Sabbath Messages > Sabbath Message: July 30, 2005
Good Sabbath
July 30, 2005
"For we are formed out of the same matter as the stars and the range of your vision sets the boundaries of your life."
I loved Samuel Penner and his book, published after his death; "The Four Dimensions of Paradise" became one of my favorites for wisdom, love and the best of humane nature. Sam's sense of purpose and humor were incredible. He was an angel, one of several I identified as being so because they had no nuance, just love, choreographed in humor but bathed in a spirituality of God.
I was thinking of little things that make me miserable, like my baseball team; why should I allow that to be. My good Frances explained that to me this morning after the latest San Diego Padre debacle. We could do so much more and better if we just took a vacation from baseball, so I am going to do that.
I awoke this morning thinking I would devote this Sabbath tome to Frances and my love for her. As we have grown old together, our youthfulness remains in our minds when we are lighthearted. It is difficult these days because of the torture-chamber that passes for nations living in peace as they indulge their worst passions of religious strife and hypocrisy, called politics. I have one great friend who has indulged in partisan politics before he was mature enough to think about the truth and now, as a wonderful adult, he is still hindered by the bias he learned through the osmosis of partisan politics, so he is far less of what he was meant to be.
It is so amusing to hear how much people love their nation and hate their government as a basic freedom, how they want to keep government out of business but make it the boss of a women's body; how patriotism protects our liberty, unless we criticize a president, how many names you are called when you have the nerve to engage in any questioning of a president as if he were the marines. We are an amusing group of hypocrites, aren't we?
Sam writes: "Today, we moderns fancy ourselves civilized because we accept the principles of the ten commandments, yet 'thou shalt not commit murder' resulted in man's shedding more blood in the 20th century than all of his ancestors in the annals of history and it continues in the new century.
The purpose of our lives on earth is that we are elevated to higher forms of ethical and spiritual fulfillment, not the modern purpose which is to buy real estate and become rich, or establish a business and make yourself important, or become a political animal to seek power over others, as you pray to a God Who wonders how we have become so unlistening to His words, unresponsive to the deprivation of the poor and the abused, and too busy to teach our child that possession of luxury does nothing but build ambition to possess more until it possesses each of us.
Dear God
Thank You for lending me Frances,
My woman of valor--
one of several who have fashioned my values.
And Lord
Thank You for humor
For without it I would have no sense of perspective
or proportionality.
And thank You
for my morale compass
which directs my purpose on earth
unpretentious, but real,
placed there by parents and Aunt Betty.
"A truly strong and sound mind is the mind that can equally embrace great things and small; I would have a man great in great things and elegant in little things." (Johnson)
As Gale Walker and I plan for the next event in our pursuit of solution to the problem of gangs, we remember that first luncheon when we all came together to listen to each other, led by the youngest members of the audience. Enthusiasm leads to the capture of ideas as the imagination stretches our minds beyond the mediocre or imitative. Love is the fertile ground that allows understanding as tension strives to divide us. Vision is the invisibility of solutions until the ears listen and the mind reflects and lo, there are the answers.
So dear God
Do not absent Yourself
For each rainbow inspires
And each search for answers
perspires the brain,
While love cleanses
what greed has muddied.
It's so easy
when we follow the path
of righteousness
(though the search may take a lifetime or more).
I thank God for Frances. Remind yourself of the blessings that remain invisible until recognized as your everydays.
sandy
