Thursday, April 30, 2020
BIRTHDAY PRESENTS
Dear All of Us,
Hey, this current too long
has been a bummer.
So, so strange, such stress,
surreal on steroids.
We need a happy, hearty time out.
Yah, a Happy Hour.
Like so much these days,
it'll have to be virtual, of course.
So instead of offering you
a glass of J.Lohr's Seven Oaks
Cabernet Sauvignon,
I invite you to join my holy high.
And high happy I am!!
Eighty years ago today,
April 30,1940,
at St. Joseph's Hospital
in Paterson New Jersey
my Mom
birthed me to life.
What a giver.
What a gift.
Before Mom
was birthed into
THE FULLNESS
at age ninety two,
I used to send her a
Thank You
card every April 30th.
These April 30ths.
it's a love prayer.
Now, the life and years
given me are wearing out -
as are my back, and hips,
and eyes, and ears,
and allied parts and powers,
but a sense of humor, never!!
Sooner than later, though,
it will be my turn
to be birthed into
THE FULLNESS.
What a high that will be!!
Over these eighty years of
Life Gift
God has given and gifted me
so much, in so many ways,
and so fully.
Am I ever grateful,
and I sure want to show it.
So how about this?
This Pan Pain has knocked
just about everything on its ear.
That includes birthday parties.
What the heck.
I'm eighty today.
Let's party.
I'll just throw one myself
right here, right now
and you are invited.
(If you are joining in here
after April 30th.,
don't fret - this party's
still in full swing
and will be all week!!)
We'll make a real
Happy Hour
out of it, one with
a happy twist and
turn around to it.
That's because
for my eightieth birthday
the best ever gift
I could receive from you
would be for you
to let me to give you these
BIRTHDAY PRESENTS.
They are reflections
that come from my heart
and are offered to yours.
They are about
the heart of the matter,
what is at the heart
of living our Life Gift.
They are all about
BEING and DOING
LIFE.
So, let's unwrap
these reflections,
these birthday presents
from me to you.
Here goes.
REFLECTIONS AT EIGHTY
I. BE WHO YOU ARE
For God's sake,
for your sake,
for everybody's sake,
be who you are.
Otherwise, and it's not a bit wise,
we are failed actors in a fantasy of futility.
That's because,
our being is divine
and all our doing
flows from our being.
If that's cockeyed,
everything we do is cockeyed.
Check out so many
national and international leaders right now
and see failed fantasy and futility
center stage and destabilizing.
I've seen it where
I've plied my trade as a pastor
for well more than half a century.
Sadly some clergy dress up
in robes and roles
that don't fit them
and they play at church,
too often for protection, profit, position.
A fantasy of futility
center sanctuary and desacralizing.
Sadly, at times I've even seen it
in the sacristy mirror.
That's the negative of what
God means to be a positive,
and that positive is
YOU
You are a unique,
one of a kind
emanation of God.
Again and always Bonaventure
points to the paradox and wonder
of just who you are.
"You are not God and
you are not not God."
Take that one to the bank!
You are
God happening, occurring,
BEING
in the God Given Human BEING You Are.
You are sacred at your center,
and in all the particulars of your being.
That sensed, embraced, treasured, and lived,
frees us for our divine being
to flow into divine doing.
God has songs to sing,
and so the singer.
God has knowledge to share,
and so the scientist.
God has life to create,
and so the parent.
God has love to give,
and so the life companion.
God has people to feed,
and so the farmer.
God has wisdom to enlighten,
and so the sage.
In other words, be who you are
in all your uniqueness and particulars -
be that introvert, extrovert, funny,
studious, straight, gay, nerd,
life of the party, organizer,
free spirited, poetic, jock -
whatever, all and fully.
Don't let anyone ever talk you
out of being who you are.
We need the real deal,
The God Being
you are by
God's Gift and Giving.
II. DOING FLOWS FROM BEING
Do what you are Good At,
what you are God At.
Nobody but you can be the singular
God Being creatively God Doing
that you are.
.
Don't let power, popularity, privilege
steal you from you,
from us,
from God,
from God's Creation as it unfolds.
Free up for fullness.
No play acting out here on
The Street of Real.
We need you as you are.
We need what flows from
who and how you are.
Example: as a young pastor
I tried to preach
as another Fulton J. Sheen.
Unfortunately that was a role
I should never have self cast.
It was not a God Gift I had to give.
A lot of time, church, grace and blessing
got blown away by my fantasy of futility.
Eventually I caught on, grew up
and let her ripe, preaching my heart out
in my own hookie, happy, God Given way.
It's not for everybody,
but it's what I've got to give and I give it.
It comes right out of who I am,
My God Doing from My God Being.
Please be happy and grateful with me.
Please accept these Birthday Presents.
BE WHO YOU ARE
DO AS YOU ARE
Now, it's time for cake and candles.
Blowing out those eighty candles
will probably take all afternoon
and then mean a nice long nap!!
Thanks for coming to my
birthday party.
It sure had been a
Happy Hour.
Here's to Being and Doing
God's Life Gift,
John Frank
*****
FOR PRAYER AND PONDERING
BEING:
"For in him (God) we live, and move and have our being."
Acts 17:28
"Christ is in you, the hope of glory."
Colossians 1:27
"Do you not know that you are a temple of God
and that the Spirit dwells in you?"
I Corinthians 3:16
"It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me."
Galatians 2:20
DOING
"We have different gifts according to the grace given us."
Romans 12:6
"As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another
as good stewards of God's varied grace."
I Peter 4:10
"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;
and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord;
and there are varieties of activities,
but it is the same God activates all of them in everyone.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit
for the common good."
I Corinthians 12: 4-7
******
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"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
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SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!!
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