Thursday, March 14, 2024
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Islands in the sea
My Daily Overview post lately has shown South Pacific and Aegean islands, jewels in a dark blue sea. Santorini, Taha’a and Raiatea … Therasia, Nea Kameni, Palaia Kameni and Aspronisi.
I don’t need to go there to be caught by their beauty, rest in their beauty, behold it and fall on my knees in gratitude. Thank you God, thank you our Creator, thank you for holding us in the palm of your hand.
The LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once to your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, for they have become depraved. They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them.
No doubt there have been crimes, some of highest magnitude, here as there and everywhere. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “People prefer darkness to light, because their works were evil.” Jeremiah on a very bad day wrote, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.” Of course Jeremiah was simply relaying Yahweh’s words when he wrote that.
But then … there are the words of Aelred of Rievaulx in the twelfth century, written between bouts with kidney stones and arthritis, grateful as he was for his friends and his companion the Holy Spirit:
Here we are, you and I, and a third, the Holy Spirit, is in our midst. There is no one now to disturb us; there is no one to break in upon our friendly chat, no man’s prattle or noise of any kind will creep into this pleasant solitude. Come now, beloved, open your heart, and pour into these friendly ears whatsoever you will, and let us accept gracefully the boon of this place, time, and leisure.
I imagine sitting with Margaret, under one of the Polynesian palm trees in a settee, sipping a fresh squeezed lemonade, closing my eyes and saying something like “Here we are you and I, and a third, the Holy Spirit. There is no one now to disturb us, to creep into our pleasant solitude. Come now, beloved, open your heart. Pour into these friendly ears whatsoever you will.
These islands are accessible to natives born here and a few of us willing and able to pay for 5-star resort privileges. And if we aren’t there already, the airfares run into the thousands of dollars.
Or … we might choose to make our own lemonade and find a nicely painted yellow chair, and sit ourselves down under our own sun, with our own breeze, and thank God for our own lives.
All around us and even more inside our hearts, Jesus speaks the same truth, “People (all of us) prefer darkness to light, because their deeds are evil.” But it’s also true that God so loved the world and gave his only Son. Bring on the light, bring in the sheaves, be held and loved day by day by day. It has always been true that God blesses us with Presence, Forgiveness, and Companionship. All of us forever, every single moment of our day.
Can I accept that gift without demanding more, especially from the people around me (and myself)? Or must I insist on making people in my own image, expecting them to give me what I want emotionally, relationally, physically?
How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?
Well, I can accept their gifts in the light of God’s point of view. They can do the same with me. And that’s the way to bring French Polynesian peace to central Illinois, and to north Austin, and wherever you are right now.
Dan Harris who writes about happiness says something like this, “Make yourself 10% happier by having regular conversations with yourself as if you were talking with your best friend.”
Imagine having those talks with Jesus.
Imagine as Aelred did, having them with the Holy Spirit, with a friend, with yourself … with one, with two, with all three. Practice this, and learn the art of contentment.
Let French Polynesia come to you.
 (Exodus 32, Psalm 106, John 3, John 5)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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