FRIENDS
May I please have
a word with you?
As many here know,
I am eighty-five.
I am also a rather
mild mannered
old fellow.
However,
Given The Givens
right now,
this posting and
some recent ones
are decidedly
strong and
straight forward,
not my usual fare.
That's because
frankly speaking
is about
"spirituality
for the street."
Out here on
the streets
of our striving
right now
things are rough
getting rougher.
How do we walk
these streets of stress?
That calls for
strong,
straight forward
spirituality.
I pray this is.
Thus the staunch
tone and tenor.
Thanks for letting me
be as candid and clear
as I can be.
Much love,
John Frank
******
Dear All of Us,
Here we go again!
The Middle East roils
in turmoil and tension.
It springs
bad from wrong.
So, too, the fiery flames
of war:
The Congo,
Russia-Ukraine,
Isreal and Gaza,
Isreal and Iran
Sudan ...
So, too, the trend
to autocracies,
cultural dictatorship,
the global migration
shift and crisis,
exclusionary nationalism,
Nature violated ...
We need to see
the patterned folly
from which it erupts
shows that
all through history,
and to this day,
one percent
of us
dominate and hoard
- power and stuff -
check out
the Bezo's wedding
and weep.
The one percent
develop and indulge an
upper class
to manage things for them.
Bread and circus reward
a middle class,
some to secure and fight,
others to grind out
product and profit.
The enslaved and
impoverished
are herded to service
dirty and demeaning,
dumped in trash piles
of neglect.
Such evil is
Empire.
It wrongs.
It’s into
full blown
wronging
right now.
What’s particular
to our current plight
are technologies of
mass destruction
(nuclear and AI)
the push for
autocracies
degradation of
Nature
and
cultural
dictatorship
in the hands of
the one percent.
They are not
innocent,
sweet, pure,
choirboys.
It is said that asteroids
whipped out the dinosaurs.
We are close to
being whipped out by these
myopic, heart, head,
soul dulled
narcissists
and
egomaniacs
They are
duping and doping
large swaths of many
societies.
“Is there a prophet in the house?”
To get our grounded bearings,
let’s scroll
back to our start up.
It was
pretty darn good.
Genesis is the story
of God’s delight.
It portrays
an artisan
ecstatically creative,
lavishly generous.
“…and it was good,
very good”, very God.
The First Folks
lived in a
Garden of Delight
Eden
from the Hebrew
"eden"
"delight, pleasantness"
It didn’t
stay that way.
Those First Folk
gifted with
God closeness,
entrusted with
Creation’s Care
violated
gift and trust.
They walked
the Garden
with God.
They were blessed
with knowing
only good.
For the
ancient Hebrew writers
of Genesis
"to know"
meant
"intimate experience"
At the genesis of us
it was
Paradise
Bliss.
All they
"knew"
was good.
BUT
They insisted on
"knowing"
its opposite, it's lack.
The symbolic
tree of "knowing"
good and evil
Their
"intimate experience"
of
evil
that lack of good
hurt like hell.
Their self-exile
confirmed by God.
Paradise
lost.
Entrusted with
Creation Care,
they took it down
with them.
Now good
AND EVIL.
Place and people
off balance.
We have "known" evil
ever since.
God Good got busy,
formed a team to be
“A light to the nations.”
From them sprung one,
a God Good union of
human and divine.
He came to recreate,
right the wronged,
repair the breech,
redeem, rebalance.
A whole new and
wonderous community,
a kin domain of
God Good people
being repaired
and to be
agents of repair,
was initiated.
It's ours for the
Goodness
of it.
While we
have time, lets!!!
That will not be
a top-down deal.
It will
spring bottom up.
We need to unload
the illusion that
politicians, programs
pundits, policies
and military might,
can pull
this off.
We need to stop fretting
about the whole mess
and get busy
cleaning it up
as best we can
where and
as we are.
Fretting saps
the life out of us
and we are then
"double done",
unable to do
what and where
we can.
Remember,
Jesus told us
to carry our cross,
not his,
nor everyone else's.
To be
faithful and effective
we need to break free from
soft, safe, domesticated,
culturally conforming
and acceptable,
limp religiosity.
Check the
record.
It not only
hasn’t been up to
the task nor real enough.
It gets in the way and
slows us down
often and a lot.
“By their
fruits…”
A way forward:
We find or form
a small group
of "all in" folks
for
actual, practical,
Gospel living
together.
We all deep dive into
divine intimacy.
We take real care
of each other.
We work our toes off
helping the needy.
We live
justice.
We soak in
scripture.
We worship, pray
and be a
Holy Communion.
We are deliberately
counter cultural.
We thrive in
a modest lifestyle.
We reverence and
care for Nature.
We let The Spirit
turn where and
how we live
into a
Garden of
God Love Lived
through us.
As more and more
just plain folks do so,
earth well be canopied
right and real,
a freshness and beauty
right in the midst of
dark, dirty
Empire
“Thy kin domain come
on earth as in heaven.”
a
Garden
of
God Love Lived
******
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lately
particularly many
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How great to be part of
God's
Rebalancing
Love to all.
God Bless,
John Frank
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
******
