A Barrier

Between the plan and the fulfillment lies always the hazard. Heartbeat flutters, knife flashes, horses stumble, cancer grows, more subtle foes invade...

     Then they sit around the fire at the cave mouth and say "what shall we do now that he is no longer here to lead us?" or while the great bell tolls, they gather in the courtyard and say "it should not have happened so. Who will now give us counsel?" or they meet at the street corner and sadly say "why did it have to be this way, there is no other to take his place."

     Through all history it runs the same. "If the young king had not fallen...if the prince had lived...if the general had not so recklessly exposed himself...if the president had not overworked himself..."

     Between the plan and the fulfillment stands always the barrier of a human life.

QUIET

            So many modern Christians seem to have lost the ability to rest, or to be calm, in this rat race of a world. I’m not talking about losing the ability to sleep or nap, although this is true also. I’m talking about peace as in peace of mind or peace of soul. A spiritual peace and a spiritual calm. Too many are coming into and maturing in the Christian faith developing this need (almost an addiction) to go all out all the time and get every perceived wrong righted, every problem solved, every relationship corrected. They want to make everything right in the world right away, even if it’s going to kill them. “My life in general is GO, GO, GO, all the time so shouldn’t my Christian life operate the same way.” It can be and sometimes it should be, but not necessarily all the time, not to the point that a burnout is likely to occur. Just as in secular life the Christian life needs some down time. Not a complete shutdown, just some slow time, personal time, some time to think, time to recharge, time to be a little selfish and say to yourself “Hey, what about me.”

            If a modern Christian can learn to be quiet, I mean really be quiet, inside and out, this Christian will be able to learn and experience the “peace” that I’m talking about. And this is one of the hardest things in life to accomplish in the modern world, just being quiet.

“The quiet man said little, but listened long.”

            I wrote this almost thirty years ago and I’m still trying to do it, sometimes I do, but most often I don’t quite make it, but I keep trying to “listen long” but too often the world just won’t allow it to happen. The times that I do manage to be quiet enough to be able to “listen long” I am able to hear some amazing things, about myself, about my spirit, about my life. It’s during these times that I most often hear God in one form or another. Another written word from my past is this.

“God doesn’t shout, He whispers, and in the whisper is the way.”

            If God is whispering where there is no quiet, the whispers will go unheard and unrealized in this world and in this life. Being quiet allows the mind and soul to listen, listening to one’s self reconnecting with the body and with the mind. Listening to what’s inside separates us from the outside and enables us to listen, even beyond ourselves. If we are not listening to the exterior world it means that we are able to hear what is being whispered to us in our own selves. A teacher I have known made this statement

“God sounds like spontaneous thoughts that light upon my mind”

            In silence and peace this is a truth for me. My spontaneous thoughts are always quiet, sometimes too quiet and the slip right past me only to be thought of latter (usually after the fact). In being quiet, and in learning what peace is or should be, a modern Christian will (not should or maybe) be able to make that connection with God, be able to hear what is being spoken. God is usually quiet, but He’s is never silent. He speaks to us all everywhere all the time. I have found that for me He’s never loud. He may speak up occasionally for emphasis or maybe give a nudge to let you know what He is telling you is important. In real life a lesson taught in an obnoxious, loud, screaming way is sooner forgotten than a lesson taught in calm and quiet. Loud and flashy will usually overload the listener and the listener will shut out all or part of the message being given. With quiet the listener must concentrate on the lesson.

            How this peace, this quiet, this calm, is achieved is different for each person. But it is absolutely needed for the survival of each individual Christian. For some it really does involve quiet, they might require a separate location well away from any and all outside distractions. A room or building set aside, utilized as an actual physical retreat. For others it may be as simple as turning the TV or radio off and having a comfortable seat or maybe a couch to lie on. And then there are those fortunate few that have the ability to just shut out the world whenever and wherever they want to, they just say to themselves “Ok its time, let’s do it” and it’s done. Some need to read the Word to achieve their peace while others chose to have quiet (usually) music playing in the background. You do what you have to do to achieve what is needed to be done. How you do it is irrelevant, the fact that you do it is what’s important. I don’t think that a modern Christian is really much of a Christian if God is not listened for by any means necessary.

            I will end with this, you need to listen, you need to listen quietly to hear all that God speaks, and you need to listen quietly and peacefully to understand what has been given to you by HIM.  

IF I LISTEN QUIETLY

If I listen quietly,

If I listen carefully.

I can hear God laughing.

If you listen quietly,

If you listen carefully.

You might hear God crying.

He has much to laugh at,

So many to laugh with,

and so much to laugh about.

He has much to cry at,

So many to cry with,

and so much to cry about.

I can hear God’s laugh.

In the noise of a thunderstorm,

as the earth drinks in the rain.

You can feel God weep.

In the water falling,

as a killing fire is put out.

I can hear God giggle.

As the birds greet the morning.

On wing or at rest.

You can feel God sob.

As the last of a species

Succumbs to the poisons in the air.

I hear God snicker.

At the antics of children,

Squealing with the joys of life.

You can feel God groan.

When the children of strife,

Can only know relief through death.

I can hear God’s chuckle.

In the waters of a stream,

And rolling onto shore.

You can feel God mourn.

Over the contaminated waters

That can kill any that partake.

I can hear God’s laughter.

When a new mother

First meets her child.

You can feel Gods lament.

When a new child

Will never know a mothers love

I can hear God’s snort.

When the new father

Is handed his first born.

You can hear God roar.

When a father chooses

To abandon the lives of his children.

I can hear God chortle.

As two people discover

Their love for each other.

You can hear God wail.

As two strangers meet

And instantly try to harm each other.

I can hear God’s glee.

At the dreams of the young,

as they fly through the night.

You can moan with God.

At the nightmares of the young,

reliving the horrors they’ve been through.

I can hear God smile.

In the smile of those I love,

and those that love me.

You can hear God sniffle.

As he watches people,

torment their loved ones around them.

If you listen carefully.

If you listen quietly.

You can hear God laughing,

When you laugh at yourself.

If I listen carefully.

If I listen quietly.

I can hear God cry

When I cry over my world and my life.

If we listen carefully.

If we listen quietly.

We might hear God laughing and crying.

Because He knows us for what we really are,

His children.

                                                                     Dean F. Ellis 2010

The Reality of the Vessel is the Void Within

            To begin with I think that I should clarify what the ‘vessel’ referred to here is. Not necessarily a boat or ship (but they do qualify), but a container of some description that is designed and meant to hold something within itself for storage or display or even moving something somewhere else. Most commonly the vessels we usually think about are objects that are designed to contain some form of liquid, whether it is water or wine or oil or dry pasta, for example, a vase for flowers, a bottle for wine, or a jar or can for oil and a box for the pasta. But here for this description we must include things like bags or boxes, pots and barrels, crates or tanks, simply put, the vessel is anything that is capable of carrying something else within its structure having also the capability of moving said contents if required. It’s surprising to think of an automobile as a vessel, but it is, or how about your own hand, although it may not have been originally intended as such it certainly is capable of operating as one.

            That should take care of the vessel for now, so it’s time to move on to the ‘void’. Here, I’m not talking about a void as in the great emptiness of space, or that void that I sometimes seem to develop in my head where the brain usually resides. What I’m talking is simply the space within something (the vessel), no negative connotations of anything intended, simply what the empty space is that is found within something else. For example, the inside of your cup before you pour your coffee in it, or even the inside of that balloon before you blow it up for decorating that surprise party that’s about to happen, or on a grander scale, that hole in the ground before you fill it with water and start calling it a pool.

            Now any vessel should be able to contain whatever is put in it, within reason. I mean you wouldn’t put a liquid in a burlap bag and expect to get anywhere with it or load up a fine china teacup with a hundred pounds of rocks and expect it to survive. At least I hope you wouldn’t. And not all vessels are intended to move from place to place. Sometimes a vessel is intended to be used for storage of something before it is put in something else to be transported somewhere else. I’m thinking of those big fuel tanks here and there, not intended to move but to store the fuel until such time that it is put into another vessel (a truck or rail car perhaps) for transport.

            So what, you say, what are you going on about, empty pots with stuff in them, who cares. I care, and I’m not quite done with the vessel and void yet. Now I want you to think about what makes a vessel a good vessel, it’s not always good because of how much it holds, nor is it necessarily good because how easily it may be moved. What about how easily the void can be filled or how easily it can be emptied, or maybe how safely it can be moved, or filled, or emptied. Everything counts in whether it’s good or not, so what about those vessels that aren’t so good. What good would a container be if the opening through which the contents needed to pass was too small to allow the contents a flow in or out? It wouldn’t matter how big and spacious the interior was if the opening couldn’t accommodate the contents that needed to be in there, or needed to come out. And what would a vessel it be if it was nice and big by its outside dimension, with a spacious opening that would allow just about anything free movement but the inside void is so small that it couldn’t hold anywhere near what it should. That would definitely be non-productive to say the least. Or even the ideal looking vessel with a good size inside and out, easy and adequate filling and emptying, but maybe it’s actually too fragile so it can’t actually be moved without breaking and spilling its contents all over the place. The variables for good or not so good are endless.

            Now what would make the best kind of vessel, I think it should be something strong, and resilient, and reasonably flexible. The void within would, by association, be basically the same. Strong to withstand the rigors of transport. Resilient to deal with the variables that would be encountered along the way. And flexible to accommodate a wide variety of void stuffing. It almost sounds like I’m describing a mega bag or super balloon.

            But what I’m really talking about is you and me, all of us that happen to be kicking about on this planet. What I’m saying is that we are the vessels that I’m talking about here. We are vessels that have been designed and created to be utilized by the creator. The void within us is not just the open spaces waiting to be filled up (our mouth and stomach and any number or open spaces found within the body) but also our minds and hearts, our spiritual selves. As Christians we are the vessels of God the Creator and as such we should be willing to open ourselves up (take our lids off) to allow God to fill us with what He wants. But, because of our humanity, we don’t always make such good vessels, in the beginning we can’t just be picked up, filled up and away we go. We aren’t always ready-to-go. We usually need some work before we become the vessels that can be used the way He wants. We have to learn, through watching others, and our own experiences to know what must be done. To be able accommodate everything that God wants to load in us. Some have opened up themselves, but only a little, because they don’t know what’s really going to happen, they’re nervous of the unknown even scared because they just don’t know. Some open themselves up in such a way that they are like a jar with a huge opening but no place to put anything once you get past the neck. These people are the ones that are always begging for more but unfortunately the more they get, the more runs down the outside to spill on the ground around them because not much is getting through. I think that these are ones that are afraid that they might lose control, whether over themselves or their surroundings, again we have issues with fear and trust. And then there are ones that can take it all in, easily and fully, but are so fragile that if there is a wrong word or gesture they’ll break like a soap bubble on the grass losing everything.  

            They all will learn eventually, given time and experience, both personal and social. Trust is something that some people find difficult and it takes time but eventually the opening will widen or deepen to allow more and more to enter until the fill line is eventually reached. By then the issue is no longer trust but how much can be put in, this is where the strength, resilience and flexibility comes into the picture, after all the human race has all of those traits in spades. These full vessels that are now full still want more but not everyone can fit more in, the space available is limited until something gives, a stretching occurs that might allow a little more in but then what. What happens now? Everyone that wants to be or needs to be is full to the brim with Gods Spirit, bursting at the seams you might say. This would be wonderful, if everyone was bursting this way, what a world we would be living in. Now just about everyone knows a good thing when they experience it, and because of human nature, most will want to share what they have with someone else, perhaps family or maybe some close friends. So this is where us, as the vessel, comes in as a method of transporting its contents to somewhere else. They share what they have. I will call it Sharing the Spirit, which is exactly what God has intended right from the beginning. He has always wanted this, a major sharing of the knowledge of Him and all that He is. Gods Spirit filling one vessel, that vessel in turn sharing what it contains into another, and again into another. Each one in turn learns what it could be like to be filled with God the Spirit and wants to be filled in the same manner, and so it goes. And as an individual shares the knowledge, pours it out elsewhere, then God can put more in to replace the volume spread out. I think that every time that there is an outflow there will be another inflow from God; the vessel will stretch a little bit more each time it happens. And as a result of this stretch more goes in and more will come out when it needs to.

If we are conscious of our being the vessels of God we may act accordingly and fill ourselves up with the Spirit of God go about doing what we were designed for, Sharing the Spirit over and over again, whenever we go, wherever we go to anyone and everyone around the world.                 

SCENT FREE (Just a friendly nudge)

           

            Today before church we spoke briefly about the church becoming a scent-free environment which I think is a good thing for now. I see too many people with problems stemming from someone else’s favorite after shave or perfume or even body wash. Now the strange thing is that ever since that conversation finished about being scent-free here, I have been smelling things totally unrelated to the people around me or my immediate surroundings. I have experienced the odours of cinnamon, nutmeg, barbeque, fresh cut grass, aromatic wood, new baby smell, summer sausage, flowers (a number of different ones), green vegetables (sweet peppers, celery, cucumber to name a few), citrus flavours, fresh bread and so many more. It seems like every time I move or the air moves around me I smell something different, and everything that I smell is good. The scents just follow each other wave after wave, each scent better the preceding one.

            What I think is happening to me (no one else seems to be experiencing this) is simply the scents of the spiritual realm coming through into this world and I’m the one to take notice. Perhaps each individual scent is representing a different aspect of the Holy Spirit. I don’t know. He’s making His presence known to me without being too obvious for some reason. Maybe He’s just letting me know that he’s still around, being part of my life through the thick and thin of it (and sometimes it seems like it’s really pretty thin sometimes), just saying “Hey I’m still here, I haven’t gone anywhere, don’t worry about it too much”. Although I may not ‘see’ Him or ‘hear’ Him or ‘touch’ Him, maybe there is no actual physical connection but there are still ways that connections are made, I think that these scents all morning are a good example of this.   

            Although we speak of being “scent-free”, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we can be completely scent free. They are always there, and always will be, just in varying degrees of aggravation and notice. I think that these spiritual scents are always there as well, in varying degrees of notice as well. The stronger and more noticeable they are the more significant they are in recognizing that He is still hanging around even when we don’t notice.

                                  Just a friendly nudge from the ‘other side’.