Let Your Life Speak Chapter 6 Summary

Let Your Life Speak
By Parker Palmer
Chapter 6 There is A Season

The book concludes with a metaphor. The reader is walked through the four seasons and shown how  the ebb and flow of the human experience is similar in many ways to the cycles occurring every day in nature. "The notion that our lives are like the eternal cycle of the seasons does not deny the struggle or the joy, the loss or the gain, the darkness or the light, but encourages us to embrace it all and to find in all of it opportunists for growth.." (pg96) Few metaphors provide so much insight into the journey that humanity is on, as the seasons. In our modern day we like to think of things in terms of manufacturing, raw materials, production schedules and investment/return. Reminding ourselves that humans grow not merely as individuals but as communities is essential. Humans can't be taken apart and reassembled like legos. Societies and cultures can't simply be unmade and built back up with the same materials. One government can't simply instill a political ideology in another group of people as the USSR learned twenty years ago and the United States is still not learning today.

"We need to challenge and reform these distortions of culture and ego - reform them toward ways of thinking and doing and being that are rooted in respect for the living ecology of life. Unlike 'raw materials" on which we make all the demands, this ecology makes demands on us even as it sustains our lives. we are here not only to transform the world but also to be transformed." (pg97)

Autumn is a season of great beauty but it also a season of decline. The peculiar emotion of autumn is that of the sunset radiance descending into darkness. The majesty of the forest robed in gold is haunted by the darkening days and the chilly nights. This paradox is necessary as all true paradoxes are. Just as the lion will lie down the lamb so does the virliance embrace the darkness for the benefit of all. It is those who fear the darkness of impending winter who miss most of falls splendor. "When we so fear the dark that we demand light around the clock, there can be only one result; artificial light that is glaring and graceless and beyond its borders is a darkness that grows even more terrifying as we try to hold it off." (pg100) The principle is true throughout human experience. Those who demand pleasure at any cost will not only have a cheap unsatisfying pleasure but will be completely incapable of handling life's necessary pains.

Winter is one such necessary pain, a system restart, a recuperation, "a reminder that times of dormancy and deep rest are essential to all living beings." (pg101) Winter sets a bar and the strong jump over and endure while the weak complain and pass away. "Our inward winters take many forms - failures, betrayal, depression, death....'The winter will drive you crazy until you learn to get out into them.' Until we enter boldly into the fear we most want to avoid, those fears will dominate our lives." Such is Winter's lesson

Spring is autumns counter. First its ugly with mud and muck and wet and moist, then it's glorious. and triumphantly jubilant. As the flowers and the trees burst forth into bloom and excitement seems to exude from nature's every facet we are reminded that sometimes life should be celebrated. "life is not always to be measured and meted as winter compels us to do but to be spent from time to time in a riot of color and growth." (pg104) So we have parties and we dance and invent things like trifles. Imagine the oak tree that won't produce acorns for fear that the squirrels will eat them or the flower that doesn't make pollen because of bees. Those plants will die and Spring would be drab. "if we want to save our lives, we cannot cling to them but must spend them with abandon." (pg105)

Summer is the life that was born from winters womb. "Here is a summer time truth: abundance is a communal act, the joint creation of an incredible complex ecology in which each part functions on behalf of the whole and in return is sustained by the whole." (pg108)  So to think of ourselves simply as an individual, or an individual in communication with God would not tell us who we are. There is so much more in this universe than God and me and it is to my determent when I cut myself off from those other aspects of creation for I was made for them and they were made for me just as God makes me for himself.

Rising To The Call and Let Your Life Speak Chapter 5 Summary.

Rising To The Call
Os Guinness
Chapter 5, Dreamers of the Day

Rising To The Call culminates with an encouragement to utilize human creativity. Os Guinness defines two types of dreamers. The one that indulges in impossible fantasies who are far too common in every era. The other is the human who takes what they know and uses that as a foundation for a better future. He separates these two types of people by describing them as dreamers of the night and dreamers of the day. "Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible." (pg84)
     Everybody has dreams and hopes for the future. Most are impractical unrealistic results of an idle intellect. However, the man or women who is willing to submit their intellect and imagination to Jesus Christ will find that their passions cease to long after castles in the sky, instead the Holy Spirit nurtures in them holy aspirations in which the Kingdom of God is expanded and God's name is glorified on earth as it is in heaven.
     Humans are proud creatures and we like to interact with God on our terms. We give to Him out of our wealth and serve Him out of our time. Instead of realizing that both time and wealth are already His and humans are stewards only. St Francis was once approached by a knight desiring to join him. St Francis responded? Long enough hast though borne the belt, the sword, and the spurs! The time has now come for you to change the belt for a rope, the sword for the Cross of Jesus Christ, the spurs for the dust and the dirt of the road. Follow me and will make you a knight in the army of Christ!"
     Answering the call of Christ does not mean coming to God with our dreams of being great and asking God to give us His power so our dreams can be fulfilled. The knight in the story wanted to be a godly knight. He wanted the stamp of divine favor simply to bless his knighthood. To answer the Call of Christ is to put aside ourselves, and our hopes for what we will be. Let Christ be the potter that shapes your life and the substance which fills and overflows to the world around us. This is what means to answer God's call and walk in the way of the cross.

Let Your Life Speak
by Parker Palmer
Chapter 5 Leading From Within

      Parker Palmer spends his fifth chapter discussing leadership. Leadership is not for some but for all Christians. To varying extents and in various fashions our relationship to God necessitates guiding other people into relationships with God, either directly via discipleship and preaching or indirectly via prayers and setting a good example. The difficulty with leadership is the focus that is placed outside of ourselves. To be a leader requires paying attention to other people and the more we pay attention to other people the harder is it to take care of ourselves.
      Palmer spends this chapter emphasizing the point that the best leader, therefore the best Christian is someone who leads from within. "if people skimp on their inner work, their outer work will suffer as well...we could spread the word that inner work though it is deeply personal matter is not necessarily a private matter: inner work can be helped along in community.
     So the chapter concludes with two powerful takeaways for today's believer. First, if we want to be successful we have to work form the inside out. Second,, we mustn't be afraid to involve other people in that process. America is a tough place to be ourselves in because so much of the cultural expectations are based on appearances. However,  if it is our intent to pursue genuine godliness we must kick this tendency of our culture and be willing to do life together for the sake of our ability to do God's will and be authentic believers in this age so fraught with half men and shadows of truth. 

Rising To The Call and Let Your Life Speak Chapter 4 Summary.

Rising To The Call
by Os Guinness
Chapter 4, Audience of One

The chapters intros with the famous story of Andrew Carnegie's grand entrance into his hometown of Dunfermline.  Carnegie marched through his life with gusto to the beat of his own drum. He's famous for quoting, "Thine own reproach alone do fear" (pg66) Guinness continues "The question is not whether we have an audience but which we have." (pg68) Most people live for the applause of their peers. Many of the worlds greatest lived for their own applause. What people don't realize is that they have the opportunity to decide which audience they are going to please. The first step in this process is realizing that an individual can't please everyone or meet all expectations thus necessitating a choice. Those who fail to make this choice end up pleasing no one, not even themselves and fall into failure.
      We know whose applause we live for by recognizing who can hurt us. Winston Churchill was once insulted by a member of parliament. His response was, "If I respected him, I would care about his opinion. But I don't, so I don't." Churchill knew he was right and didn't give two cents for the opinion for someone who was standing between him and his objective. He had chosen to base his self evaluation on something different then the opinion of a random parliamentarian.
      Throughout life individuals tend to change who they center their lives around. Parents, friends, role models, celebrities, deities, fictional characters all come and go as audiences we perform for. What is always learned too late is that only deity's are worth living for. If we are created for a purpose and if we don't know our purpose then our life must be centered around the creator of that purpose. The General Charles Gordon said, "The more one sees of life, the more one feels, in order to keep from shipwreck, the necessity of steering by the Polar Star, i.e in a word cleave to God alone, and never pay attention to the favors or smiles of man; if He smiles on you, neither the smile or frown of men can affect you." (pg76)
      Using all these historical examples Guinness is trying to illustrate first, that humans live for applause and second that the only applause worth living for is that of God Almighty. It's pretty straightforward lesson flavored by the quotes and stories of real people.


Let Your Life Speak
by Parker J. Palmer
Chapter 4 All the Way Down

Palmer intros his chapter by quoting Dantes intro to his Inferno.

"Midway on life's journey, I found myself

In dark woods, the right way lost. To Tell

About those woods is hard - so tangled and rough

And savage that thinking of it now. I feel

The old fear stirring death is hardly more bitter.

And yet to treat the good I found there as well.

I'll tell what I saw...." (pg 56)

Everything in the next sixteen pages is already here just more wordy and less eloquent. Parker Palmer had a mid life crisis in which he fell into serious depression. He was down in the dark woods and had lost his way.  The "good" that he found in those dark woods of depression was Thomas Merton's "true self" The image of God in man. "It is the self planted in us by God who made us in God's own image- the self that wants nothing more, or less, than for us to be who we were create to be. True self is true friend. One ignores or rejects such friendship only at one's peril."(pg69) It is of note that the "Life" in Palmer's title is this true self. When he writes about letting your life speak to you, he's not providing license for following any passion that might seem appealing. So his chapter ends positively with the reality that not even the Valley of the Shadow of Death is a dead end provided we have the right guide. 

Rising To The Call and Let Your Life Speak Chapter 3 Summary.

Rising To The Call
by Os Guinness
Chapter 3, Do What You Are?

     Os Guinness opens his chapter with a short story of violinist Yehudi Menuhin He uses the famed musician's story to illustrate the principle that, "God normally calls us along the lines of our giftedness, but the purpose of giftedness is stewardship and service, not selfishness."  (pg45) The idea is that God creates humanity. Then He equips individuals with certain abilities so that they can share those abilities with others. Therefore a calling is not limited to how one generates an income. Calling has to do with discerning who God created you to be and living into those perimeters. "Instead of, 'you are what you do,' calling says: 'Do what you are."' (pg. 47) Who we are has to do with what God created us to be which brings us back to the gifts God gives us. "In the biblical understanding of giftedness, gifts are never really ours or for ourselves. We have nothing that was not given us. Our gifts are ultimately God's and we are only "stewards." (pg48)  Vocation then, can never be properly understand unless it's thought about in terms of those around us. Essentially, to understand vocation, one must ask, how does my calling equip me to love my neighbor?
     The chapter concludes with four distinctions that ought to be kept in mind when considering vocation. First, a distinction exists between individual calling (examples: teaching, moving to ohio, play guitar ect.) and corporate calling (examples: make disciples, love my neighbor, confess my sins ect..)  What I do as an individual ought to compliment what I do as a member of the human species and the Church of Jesus Christ. The second distinction is similar to the first. It is the distinction between special calling, which only some people receive, that is a direct supernatural revelation to an individual to do or be a certain thing, as distinguished from ordinary calling. The ordinary calling is the universal mandates God places on all people, to follow Christ. Third is a reminder to keep first things first and secondary things second. Understanding central calling compared to peripheral calling is this distinction. This is a problem when pastors elevate writing books over shepherding their flock. This is a problem when workers elevate earning a living over living a life worth working for. They've sacrificed what they were meant to do for something that's supposed to support doing what they were meant to do. Finally the readers are reminded of the distinction between the clear aspects of calling and the mysterious aspect of calling. It's tempting to want to discover all of God's plans for us right now. God doesn't work that way and He reveals elements of his vocation for us as we are capable of processing them.We must not strive too much for clarity or be too scared of ambiguity for both are implements in heavens tool chest.
      After providing these four reminders Os Guinness concludes the chapter with the story of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's life including some parting wisdom from that one man army. "Many lives have a mystical sense, but not everyone reads it aright...The secret of a great life is often man's success in deciphering the mysterious symbols vouchsafed to him, understanding them and so learning to walk in the true path."(pg62)

Let Your Life Speak
by Parker J. Palmer
Chapter 3. When Way Closes

     This chapter opens with a story as well. Palmer pulls a life lesson from his time at Pendle Hill, from a conversation with a wise Quaker woman. "there is as much guidance in what does not and cannot happen in my life as there is in what can and does happen, maybe more." (pg39) Knowing weaknesses is as important as knowing strengths. Knowing where you suck is as important as knowing where you thrive. Despite what Disney might say, not everyone can be anything they want to be if they believe in themselves and invest the time and effort. "Each of us arrives here with a nature, with both limits and potentials. We can learn as much about our nature by running into our limits as by experiencing our potentials. (pg42) Individuals were built for somethings and not for all things.Well intentioned  people often set up goals for themselves to become like Muhatma Gandhi or Thomas Aquinas or George Washington. However noble and good these people might have been the reality remains that we ought only try to learn from them, not become miniature versions of them. Human beings are not machines that, if given enough time can be reprogrammed to do anything or be anyone. We are living beings that were designed to grow a certain way, blossom at a certain time and bear fruit in keeping with the season and the circumstances. If we focus too much on becoming somebody else and ignore who God made us to be be, we'll find our life tedious and actions returning void. "Only when I give something that does not grow within me do I deplete myself and harm the other as well, for only harm can come from a gift that is forced, inorganic, unreal." (pg50) 
      Reality  is like the ocean constantly there but always in motion. God calls each of us into reality, a constant existence based on the perimeters which He has built for us with our abilities, our sensibilities, our instincts. All are called, no two are called exactly like, just as no two buckets of seawater are the same.  Palmer concludes chapter 3 with the following summary."If we are to live our lives fully and well, we must learn to embrace the opposites, to live in a creative tension between our limits and our potentials. We must honor our limitations in ways that do not distort our nature, and we must trust and use our gifts in ways that fulfill the potentials God gave us. We must take the no of the way that closes and find the guidance it has to offer- and take the yes of the way that opens and respond with the yes of our lives." (pg55)

Rising To The Call and Let Your Life Speak Chapter 2 Summary.

Rising To The Call
By Os Guinness
Chapter 2 Everyone, Everywhere, Everything

     This chapter is pretty straightforward with four essential parts. First we have a historical example of what the author will talk about. Next the reader is given a more detailed understanding of calling. The chapter concludes with two popular misunderstandings which often affect our ability to answer the call.
     Os Guinness opens his discussion with the story of William Wilberforce, the 18th century English abolitionist and parliamentarian. Wilberforce provides a textbook illustration for the biblical truth that you don't have to be a pastor or a missionary to do God's work. His story is a parable of sorts which teaches that all types of work are valuable if done properly. It's not a complicated concept but it's one that easy to miss. A wonderful movie about William Wilberforce.
     The idea of calling is fleshed out a bit more in this second section of the chapter. We're provided with the biblical uses of the world. These are simmered down into two functional ideas. Based on Os Guinness's reading of scripture the human being has two callings, a primary and secondary calling.

"Our primary calling as followers of Christ is by him, to him, and for him." (pg.24)

"Our secondary calling, considering who God is as sovereign, is that everyone, everywhere, and in everything should think, speak, live and act entirely for him."  (pg.25)

     Simply put, The primary calling provides direction for the sort of person we are supposed to be. God calls us to Himself, to be like Him and share in His godliness. The secondary calling is how we ought to spend our time. As I am fulfilling my primary calling I will discern a secondary which will determine my professional, academic and relational choices.
     Concluding this chapter the reader is warned about two distortions of calling. Essentially they are these, don't elevate primary calling to the exclusion of secondary calling. At the same time, don't elevate secondary calling to the exclusion of primary calling. Recognize both callings are important; both as created by God. One is the compass the other is the map that guide us on the straight and narrow way for which God has created us.


Let Your Life Speak
by Parker J. Palmer
Chapter 2 Now I Become Myself

"Now I become myself

It's taken time, many years and places.

I have been dissolved and shaken,

Worn other people's faces...."

     Beginning again with a poem this time by May Sarton, Palmer provides his own summary of his next chapter. He proceeds to take about thirty pages to tell some of his own story, drawing insights periodically, from his experience that he believes are relevant to his readers.
      After spending sometime discussing the concept of vocation he had in high-school. Palmer explains his current definition of vocation. "Today, I understand vocation quite differently-not as a goal to be achieved but as a gift to be received." (pg10) Following this up with a story from the Hasidic tradition.The Rabbi Zusya says "In the coming world, they will not ask me: 'Why were you not Moses?' They will ask me: 'Why were you not Zusya?'" (pg11)  The underlying concept of course being that it's more important that you be yourself, than it is, that you try to be a copy of somebody else. This idea is cemented on page 15 "The deepest vocational question is not, 'What ought I to do with my life?' It is the more elemental and demanding, 'Who am I? What is my nature?'" Answering these questions forces us to recognize our limitations as well as our strengths and gifts. Knowing who we can not be is important. There is a danger to ignoring who we are, a danger to striving after a life that is untrue to our identity. "If we are unfaithful to true self we will extract a price from others. We will make promises we cannot keep, build houses from flimsy stuff, conjure dreams that dissolve into nightmares, and other people will suffer if we are unfaithful to true self. (pg.31)
      A powerful sense of freedom awaits those who live into their vocation. Unfortunately not everyone is successful. Among those who are, "some journeys are direct, and some are circuitous; some are heroic, and some are fearful and muddled. But every journey, honestly undertaken, stands a chance of taking us toward the place where our deep gladness meets the world's deep need. (pg 37) Undertaking this journey often results in seasons of darkness, uncertainty. The road requires unmaking the inappropriate expectations that have been assumed for us. "The world needs people with the patience and the passion to make this pilgrimage not only for their own sake but also as a social political act." (pg.37)  Thus Palmer ends his chapter with the reminder that people don't exist in a bubble. It's not only for one's own sake that a person ought to discover their calling. 

Five Minutes with Malachi

My covenant with him was one of life and peace and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth and no wrong was found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness and he turned many from iniquity. Malachi 2:5-6

There is much talk about who we ought to be and how we ought to live. The scriptures clearly address the issues but often use words we don't like to hear. Humans like to ask questions of God but are only willing to hear certain types of answers. We ask God, "how do you want me to spend my life?" and we expect Him to instruct us in whether we ought to be a lawyer or a doctor or stone mason. It's similar to a man with no chickens, no knowledge of chickens, and no place to keep them wondering about whether he'd like an omelette or a fried egg. First things must be first and God always answers our questions with relevant information. His response to questions about purpose and vocation are usually centered around human character rather than action. Love your neighbor! Seek my face! Fear my name! Be perfect! such are the commands of Scripture. Only by walking in these directions will we find ourselves at a place appropriate for determining the smaller, less important questions concerning how we make our money and where we go to school.

The covenant of Levi is a covenant all of humanity is invited into. It is an old fashioned term for the modern evangelical concept known as "relationship with God". Today we like to sugar coat that idea but the reality of the relationship that God invites us into is just the same as it was twenty-three hundred years ago in the days of Malachi. It was a covenant of life and peace, we can look forward to those realities. It is a covenant of fear, that is our shield against apathy. The covenant bears fruit. The wisdom spouts from the mouth in a fountain of relevant instruction. There, is no shame. He who walks in the covenant of Levi need never hang his head. There is no wickedness in him and he is sought after for his teaching.

Let it be so with us dear brother and sister. Amidst the busyness of life let us not lose sight of the reality of what God calls us to. 

Rising To The Call and Let Your Life Speak Chapter 1 Summary.

Rising To The Call

by Os Guinness

Chapter 1, The Ultimate Why

“It is never too late to be what you might have been”

George Eliot

The book opens with the presentation of a problem. “..”purpose and fulfillment are some of the deepest issues in our modern world.” He quotes Thomas Carlyle who said, “The man without purpose is like a ship without a rudder-- a waif, a nothing, a no-man” We experience this to be true particularly during the years in which we come into our adulthood. This time period characterized by choices presses upon us the weight of destiny, forcing us to consider why we are here and whether our existence has value.

The author continues his discussion by cautioning his readers against well intentioned but misguided effort. It’s possible to do alot of things really well and still fail. He quotes Walker Percy, “You can get all A’s and still flunk life.”  So what do we do? How do we answer the ultimate why of our existence? why do we feel this urge to do something valuable?“answering the call of our Creator is the ‘ultimate why’ for living,...” After giving this brief answer he sets the stage for the rest of the book, “This book is for all who long to find and fulfill the purposes of their lives. It argues that this purpose can be found only when we discover the specific purpose for which we were created and to which we are called.” He assumes we readers are one of those individuals and proceeds to provide a helpful definition of calling.

“Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service.”

So we conclude with his main ideas of chapter 1.

1. Humanity is called
2. This calling requires a caller who is Jesus Christ
3. Only by answering this call will we be able to accomplish our purpose and find fulfillment.

Let Your Life Speak

by Parker J. Palmer

Chapter 1 Listening to Life

Ask me whether what I have done is my life

William Stafford

Beginning with the poem Ask Me by William Stafford, the author discusses the line quoted above. Asking the question, are our actions who we are? Palmer poses the idea that we can live a life not our own. By conforming to the expectations of our culture we can sometimes miss who we were born to be. So we never become who we ought to be because we’re striving to meet the good, and the bad expectations that people, society and ourselves place  on us. So rather than striving to jump over a hypothetical bar Palmer suggests, “before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody and what values you represent.” We like to make lists, to create a nice simple to do list and simple check it off when we succeed or repent and thank God for grace when we fail. However real life is not so simple, we have a vocation. A vocation “is not a goal that I pursue. It means a calling that I hear.” Often our vocation disagrees with our ego, our conscious awareness of ourselves, resulting in stress, frustrating ect. Beneath the loud noise of our ego exists the still small voice of God calling us to a higher, existence. To hear it, one must quiet the noise, calm their heart and wait in silence for the call of the Creator.

February - Jonah 1

Perhaps one of the most famous biblical stories is the account of the prophet Jonah and his rebellion. Now rebellion against God is nothing out of the ordinary; neither in the Bible nor in everyday life. What makes this story so memorable is the particular way in which God decides to handle Jonah's rebellion.   A divine slap on the wrist in the form of a bout of leprosy or a loss on one's stock portfolio would be expected. However, God, in His wisdom initiates Jonah into an aquatic discipline so unusual that it has captured the minds of school children, pastors and sailors across the ages.

We find Jonah, a messenger of God, tasked with a mission which is not to his taste. Thus far he's exactly like us and we might look to his example to avoid making similar mistakes. We to are messengers of God, and our tasks are often distasteful. "Love your enemy", "...be rid of all evil behavior...", "..be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect...", are all specific commands of God, applicable to all people, in all times and are not easy. So, like Jonah we often run away.

Jonah runs in a geographical sense by boarding a ship bound for the ends of the earth. He pays his fair and tries to sleep away his guilt. Awakened from that complacent repose by a storm so powerful it threatens to consume him, and a whole boat load of people besides. Be warned you sinner, who fancies that your entertainment of evil will only hurt yourself. Since when has evil been under your thumb? Who but God Almighty can say to the darkness, "thus far you shall come but no further." Assuredly evil attacks hurts and destroys not only the perpetrators but anyone else who happens to be close by. Though you embark on a journey to the ends of the earth, the age old adage proves true, "your sin will find you out."

In repentance Jonah acknowledge his guilt before the mariners and bids them throw him to the storm that it might be appeased. Before consenting to this, the brave mariners try every effort to save themselves, along with Jonah. How true today is this parable? Though we acknowledge the evil around us, we refuse God's medicine and replace divine aid with human placebos. We pour money, time, good intentions into the black holes that plague society when the answers were to be found, not in gold, guns and positivity but in godliness.  After the men rowed hard to save Jonah from destiny, they gave up, and Jonah was thrown to the sea. In an instant peace was restored. It didn't matter how far Jonah ran, how much he tried to save himself, it only took the submission to God's will to calm the storm. And now we leave Jonah, afloat in a peaceful ocean and will return to him another time.

Consider well and be glad we have a God who is not limited by time, space, or power. The storms that rage in our world are as nothing to Him for in an instant He bids the waves and winds be still. Let us have faith and await the salvation of the Lord. 

January- Zechariah

Each person comes to God with a perspective and sometimes with a bias. God allows this to an extent because humans need on an individual bases and so He accommodates Himself to those needs by manifesting Himself in particular ways to particular people. Obviously this can lead to confusion when one person encounters God in a moment of deep sorrow as a ray of comfort in the darkness of despair, while another person encounters God in the form of a well placed jab at their pride. Two people, two real interactions with God, multiple possible interpretations of what God is like. We've all encountered God differently and we need to recognize this when fellowshipping and ministering.

What does this mean? Practically it means that if someone discusses a spiritual experience that doesn't match up perfectly with your own, they are not necessarily wrong.

However, it doesn't mean that they are necessarily right either. The spiritual world is in many ways more "real" than the world of our five senses and it does operate based on laws of absolute comparability. If someone shows me a picture of an apple and says, "this is an orange," they are wrong based on the definition of orange. This is the case regardless of their negative experiences with apples and oranges as a child. Similarly if someone approaches you and says, "God hates gay people" they are wrong for the character of God does not permit such an attitude.

The bible is a wealth of information about God and the non-material world. Zechariah a prophet of God can be read today and will provide the careful student some information about who God is and how He interacts with humanity. Here are just some reflections from my journal after reading.

1:2 The Lord was very angry with your fathers
     For all the people who don't like to think of God as someone who gets angry.
1:3 "...thus declares the Lord of hosts: 'Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you.', says the Lord of hosts."
    Rather than lashing out in his anger as humans would do, God's anger doesn't change His resolve to call people to fellowship with Himself.
1:11 "...We have patrolled the earth, and behold, al the earth remains at rest."
     Here we hear the report of spiritual servants who patrol the earth. From an Israelite's perspective all is not at rest, war looms large and the kingdom is not secure. However, God's perspective is different and part of growing in godliness is to see the world as He sees it not as we would like it to be. So in the midst of the storm Jesus could sleep in the boat while the disciples were flipping out. (Mark 4:38)

I leave you with just these three reflections. Know that God is not absent from our world and He will be found by those who seek Him.