when we understand the meaning of it, it will transform our lives. Let me give you an example. Take the American Flag, with it stars and stripes. Suppose you give it to an illiterate person living in a hut in the Amazon jungles. He has never heard of America or does not even know what a flag is. You give him the US flag and what will he do with it? Most probably use as a blanket during the cold amazon nights. For him, it means a piece of cloth, a blanket
But for a US citizen who understands the meaning of the flag, it is a whole different experience, he will die for it because it represents much more than a piece of cloth.
Christmas stories are something like that: the stories of Virgin birth, singing angles, happy shepherds, curious magi, and the star in the sky are profoundly symbolic. If we just believe them as stories that happened 2000 years ago, it won't have any transforming value for us. It will be just like using a flag as a blanket.
Let us just look at the symbolic meaning of the story of virgin birth. It is a common story found in almost all ancient cultures of of Egypt, Sumeria and other Mediterenean cultures in the period before Christ. What is really being said by it has nothing to do with bypassing natural biology.
Rather, the meaning lies in the truth that whatever else this birth is, it is an act of God. It says that Jesus was being sent as the Word of God, the son of God. The Virgin Birth was not known to Paul, Mark or the author of John's Gospel. It was clearly not part of the earliest preaching in Acts.
The Christmas story tells us that Jesus was born of God and that ultimately we all are too. However, unlike Jesus, the majority of us have not yet consciously had this Virgin Birth, or awakening in our souls as to what or who we have been created to be. In the birth of every baby, the Word is "made flesh." That's the ultimate meaning of Christmas.
The Christmas story is your story, and that of your husband or wife, your child, your sibling or parent, your neighbor, and the people of Iraq and other nations experiencing turmoil. It's the story of our human family. So when you hear that one billion people in the world are starving or 200 million babies die every year in Africa due to malnutrition and lack of health care, all you can say is, I have my problems too, the story of Christmas has not touched your heart. God dwells in every heart. The joy of Christmas means awakening to this fact.
In order to awaken to that fact, we have to do something about it. It is not just enough to tell and retell old stories; it is not even enough to believe those stories. There has to be some action on our part and that is where today's reading comes into play.
Here John the Baptist is preparing the way for the Lord. He is preaching to the crowd as to how to receive Christ. He doesn't tell them any pious stories; he doesn't mince words, he is cutting it to the chase: H calls them brood of vipers. That is a pretty harsh name to call his audience. He chided them for pretending to be good people based on their ancestry.
It is like saying, we have been disciple all along, we have been faithful to this church for years, we come here for worship every Sunday. John told them that believing, and pretending and claiming are useless when it comes to preparing the way for the Lord. They had to DO something. There had to be some ACTION, there had to be some BEHAVIOR change. That is why the crowd asked him: “What should we DO then?
And John pointed out some specific behavior changes they had to make. To the crowd he said: “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.” It is not a suggestion or a recommendation, but a command. They MUST do it. You MUST share what you have, especially if you have more than you need. Now that is a behavior that welcomes Christ..
To the Tax collectors who asked what they should do, Jesus said: “Don't collect any more than you are required to.” During those times, tax collectors cheated the ordinary people, they intimidated them and extracted more money than they should have,and put the extra in their pockets. They were the IRS of those times. Again, John is asking them to change their behavior.
To the soldiers He said: Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely, be content with your pay.
Here again, John is asking them to change their behavior. To do things differently.
So, during this advent, I want you to ask one question and you can ask that directly to Jesus, because he is already here. You don't have to ask John the Baptist. Because, Jesus is right here. Ask him, what must I DO, other than decorating the church, lighting the advent candle, making the manger, sending Christmas cards, having family gatherings? We do that every year.
If you sincerely, ask that question to Jesus, he will tell you. You may not want to hear what he has to say. You may not want to do what he asks you to do. Because, it is hard.
Unless we DO something different than what we normally do, this Christmas will come and go, and we will remain the same.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Spiritual Self Esteem
Spiritual Self-esteem
A guy had been feeling down for so long that he finally decided to see a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist asked him a few questions, then sat thinking in silence for a few minutes. Suddenly, he looked up and said, I think your problem is low self-esteem. It is very common among losers."
You can't touch it, but it affects how you feel. You can't see it, but it's there when you look at yourself in the mirror. You can't hear it, but it's there every time you talk about yourself. What is this important but mysterious thing? It's your self-esteem! It's how much you value yourself and how important you think you are. It's how you see yourself and how you feel about your achievements.
Self-esteem isn't bragging about how great you are. It's more like quietly knowing that you're priceless. It's not about thinking you're perfect — because nobody is — but knowing that you're worthy of being loved and accepted.
Good self-esteem is important because it helps you to hold your head high and feel proud of yourself and what you can do. It gives you the courage to try new things and the power to believe in yourself. It lets you respect yourself, even when you make mistakes. And when you respect yourself, others respect you, too.
Having good self-esteem is also the ticket to making good choices in life. If you think you're important, you'll be less likely to follow the crowd. If you have good self-esteem, you know that you're smart enough to make your own decisions.
Low self esteem can be very destructive to life. Self-blame, self-criticism, or constantly putting others down by making them feel guilty, are some of the signs of low SE. Other signs of low self esteem are over eating or over working, playing the victim, blaming others for your problems, not taking responsibility for your life, turning power over to outside agents to make decisions for you, and then feeling victimized if the results and not to your liking.
Black and white thinking or the inability to understand nuances and complexity of life are also signs of low self esteem. Low self esteem has a lot to do with how you were raised at home. If you were always told that you were no good, you will never amount to anything or that you are a loser, you are likely to have a low self esteem.
If you had a domineering parents who never valued your opinion you are likely to have low self esteem. If you were abused emotionally or sexually you will more than likely develop low self esteem. I had a chaplain in my class who was sexually abused by her brother. Today she has trust issues with men, is over eating, she is 300plus pounds, is depressed all the time. Her life is a mess. She is barely functioning in life.
So far, I have been talking about psychological self esteem. There is something called spiritual self esteem which many people don't think about. Everything I mentioned so far about pys. Self esteem is also applicable to sp. SE
I think majority of the religious people suffer from low spiritual self esteem. So what are some of the signs of low sp. SE? Think about your relationship to God. If you believe that God is this supreme being and you are this lowly, unworthy sinner, totally dependent and completely helpless, you are suffering from low sp. SE.
I have such a hard time singing Amazing grace. I like most of it,but the second line is hard to sing. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a WRETCH like me. Imagine a parent telling a child every day, that he is a wretch, that he is a loser, that he is never going to amount nothing, how is that child going to grow up? We will call that emotional abuse from a parent.
When the church calls us unworthy and wretched sinners, that is a form of spiritual abuse. If you study the creation story in the book of Genesis, you will find that the human being was created in the image and likeness of God. The human being that is created in God's image is good. As a matter of fact, at the end of each day of creating, the phrase used is: “And god saw that it was good.” But at the end of the sixth day of creating, after creating man and woman, the phrase is: “And God saw that it was VERY good.” Why would you want to call something that God created as very good, unworthy and wretched?
Also at the end of the creation story, we see God giving Adam and Eve full authority over His creation. God tells them to take over and manage the earth that he had created by giving “dominion over everything on earth.” In other words, God was inviting the humans to be co-creators with God.
Instead of being co-creators with God, we would rather be “wretched sinners unworthy of god!
I ma reminded of the story of a mild-mannered man who was tired of being bossed around by his wife. He went to see a psychiatrist.
The psychiatrist told him that he needed to build his self-esteem, and so gave him a book on assertiveness, which he read on the way home. He had finished the book by the time he reached his house.
The man stormed into the house and walked up to his wife.
Pointing a finger in her face, he said, "From now on, I want you to know that I am the man of this house, and my word is law! I want you to prepare me a gourmet meal tonight, and when I'm finished eating my meal, I expect a sumptuous dessert. Then, after dinner, you're going to fill the tub so I can relax. And when I'm finished with my bath, guess who's going to dress me and comb my hair?"
And the wife said: "The funeral director."
Now that is not self esteem; that is arrogance. That is not what I am talking about when it comes to our relationship with God. I am only asking you to take your rightful place in the world as co-creators with god, a status that God has given to us, graciously. God will be so delighted if we claim that role in life.
When my son Tommy turns 25, if he is still living at home, uneducated, unemployed and totally dependent on me, I would be very upset. Every time I give him a few dollars, if he thanks me and praise me and tells me that I am the best dad in the world, I will be disgusted. If he asks my opinion before he does anything, I will be annoyed. I will be disappointed in my under achieving, uneducated, unemployed son. I want him to grow up. I will be so happy, if he takes responsibility for his life. I will be the happiest if he he succeeds in life independently of myself.
Now think of your relationship to God. God will be happy when we grow up spiritually. God the father will be delighted when we, his children, develop a healthy spiritual self esteem.
A sign of low spiritual self esteem is the blind allegiance to traditions; it is called traditionalism. Following a religious tradition without thinking about it or asking questions about its meaning and relevance today. The debate about wearing burqa by moslem women in France is a case in point. They want to cover their face,because it is in the Quran. But Quran was written in the 5th century. They don't ask questions, because it is written in the holy book.
Few weeks ago. One of our chaplains went to the house where this lady had died, at 7 PM. The family wanted the body to be picked up by the funeral home, only after 11 PM because, they had a son arriving from Houston by a 10 PM flight. My colleague did not want to wait in the house three hours past his shift so he told the family that he was going to get another chaplain to come to the house, to relieve him. But the family had a strange requirement of this chaplain. If it is a female chaplain coming to replace him, she should not be in the middle of her menstrual period.
I was the chaplain who went to replace my colleague. The patient who died was a member of a religion called Zorastrianism. You may not have even heard about that religion, let alone what they believe in. It is a religion that was founded in Persia, modern day Iran, by a man named Zoraster. One day he was taking a bath in the river, and he had this revelation from God, and he wrote them down in a book called Avesha and the people who believed that book became his followers and it became a religion.
When Islam took over Iran, the Zorastrians were dispersed. Majority of them ended up in India. In India, Zorastrians are called Parsis. They are concentrated in Mumbai. They are some the most successful businessmen in India and the most westernized minority religion in India. Zorastrianim is a dying religion and there are only about 450K Parsis in the world today.
The basic tenet of that a religion is GOOD THOUGHTS, GOOD WORDS, GOOD DEEDS. Not a bad doctrine. But their death and burial customs are kind of strange by 21st cent, standards. Ideally, the dead body should not be buried or cremated. It should be eaten by vultures. I am not making this up, In close knit Parsi communities in India, they have something called a tower of silence. It is a concrete structure about 20 feet tall and they will leave the dead body on top of it, to be eaten by vultures.
According to their religion, a menstruating woman is impure and she cannot be near a dead body. It is a religious custom based on purity laws. We have that law in the OT. According to the book of Leviticus, A woman is unclean during her monthly period. A woman is unclean for 33 days if she gives birth to a son, and unclean for 66 days, if she give birth to a female child. Then she has to go to the temple to be purified by cleansing ceremony, performed by a male priest, of course.(Lev. 12)
So, I know where it is coming from: The holy book, in this case, Avesa, the holy book of the Parsi religion. But why follow that blindly today when women's dignity and equality are the norms? I say blindly, because it makes no sense in 21st century America. I think there are two main reasons: Ignorance and fear. Many people just don't know much about their religion. They have not made any serious attempt to study and understand the teachings of their religion for themselves. They blindly follow what they read in the holy book or hear from preachers. I think, they are also afraid to question these traditions, because, they fear God's punishment.
We were also told that our duty is to protect and defend those beliefs and rituals, even without fully understanding them. We were told that it is the devil who makes you or question or challenge those beliefs.
One of the things that caught my attention several years ago was a pamphlet from Rev, James Kennedy's church. It clearly stated that no one, except those in the hierarchy of the church, were allowed to interpret the Bible, because they had not received proper training. It struck me as a prohibition and an attempt to control a monopoly... a self-proclaimed "superior cast" prohibiting in the "inferior crowd" to try to have a direct relationship with God.
The lack of spiritual self-esteem leads to the repeated playing of an internal recording inside our heads that goes something like this, "I am a wretched sinner; If ask questions about the scriptures, god would be angry with me; I cannot possibly have a direct relationship with God. I have to go through someone who is a mediator between unworthy human beings like myself and God. I have to go through the pastors of my church, through the Pope. They are the ones who know. They are closer to God. I am just a sinner. I don't know anything."
In Jn 15: 15 Jesus said; I no longer call you servants, Instead, I have called you friends.” Now, friendship is about equality and mutual respect, not slavish submission and feelings of unworthiness. In Mt. 5:48,: Jesus said: “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.” Let us heed Jesus invitation to be his friends and co-creators with God.
A guy had been feeling down for so long that he finally decided to see a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist asked him a few questions, then sat thinking in silence for a few minutes. Suddenly, he looked up and said, I think your problem is low self-esteem. It is very common among losers."
You can't touch it, but it affects how you feel. You can't see it, but it's there when you look at yourself in the mirror. You can't hear it, but it's there every time you talk about yourself. What is this important but mysterious thing? It's your self-esteem! It's how much you value yourself and how important you think you are. It's how you see yourself and how you feel about your achievements.
Self-esteem isn't bragging about how great you are. It's more like quietly knowing that you're priceless. It's not about thinking you're perfect — because nobody is — but knowing that you're worthy of being loved and accepted.
Good self-esteem is important because it helps you to hold your head high and feel proud of yourself and what you can do. It gives you the courage to try new things and the power to believe in yourself. It lets you respect yourself, even when you make mistakes. And when you respect yourself, others respect you, too.
Having good self-esteem is also the ticket to making good choices in life. If you think you're important, you'll be less likely to follow the crowd. If you have good self-esteem, you know that you're smart enough to make your own decisions.
Low self esteem can be very destructive to life. Self-blame, self-criticism, or constantly putting others down by making them feel guilty, are some of the signs of low SE. Other signs of low self esteem are over eating or over working, playing the victim, blaming others for your problems, not taking responsibility for your life, turning power over to outside agents to make decisions for you, and then feeling victimized if the results and not to your liking.
Black and white thinking or the inability to understand nuances and complexity of life are also signs of low self esteem. Low self esteem has a lot to do with how you were raised at home. If you were always told that you were no good, you will never amount to anything or that you are a loser, you are likely to have a low self esteem.
If you had a domineering parents who never valued your opinion you are likely to have low self esteem. If you were abused emotionally or sexually you will more than likely develop low self esteem. I had a chaplain in my class who was sexually abused by her brother. Today she has trust issues with men, is over eating, she is 300plus pounds, is depressed all the time. Her life is a mess. She is barely functioning in life.
So far, I have been talking about psychological self esteem. There is something called spiritual self esteem which many people don't think about. Everything I mentioned so far about pys. Self esteem is also applicable to sp. SE
I think majority of the religious people suffer from low spiritual self esteem. So what are some of the signs of low sp. SE? Think about your relationship to God. If you believe that God is this supreme being and you are this lowly, unworthy sinner, totally dependent and completely helpless, you are suffering from low sp. SE.
I have such a hard time singing Amazing grace. I like most of it,but the second line is hard to sing. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a WRETCH like me. Imagine a parent telling a child every day, that he is a wretch, that he is a loser, that he is never going to amount nothing, how is that child going to grow up? We will call that emotional abuse from a parent.
When the church calls us unworthy and wretched sinners, that is a form of spiritual abuse. If you study the creation story in the book of Genesis, you will find that the human being was created in the image and likeness of God. The human being that is created in God's image is good. As a matter of fact, at the end of each day of creating, the phrase used is: “And god saw that it was good.” But at the end of the sixth day of creating, after creating man and woman, the phrase is: “And God saw that it was VERY good.” Why would you want to call something that God created as very good, unworthy and wretched?
Also at the end of the creation story, we see God giving Adam and Eve full authority over His creation. God tells them to take over and manage the earth that he had created by giving “dominion over everything on earth.” In other words, God was inviting the humans to be co-creators with God.
Instead of being co-creators with God, we would rather be “wretched sinners unworthy of god!
I ma reminded of the story of a mild-mannered man who was tired of being bossed around by his wife. He went to see a psychiatrist.
The psychiatrist told him that he needed to build his self-esteem, and so gave him a book on assertiveness, which he read on the way home. He had finished the book by the time he reached his house.
The man stormed into the house and walked up to his wife.
Pointing a finger in her face, he said, "From now on, I want you to know that I am the man of this house, and my word is law! I want you to prepare me a gourmet meal tonight, and when I'm finished eating my meal, I expect a sumptuous dessert. Then, after dinner, you're going to fill the tub so I can relax. And when I'm finished with my bath, guess who's going to dress me and comb my hair?"
And the wife said: "The funeral director."
Now that is not self esteem; that is arrogance. That is not what I am talking about when it comes to our relationship with God. I am only asking you to take your rightful place in the world as co-creators with god, a status that God has given to us, graciously. God will be so delighted if we claim that role in life.
When my son Tommy turns 25, if he is still living at home, uneducated, unemployed and totally dependent on me, I would be very upset. Every time I give him a few dollars, if he thanks me and praise me and tells me that I am the best dad in the world, I will be disgusted. If he asks my opinion before he does anything, I will be annoyed. I will be disappointed in my under achieving, uneducated, unemployed son. I want him to grow up. I will be so happy, if he takes responsibility for his life. I will be the happiest if he he succeeds in life independently of myself.
Now think of your relationship to God. God will be happy when we grow up spiritually. God the father will be delighted when we, his children, develop a healthy spiritual self esteem.
A sign of low spiritual self esteem is the blind allegiance to traditions; it is called traditionalism. Following a religious tradition without thinking about it or asking questions about its meaning and relevance today. The debate about wearing burqa by moslem women in France is a case in point. They want to cover their face,because it is in the Quran. But Quran was written in the 5th century. They don't ask questions, because it is written in the holy book.
Few weeks ago. One of our chaplains went to the house where this lady had died, at 7 PM. The family wanted the body to be picked up by the funeral home, only after 11 PM because, they had a son arriving from Houston by a 10 PM flight. My colleague did not want to wait in the house three hours past his shift so he told the family that he was going to get another chaplain to come to the house, to relieve him. But the family had a strange requirement of this chaplain. If it is a female chaplain coming to replace him, she should not be in the middle of her menstrual period.
I was the chaplain who went to replace my colleague. The patient who died was a member of a religion called Zorastrianism. You may not have even heard about that religion, let alone what they believe in. It is a religion that was founded in Persia, modern day Iran, by a man named Zoraster. One day he was taking a bath in the river, and he had this revelation from God, and he wrote them down in a book called Avesha and the people who believed that book became his followers and it became a religion.
When Islam took over Iran, the Zorastrians were dispersed. Majority of them ended up in India. In India, Zorastrians are called Parsis. They are concentrated in Mumbai. They are some the most successful businessmen in India and the most westernized minority religion in India. Zorastrianim is a dying religion and there are only about 450K Parsis in the world today.
The basic tenet of that a religion is GOOD THOUGHTS, GOOD WORDS, GOOD DEEDS. Not a bad doctrine. But their death and burial customs are kind of strange by 21st cent, standards. Ideally, the dead body should not be buried or cremated. It should be eaten by vultures. I am not making this up, In close knit Parsi communities in India, they have something called a tower of silence. It is a concrete structure about 20 feet tall and they will leave the dead body on top of it, to be eaten by vultures.
According to their religion, a menstruating woman is impure and she cannot be near a dead body. It is a religious custom based on purity laws. We have that law in the OT. According to the book of Leviticus, A woman is unclean during her monthly period. A woman is unclean for 33 days if she gives birth to a son, and unclean for 66 days, if she give birth to a female child. Then she has to go to the temple to be purified by cleansing ceremony, performed by a male priest, of course.(Lev. 12)
So, I know where it is coming from: The holy book, in this case, Avesa, the holy book of the Parsi religion. But why follow that blindly today when women's dignity and equality are the norms? I say blindly, because it makes no sense in 21st century America. I think there are two main reasons: Ignorance and fear. Many people just don't know much about their religion. They have not made any serious attempt to study and understand the teachings of their religion for themselves. They blindly follow what they read in the holy book or hear from preachers. I think, they are also afraid to question these traditions, because, they fear God's punishment.
We were also told that our duty is to protect and defend those beliefs and rituals, even without fully understanding them. We were told that it is the devil who makes you or question or challenge those beliefs.
One of the things that caught my attention several years ago was a pamphlet from Rev, James Kennedy's church. It clearly stated that no one, except those in the hierarchy of the church, were allowed to interpret the Bible, because they had not received proper training. It struck me as a prohibition and an attempt to control a monopoly... a self-proclaimed "superior cast" prohibiting in the "inferior crowd" to try to have a direct relationship with God.
The lack of spiritual self-esteem leads to the repeated playing of an internal recording inside our heads that goes something like this, "I am a wretched sinner; If ask questions about the scriptures, god would be angry with me; I cannot possibly have a direct relationship with God. I have to go through someone who is a mediator between unworthy human beings like myself and God. I have to go through the pastors of my church, through the Pope. They are the ones who know. They are closer to God. I am just a sinner. I don't know anything."
In Jn 15: 15 Jesus said; I no longer call you servants, Instead, I have called you friends.” Now, friendship is about equality and mutual respect, not slavish submission and feelings of unworthiness. In Mt. 5:48,: Jesus said: “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.” Let us heed Jesus invitation to be his friends and co-creators with God.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Pay Attention, Be Alert
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Pay Attention...Be Alert
I always tell people about the importance of paying attention and being alert. In fact, that is the title of my friend Piero's book: "Pay Attention,Be Alert" which I have inscribed in my consciousness. And yet, I made a boo boo last week, and almost paid for it,but the 'Universe' came to my aid and made it nice.
I upgraded my cell phone recently, but did not like the devise I ordered. So I got a new phone, but the old devise had to be sent back to ATT for which they had provided a pre-paid address label.
I packed the phone, affixed the pre-paid label and droppped it off in the UPS counter at the nearby Office Depot. Few hours later, I began doubting whether it was a UPS label or a USPS label? Very similar, yet different. Sure enough, when I went home and checked the old box, I found out to my dismay that it was supposed to be dropped off at any US Post Office.
I was distressed because, if the phone did not reach ATT in ten days, they will charge my credit card $299, the full price of the device. That was distressing in this hard economic times.
So the next day,I went back to the Office Depot to see if the package was left behind as UPS driver cannot scan it through his system. But there was no package left behind. In my distress, I said a small prayer, that the Universe take care of my problem and save me $299. I was driving while saying that prayer, and viola, I see a UPS truck in my rear view mirror. It pulled up beside me to turn left and I noticed the toll number on the side of the truck: 1-800-PICK-UPS. I just called that number to see if they could even track a package which was not in their system. The agent said that UPS and USPS had a mutual agreement that if they got each other's packages, they will drop it off in each other's facilities, because" People do this all the time." Obviously, I am not the only one not paying attetion!
I was really comforted by that news. Seven days later, I got an email from ATT saying that they had received my returned phone in their Texas wharehouse!
Praise the Lord! I thank God for the honesty of the people who handled that package. I thank God for the honesty and integrity of the majority of people. There are people who may do you harm, but by and large I believe in the goodness of humanity. My view of others as images of God, has always helped to turn apparent negative energies of situations into positive ones.
Always believe in the goodness of humanity and slow down and pay attention! And say a prayer too. It can eliminate a lot of pain and make life easier.
Posted by Paul Veliyathil at 7:34 AM 0 comments
Labels: Alertness, attention, power of prayer
Pay Attention...Be Alert
I always tell people about the importance of paying attention and being alert. In fact, that is the title of my friend Piero's book: "Pay Attention,Be Alert" which I have inscribed in my consciousness. And yet, I made a boo boo last week, and almost paid for it,but the 'Universe' came to my aid and made it nice.
I upgraded my cell phone recently, but did not like the devise I ordered. So I got a new phone, but the old devise had to be sent back to ATT for which they had provided a pre-paid address label.
I packed the phone, affixed the pre-paid label and droppped it off in the UPS counter at the nearby Office Depot. Few hours later, I began doubting whether it was a UPS label or a USPS label? Very similar, yet different. Sure enough, when I went home and checked the old box, I found out to my dismay that it was supposed to be dropped off at any US Post Office.
I was distressed because, if the phone did not reach ATT in ten days, they will charge my credit card $299, the full price of the device. That was distressing in this hard economic times.
So the next day,I went back to the Office Depot to see if the package was left behind as UPS driver cannot scan it through his system. But there was no package left behind. In my distress, I said a small prayer, that the Universe take care of my problem and save me $299. I was driving while saying that prayer, and viola, I see a UPS truck in my rear view mirror. It pulled up beside me to turn left and I noticed the toll number on the side of the truck: 1-800-PICK-UPS. I just called that number to see if they could even track a package which was not in their system. The agent said that UPS and USPS had a mutual agreement that if they got each other's packages, they will drop it off in each other's facilities, because" People do this all the time." Obviously, I am not the only one not paying attetion!
I was really comforted by that news. Seven days later, I got an email from ATT saying that they had received my returned phone in their Texas wharehouse!
Praise the Lord! I thank God for the honesty of the people who handled that package. I thank God for the honesty and integrity of the majority of people. There are people who may do you harm, but by and large I believe in the goodness of humanity. My view of others as images of God, has always helped to turn apparent negative energies of situations into positive ones.
Always believe in the goodness of humanity and slow down and pay attention! And say a prayer too. It can eliminate a lot of pain and make life easier.
Posted by Paul Veliyathil at 7:34 AM 0 comments
Labels: Alertness, attention, power of prayer
Johnny's First Interview
Friday, April 30, 2010
Johnny's First Job Interview!
My autistic son had his first "job interview." He also received his first rejection letter: "Unfortunately, you did not qualify for the position we are offering..." But that is all right.
Johhny turned 17 last December. He is autistic. He can take care of his basic needs, but his comprehension is low. He understands things, but he cannot express himself in a comprehensive fashion. He can express his needs and wants, and he is happy in his own world. A young man with very few needs and and satisfied with the minimum. Johny teaches me valuable lessons about simplicity and contentment every day and I am so blessed to have him in my life.
People have asked me how we deal with life, taking care of an autistic child on a daily basis. Yes, it does restrict our lives a little, as Johnny has to be supervised at all times and he is with us every day. Jonny cannot go for a sleepover with his friends. He cannot go anywhere alone. But the joy he brings to our lives through his innocent ways is more rewarding than most other benefits we may have had if he were to be normal like Tommy,our younger son.
Few weeks ago, Johnny went for his first summer job interview. We dressed him up including a neck tie and drove him to the place of interview. When the door opened for him to enter the interview room, Johnny stopped and asked his "mommy" to go with him. Parents were not allowed as the interviewers wanted to find out how Johnny could function on his own. I watched him sit in front of the interviewers, but could not hear what he said.
Judy cried when Johnny went into the room. "My child is growing up" she said amid tears. She thought it had come too soon, too fast. When we asked him how the interview went, all Johnny said was: "Seven dollars." He just repeated that when we asked anything about the interview. Apparently that was the hourly wage and they must have talked about it.
We finished the interview and went home and Johnny went back to his computer games. He could not care less if he gets the job or not. When I told him that he did not get hired, he had no reaction except to repeat" "not hired."
We will try again next year, but there is no guarantee. We don't know what his futre will be, but I know who holds the future and that is enough comfort for now.
Posted by Paul Veliyathil at 6:31 AM 0 comments
Labels: autism, johnny
Johnny's First Job Interview!
My autistic son had his first "job interview." He also received his first rejection letter: "Unfortunately, you did not qualify for the position we are offering..." But that is all right.
Johhny turned 17 last December. He is autistic. He can take care of his basic needs, but his comprehension is low. He understands things, but he cannot express himself in a comprehensive fashion. He can express his needs and wants, and he is happy in his own world. A young man with very few needs and and satisfied with the minimum. Johny teaches me valuable lessons about simplicity and contentment every day and I am so blessed to have him in my life.
People have asked me how we deal with life, taking care of an autistic child on a daily basis. Yes, it does restrict our lives a little, as Johnny has to be supervised at all times and he is with us every day. Jonny cannot go for a sleepover with his friends. He cannot go anywhere alone. But the joy he brings to our lives through his innocent ways is more rewarding than most other benefits we may have had if he were to be normal like Tommy,our younger son.
Few weeks ago, Johnny went for his first summer job interview. We dressed him up including a neck tie and drove him to the place of interview. When the door opened for him to enter the interview room, Johnny stopped and asked his "mommy" to go with him. Parents were not allowed as the interviewers wanted to find out how Johnny could function on his own. I watched him sit in front of the interviewers, but could not hear what he said.
Judy cried when Johnny went into the room. "My child is growing up" she said amid tears. She thought it had come too soon, too fast. When we asked him how the interview went, all Johnny said was: "Seven dollars." He just repeated that when we asked anything about the interview. Apparently that was the hourly wage and they must have talked about it.
We finished the interview and went home and Johnny went back to his computer games. He could not care less if he gets the job or not. When I told him that he did not get hired, he had no reaction except to repeat" "not hired."
We will try again next year, but there is no guarantee. We don't know what his futre will be, but I know who holds the future and that is enough comfort for now.
Posted by Paul Veliyathil at 6:31 AM 0 comments
Labels: autism, johnny
Good Friday...Easter Sunday: Connect the dots
It is Easter again. This year it came too soon, because we just celebrated Christmas the other day. I get the feeling that the Christian world is just "going through the motions." On Easter morning people get dressed up and go to church; Some of them attend church only for Easter and Christmas only. I heard a pastor say that Easter is to Christians like Superbowl is to foot ball fans. Yes, we go to church on Easter Sunday. Then what? Is your life on Monday after Easter Sunday any different that it was, say, last Monday? I doubt it...
Priests and Preachers read the story of resurrection from the Gospels and tell congregations that Jesus is risen, rejoice, alleluia. And people hear it without understanding the meaning of the story. I feel that many people fail to connect the dots between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We cannot have the glory of Easter without the pain of Good Friday. Jesus said that the grain of wheat has to fall to the ground and disintegrate before it can become a plant and produce new grains. Our ego has to die before resurrection can happen in our lives. Going to church without letting our ego and our selfishness to die to the whims of the world,is merely a religious social activity without any lasting significance. Always remember that the path to the glory of resurrection intersects with the road to Calvary.
When Christians wonder why Christ has not risen in their lives, they should ask themselves if their ego has died. We live in a Good Friday world, but we are an Easter people and if Jesus is alive in your hearts, notify your face.
Posted by Paul Veliyathil at 5:44 PM 0 comments
Priests and Preachers read the story of resurrection from the Gospels and tell congregations that Jesus is risen, rejoice, alleluia. And people hear it without understanding the meaning of the story. I feel that many people fail to connect the dots between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We cannot have the glory of Easter without the pain of Good Friday. Jesus said that the grain of wheat has to fall to the ground and disintegrate before it can become a plant and produce new grains. Our ego has to die before resurrection can happen in our lives. Going to church without letting our ego and our selfishness to die to the whims of the world,is merely a religious social activity without any lasting significance. Always remember that the path to the glory of resurrection intersects with the road to Calvary.
When Christians wonder why Christ has not risen in their lives, they should ask themselves if their ego has died. We live in a Good Friday world, but we are an Easter people and if Jesus is alive in your hearts, notify your face.
Posted by Paul Veliyathil at 5:44 PM 0 comments
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