Writings From the Grass-root::Thoughts on God, Life, and Culture

I have been working with the Clean Air Coalition in the Imperial Valley for close to a year now. Our main goal is to draw attention to the air quality in the Imperial Valley and ways in which we can become a part of creating everyday solutions to make the air cleaner. As a member of the faith community I have found the words of Jesus when he says, “Love your neighbor as yourself” as motivation enough to try and make our planet a more enjoyable place to live in. Our current project is tree planting in the City of Heber. This is where all of you come into the story. You can’t not help make the air cleaning in our city. If you live in the Imperial Valley then this means cleaner air for you. If you don’t live in the Valley, then you can enter into solidarity with us by donating a tree or a few dollars. One people, one planet, one purpose.

Life on Monday’s isn’t always ideal. Monday for many is the worst day of the week because it comes after two days away from work (for most) and Monday begins this endless cycle of work and responsibilities. To quote a line from the Carpenter’s (They are before my time but I still like their music) “Rainy Days and Monday’s always get me down”. In hopes to try and remedy this blue feeling one of the things that I want to begin on this blog in 2008 is a post for every Monday that gives us hope, nourishment and encouragement for the week ahead and life in general. This week I want to post from a book I picked up last week, this book is not the usual kind that sits on my shelves but I was intrigued so I bought it. Joel Osteen’s “Become a Better You”. As I have read through it I have found myself quite surprised at how easy it is for me to pick up this book and enjoy reading it. The following I found to be profound and now I share it with you.

“Here’s the key: The dream in your heart may be bigger than the environment in whichyou find yourself(limited environment). Sometimes you have to get out of that environment in order to see that dream fulfilled. Consider an oak tree. If you plant it in a pot, its growth will be limited. Once its roots fill that pot, it can grow no further. The problem is not with the tree; it is with the environment. It is stifling growth. Perhaps you have bigger things in your heart than your present environment can facilitate. That’s why, at times, God will stir you out of a comfortable a situation. When you go through persecution and rejection, it’s not always because somebody has it in for you. Sometimes, that’s God’s way of directing you into His perfect will. He’s trying to get you to stretch to the next level. He knows you’re not going to go without a push, so He’ll make it uncomfortable for you to stay where you are currently. The mistake we make at times is getting negative and sour; we focus on what didn’t work out. When we do that, we inhibit the opening of new doors.(Page 16)”

For Advent this year our Advent Series was entitled “Hope Rising”, because we believe that in the darkest of times whether it be historical, spiritual, emotional, or mental - Hope Rises with the belief that with the Advent of Jesus he brought hope with Him. Hope of a new way to live that leads to the best possible life. This is the final sermon of our series that wraps up the series and introduces our new series for 2008. Click on the link to listen it might take a few seconds please be patient We’ve Only Just Begun

The phrase “the dark night of the soul” is a powerful phrase, those words reach down ot the deepest sense of our being, the soul. When I attended the seminar titled “The Dark Night of the Soul” presented by Mark Yaconelli I was not sure what this dark night was really about.

According to Mark the dark night is not, misfortune, suffering, it is not restricted to holy people, being over taken by evil or even temptation. Is seems that according to these things, the things that lead us to this dark night of the soul are not things that come at the hand of our own decisions. Instead its almost as though it is just one of those things happen in the life of person. As we journey, it is almost as though in this process an inevitable stop is this dark night. That can at times last as long as a fortnight. But I think we could all agree that even if it lasts one night on one hundred nights, it is still one night to many (night is of course a metaphor).

Mark made a strong point about what happens during this period, of what I would call “spirathy” (my word, combining spirituality and apathy). He said that during this darkness nothing sounds good. Whether it is things that are to fufil any desires of the flesh or spirit. It is a numbing experience. As he discussed all of this, I recollected in my mind of times when I had felt this way.

As a sort of remedy, or perhaps antidote he led us in contemplative prayer. Where in the silence we would focus on one word, just one word. For me the word was Shalom, and all we did was focus on that one word. If our minds began to wander, shalom was my centering word. And we just did this for several minutes, but I found it to be a powerful prayer. You should try it.