Dear All of Us,
It was back
in those early 1950's,
those pre-AC days.
Many a warm
summer evening
Mom would drive
us eight kids -
Yes, eight!
Roman
Rule & Roulette
and
fortunately
a spacious
Chevy Suburban
to Applegate's
out there on
Grove Street
for the world's
best ever,
made right there,
ice cream.
I always got
a scoop of vanilla
and
a scoop of chocolate
and
MIXED
them up.
I don't know
if Applegate's
out there
on Grove Street
at the edge of
Montclair
still scoops.
I do know that
for all of us
out here on
the streets of
everyday life
it's a
MIX
of way more than
ice cream flavors.
It is a mix
of life differences,
of delights and difficulties,
of spiritual variations
and experiences:
joy and distress,
loyalty and betrayal,
struggle and rest,
peace and turmoil,
success and flop drop,
things earthy,
things heavenly.
This
MIX
is our spiritual life.
It's not all this.
it's not all that.
But then again,
there are times
when it mostly is.
In those times
it's more
the earthy
or more
the heavenly,
or so it seems.
Actually though,
it's both
the same
different.
That probably merits a
brain blink or two more.
There's the
lift intimate
to God
in prayer.
Then there's
just the opposite.
We get bogged down
in working
30 hours a day,
ten days a week!
Sometimes it's mostly
comfort and consolation.
Sometimes mostly not.
Always it is
unending
MIX
Some of them water
our soulful gardens.
Others exhaust us dry.
It's never
permanently a
this or that.
It's a "both and"
taking turns at bat.
Yes, I know that's
mixing metaphors.
But, hey, look what
the Dodges did
up at bat
last year
and
mixing things up
is precisely the
whole point here,
right?
OK, OK, back to topic.
Put otherwise,
in the mix of
our here and now
we are living out
the life, death and
resurrection
of Jesus Christ
with us in our
right here,
right now.
We are one
in the redemption,
in the re-creation
of the damaged
and in the unfolding
of the fresh pure
all in
Creation's unending
Mix of Wonders.
All this
is the
swirling mix
in us of things
as different as:
landing the dream job,
getting a chubby bonus at work,
to feeling more arid than
anybody's stretch of
spiritual sand,
being stymied
struggling
for social justice,
falling in love,
being stretched thin
and yet enriched
as part of a caring
spiritual community,
supporting family
and friends and
receiving theirs,
singing in the shower
and in a chorus,
enjoying health
and prowess
and suffering
the limits of both,
having our
house of cards
completed
and trying
to piece together
its regular collapse.
Whatever
and
always
our mix is,
as Paul
so regularly
positioned it,
"en Christo"
(in Christ).
"I live now, not I,
but Christ lives
in me."
Galatians 2:20
Paul cites
"in Him"
and
"In Christ"
180 times
in his letters.
He sure as heck
means to make
a point that
he doesn't want us
to miss about our
MIX
In our spiritual lives
there are
seasons and situations,
variations aplenty,
heavenly absorbed,
earth bound,
slips and steadiness,
clarity and confusion
to it,
but always it's
"en Christo"
A caution:
Some overzealous folks
get all flummoxed
because they are not
conscious of God
every waking second
like some mythic mystic,
and on top of that
they occasionally
have a really robust
dirty thought.
They need to chill.
God is always close,
realized or not,
and God has
bigger things
to worry about than
an occasional
lustful lapse.
Such sad stress
is wacky and
pushed too far
will force us
off the road
spiritually
and
mentally!!
So, too, will
spiritual
laissez-faire,
soul slouching:
"It's all up to God.
I'll just be decent,
go to work and
say my prayers."
Soul/Psychic Blah!!
God created us
human and that
in the midst/mix of
evolving Creation.
It's ours to be
heavenly earthy,
earthy heavenly,
experiencing
unitive prayer
and
paying
the mortgage.
If we are
piloting a plane, it's
"en Christo"
paying attention
to the radar scan
rather than
trying to recite
the psalms.
At times of prayer,
it's best
to forget about
our bank account
and count ourselves
so darn blessed to be
God's delight.
We don't understand it all,
but we do experience it
ever more and fully.
The saving grace is that
whatever the mix
of the moment
we are
"en Christo"
Meister Eckhart
counsels us
to see all things
with the eyes of God.
God sees God Good
deep down
in all.
That will mean
one thing when
changing a baby's
over ripe diaper.
It will mean quite
another thing
prayerfully intimate,
embrace wrapped in God.
Both are equally
"en Christo"
And I can guess
your preference!
That's how it is with
our spiritual life,
such a holy, wholly
MIX
******
PS:
I still enjoy mixing
vanilla and chocolate
ice cream
all these years post
Applegate's
and
that spacious
Chevy Suburban
******
GREETING AND GRATITUDE
Welcoming
all our visitors
Come back next week
and we'll all be family.
What a blessed
MIX
we are!
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Have a good week.
All the best in the
MIX
Love to all.
God Bless,
John Frank
******
