Dear All of Us,
A lot of life goes into figuring out
how to get there from here -
getting into college,
raising kids, career,
establishing financial security.
It's certainly and essentially so
in our spiritual life.
A humble,
Quiet Man
of scripture,
rarely noted,
shows us best of many,
just how to navigate
our way spiritually.
He says
not a word
about it.
He lives it.
Joseph of Nazareth.
Joseph had to deal with
extensive and trying
REROUTE
Engaged, his intended
becomes pregnant
and not by him.
What a directional whiplash!
A quiet divorce seemed
the kindest and best
direction to go.
Then a revealing dream.
A human problem clarified,
shown as a divine good.
A massive redirection
accepted and followed.
Then Caesar Augustus
decrees a world-wide census.
All males had to travel to
their ancestral hometowns
and register.
That meant leaving
Nazareth in Galilee
and the journey to
Bethlehem in Judea,
a ninety-mile trip on foot.
Not exactly a AAA Premier
Honeymoon Package
and that with
a very pregnant wife.
Arriving in town,
the local
MOTEL 6
didn't have any rooms left
and it was baby time.
The delivery was in
something of a farm shed.
Post partum,
some smelly shepherds
showed up,
pretty excited
about the baby.
Then these
well healed scholars
from somewhere
far away east
stopped by,
pricey gifts in hand,
hearts full of homage.
What a spin around.
Were's all this going?
In yet another dream
Joseph realized
the baby was
in deadly danger.
Forget heading home
and back to
accustomed life
in Nazareth.
It meant just the
opposite direction and life.
Off to Egypt,
being migrants
in a foreign land a long time
until it was safe to redirect
back to hometown Nazareth.
No Amtrack either way.
Joseph's life,
his spiritual journey,
was one big
REROUTE.
He cooperated with it,
was submissive
to mysterious redo's
of his life's direction,
inner and outer.
He allowed himself
to be an active agent
to what he didn't
understand, plan or control.
It touched his masculinity,
intimacy with his wife,
fathering a child he didn't sire.
It redirected
where he was,
needed to go,
what was going on
within and around him -
and that in spades!
And I fuss when
my flight is delayed!!
Spirituality gets us
where we need to be,
chosen or not,
understood or not,
comfortable or not.
Quite often the journey
is straight ahead
REROUTED
******
There's a
richness
of Fall colors
here in
Washington
just now.
It's like us
richly unique,
gathered together
each week,
here at
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
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THANKS
to all who
have been sharing
"frankly speaking"
with others.
Let's be sure and steady
in our concern and support
for all the people trapped
and suffering in
dreadly many wars
around our shared globe
spinning madly out of control.
IN JOY AND GRATITUDE
This marks the
seventh anniversary
of
our weekly gathering
here at
"frankly speaking"
We come together from
many lands and ways.
"Behold,
how good and
pleasant it is
for brethren
to dwell together
in unity..."
Psalm 133:1
Looking forward to
us being together
here next week.
Love to all,
God Bless
John Frank
******
