In Yoke

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can not serve both God and Mammon.” We ( Baylor - as a university community which says its follows Christ) have blindly served mammon, with the other schools in Texas…and look where it has taken us. Now money is driving the conference groupings even more than before- in 1995. Where will this lead? Texas—that is the University of Texas at Austin, is the driving force of the ‘we deserve more money’ movement. Fair enough, that is as it probably should be. UT is a dominant force in NCAA athletics. It is a secular school. It has absolutely no ties to the Gospel, other than the Gospel’s influence on our culture. Although far less in influence, the same goes for our militaristic land grant school, and our state’s other outpost, which defies description. But Baylor—why do we follow them? We say we are of Christ . I question that. Especially ...

“We die to each other daily. What we know of other people Is only our memory of the moments During which we knew them. And they have changed since then.”  — T.S. Elliot This poem reminds me of the fact that each of us change a little bit each moment, each day. This fact becomes so intensely evident when a new baby is born into a family. Their growth is so dramatic at first! I am reminded to be aware of each little growth spurt that causes myself and each of us--to grow into Christ. Our new Hayden Frances Luce was born on June 4, 2010. It will be such a blessing to watch her grow and change each day, each moment we get to be with her. I will change because of her influence on my life, on her mom's life, on my wife's life. This is a thing of beauty and of grace.

Make it a habit to tell people thank you. To express your appreciation, sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return. Truly appreciate those around you, and you’ll soon find many others around you. Truly appreciate life, and you’ll find that you have more of it. – Ralph Marston In the world of servers and disaster recovery, there is a term called “system state”, which in lay terms, means that the replication brings about the same settings and configuration that existed originally before the recovery occurs. Just as operating systems relate to the systems that run in an environment, so does my mind, heart, and spirit. We operate in the natural in a dualistic, either/or, black/white, and good/bad way of relating to the systems environment where we exist. What Jesus teaches is that we “seek first the Kingdom”—not allowing the natural, Satan operated/judgmental worldly way of living to take precedence. Cynthia Bourgeault calls this your GPS—God Positioning System…a...

“God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.”                                      ~Ephesians 3:20-21-The Message I so often am lax in calling my own heart into true remembrance. The apostle calls this laxness into account. My tendency to forget is stimulated by this zinger. God can do anything. The NASB puts it into more familiar, churchy sounding terms. “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us…” I am challenged to remember that He is able. He is love. His grace is sufficient. There is no fear in love. I can live this day in courage that He is ab...

“Funny the way it isIf you think about itSomebody’s going hungryAnd someone else is eating outFunny the way it is, not right or wrongSomebody’s heart is broken And it becomes your favorite song”      ~ Dave Matthews Band Good and bad happens simultaneously. Everything under the sun—and some folks get the good and some the bad, and then vice versa. Life is generally a paradox. All along the way, the journey is laced with offsetting issues. Blessings and setbacks. Challenges and advantages. The encouragement of true friends and the sarcasm of untrue acquaintances. Hurts and soothing comforts. Disappointments, and happy outcomes. Successes and failures. Pain and pleasure. Jesus told a parable that may shed some light on this. The King James version name for this parable is the wheat and the tares’. "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds am...

The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.   – Brother Lawrence The mind has a tremendous natural capacity to dwell on things, and in repeating the Jesus prayer- “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner”- we are channeling this capacity to train the mind. It is the same capacity, only we are giving it a different focus. There is a story in the Hasidic tradition of Judaism in which a man asks his zaddik or spiritual teacher, “Do you mean we should remember the Lord even in the give-and-take of business?” “Yes, of course,” the rabbi replies. “If we can remember business matters in the hour of prayer, shouldn’t we be able to remember God in the transactions of our business?” In the course of transform...

A seeker once asked Bayazid: “Who is the true Prince?” “The man who cannot choose,” said Bayazid: “the man for whom God’s choice is the only possible choice.”   – Bayazid al-Bistami The Lord is extending the gift of Eternal Life, Abundant Life to each of us, but we do not reach out to take it because we are holding a few pennies in our hands. Have you seen infants in this dilemma? ... it happens at a particular stage of development, when they have learned to grasp but not quite mastered letting go. They have a rattle in one hand; you offer them a toothbrush, and for a while they just look back and forth at the toothbrush, then the rattle, then the toothbrush again. You can almost see the grey matter working: “I want that toothbrush, but how can I take it? My hand is already full.” Similarly, all of us look at the Lord’s gift of abundant life for a long while, asking “What is this? How do I know it’s real? Give it to me first; then I’ll let the pennies go.” The Lord patien...