Wednesday, May 29, 2024

LISTEN

 

 Dear All of Us,

  This week 

  let's give a 

     LISTEN

         to

Meister Eckhart,

one of the greatest 

minds and mystics

in all of Christendom.

He soul jolts.


He's always been 

a bit much, though, 

for the lads in 

the front office at

Church Establishment Inc.

His supersonic jets zoom at

forty-five thousand feet 

to their Piper Cubs 

putzing along at 

five thousand.

They can't keep up

with him.

Ain't it too often so?


That crowd are 

the same flashlights 

that tried to dim out 

the beacons brilliant

- Copernicus, Galileo, Chardin,

   democracy, evolution, 

   and their many cousins 

   positive charged.

   Their miss is our find.


Meister Eckart helps us 

find our way to simple, pure

"spirituality for the street."

For all his lofty erudition

           and 

     mystical union

he says it simple full,

soul to soul: 

     "God only asks that you 

      get out of the way and 

      let God be God in you."


               WOW!

             "Take ten."

         "Take ten tens!"

 That's more than a mouthful.

           That's soulful.


Way too many-much,

        though, 

we tell ourselves and

    others tell us 

different dangerous.

        Our Ego 

 rigged out in pride

           and 

     reeking of it.

  Some sometimes:

       Parents

       Coaches

       Teachers

       Social circle

       Religious leaders

       Cultural expectations

       Spiritual directors

       Media moguls

       Advertisers

       Philosophers

       Self Help gurus

       Churchy sorts

       Friends and family 

               and

       Long leagues more.


We/They play God.

We/They insist 

we be different 

than we really are,

different than 

God wants to be 

in and through us.

We become 

      misfits 

in our own 

       skin 

       soul

      and in

   Realm Real:

      twitchy

      shallow

      merked up mad

      compromised

      restricted

      off center

      deluded

      doubting

      duped 

      pseudo someone

      God denied direction.

"Not nice!"


God doesn't get 

to shine through us.

We 're off the grid and 

operating on cheap, 

short-lived,

low power batteries.

We don't glow.

We don't go.

Others are shorted out

on how God wants 

to transmit transforming

      Divine Voltage

         to them

       through us.

      It's all rather 

  devilish and delusional.


Again and again, 

fuller and deeper

we do well to 

          LISTEN 

             as 

           Jesus 

      tells us true:

    "I am the vine, 

         you are 

     the branches."

            God 

             is 

        the energy 

          the life

   that surges us into

 being and fruitfulness,

yes, God's very own!.

       We are not 

       self-sourced,

       self-sustaining,

       self-producing.

       It's infinitely better when

       God is being God in us. 


When we fuss and foul that up 

it's like a branch of the vine 

pretending to be

a chicken hatching eggs.

           Crazy

      No God Good


God is

    Passionate Love 

that wants 

to be us,

to be as Augustine says, 

more intimate to us 

than we are to ourselves.

to flourish in us, 

to enrich through us.

God wants to be unique in us,

make us one of a kind,

to do what/where 

only we can as

friend, lover, teacher, parent, 

scientist, line worker, pastor, 

artist, public servant, leader,

programmer, musician, roofer, cook, 

salesperson, social worker, therapist and...

And to be and do that as our body type,

personality, temperament, sexual state, 

coloration, ethnicity, social status, location,

spiritual type, religion, and...


            So, let's 

          Soul Search

             a bit.

Do we really trust God 

to do a good job of 

           creating us

                and 

           uniquely so, 

radiating out that goodness

      - that GODNESS-

to further 

          Creation 

              in 

             us   

   our neighborhood,

   our zone,

   our time and place?

Such a trust is called

            FAITH


Or do we falter because 

our ego and/or the crowd 

around where we live

play God and demand a 

      DIFFERENT US


How scared or secure are we 

about being unique?

Example:

I'm an off the chart,

(ok, off the wall)

sociable introvert.

Society's Classified Ads

don't call for such at all.

Sociable ok, no way introvert.

People puzzle, even diss,

"How can you be such a live wire,

outgoing, enthusiastic,  

leader, preacher, teacher 

and then head for 

your cloister of quiet alone?"

Well, the key is

       "THEO"

        (GOD)

as in enthusiastic

  to share God 

  to be quiet in God.

That's the way 

God wants to be God in me.

It took a lot of grace 

to come up with the courage 

to be so when I was a boy,

and ever since  -

both recognized 

and shunned for it,

accepted and excluded for it.

Been like that all my life.

    Sociable Introvert

Not many of us 

out on the street.

God loves me just so.

I accept the love jut so.

I'm on the street God in me.

I'm cloistered God in me.

At times it's pretty lonely,

but then nothing beats 

letting God 

be this way

on the street.

in the cloister.


Wherever we are, 

however we are,

God wants to be 

   US THERE

       and

     UNIQUE


"God only asks that 

you get out of the way 

and let Go be God in you."


God speaks us.

May we 

     LISTEN   

     ******


NEXT ONLINE POSTING

         Wednesday

          June 5, 2024


Next Email Delivery

           Friday

           June 7, 2024


Whoever God is in you,

However God is in you,

          WELCOME 

       It's so Soul Rich

    to be together here.

                


           PLEASE

As a kid I was a paperboy,

The Newark Evening News.

That was back in 1951-3.

Had fifty or so customers

and you know, 

I actually was happy 

to get the news to them.


I would like to ask you 

to do some such where you live.

This week would you deliver 

       

        frankly speaking

     spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com


to five or so family, friends,

folks at church, colleagues?

If you can, please share that 

you find some value here 

each week

  - well most weeks anyway - 

and you are inviting them 

to try it out.


Your referral, 

and for fellow the introverts 

       "courage,"

would be a big help 

and much appreciated.

            Thanks!

            ******


LAST FIVE POSTINGS

       AVAILABLE

             by

scrolling down beneath 

       this posting


Have a great week.

Praying that we all 

     "LISTEN UP"

      Love to all,

     John Frank

       ******







 





      





          




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