Jamee K B

This and That

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Jamee K B turned 1!

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From The Five Habits of Highly Missional People by Michael Frost

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When things fall apart, the broken places allow all sorts of things to enter, and one of them is the presence of God.

Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet

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We need silence in our lives. We even desire it. But when we enter into silence we encounter a lot of inner noises, often so disturbing that a busy and distracting life seems preferable to a time of silence. Two disturbing “noises” present themselves quickly in our silence: the noise of lust and the noise of anger. Lust reveals our many unsatisfied needs, anger or many unresolved relationships. But lust and anger are very hard to face.

[bernadettelogue]

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But work for God that is not nourished by a deep interior life with God will eventually be contaminated by other things such as ego, power, needing approval of and from others, and buying into the wrong ideas of success and the mistaken belief that we can't fail. When we work for God because of these things, our experience of the gospel often falls off the center. We become 'human doings' rather than 'human beings'. Our experimental sense of worth and validation gradually shifts from Gods unconditional love for us in Christ to our works and performance. The joy of Christ gradually disappears.

Peter Scazzero, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

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My central task among these people was not to help them solve their problems, but to help them to see how their problems could help solve them, serve as stimulus and goad to embrace the mystery of who they were as human beings, and then offer to be companion to them and teach them the language of this world in which we are God-created, Christ-invaded, Spirit-moved, the language of prayer.

Eugene Peterson, Teach Us to Care and Not to Care

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We were created to be open. To be open to God, to open out towards our neighbors. We can only be whole and healthy in so far as we do this. When we are in need, when firsthand experience documents our inability to be whole beings on our own, the first thing that can happen is that we will become more authentically human. Need rips gashes in our self containment and opens us to the neighbor. Need blows holes in our roofed in self sufficiency and opens us to God. But not necessarily. For the self willed self does not give up easily. It makes a persistent and determined stand to use those need generated openings not to move out, but to pull whoever is trying to help it, into its service, put the neighbors to its use. If unwary, the person providing care is co-opted into feeding selfishness, which to say, sin. There is great irony here- that so much of our caring nurtures sin.

Eugene H. Peterson, Subversive Spirituality, Teach Us to Care, and Not to Care

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Lectio Divina With the first reading, listen with your heart's ear for a phrase or word that stands out for you. During the second reading, reflect on what touches you, perhaps speaking that response aloud or writing in a journal. Third, respond with a prayer or expression of what you have experienced and what it calls you to. Fourth, rest in silence after the reading.

Richard Rohr email devotionals

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When you get your "Who am I?" question right, all the "What should I do?" questions tend to take care of themselves.

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My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

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I used to hear in early sobriety that if you had an idea after 10:00 pm, it was probably a bad idea. I think the same is true about any ideas you may have in the next few days. Everyone is very crazy. Some of us are better at covering this up than others. Some people will say how cheerful they feel and how much they love the holidays; but these are very angry people. Try not to be alone with them for any length of time. Three people I love have called this weekend with these intensely expressed decisions that they felt had to be made as soon as possible, at least by Monday. They are without exception highly intelligent and self-aware, really on to themselves, yet without exception, their ideas would have caused damage to their careers, marriages, children, serenity, and in one case, their dog.... But yesterday this thing inside stopped me. Stopping is where all creation begins for me as an artist. So I stopped. I went back to bed. It was 6:45 a.m. I sat up, hugging my knees to my chest Then I wrote down all my Good Ideas, of how to correct or impress or punish people, and I gave them all to God. I said, "Here. Knock Yourself out."

Anne Lamott (exert from her Facebook)

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Philip Yancey on Christianity’s Negative Stereotypes

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Inner Change --------> Outward Behavior

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Naming what's been Driving your Decisions is the 1st step in Discerning how to make New ones

- Exegy

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Sabbath rest is entered into when we refuse to be bound by complexity or drowned by despair.

Sabbath -- Dan Allender

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We are far more practiced and comfortable with work than play. We are far better at handling difficulties than joy. When faced with a problem, we can jump into it or avoid it; we can use our skills or resources to manage it. But what do we do with joy? We can only receive it and allow it to shimmer, settle and then in due season, depart; leaving us alive and happy but desiring to hold on to what can't be grasped or controlled.

Sabbath -- Dan Allender