papa

This week my father went into the hospital. He was there for four days. I woke up early. Went to bed late. Went to the hospital. Went to work. Barely slept.

But the day my dad went in, I asked a few people to pray for him. Over the next few days I continually got text messages and phone calls from them asking about how he was doing. They asked each other about his progress. I felt him and myself lifted up in prayer and that constant power of prayer being sent our way was such a source of comfort.

Thank you.

walks

After my first week in Miami I commented on the unfulfilling nature of the walks I have been taking on a daily basis. There is no regularity to them except the guiding shell of a path I take. I said I would continue those walks until the felt right. Today, 30 minutes before I need to be at work, finally having the conversation I've been longing to have, it feels complete. My walks have taken on a new purpose and given me a new perspective. Some of the thoughts may be obscure, but all are brought on through an intense time of prayer and prayerful conversation.

another world

Bear with me, dear reader, as I attempt to paint a picture of the journey I think we find ourselves on, this existential, metaphysical journey we are on...

Imagine yourself standing in the middle of a park; trees all around casting their shade among us. But imagine this world in the glowing blue spirit form we see Yoda, Obi-wan, and Anakin take at the end of Return of the Jedi. Allow us, for the sake of this illustration, to call this Realm 1. Now add form, as we know it to this world: the green leaves that sway in the wind, so frail yet connected to the branches, the rough brown bark, and the soil beneath your bare feet, dry from too many days of no rain, that crumbles apart into tiny pellets of individual grains of dirt. This is Realm 2 and it is the existence we live in daily. The birds sing in this realm and the sounds of cars driving by increase and then decrease as they pass too near to forget "the real world" that exists outside of this peaceful park.

After creating this world in your mind picture Realm 2 crumbling away. The wind picks up and shakes the leaves off of the tree that so proudly stood and allow the bark to peel away, leaving behind the bare luminescence of Realm 1. Allow Realm 2 to entirely get shaken away by the violence of the impeding wind.

All around us is the existence of God, in other words, there is a whole other world right here among this one. Sometimes things happen that shake our world apart. We sit back and watch as what we believe to be everything we have, jobs, friends, even hope, fall apart. There are moments we feel like we are left without anything. But that is only because we live without the awareness of Realm 1, the Heavenly Realm, all around us.

Scripture says that "all things are used for the glory of God" and we are also called "ambassadors for Christ". What happens when the world falls apart around us and we spend time griping about these things? We end up not representing Christ at all and focusing on Realm 2 while Realm 1 continues to exist around us. We can often dwell in our circumstances, our choices that pull us away from God, or the choices done to us, and they can often make us feel abandoned, distant from a God who is supposed to be loving and kind and forgiving...always present. And though He is we can so easily miss Him.

I believe we are all connected. At a weird quantum level I believe we are all the same. All around us is dirt. The Hebrew word for dirt is "adama" and God created man out of dirt and named him "adam". Rocks are made of compressed dirt and diamonds are made of compressed rock. We are beings of dirt with some breath breathed into us. At our core we are all atoms as is the dirt and the grass around us. Dustin Hoffman's character in "I Heart Huckabees" says that "...we are all the blanket. Everything is the blanket." And, I believe, in some strange metaphysical way this is true. We are all connected by this Being we call God who holds everything in our universe together.

I suppose I write these things because it is easy for me to forget that as I go about my daily business, making coffee for bratty teenage girls who want lowfat drinks with extra caramel, that the Spirit, the Breath of God remains inside each of us and the His realm is ever present. The Kingdom of God is here now. God, may I please begin to live as if everything mattered, yet trust You enough to take care of it, and help me become the kind of person who lives in contant awareness of your Realm as I let the world around me fade away.