Music is truly one of God’s gifts to mankind. It has been such a big part of my life for the better part of it, that I don’t know what I would do without it.
All of us know the joy of driving down the highway, windows open on a cool day, when that favorite song of ours just comes on the radio out of the blue. Of course, the radio gets turned up just a bit, our spirits lift even more, and if we don’t pay attention, usually our car ends up going just a wee bit faster with the advent of that favorite tune! Last, but certainly not least, we lift our voices to the heavens and sing loud enough to make dogs howl.
I was struck by this just this morning, driving to work on an otherwise quite normal Monday morning. I was a bit tired (happens to you on a Monday morning you know?), and wasn’t paying too much attention to anything in particular, when all of a sudden this great song came on over the airwaves. Immediately, my spirits were lifted, and yep, I sang loud enough to make the dogs howl.
Music can do this for us. It can lift our spirits; it can move us to unimaginable heights, and yes, unimaginable depths at times. But, at all times, it has an impact, and at the very least lets us know we’re alive. It is one human being sharing his thoughts and beliefs to another in words and song, and it never fails to at least make us think, even if it’s a silly little ditty.
How boring the world would be without music, I say. Can you imagine just listening to others talk in spoken language all the time, without tunes to accompany the words? After a while, that would get awful routine. Music gives color to what we say, to what we express. It is the tapestry upon which many of the great truths in life are expressed.
It’s a gift to us from God, honestly. And, many times I’ve personally felt that He has communicated to me through a song, at exactly the right time I’ve needed to hear it (I’ve written on this in another part of the “Ministry of the Mundane”). What a wonderful thing He invented. Well, we humans technically invented music, but you won’t convince me that it wasn’t divinely inspired!
Turn up your radios my friends. It’s a wonderful thing to have music in our lives, and a wonderful day and age where we have so many ways to experience it (through radio, computer downloads, CD’s, etc.). And, as always, when you hear that message that seems like its directly targeted to you, don’t discount it as just a coincidence. Somebody’s probably trying to get your attention!
-The Minister
Monday, August 27, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Peace & Quiet
Where are we all going in such a hurry?
Is it me, or did the pace of life reach, as Mel Brooks would say, “ludicrous speed” in the last decade or so? Goodness gracious, it does seem like everyone I know has so much going on, and has to get it done in so little time, it allows for no time left to themselves.
What, with e-mail, cell phones, pagers, laptops, PDA’s…am I missing anything?...we are absolutely bombarded with information everywhere we turn. And I do mean bombarded. Have you noticed your e-mail Inbox if you leave for vacation, just for one week? Chances are, you’ll have heard from hundreds of your closest friends when you return!
All this new technology, with all of its benefits to mankind, has a major flaw. Namely, if we do not control the technology, it will control us. Simply because it is now so easy to communicate with one another by various and sundry methods, we all do so. But, we are drowning in this communication, little by little. Everything’s so darn fast…instant messaging, instant this, instant that…we feel after a while like a hamster on a wheel, running full tilt to get, well, somewhere, only we never really go anywhere.
If we look at Nature (that is, if we can put down the cell phone for just one minute to observe the natural world around us), we’ll notice an altogether different pace. There is no rush to nature, there is no hectic frenzy. Oh sure, there is an ebb and flow, but mostly, the frenzied pace we humans have chosen doesn’t exist. I think there’s a message there, right in front of our eyes, about the pace we should all be living.
I see God’s pace of life, the one He’d love us all to have, in the natural world. Animals know when to rest; they know when to be active. And, they do rest, often, during the course of a day. We human beings tend to drive ourselves to distraction, cram caffeine in our bodies so that we can continue the hectic pace, and then, if we’re lucky, get a few hours of blissful sleep each night just so we can get up and do it all over again!
And they say the animals are primitive.
My point my friends, and this goes double for me as I all too often can get stuck on the treadmill of life, is we’ll never hear, much less see, God if we don’t slow down and listen. I know its trite, the “stop and smell the roses” philosophy, we’ve all heard it a million times. But, are we listening? Judging by the pace of life, apparently not.
I believe that God is everywhere, and in everything. But, we can really get to know Him, and know Him best, in the silence. It is in those moments of nothingness, where we get off the treadmill of life and just listen, that we often hear that small voice within us gently calling us home. I have started my own little practice of meditation, and while I’m certainly no master, I can tell you that during these moments of daily silence I can feel God’s presence. When I force myself to slow down and literally “do” nothing, I know He’s there, I sense Him, and all is right with the world.
God is everything, but I personally believe that what God is most is peace. If we do not slow down for just a minute or two each day, we miss this. For far too long, I’ve gone way too fast, and I just don’t want to do it any longer.
So, turn off that cell phone for an hour. Go ahead; the world’s not going to end. Disappear for an afternoon, and go sit in your favorite park. Just sit. And listen. God will be there. He’s been waiting for you there for quite some time.
He’s a pretty good friend to talk to and get to know, if we just take the time to slow down and listen.
-The Minister
Is it me, or did the pace of life reach, as Mel Brooks would say, “ludicrous speed” in the last decade or so? Goodness gracious, it does seem like everyone I know has so much going on, and has to get it done in so little time, it allows for no time left to themselves.
What, with e-mail, cell phones, pagers, laptops, PDA’s…am I missing anything?...we are absolutely bombarded with information everywhere we turn. And I do mean bombarded. Have you noticed your e-mail Inbox if you leave for vacation, just for one week? Chances are, you’ll have heard from hundreds of your closest friends when you return!
All this new technology, with all of its benefits to mankind, has a major flaw. Namely, if we do not control the technology, it will control us. Simply because it is now so easy to communicate with one another by various and sundry methods, we all do so. But, we are drowning in this communication, little by little. Everything’s so darn fast…instant messaging, instant this, instant that…we feel after a while like a hamster on a wheel, running full tilt to get, well, somewhere, only we never really go anywhere.
If we look at Nature (that is, if we can put down the cell phone for just one minute to observe the natural world around us), we’ll notice an altogether different pace. There is no rush to nature, there is no hectic frenzy. Oh sure, there is an ebb and flow, but mostly, the frenzied pace we humans have chosen doesn’t exist. I think there’s a message there, right in front of our eyes, about the pace we should all be living.
I see God’s pace of life, the one He’d love us all to have, in the natural world. Animals know when to rest; they know when to be active. And, they do rest, often, during the course of a day. We human beings tend to drive ourselves to distraction, cram caffeine in our bodies so that we can continue the hectic pace, and then, if we’re lucky, get a few hours of blissful sleep each night just so we can get up and do it all over again!
And they say the animals are primitive.
My point my friends, and this goes double for me as I all too often can get stuck on the treadmill of life, is we’ll never hear, much less see, God if we don’t slow down and listen. I know its trite, the “stop and smell the roses” philosophy, we’ve all heard it a million times. But, are we listening? Judging by the pace of life, apparently not.
I believe that God is everywhere, and in everything. But, we can really get to know Him, and know Him best, in the silence. It is in those moments of nothingness, where we get off the treadmill of life and just listen, that we often hear that small voice within us gently calling us home. I have started my own little practice of meditation, and while I’m certainly no master, I can tell you that during these moments of daily silence I can feel God’s presence. When I force myself to slow down and literally “do” nothing, I know He’s there, I sense Him, and all is right with the world.
God is everything, but I personally believe that what God is most is peace. If we do not slow down for just a minute or two each day, we miss this. For far too long, I’ve gone way too fast, and I just don’t want to do it any longer.
So, turn off that cell phone for an hour. Go ahead; the world’s not going to end. Disappear for an afternoon, and go sit in your favorite park. Just sit. And listen. God will be there. He’s been waiting for you there for quite some time.
He’s a pretty good friend to talk to and get to know, if we just take the time to slow down and listen.
-The Minister
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Getting a Hair Cut
I simply marvel at the person that cuts my hair. She’s a tiny little lady, and yet, has more energy in that little body than I have in my considerably larger one.
When she cuts my hair, its not so much as simply taking my hair length from long to short (or in my case really bald looking to less noticeably bald looking!), as it is creating a work of art. A snip here, a moment to study it there, and then another snip, all working towards the final end of creating a work of sculpture if you will of which she can be proud.
And, when she’s actually doing the cutting of my hair, or anyone else’s for that matter, time stands still for her. It’s just she and my little old head, trying to mold and sculpt my hair, getting lost in the moments of doing so. When my barber cuts my hair, it’s almost a spiritual experience for her, I think.
I was struck by the amount of love for her craft she obviously has, and it hit me that for her at least, her craft was not so much a “job” as it was an act of creation. She obviously is in touch with that fire within her, that “holy spirit” of creativity that was breathed into her at creation. God has instilled that same love of creation into all of us as well.
Call it imagination, call it creativity, call it what you will, our ability to create things or stuff out of whole cloth is what separates us from all other beings. I’m not here to discuss the divinity of man versus the animals (I actually happen to believe that animals are quite divine, thank you very much!), but mankind’s ability to imagine possibilities, and then manifest these imaginings into material results is our unique gift. “Real life”…whatever that is…doesn’t necessarily encourage us, however, to express this creativity.
Oh sure, at the beginning of our formal education we are encouraged to paint the world the way we see it. But, sadly, at least it was my experience, the world imposes its own sense of normalcy upon us all too quickly, and tells us what’s acceptable, and what’s not. It’s as if our imagination starts to be progressively penned in, until we reach the point of adulthood, and we are left with no real spark of creativity. Lemmings indeed.
I hope I never become like this. My wonderful mother has always told me I have such a wonderful sense of imagination, and I happen to agree with her on that point. There have been times in my life, however, where I have stifled that creative flow for fear of seeming “different”. During those times in my life, a sense of loss would fill my days. Loss, because I wasn’t doing that which we are all created to do…namely, “create” ourselves. We are all given this wonderful gift of imagination. It has long been said that which we can believe in, we can eventually conceive. That’s a not happenstance folk. That’s the spark of the divine within all of us.
So, you ask, “You got all this wisdom out of a simple haircut?” My friends, that’s why I call my ramblings the Ministry of the Mundane!
It’s been my experience that from the mundane springs the profound.
Have a great day.
-The Minister
When she cuts my hair, its not so much as simply taking my hair length from long to short (or in my case really bald looking to less noticeably bald looking!), as it is creating a work of art. A snip here, a moment to study it there, and then another snip, all working towards the final end of creating a work of sculpture if you will of which she can be proud.
And, when she’s actually doing the cutting of my hair, or anyone else’s for that matter, time stands still for her. It’s just she and my little old head, trying to mold and sculpt my hair, getting lost in the moments of doing so. When my barber cuts my hair, it’s almost a spiritual experience for her, I think.
I was struck by the amount of love for her craft she obviously has, and it hit me that for her at least, her craft was not so much a “job” as it was an act of creation. She obviously is in touch with that fire within her, that “holy spirit” of creativity that was breathed into her at creation. God has instilled that same love of creation into all of us as well.
Call it imagination, call it creativity, call it what you will, our ability to create things or stuff out of whole cloth is what separates us from all other beings. I’m not here to discuss the divinity of man versus the animals (I actually happen to believe that animals are quite divine, thank you very much!), but mankind’s ability to imagine possibilities, and then manifest these imaginings into material results is our unique gift. “Real life”…whatever that is…doesn’t necessarily encourage us, however, to express this creativity.
Oh sure, at the beginning of our formal education we are encouraged to paint the world the way we see it. But, sadly, at least it was my experience, the world imposes its own sense of normalcy upon us all too quickly, and tells us what’s acceptable, and what’s not. It’s as if our imagination starts to be progressively penned in, until we reach the point of adulthood, and we are left with no real spark of creativity. Lemmings indeed.
I hope I never become like this. My wonderful mother has always told me I have such a wonderful sense of imagination, and I happen to agree with her on that point. There have been times in my life, however, where I have stifled that creative flow for fear of seeming “different”. During those times in my life, a sense of loss would fill my days. Loss, because I wasn’t doing that which we are all created to do…namely, “create” ourselves. We are all given this wonderful gift of imagination. It has long been said that which we can believe in, we can eventually conceive. That’s a not happenstance folk. That’s the spark of the divine within all of us.
So, you ask, “You got all this wisdom out of a simple haircut?” My friends, that’s why I call my ramblings the Ministry of the Mundane!
It’s been my experience that from the mundane springs the profound.
Have a great day.
-The Minister
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
On Failure
Do we see God when we fail?
It’s an interesting question, one I’ve wrestled with from time to time in my life. First of all, I think we’ve got to get our minds around this concept of “failure”.
There are many who will state there is no such thing as failure, that failure is just getting one step closer to finding the ultimate answer. I didn’t used to agree with that notion, but then again, I spent a lot of years mired in pretty negative thinking. So, it’s no surprise that failure to me was just that…failure.
When I would try and fail, well, that was it for me, no more trying. I’d go on to something else, even if…especially if…what I was working to accomplish was a dream of mine. Failure to achieve that dream just meant to me it wasn’t to be. Hey, I told you I was a negative thinker years ago.
But, if we open our eyes and stare into the failure, especially those big old times when we’ve really blown it, really struck out, I think we’ll see something on the other side. Call it the “light of experience”, call it what you will, what you see on the other side, once the dust settles, is God giving us the insight we need to eventually overcome the odds.
Once we know this, once we recognize that God is always there, in every way possible, we begin to no longer fear failure. We recognize that if we ever wish to achieve our dreams, then we must fail from time to time, and that is in no way, shape, or form a bad thing. You see, God will always be there when we fail to pick us up, and point to the path that will work. If we look hard enough, we’ll see Him after the disappointment at our failure begins to fade (when I say “see” Him, well, I personally believe that that how you will see him depends on how you best receive messages from the Big Fella, but that’s a topic for another day!).
So go ahead and try, and fail some, and then fail some more. Go ahead, don’t be afraid. He’s there my friends, He’s always there, and if we open our eyes, and more importantly our hearts, He will soothe our wounds and point us to a better path. Fear not fellow travelers. Failure looses its sting when we know in our hearts that our best Friend is always by our side.
-The Minister
It’s an interesting question, one I’ve wrestled with from time to time in my life. First of all, I think we’ve got to get our minds around this concept of “failure”.
There are many who will state there is no such thing as failure, that failure is just getting one step closer to finding the ultimate answer. I didn’t used to agree with that notion, but then again, I spent a lot of years mired in pretty negative thinking. So, it’s no surprise that failure to me was just that…failure.
When I would try and fail, well, that was it for me, no more trying. I’d go on to something else, even if…especially if…what I was working to accomplish was a dream of mine. Failure to achieve that dream just meant to me it wasn’t to be. Hey, I told you I was a negative thinker years ago.
But, if we open our eyes and stare into the failure, especially those big old times when we’ve really blown it, really struck out, I think we’ll see something on the other side. Call it the “light of experience”, call it what you will, what you see on the other side, once the dust settles, is God giving us the insight we need to eventually overcome the odds.
Once we know this, once we recognize that God is always there, in every way possible, we begin to no longer fear failure. We recognize that if we ever wish to achieve our dreams, then we must fail from time to time, and that is in no way, shape, or form a bad thing. You see, God will always be there when we fail to pick us up, and point to the path that will work. If we look hard enough, we’ll see Him after the disappointment at our failure begins to fade (when I say “see” Him, well, I personally believe that that how you will see him depends on how you best receive messages from the Big Fella, but that’s a topic for another day!).
So go ahead and try, and fail some, and then fail some more. Go ahead, don’t be afraid. He’s there my friends, He’s always there, and if we open our eyes, and more importantly our hearts, He will soothe our wounds and point us to a better path. Fear not fellow travelers. Failure looses its sting when we know in our hearts that our best Friend is always by our side.
-The Minister
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Let Me Read You a Story
…might just contain the secret to life!
This past weekend I, like millions of others around the globe, read “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”. The entire series has, in my opinion, been outstanding, and let’s just say this last book really gave it a rousing conclusion.
I was struck often, during the reading of this particular tale, at how much wonderful philosophy comes out of the pages. Yes, it’s a work of fiction, a book to be purely enjoyed and with which to have fun. But, many times, to me at least, it was more than that.
There were more than a couple of times a sentence seemed to leap off the page at me, containing some kernel of real truth (the book’s only been out a little while, so I won’t include anything specific as to not give away any spoilers). This surprised me, as honestly, I was just reading it for fun. I really didn’t expect to have revealed to me so much about living one’s life well.
Yet, it was all there, including some passages where, quite literally, it seemed as if the author had been reading my mind all along. This has happened to me in the past too, where I’m reading a book solely for pleasure, and yet I’ll discover some nugget of wisdom I hadn’t anticipated uncovering, certainly not in a work of fiction.
And, many times it will seem as if this sentence, or this thought, was aimed directly at me, for my benefit alone. Yes, the words are of a specific author. But perhaps the fact that I read them at specifically the time I needed to hear them, that may in fact be the work of life’s Author.
I tend to believe, in my advancing age, that God speaks to us at precisely the right moment and with precisely the right vehicle. Sometimes we need to be hit over the head, as we may be in a dense fog or be unaware of what is truly happening in our lives. Other times, we may be really dialed in to life, and He gives us just a subtle message, a pat on the back or gentle encouragement along the way. For me, this past weekend, the words I needed to hear were in a work of fiction. Other times in my life, they’ve come from many other sources.
For a lot of my life, as I’ve already mentioned in my other messages, I wasn’t really paying attention. I did (pay attention) this past weekend, and because I did, I was blessed with a message from the best friend any of us could have. If nothing else, it reminded me to be constantly awake and alive, looking for the words of wisdom or messages that I need to hear.
And, if I pay attention, even good old Harry Potter might have something to teach me.
-The Minister
This past weekend I, like millions of others around the globe, read “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”. The entire series has, in my opinion, been outstanding, and let’s just say this last book really gave it a rousing conclusion.
I was struck often, during the reading of this particular tale, at how much wonderful philosophy comes out of the pages. Yes, it’s a work of fiction, a book to be purely enjoyed and with which to have fun. But, many times, to me at least, it was more than that.
There were more than a couple of times a sentence seemed to leap off the page at me, containing some kernel of real truth (the book’s only been out a little while, so I won’t include anything specific as to not give away any spoilers). This surprised me, as honestly, I was just reading it for fun. I really didn’t expect to have revealed to me so much about living one’s life well.
Yet, it was all there, including some passages where, quite literally, it seemed as if the author had been reading my mind all along. This has happened to me in the past too, where I’m reading a book solely for pleasure, and yet I’ll discover some nugget of wisdom I hadn’t anticipated uncovering, certainly not in a work of fiction.
And, many times it will seem as if this sentence, or this thought, was aimed directly at me, for my benefit alone. Yes, the words are of a specific author. But perhaps the fact that I read them at specifically the time I needed to hear them, that may in fact be the work of life’s Author.
I tend to believe, in my advancing age, that God speaks to us at precisely the right moment and with precisely the right vehicle. Sometimes we need to be hit over the head, as we may be in a dense fog or be unaware of what is truly happening in our lives. Other times, we may be really dialed in to life, and He gives us just a subtle message, a pat on the back or gentle encouragement along the way. For me, this past weekend, the words I needed to hear were in a work of fiction. Other times in my life, they’ve come from many other sources.
For a lot of my life, as I’ve already mentioned in my other messages, I wasn’t really paying attention. I did (pay attention) this past weekend, and because I did, I was blessed with a message from the best friend any of us could have. If nothing else, it reminded me to be constantly awake and alive, looking for the words of wisdom or messages that I need to hear.
And, if I pay attention, even good old Harry Potter might have something to teach me.
-The Minister
Thursday, August 2, 2007
License Plates
I don’t know about you, but I’m over Vanity license plates. Or at least until yesterday I was.
When they first came out, hey, I thought they were kind of cool. They were just another way of distinguishing yourself. In a sometimes grey world, a little color isn’t altogether a bad thing.
When I bought my first car, I seriously considered getting one.
But soon, it seemed that every car I passed…or passed me (I’m not that fast you see)…had a Vanity plate. So, my initial fascination with them passed. They just got too common.
Yesterday, however, I was reawakened to the potential of vanity plates for conveying important messages. I was well into a two-hour drive back from a meeting. My head was swimming with all kinds of concerns and thoughts, and I must admit I was starting to worry a bit over some potential outcomes.
I glanced to my left at a car that was passing me at that moment, and I noticed, clearly and distinctly, the license plate on that car. It was “DNTFRET”, or in other words, “don’t fret”. Don’t fret. Don’t worry your silly little head over things, things that 99 times out of 100 don’t even come true.
The words hit me like a hammer to my head, and interrupted the thought storm that I was experiencing. It was as if something, or namely somebody, was trying to get through to me. Sometimes in life we need to be hit over the head with a hammer, to wake us from mindless living. At that precise moment, I needed to be reminded of how useless worry is. And, at that precise moment, I was (reminded).
Coincidence? Again, years ago I would’ve thought so. But now, not so sure about that. For me at times, I’ve been consumed by worry. I’m working very hard to change that, and am pleased to report some progress. But, I need some support some times, a message to break through the clutter of “thought storms” as I call them, and yesterday, I got that support from a Vanity license plate of all things.
Was that God talking to me? Was that Him reaching out to me, at the precise moment I needed to hear Him? I believe so, but draw your own conclusions. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be the grandest of actions to get our attention. Sometimes He uses the most unglamorous vehicles to get His message across.
Like a license plate.
Hey, maybe I’ll just have to change my opinion of those suckers after all!
-The Minister
When they first came out, hey, I thought they were kind of cool. They were just another way of distinguishing yourself. In a sometimes grey world, a little color isn’t altogether a bad thing.
When I bought my first car, I seriously considered getting one.
But soon, it seemed that every car I passed…or passed me (I’m not that fast you see)…had a Vanity plate. So, my initial fascination with them passed. They just got too common.
Yesterday, however, I was reawakened to the potential of vanity plates for conveying important messages. I was well into a two-hour drive back from a meeting. My head was swimming with all kinds of concerns and thoughts, and I must admit I was starting to worry a bit over some potential outcomes.
I glanced to my left at a car that was passing me at that moment, and I noticed, clearly and distinctly, the license plate on that car. It was “DNTFRET”, or in other words, “don’t fret”. Don’t fret. Don’t worry your silly little head over things, things that 99 times out of 100 don’t even come true.
The words hit me like a hammer to my head, and interrupted the thought storm that I was experiencing. It was as if something, or namely somebody, was trying to get through to me. Sometimes in life we need to be hit over the head with a hammer, to wake us from mindless living. At that precise moment, I needed to be reminded of how useless worry is. And, at that precise moment, I was (reminded).
Coincidence? Again, years ago I would’ve thought so. But now, not so sure about that. For me at times, I’ve been consumed by worry. I’m working very hard to change that, and am pleased to report some progress. But, I need some support some times, a message to break through the clutter of “thought storms” as I call them, and yesterday, I got that support from a Vanity license plate of all things.
Was that God talking to me? Was that Him reaching out to me, at the precise moment I needed to hear Him? I believe so, but draw your own conclusions. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be the grandest of actions to get our attention. Sometimes He uses the most unglamorous vehicles to get His message across.
Like a license plate.
Hey, maybe I’ll just have to change my opinion of those suckers after all!
-The Minister
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