listen
listen to the wind
to the earth
to the fire that growls
from beneath your feet
what do you hear?
what do you believe?
will there ever be another sound
another space
another melody
no there will never be another
you’ve heard it only once
and no more
maybe only once more
the one that you can hear over and over again
the one from within you
the sound that clung
to your very soul
Sometimes I wonder how God with all His love and mercy did not show us all directly, clearly and astoundingly that there is indeed an afterlife, or a heaven and hell for that matter. Why keep the veil upon his suffering people? And why reveal it to a chosen few? Does God not love us all?
Recalling however the parable of the weeds that grew with the good seed, maybe God does not want the good that would come out of it all by killing every weed that afflicts us in this life. Maybe it is enough to have left a few rays of hope that we may believe and yet not waste what good this lfe may offer us all.
The Gospel yesterday was about the Prodigal Son. During the sermon, the priest asked two very important questions:
The answer to both questions, according to the priest is – NO. Both have other intentions other than sincerely loving their father. Both wanted something else. For the younger son, he realized it was the practical thing to do, to go back to his father rather than suffer starvation. For the older son, his unhappiness about serving his father all those years proved his lack of a full and satisfying relationship with him. He tried to do what was right, but his motivations for doing it seem not to include a genuine love and gratitude to his father.
I wondered how many Chritians today are actually doing the right thing for the right reasons. Do we truly believe in the love of God? Or are we merely looking for rewards? Are we truly in a contrite spirit for offending the One who has loved us unconditionally? Or are we merely afraid of the gory fires of hell?
“For God hath not given us a spirit
of fear; but of power, of love, and of
a sound mind.”
Yet how often do we find ourselves
weak, hands hanging limp
head bent down
spirit drained and hopeless
as though we were paupers
and weaklings
rather than sons and daughters
of the Most High God?
Being good is not being gutless
and being kind is not being
bereft of courage
See yourself for who you really are
someone with an eternal heritage
redeemed and imbued with royalty,
soaring
and breaking through
like the sunshine
towards your divine destiny!
What do we look forward to?
When we were kids,
we looked forward to growing up
when we were teenagers,
we looked forward to finishing our studies
when we were young adults,
we looked forward to getting a job
when we were finally stable,
we looked forward to getting married,
when we got married,
we looked forward to having kids
when we had kids,
we looked forward to seeing them grow up
and so the cycle goes….
but what if we stopped
somewhere
when we were adults
thinking what life really means
what a life that matters really is
and what we’d really like to do
will the cycle stop?
shall we move on to another circle?
after our soul searching
the cycle may go on
we marry
we have kids
we look forward to them growing up
but then all the while
that this happens
a change within tells us
things are finally different
not because we’ve headed in a different direction
but because we took the road
with a new heart
and a fresh new pair of eyes.