*LORD or Luny

Lord.  What does this word mean?  It can be the start of a dismaying sentence, an exclamation of despair, a proclamation of surprise.  It can be a king, an overseer, or our title.  I just read about someone who said it was his name.  He was pretty definitive, repeating it several times.  If someone walked up to me on the street and said, “I AM LORD!” I would think them quite luny.  I would consider myself rather lunyer if I felt it myself. However, I never got this feeling from the one I read about this morning.  I rather think HE IS.  This means I am right about the luny part. 

*On reading Leviticus

The big orange full moon confirmed
His title this morning even if my 
camera couldn't capture its definitive declaration. 

 

Reparation*

Reparation means to make amends for the wrong someone has done.  I often hear the word today.  Hearing it is part of this story.  We might make amends, but we can’t do away with the wrong.  That’s what’s needed.  We need to erase the wrong, to make it as if it never was, to so right the wrong that the wronged receive a cleansing so complete as to never feel wronged at all, as turning black to white or dark to light.  A better word might be atonement which even its very sound (hearing) seems to open doors to vistas of glory…as turning crimson stains as white as snow.

*On reading Leviticus  

Betty standing in the Rio Grand, who, herself,
has received Atonement. 

 

Sunday Morning Coming Gray

Gray is the color of hinting, of just maybe, of what if?  It is wrapping paper over glory, the veil, the cleft, the open sesame.  This morning, my river and sky are gray, divided only by the mountains beyond and this short thought.    

Getting Old

Getting old is giving myself enough time to feel good enough to get up and get going.  This process will continue until there is not enough time to get to feeling good enough to get up and get going.  Then I’ll go to heaven.  

 

You Better Settle Out of Court

Laws.  It is the organizing and administering of every human to be a good human being.  A human is a being, a constant act of loving kindness, honor, responsibility, justice, and fairness.  It is an agreement we make with every other human.  It begins in marriage, spreads through family, and is foundational to culture, communities, and countries.  However, and it is the greatest however, ever, there must be a foundation of law resting outside of every human being.  Law cannot be founded in me.  How do I know this?  Because I know myself and my pertinacity toward lawlessness.  I don’t mean murder or mayhem but just an overwhelming desire for selfness over otherness, to be lord of all.  We are all destined to make this decision, but most of us will put it off until it is too late.  Who will be the lord of law?  Me, are Someone perfectly and ultimately loving, kind, honorable, responsible, just, and fair?  It reminds me of Paul Harvey’s old saying, “You better settle out of court!”

The Oasis of Roiling Water

I feel like I have a great secret of God and Christ, of living and art, of meaning and purpose, of wisdom and understanding, and I have no way and no one to share it with.  It reminds me of those who once said, “Did our hearts not burn within us,” and “Then in my heart, it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones.”  It is like water, so alive, it's roiling to burst forth from me.  Such is the personal relationship with The Ancient of Days, The Almighty, The Daystar, The Rose of Sharon, and The Lily of the Valley.

My piece, The Oasis, made
about this.

Your Cheatin' Heart

*Do I have a hard heart?  It is a state of uncaring concern for anything but my own way, my own absolute freedom; to live out one action, to increase my pleasure and decrease my pain.  It reminds me of a Bible verse that has deeply moved me to another action for many years.  Christ has been asked by his disciples what would be the signs for the end of time and Christ begins to tell them.  In the middle of His answer Jesus declares, “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.”  Back in the early nineties, we got cable TV and cable news.  I began to watch the news and soon realized I was mad all the time and really disliked many people on the news.  I knew I was losing something I had been given, something more valuable than I had ever acknowledged; I was actually losing love, and my heart was becoming hard.  I stopped watching the news and haven’t watched it since.  It is a sobering reality to realize I can actually lose love.  This reminds me of another truth I heard from Dr. Phil Jett when he spoke on the end times.  He said, “I don’t know if these are the end times but they are certainly my end times.”  This reminds me of one last saying by the smartest person to ever live, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

*Thoughts of reading Moses meets Pharaoh.