In Yoke

4/2007: C. Sam Smith, personal testimony transcript—shared at Calvary Baptist Church, Waco. I shared this testimony from the pulpit of the church April, two years ago. I found the transcript today when I was clearing out some files from an old external drive. Being born again implies that what one’s life has been in the past is not alive anymore. In my experience--being born again has required a process of repeated transformation, from the old to the new. This is perhaps a lifelong process, of continuous falling and getting back up again. It is embarrassing to recount all the things I have done, and the things I’ve put my wife and family through, due to my own egocentric ungratefulness, myopia, self absorption and impulsiveness. Over the years it seems that the Spirit has systematically peeled layer after layer of falsehood off my essential true self, enabling me to cease living a lie and to face the honest truth about my own weaknesses. For many years I sought to compensate fo...

I don't get God. Is God an 'it', or is 'He' a 'He'? or is 'she' a 'she'? or a spirit without form, or simply wide open nothingness, or is God-- a burning bush? I don't really know. and within my own reasoning, I don't "get" God. Jesus made it plain. He said to address God as our Father, or even Abba ---"Daddy". Jesus anthropomorphized the Source, the Creator, by ascribing to him the characteristics of love and care, like dear ol ' Dad. I like it, but I have a hard time believing it...even coming from the Master of all. Sometimes I can approach God as a father. Other times, when I am confused about why certain folks have to die (like my 32 year old niece who was the absolute sweetest girl ever made) if God is as powerful as he is said to be, then...why?...or others whom I know well ---that have terrible things happen to them. I know, I have heard it over and over--"this world is not my home, I am j...

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. -Saint Francis of Assisi When we ask to be made instruments of peace, what we are really asking for is the boundless determination to empty ourselves of every state of mind that disrupts relationships- anger, resentment, jealousy, greed, self-will in any form. Our first priority is to reform ourselves; without that, how can we expect to help other people reform themselves? It is the living example of a man or woman giving all they have to making love a reality that moves our hearts to follow. We do not need a bumper sticker that says,"You are following an instrument of the Lord." Our everyday actions speak for themselves. ~ Easwaran The picture above is of the "baby" our Essential Self, beginning to grow, with the help of the Spirit, who is embodied like a Mother. I really love this image. When EE says "our first priority is to reform ourselves", it seems to me that it is ou...

It is permissible to take life's blessings with both hands provided thou dost know thyself prepared in the opposite event to take them just as gladly. This applies to food and friends and kindred, to anything God gives and takes away. -Meister Eckhart In order to live in freedom, we must learn to accept a temporary disappointment, if necessary, when it is for our permanent well-being. Sometimes, when we want to eat something that appeals to us, or when we want to eat a little more than is necessary, we can't help feeling disappointment as we push away from the table. We cannot help thinking that we could as well have stayed on for five more minutes of pleasure, forgetting that it would probably be followed by five hours of stomachache at night. The right time to get up from the meal is when we want just a little more. This is real artistry, real gourmet judgment: when we find that everything is so good that we would like to have one more helping, we get up and walk away. ~Easwa...

"As above, so below" ~ Hermes Trismegistus , The Emerald Tablet, Tabula Smaragdina The ancient legend of the wisdom purveyor of Aegypt and Greece, Hermes Trismegistus , was a legendary person, a teacher/priest combination of two ancient traditions, the Greek and the Egyptian. He is commonly known as the originator of the hermetic tradition. His teachings were thought to have been the beginning of the ancient wisdom/art of alchemy. His premise was that the Creator was One, or the Source of Being, and incidentally, was a predictor of the coming of Christ. He is said to have existed during the same time sequence/era as Moses, the great prophet of the Israelites. Legend records that he was the engineering wizard who designed and oversaw the construction work of the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Fanciful stuff. A book of modern day Hermeticism , "The Meditations on the Tarot", is a favorite of mine. The core wisdom of the ancients, in my opinion, do not dispute the scriptur...

One of my favorite quotes of Fr. Richard Rohr, the Franciscan catholic prophet can be disturbing to the semi fundamentalist ears of Baptists: The way of the cross looks like a way of failure. In fact, you could say that Christianity is about how to lose and win, how to let go creatively, how the only real ascent is a true descent. We need to be concerned with following Jesus, which he told us to do seventeen times, and less with worshipping Jesus--which he never told us once to do. What? Do what he says as the way to worship, not just simply to worship? Yes. The essence of being "in yoke" implies simple trust in his path, his way. Is it easier to place Jesus up on a pedestal-on the front of the sanctuary and worship his doings, his sacrifice, his example as an object worthy of our worship... rather than seeking to obey and follow him with all our heart and soul, as the way to worship the Father? But, then again, the way of descent, is never choosing the easy way, is it? My ...

The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. -Psalms You and I are trustees. Nothing belongs to us personally. The resources we have been given have been entrusted to every one of us individually and together. Like good bank trustees, we are expected not to squander these resources but to invest them wisely for our beneficiaries: the rest of life, especially the generations to come. This is especially true when it comes to our local church community. The trust includes not only the lives and natural resources of the planet, but our inner spiritual resources as well. This has practical implications. We can lessen our potentially exhausting impact on the earth by simplifying our desires and demands. Simplicity is the key to trusteeship. I find that simply writing a check to tithe(10% and up) the earnings I receive and send that check to my church is a simple way to insure that I am investing those entrusted, God given spiritual and financ...