3 Days

If I'd only read days 19, 20 and 21 of PDL, I would have got enough value to set the book aside and never pick it up again. Not my intention but you get what I mean. Cultivating Community, Restoring Broken Fellowship, Protecting Your Church .... It's so odd to me to think that when people find their way to a Church or learning Centre like CPL that there is a suspicion that all we'll find there are highly evolved and enlightened beings with whom we will commune and grow and enjoy harmonious fellowship with nothing ever appearing to disturb our peaceful ... communion. I expected to find that in the Abbey, that's for sure! ... and imagine my shock when I found out that the men there were all like me ... fallible human beings who are there precisely because we needed to be there. My learning started with a young monk who pissed me off because he was such a "know it all"; an older one who I caught sneaking a smoke in his office one day; a novice master who who was totally insensitive to my needs (so I thought) and an abbot who disappointed me because he didn't live up to my expectations.

There should be a sign over the door of all Churches (and monasteries), according to Rick Warren that says "No perfect people need apply. This is a place for people who they need grace and want to grow." I translate "grace" as the gift of other people to grow with!

I am surrounded by a leadership team ... those who are closest to me in the Centre, who challenge me to grow at every turn. If I were to begin to attach myself to the perfect team of people to love and love me according to my expectations rather than the team I have, I would become the destroyer of the latter ... Well Deitrich Bonhoeffer said it best

"If we do not give thanks daily for the community in which we have been placed, even when there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith and difficulty; if on the contrary, we keep complaining that everything is paltry and petty ... supply your own pet peeve here ................................................ then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow"

Rick Warren ...."Everyone needs and wants to be loved, and when people find a Church where the members genuinely love and care for one another, you would have to lock the doors to keep them away."

A great building my attract new people and a great teacher may get their attention ... but only love will make them stay ... and that's the TRUTH. I'm off to find out about Undefended Love this weekend. So ... think of me, pray for me and most of all ... "love one another, as I have loved you" (OK Maybe better than that) See ... I scanned forward to the 3rd Purpose of life .... to become like the Christ! I thought becoming a saint was tough!

Experiencing Life Together

I have to admit, when I think of "experiencing life together" community is not my first thought ... I have to tell you family is not even my first thought. I guess that tells you a lot about my family. I've never created family; never wanted to create family and don't really want to now either. Me and one other person is about as big as I have been willing to go.

Is that changing for me? Something, OK I'll be honest with you ... everything ... is telling me that that is changing for me. I guess we experience life together in community the same way as we experienced it in our first community, our family, and if what family therapists say is true we tend to duplicate the only model we know in all of our subsequent communities until something comes along to show us there is a different way to do it. Rick Warren begins his discussion about Community by talking about the experience and then how to achieve it. Smart man, Rick! I tried to find myself in the picture he presented, kind of like those apparently identical pictures you see with a caption underneath "What doesn't belong?"

On the left the picture of the community in the PDL; a place where people are authentic; giving and receiving in mutuality (Rick's word); sympathetic (caring?); forgiving...OK ... hmmm? where am I in this picture. Picture on the right, my family ... there I am! hmmmm? what happened to all of the authenticity, mutuality sympathy and forgiveness? So Rev. New Thought Guy ... what was it you said yesterday? The only thing between us and IT ... is us?

Either life in community and Church for that matter is transformational or it's nothing. I didn't get into this spirituality thing to remain the same and I'm pretty sure nobody else who's serious about it did either. So if I'm not in the picture the only difference between me and it is ... well ... me.

Today ... I celebrate my power to change. I affirm that by my setting this intention the spiritual power within me is working to transform my life conditions. Thank you, God, for the grace of this moment.

What on Earth Am I Here for?

If PDL hasn't exactly answered that question for me ... Certainly days 16 & 17 have brought me closer. Does that mean I have finally read something that I can agree with whole-heartedly? WOW! I hope not.
What does it really mean when we hear people say ..."I can really relate to that." Does it mean that we have simply heard something that confirms what we already believe and so there is a greater degree of comfort (read, I'm somewhere on the continuum between arrogance, smugness and relief) or does it mean that the familiar chord struck somewhere deep within is a resonance with a Universal Truth that says "go deeper, there's more here to be known."

For those of you not following along in the book with me. Day 16 is about Love in relationship meaning "love should be your top priority, primary objective and greatest ambition," ...Warren

Relationships are what life is all about. This is a lesson that I learned with difficulty and am still being reminded of with great regularly. I was in a relationship with a former partner for 13 years and to the detriment of our relationship and to my own personal growth clearly made my relationship 2nd and often 3rd or 4th priority in my life. I'll never forget the day when a minister colleague, one of the great teachers of our movement admitted to me sadly that he had for many years given his ministry higher priority than his relationship ... And how he admonished me to never make the same mistake. I made a commitment that if I got a chance to love again I would spell love ... T.I.M.E! Lest you think I'm concentrating on marital or romantic relationships I'm not and at the same time I recognize just how much work I still have to do in this arena as well. That brings me to Day 17 ... A Place to Belong ... The Church or Centre as a relationship laboratory ... really the thrust of all of my work around community and the growth of the Centre

Though there are many things in the PDL with respect to the theology that give me "the willies", when Pastor Rick says you are called to belong, not just believe ... I say "right on". I've spent a good portion of my life struggling to belong my not belonging. What I mean by that is that ... I've found I've been in and out of communities because I was looking to be with ideal people not ...Real people. Have you ever noticed that your life is short on ideal people but filled with real people just like you . People who are annoying, intrusive, short-sighted, insensitive, overbearing, apparently callous, unfeeling and constantly F***king you up. Why is that?

Have you noticed that the same can be said of your Church/Centre? We discover our role in life through our relationships with others. Our path, my path, to spiritual maturity is marked by the times I rubbed up against the ideas and beliefs of the Rick Warren's of my life ... Not to mention the behaviours of ...Well never mind ... You know what I mean.

Relationships ...Ah ... a purpose to live for; people to live with; principles to live by; a profession of faith to live out; a power to live on... a definition of my spiritual community.

A Heaven Postponed!

When I sit down with Rick Warren every morning out comes the PDL and the Bible (or two) and so begins a reading and referencing and then a cross-referencing ... Let's face it, if the theology of the PDL is based uniquely on the Word for it's inspiration as well as AUTHENTICITY, then I better do some research.
I like the idea of being part of God's family ... As an idea it is attractive, just the same, I continually bump up against my uneasiness with the Christian or maybe I should say biblical message ... Never quite sure why.

Today I got a bit closer. It's too small. Sure heaven is BIG but a heaven postponed? Sure being part of God's family is fine, getting that inheritance is a sweet idea but ... Why do I have to wait? I'm here ... Now. If now has no value except for later ... Well ... Then why is there a now? Now I know you cant just have a later but ... Well I guess you see where I'm going with this. Time to shift my tack

Carolyn Myss ... in Spiritual Madness ... The final stage of the madness and where you really want to hang out is in Gratitude. So many of us adopt this idea of making the best of our lives. I didn't get the job I wanted or the great love of my life, or my children didn't turn out the way I wanted or ... And so I'll just make the best of it until heaven comes my way, and I become the inheritor of the Divine Promise. Now I may be too much a product of the human development movement of the 80's and 90's but there is a lot to be said for living in gratitude rather than resignation. All of the quotes from Paul's Epistles point as much to enjoying my inheritance now as they do to the "heaven postponed". The prodigal "came to himself"in this life and returned to his father to receive the largesse from his hand in this life; had a party and a fatted calf in this life; wore the rings on his finger and bells on his toes in this life (OK, the bells on the toes was my idea)

Myss says, "The word miracle is for those who don't know how God works in the here and now."
To me the same goes for the word heaven. I like my life open ended. Recognizing that God is always at work in my life now is the way of seeing the everyday miracle. Living in gratitude for that miracle ... is how I step into my present good rather than postponing it. AS for my family ... Well ... I'm gonna phone my brother now ... And tell him I love him. I tell you ....

He'll think that's a miracle!!!

Day 14

"God does not ask anything else from you except that you let yourself go and let God be God in you." -Meister Eckhart

Went back to PDL and it was still open facedown where I left it at 7AM ... still the same. "You wake up one morning and all of your spiritual feelings are gone. You pray, but nothing happens, You go through your spiritual exercises ... you have your friends pray for you ... you go around asking forgiveness of everyone you know ... you confess every misstep you can imagine. You fast ... still nothing. You are deep in the Dark Night of the Soul, my son, my son! the ministry of absence, ministry of the night, winter of the heart and you ask how long will this last. Days, weeks months ... will it ever end?

OK so it's not that bad! But I need to confess this is my second attempt at this blog and it now 4:41PM I Imagine that every person called to live "on purpose" at some point asks what would my life be like had I not decided to embark on this course of action. What would my family be like, my career, my Church, my ... bank account, my waistline ... if we want to get down to the TRULY mundane. I sometimes tell myself I could have resisted living out what I know. I could have resisted living on purpose and then ... someone, usually another seeker says! Bullshit! Rev. So ... you know what you know, you believe what you believe and you listen to the small voice that says "THIS WAY to your most cherished dreams for your life.

Trusting God and feeling despair at the same time the patriarch David said in the Psalms, "I believed and so I said, I am completely ruined."(NCV) I think the Lamsa version speaks more to my state of mind right now ..."I believed therefore have I spoken; I have been humbled exceedingly.

And still Edman's words keeps coming back to me "never doubt in the dark what God told you in the light".

OK

Open and Klaus

Taday's thoughts from PDL (Purpose Driven Life) are on worship. Worship from the idea of worthiness, worth and value. Warren ... Worship should be accurate, authentic, thoughtful and practical. What about relevant? I'm not sure you would call what we do on Sunday strictly worship but thanks to you Klaus, I get a sense it is at least relevant.

Expanding worship to the idea of "spirtual practice or discipline" to me, at least allows for a broader experience and allows my life to be "worship"; allows anyone to worship and allows anything to be worship. I'm not sure CPL and Sunday@CPL will ever be all things to all people but I know it can be more things to more people.

Naturalists, sensates, traditionalists, ascetics, caregivers, enthusiasts, contemplatives, intellectuals ...seekers ... come one! come all. I'd rather our "worship" resemble a banquet than communion.

Klaus, your willingness to stand up in print as well as in fact speaks to relevance in a way that inpires me to kep on keeping on. There is nothing like calling "God"a stalker to get peoples attention. I can't claim it as an original thought. I remember being thoroughly moved by Francis Thompson's, The Hound of Heaven

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat -- and a voice beat
More instant than the Feet --
"All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."

Worship?????? HMMMM!

Dharma????

In the Rule for Monks by St. Benedict writes that the first step on the ladder of humility is ... "To cherish at all times the sense of awe with which we should turn to God ..." I remember as a young monk my deep resistance to this rule as I joyfully and easily digested all of the others on how one should treat the tools of the monastery and observe silence and recite the Psalms and so on. I guess that one can only appreciate humility at the point in life I'm now arrived at ...

My first thoughts on waking up this morning were ... So what about this "God friendship stuff"? I've got to get a handle on this. The answer came like a flash of remembrance ... Do you remember the story about the blind men and the elephant. I realize that every time I had heard, read or shared that story I had always placed myself in the position of the observer, watching the blind men groping around trying to understand what an elephant is. I had never approached the entire question from the possibility that I might be closer to the beast than I imagined. What would my world and my attitude to elephants and blind men be like if I were one of them.

I saw in a flash that I've always imagined I had the whole picture ... I think most of us do. I don't want to be too hard on Pastor Warren but maybe he thinks he has the whole picture too. He knows what an elephant or God looks like. What if both of us only know a part of the picture. I think it's safe to say both of us ONLY have a part of the picture. WE know or see the part that corresponds to our need. Anais Nin said "We don't see the world as it is. We see the world as we are." I guess that goes for God too. I don't see God as It is. I see God as I am. Didn't Paul write to the Corinthians. "Today I know in part, but a day will come when I will know even as I am known." Today I approach God with the limitations of my perceptions of "MY story" but one day I'll see and know the the expanded view that God Itself has of Its creation.

Back to humility. How many other people, situations, plans, interations am I seeing from my own limited (and legitimate) perspective. I think it is safe to say ALL of them. Hence AWE!!!

from the Rule for Monks ... "The Word of God teaches us us in clear and resounding terms that anyone who lays claim to a high position will be brought low and anyone who is modest is self-appraisal will be lifted up ..." Humility in the monastery now seems like a something I could have studied in depth and put into practice ... in the monastery. Out here, it feels like a pretty high stakes game. I need to think about this more.

The truth is ... And THIS is the really humbling thought. You're as close to the elephant as you choose to be. You know about as much about God as you are willing to know or discover.

Thanks Rick for today's' parting shot, I mean thought .... "What practical choices will I make today in order to grow closer to God?"

What a friend .....

I sometimes have go off after my morning practice and after reading the Purpose Driven Life just to digest ... OK sometimes to pull myself back together. I don't want this blog to become about making anyone or any belief ...wrong, so ... I ponder, wonder and just plain stew about some of this stuff. I think Einstein said, "We live in a friendly Universe,"and I tend to believe him based on MY experience ... So I figure God already is my friend. I've had friends before. I know that friendship requires some cultivation but when in the end my friendship rests on the secure foundation of my understanding that there is somebody who knows me, cares about me and always wants the best for me and so ... Days, months, years go by (I'm thinking of you right now, Yvon) and the constant ... My friend is there. Through 30 years my best friend and I have taught each other that no matter what you can count on me.

What I hear Rick Warren saying though is not that God wants to be my friend but that God wants me to be his friend and he is willing to drown me (the Noah story) banish me (the Eden story and burn me to a crisp (the Sodom story) and chase me across the centuries if I refuse his friendship. Sounds suspiciously like stalking to me.

I remember at 11 wanting Jerry Smith to be my friend. He was a star athlete ... So very cool and in Grade 8! And everybody wanted him to be their friend. Well ... I never got to have him as a friend but one day on the school yard he intervened when a group of older boys were bullying me and I can still to this day remember him picking me up and asking me if I was OK.

I never felt the need to worship him(OK maybe I did). I never felt the need to follow him around. I have no idea what became of him. His friendship and the memory of him has stayed with me all of my life. This morning as I write this I'm thinking of you Jerry ... I'm wishing you well ... I guess I'm praying for you. In this moment I'm in your presence. Jerry, you are just one more reminder that I DO live in a friendly Universe. I have cultivated a friendship with God my whole life and every time I've turned to look the friendly God has been there for me.

The question to ponder at the end of the chapter is .... What can I do today to remind myself that God is my friend? ... ... Remember the Jerry's and Yvon's of my life and expect to find them everywhere

Back in Familiar Territory

Surrender, the Principle is so universal and the practice so fundamental to spiritual life that no matter what the tradition or the languaging around it, it all comes out the same. There is no escaping this one. At the root of ALL spiritual growth is surrender. Whether we're talking about the numerous scriptural examples Pastor Warren uses in Day 10, or the Bodhisattva Vow or following what Ernest Holmes declares, "The soul must make a complete surrender to the Spirit." SOM 405/4 There is no escaping this Truth.

A freind of mine reminded me yesterday of the "Law of Constraints" which is a business and manufacturing principle that states that your process will move only as fast or as easily as is allowed by your greatest constraint. I call it the "Law of the Bottleneck". There is always a bottleneck. The secret is to find it, remove it and ... then look for the next one. There is always a next one. The real secret is not to "be" the bottleneck yourself. If something is not moving in my life the way I want it to, I have found I need to look at how I'm the bottle neck and surrender to the flow of Spirit. I thought I would get really educated on Church change, implement it and then stand back and watch it work in everyone and everything around me. Yesterday God reminded me that either I would lead the change by changing myself or I would become the bottleneck to God's purpose in the Centre.

"We should endeavor to stop limiting God. The gift of Heaven is forever made. The recieving of the gift is an eternal process of forever expanding the finite. Since we cannot contract the Absolute (since I cannot make God smaller) we shall have to expand the relative" ( I must surrender my small self to action of Spirit within me) SOM 405/2

"so then my friends because of God's great love for us ... surrender yourselves as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God. This is right purpose." Rom. 12:1

Day 8 & 9 ....oops!

I sat for a long time this morning thinking about the chapters on pleasing God and What makes God smile... I wondered what would my life be like if I could live with a God that literally smiled down on me from the heavens when I did things specifically to please him. I tried to imagine how I might crawl back into that small frame of the boy I once was that I could see in my mind's eye, kneeling beside the bed and saying my prayers so God would smile on me.

I got caught up in Rick Warren's recounting of how he would watch his children sleep and sometimes be overwhelmed by his love for them. I got the fact that God was smiling.

I sat in the window for a long time looking out at the rain and the low sky and the river, gray and heavy under the dark sky flowing by ... and I thought of God ...smiling.

I got an email with images of the Beslan Siege this morning and wondered ... Is God still smiling?

Would my life be better somehow if I could believe that a loving Father figure smiled down on me? Did the terrorists in Beslan believe God was smiling on them? I cannot make sense of these questions today and it saddens me. I cannot see why ... or how this smiling God is part of the lives of so many believers. I really wish I could because I dont want to make anyone wrong.

I want to understand how well-meaning and good people, men and women of Faith can arrive at such different conclusions about the nature of the presence of God in our lives and co-exist. This is a time when intellectual abstractions about dualism and anthropomorphism and worship and fundamentalism and metaphysics just dont cut it for me.

Rick I want to understand how you can believe what you believe ... and live in the 21st Century

The Glory of God on Day 7

Let's just let day 6 go by without comment shall we? I guess lived purpose is better than reading about it and studying it. If you didn't make to Service yesterday the Lesson on "Support Us" spoke directly to purpose, mine for sure, Daniel Nahmod's (I'm grateful to Daniel for songs like "We Shall Sing) and certainly the Divine Purpose hidden at the centre of CPL.

Today it's on to Glory and Chaz asking me, "why are you reading that book for the next 37 days if you hate it?" I DONT hate it exactly unless you consider being challenged and puzzled and troubled by it hating it. Let's face it I haven't thrown it across the room yet. Today is a good day!
I'm used to doing little translation tricks ... substituting It for He and Him and so I feel more at home with quotes like "For everything comes from God alone. Everything lives by Its (His) power and everything is for Its (His) glory." Rom. 11:36
So today I feel at home in Rick Warren's spiritual address. Bringing Glory to God by living on Purpose makes sense to me. If the heavens are trelling the glory of God just by being heavens then the more I am just myself the more glory I bring to God ... Warren quotes Jesus as saying "I gave glory to you Father by doing everything you told me to do, by being everything you created me to be." (OK so the last phrase was mine, if there can be an AMP, CEV, GWT, KJV,LB and NAB then there can be TSB).

The bottom line in all of this is this business of glory-giving is embedded in us. The desire to live life in love, thanksgiving and delight is natural. so is the desire love one another, become more identified with the consciousness we identify as that of the Christ, serve one another from our understanding of our essential giftedness and finally communicating just how rich our experience of living truly is.... and why! Living life for the glory of God means a change in priorities. It means that life now becomes about "spiritual maturity". Today is a good day! It may not be as Pastor Warren suggests that I whisper a prayer of belief and esire to receive Jesus as my personal saviour but it can be a day when with humility and simplicity I say,
"I beleive there is a great work that is mine to do and though I only dimly precieve what it is, I move forward today beleiving that He (That which) who has begun this great work in me, knows how to bring it to completion."
Today is a GOOD day!

Life Metaphor

Well ... I'm at day 5 and though I'm coming to interesting or maybe disturbing conclusions about all sorts of things ... I wondering about the Purpose Driven Life and ... am I missing something here? I'm getting a very clear sense that there is a dichotomy developing between "life"and "living", with Rick Warren very much much more interested in one and me in the other.

Life ... in the abstract, a test, a trust, a temporary assignment given by God so that I can struggle, strain, prove myself and finally get a reward. Living, in concreto, very much an engaging opportunity ... life as classroom ... life as laboratory ... life as (oh I feel a cliche coming on) ... journey. And yet in all of this an ever increasing uneasiness that I am judging Warren too harshly, afterall, I admire the man, am in awe of what he has accomplished, am impressed by what he lives for.
What he lives for and the outstanding success he has achieved as well as the impact that he has had on so many lives makes me ask the question. How can he and I arrive at such different conclusions about what life is really about? The teacher Jesus said in speaking of ... well ... almost anyone, "By their fruits, shall you know them" I guess that means look at a person, look at what thay have accomplished with their life ... but more importantly look at whether there is more joy in them and around them because they are where they are and who they are and then you'll know. I supposed I could ascribe Pastor Warren's outstanding "fruits" to circumstances, being in the right location, at an opportune moment, having the right support, knowing the right people, etc. All of what we would call "condition" and as such that would make it ... in a word meaningless excuses and reasons. From a place of faith, Warren would call it all Providence and I would call it Consciousness. Doesn't change the fact that Good attends us both to the degree of our faith.

You know sometimes it's just easier and to believe that God is rewarding me according to my faith than to wonder what is right with or wrong with my "consciousness"

So ...Life metaphor ... Living is definitely a test (self administered) and a trust (self-managed) ... and from an in the flesh perspective ... definitely temporary ... NO argument there Rick!

BTW, Thanks for some VERY stimulating time in the think tank

WHY?

Imagine a book called the purpose driven life; a book that tells you in the first 40 pages that living actually ahs NO purpose! Hmmmm? Imagine a book by Bertrand Russell entitled "Why I Am Not a Christian"

Imagine"

More Later!!!

Hmmmmm?

I get it. The first 2 days were the warm up. Now we're into it. Seems to me a lot of what I see in RS Churches is a lot of endless rummaging around in whats wrong with life (read my life) and how can I fix it? I mean, I've got the tools, Mind, the Law, Treatment, choice ... so I just use them and "get RS" and everything will be OK right?

So what happens?

I'm discovering that the motivation to get my life in order is pretty thin stuff if I dont have something to do with that life once it is together. So I guess Pastor Warren is right, It's time for me, maybe us and maybe all of New Thought to get itself a purpose bigger than just being OK. Most of his thoughts in day 3 are ... well pretty much the selfhelp stuff you can hear anywhere. Driven by fear, guilt, anger, resentment, greed and the need for approval ... yup I can see myself and half the people I know run by a combination of most of those things, but I'd be hard pressed to tell you the purpose at the centre of 99% of the people I know. I'll admit there are times when I'd find it tough to tell myself what my purpose is.

So Rick Warren and I are still on the same page ... knowing my purpose gives meaning to my life ... got it. Knowing my purpose simplifies my life ... It sure would. Knowing my purpose would focus me. Knowing my purpose would prepare me for eternity? Now wait a minute ...
Now we're not talking purpose, we're talking motivation. I guess I could still play in this game with motivation from within but once you start talking about eternity I'm back in the motivation from outside category and from there it's a short trip back to fear, guilt, anger, resentment and approval again.

Too bad, Rick. You had me for a while but there has got to something more than heavenly rewards and fear of ... to this purpose thing.

day 2

OK! It's day two and I'm already in trouble. I suppose someone more orthodox than me would term this a crisis of faith but I gotta tell ya, I just cant buy all of this, God knows me, God planned me, God knew exactly where I would live and who my parents would be and how long I would live ... Frankly it is this kind of thinking that Thomas Merton was talking about when he said "the primary cause of atheism is silly theism." Ideas like the ones above from Warren's book make me crazy. That doesn't mean I think I'm an accident, or that I'm the result of a random Universe. On the contrary the purposefulness of the Universe is astounding. The march of the evolutionary process is astounding in it's complexity and beauty. I'm even inclined to agree that love ... the central flame of the Universe (Dr. Ernest Holmes) is the driving force and the purpose of life on earth. It's more like the love at the centre of a plant (The Force That through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower- Dylan Thomas-type love) than the sentimental variety that Pastor Warren postulates. All those quotes from the Psalms are comforting and I guess they are something warmer to snuggle up to on a lonely night than a cold Universe ... but it that enough to make it true? True has a really big appeal for me but I'll settle for reasonable. If this shows a lack of faith on my part ... so be it

Purpose????

... decided to check out the Purpose Driven Life again. All those millions of firefighters and golfing women can't be wrong ... not to mention prisoners in the state pen. OhOh now I'm getting a bit nasty.

OK so I read day 1. My intention is to do all 40 days. Let's face it. Everything is about finding the hook that says .. OK yeah maybe there is something in this for me.

Well the final quote got me so I went to the New Testament and looked it up, 1 Col 16b. The quote comes out in Warren's language as "Everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him."
Well purpose is a thoroughly modern concept not found anywhere in the Bible as I knew it and so I needed to go back to the accurate? .... quote from Pauls letter, "All things were in his hand and created by him."

My guess is Warren is equating is equating the "creative act" with purpose ... that which was created was created with some purpose in the mind of the creator therefore all of creation has a purpose. This is a thoroughly biblical thought and not one unusual in metaphysical circles either. It is the next idea that gives me a bit of a problem. The purpose of life is revealed (watch it this is a key word here) in Revelation i.e. The Bible ... OUCH!

If the creative Mind knows the purpose of creation and that purpose is embedded in ALL creation then it seems to me that LIVING is the process of revealing that purpose and that the Bible and the Life of Winston Churchill and the way animals adapt to their environment and Shakespeare are all revealing how creation is revealing it's purpose. So with that said for the next 40 days i'm going to be using one tool, the scriptures, an interpreted beautifully and passionately by Pastor Warren (dont get me wrong, I love this guy) to assist me in revealing the Purpose hidden at the centre of my "pretty much" Divine Life.

Wish me luck

T Rodgers wants to know

Have you ever planned for a long awaited trip or vacation, one that you might have termed the trip of a lifetime? I’m reminded of my stepfather’s return to Hungary in 1996. He had not returned to his home and his family since he fled in the uprising of 1956. I remember the preparations began months before the actual departure with the search for the lowest fare and the application for a passport. My stepfather had never held a Canadian Passport. I recall the purchases of just the right clothes for an unfamiliar environment, the “just perfect” gifts for the brothers and sisters he had not seen in 40 years and the nieces and nephews he had never met.

As the date approached there were the inevitable questions about the care of the cat, the mail and newspapers that would pile up, the car and what to do with it … the ride to the airport.

When the day arrived and the plane taxied from the terminal to the runway, there was that breathless moment when the engines revved and the plane began its dash down the runway and into the sky. Suddenly after all of your preparations the adventure was to begin

As a Centre I feel we are in exactly the same place. The decision to move has been made and a date chosen. All of the principles are now in place, Pastor and Associate Minister, Support Ministers, committed and hard working Board of Trustees, Practitioners and lay leaders. There is excitement; anticipation and some apprehension as we move out meet our future. As I move into this new phase I remind myself that it is not my idea of what the journey will look like, or Rev. Dianne’s or yours for that matter. The future of the ministry of CPL and its place in the Spiritual Community is held securely in the One Mind of which are ALL expressions. I am excited because I continue to ask myself “What must I become in order for this Centre to be what God wants it to be?” I continue to be surprised and challenged by the answers I get. I ask myself, “What must I let go of in order to be the right leader for this new Centre’s emergence?” And again I am sometimes shocked and often humbled by the answers.

I’m on the runway. The jets are revving up. Take off is not only inevitable but now it is imminent. I am carried up and away on the most reliable wings there are.

Dr Holmes reminds us:

No good can come unless it makes its advent through the centre of God Consciousness that we are. The hope of destiny is latent in the slumbering thought and genius lies buried until the attention is winged with love and reason. We must awake to the realization that a Divine Partnership has already been formed between the seen and the invisible.

The Science of Mind p. 415