I will try to read the books you recommended soon!

Briefly my own story, then a comment on your blog. I left organised christianity some eight years ago, since I felt it did not work out – I could not resolve my inner truth and the fact that my life did not reflect ‘a virtuous christian life’. Today I am struggling to come back to the basics – I firmly believe that there is a God, and that He demonstrate His presence in different ways to different people – even to the extent that I believe that all religions are following different views, but of the same God. I found the Buddhist philosophy particularly valuable, since it provides very clear guidance on the development of a deeper spirituality. You may not appreciate my experience, but I would recommend that you delve at least just a little bit into the concepts of awareness and compassion – both of these are also core tenets of the christian practice.

My recommendation, on christian grounds, is that you locate books by Thomas Keating (Crisis of Faith, Crisis of Love) and Thomas Moore (Care of the Soul). Both these authors are devout Catholics – just hang in there before you hang up – but they do not promote dead dogma. Both these books are about a practical and working christian faith. They show us how God’s apparent deafness and uninvolvement with our lives’ details are indeed his very deep and commited involvement with our lives. Don’t look for the flashing lights, look for the small sparks of miracles in everyday life.

Please read these books (and others by the same authors) they provide a very clear picture of how we can serve God in the every day things. God is not only in the fireworks and earthquakes – indeed God is there also, but he is mostly in the small stuff – cleaning dishes, wiping the floor and driving off to work. This is where we should look for God, and this is where He will show Himself to us.

Do not, ever!, denigrate the common everyday events as non-God events. They as much God’s way of working with us, as the eathquakes and the miracles.

Phew! what a sermon! But really, God is in the small stuff – look for Him there and you will find a richness of His mercy that transcends the earthquake stuff.

God bless!

nelis

Recieving, the Word, the person of the Word, His (zoe) life. I see taking on something inpossible may build your faith, but trying to know God by serving Him is like trying to fill a cup that is being poured.

The Word. The commands, precepts, judgments. The Word, getting to your heart, and changing you from there. Learning to listen, and speak to your Lord.

Look at Moses’ first talk with God. Then look at when Moses was with God in the tabernacle of meeting (before the real tabernacle). Note the difference in intimacy between the two conversations. The fist is awkward. The second, they are right with it.

But we never fully arrive. Its always a journey.

May God bless your jurney.

Perhaps getting involved in something bigger and scarier than I want is also the ticket. The times I have felt and craved His presence is when I have been very involved in something scary and big (The Experience). And the times I feel alone are when I’m feeling comfortable…