In Yoke

“A relationship is not a something . You can’t see it or touch it. It is a BETWEEN- between you and me- a space that enables us to I-You each other, just as God I-You’s us by His Spirit. Living by the Spirit is an entry into mystery, into something beyond our control, into something we can’t contain, into something we can only receive. Although we can treat God like an idea to be discussed, an experience to be savored, and a power to be used, these are all I-It relations, distorted relations. The Spirit is constantly drawing us back into I-You relating with God and with each other.” After all, it seems that Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom can be simply explained as his message about Relationship. He had a vibrant relationship with the Lord, and is sharing that it can be a relationship in which you can participate, as well. from “I-Thou”by Martin Buber, as translated by Eugene Peterson, in ‘Practice Resurrection’.

Romans 8:25-30 (ESV) - But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. My devotional life really does dynamically move into deep contemplation as I read and reread the words of Richard Rohr* , one of my favorite authors. “The contemplative or non-dual mind, which for me is the essential self, is a tree of life , and brings about continual fruitfulness for the soul. Rohr reminds me of this in the discussion of how we usually make judgments based on our binary, or “either/or” false self/or/ego”. “A binary system of either/or choices is good and necessary in the lofty worlds of logic, mechanics, math and science…and in the everyday worlds of getting from po...

Who can map out the various forces at play in one soul? I am a great depth, O Lord. The hairs of my head are easier by far to count than my feelings, the movements of my heart. -Saint Augustine Most of us never really see the people we live with. Our friend may be right before our eyes, but we do not see him. We see our idea of him, a little model we have made in our mind, and on that we pronounce our judgments. That is why, when we quarrel with someone, the worst thing we can do is to avoid him or her. We are trying to avoid an image in our own mind, which cannot be done. The mind takes some exaggerated impressions, memories, hopes, and insecurities, draws a quick caricature like one of those sidewalk cartoonists, and then turns up its nose. The person in question should retort, "That's not me;that's your caricature of me. If you don't like it, you don't like your own mind." To heal our relationships, we have to move closer to people we do not like, learn to ...