Skip to main content

A Morning View From the Patio

I have been sharing my struggle during this difficult time of unrest as we face the important need to dismantle racism. I seek to be a part of the change. I continue to ask what inside of me needs to change? What can I do? How can I help? Where do I fit into this critical moment in our history to be an impactful part of a solution? 
I had an moment where I realized that I need to reach out to my brothers and sisters of color and check on their souls. God spoke to me in the quietness of my heart and said, "Do what you normally do, Bill, reach out and be a difference in the smallness of a personal check on others in your life. You do the small important things, follow my nudges and I will honor them in the bigness of what is happening." 
In the quiet moment of stillness in my meditation God quietly reminded me that God is God and I am not. I had to recognize my need for obedience in following the leading of the Pentecost Spirit in my life to be who I am and be obedient in the stillness of the presence of God.
So I have begun to strive to be still. I have contacted many of the people of color in my life checking on their souls. If I claim friends, I need to be a friend. The simple in the midst of the seemingly impossible is what I need to do. I have been received with open arms. I have fixed nothing, but I have just loved and been an agent of change for one. 
The scripture I share today is important for me. It does not mean there is no action in my words, it does mean I need to stop and listen while trusting the God of Jacob. 

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;

    I will be exalted among the nations,

    I will be exalted in the earth.”

The Lord Almighty is with us;

    the God of Jacob is our fortress.   - Psalm 46:10-11

Peace,
PB

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Morning View By the Wood Stove

If you proclaim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then I must ask you a question. Are you seeking the deepest possible intimate relationship with God that you can ever experience on this earth? Because I know what I am about to say to be absolutely true. If you are not and if you are pursuing anything other than God you will not ever be satisfied and ultimately any other relationship will fail. It does not matter how deeply connected with another person you are without God it will fail. Failure may not mean completely walk away, failure can mean that a relationship will not be what it is intended to be and you settle for it because at least it is there, it's the best I can do, it could be worse and for many other reasons.  We are created to be in relationship with one another. We have many relationships and many depths within those relationships. We have social relationships. We have relationship with many forms of addiction and substitution. We have friends and we have FRIENDS...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Morning View Near the Patio

I believe Christians are called to live a different life in the world than those who are not Christian. I believe that no matter the circumstance of the world, the government and all the just and injustice we are called to be different. Jesus handled the Easter journey much differently than I believe the modern Christian in the USA would have handled it. The Apostle Paul lived as best he humanly could to model the path and life of Jesus Christ during the difficult times of persecution and injustice of his journey. A lot of thoughts are swirling in my head during our difficult time we are currently experiencing and all of those thoughts come back to my life as a Christian, believer and follower of Jesus Christ, and do my thoughts, actions and words model Jesus on the Easter journey to the cross? In Matthew 16:24-26 Jesus told his disciples to "take up their cross and follow me!" I am believing that Jesus is telling us to live like, act like, be like and love like Jesus did....
Post a Comment
Read more

A Morning View Near the Patio

Sabbath - to rest from labor, set aside as holy. Because we have less to do in our current situation, perhaps as Christians we can redefine what Sabbath looks like for us. I wonder how many of us traditionally go to church in our weekend routine, have lunch then get right back at it? After all, we have so much to do and so little time. It has been nice to sit and be. On the nicer days, when the weather cooperates, it has been so nice to sit on the patio and just be. I have sat and contemplated there more this year than I did all last summer. Perhaps a new normal of Sabbath can take place in our lives. As a child I remember going to church on Sunday morning and on the way home being dropped off at Grandma and Granddad's place. We would have lunch and quite often go for a ride. Usually the ride would end somewhere with ice cream! The routes must have been develops around the ice cream establishments in Northeast Ohio! We did very little, but for me as a kid we did a lot. I remember...
Post a Comment
Read more