SARANAM (REFUGE)

Receive our thanks

for night and day,

for food and shelter,

rest and play.

Be our guest

and with us stay,

saranam, saranam, saranam.

For this small earth

of sea and land.

For this small space

on which we stand,

for those we tough

with heart and hand,

saranam, saranam, saranam.

In the midst of foes

I cry to Thee,

from the ends of earth,

wherever I may be,

My strength in helplessness,

oh, answer me!

saranam, saranam, saranam.

Make my heart to grow

as great as Thine,

so through my hurt

Your love may shine,

my love be Yours,

Your love be mine,

saranam, saranam, saranam.

For those who've gone,

for those who stay

for those to come,

following the Way,

be guest and guide

both night and day,

saranam, saranam, saranam.

from "Celtic Daily Prayer"

Love the Antidote to Fear

Hate is not the opposite of love as one might think. The opposite of love is fear. To love means to open ourselves up to be vulnerable, which means taking risk; the risk of being hurt; the risk of being rejected; the risk of being denied. Fear on the other hand cons us into the security of taking the path of least resistance and most secure. Fear protects our vulnerability and the risks brought about by a life of love. But what kind of life do we lead without love? How do we grow both spiritually and emotionally without taking risks? Fear would have us deny love, risk and vulnerability and build a protective barrier around our hearts.

Fear is the great paralyzer. From it springs all kinds of spiritual and emotional disease and (dis – ease). Out of fear springs a life that is almost immobile and filled with resentment, hate, anxiety, anger, doubt and worry. It is a lifestyle that lacks the courage to be the full people of God we were created. It isolates us as well as insolates our lives from others. Fear gives birth to the “what if’s” and draws the undefined future into the present, always with a negative outcome.

Love on the other hand requires that we exercise courage. It calls us to a life of action and vulnerability that means we will surely experience pain and hurt. But lest we forget, we will also experience growth, and the tremendous rewards of a life that is self-giving, placing the needs of others before our own.

Courage is born out of our painful experiences and struggles. We don’t often recognize courage because it doesn’t present itself in the same dramatic manner as fear. Nevertheless, courage quietly responds (never reacting) to the challenges we face in life, constantly calling us to vulnerably face our fears. Through our courage love is enhanced and will always allow us to overcomes fear. How many times in the Gospels do we hear Jesus say the words, “Fear not?”

Jesus is love incarnate. While he experienced all the fears and their awful byproducts, he always acted in love. Jesus consistently faced fear with love, dispelling fears power. Even from the cross our Lord demonstrated the nature of love when he said, “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” This was love without condition or restraints.

Can we let down our walls of protection built up by the countless persuasions of fear? Are we willing to take risks in this life in order to grow more spiritually mature? Are we willing to remove the barricades around our hearts in order to be vulnerable? For in order to experience true love we must be vulnerable, and in order to give love we must be vulnerable as well. We are called by God to live lives of unconditional love. The choice is ours.

Sabbath Time

As the sun gradually rises above the tin roof houses of the dwelling places on the island, in the distance I can hear the rhythmic melody of the ocean waves as they methodically touch the shore only to quickly recede back into the large brownish blue, watery abyss. My heart and mind seem one with the beauty and pulse of the delightful scenery. Where else can one retreat to become one with nature; to become one with God?

An old buck quietly walks up to the bottom of the deck stairs in which I softly sit enjoying the taste and fragrance of a cheap cigar. The light bounces off his dull but smooth hide, bringing forth vibrant colors of yellow and orange that appear to burst out of his brownish tan coat. It is late July and his antlers are covered in soft velvet; a sign of new growth and maturation reminding me of another year in the cycle of life. The deer sniffs at the whiffs of smoke that gradually float on the air past his majestic stance. Perhaps he wonders what this new and exotic aroma is that intrigues his senses. With a quick snort he stares up at me with his large brown eyes, most likely thinking a meal of corn chips is soon to come his way.

Never have I felt so close to God as I do in this still moment. It suddenly strikes me how all of God’s creation is inner woven and one. The smell of the salt air, the fragrance of the leaves and trees, the sweet odor of decomposing compost of pine straw all combine to glorify God’s grand creation. The morning sun peaks through the trees and vegetation lighting the land with a greenish brown hue of striking color and life.

The birds chirp their high-pitched song as crickets rub their fine and soft wings against their rough legs. I sit still listening to natures orchestra play its God inspired music. A spider hangs from his thinly woven web, looking over what must surely appear to him as a vast and endless land.

This is my Sabbath. A time to relax, enjoy family and the laid back lifestyle of island life. Oh to be able to bottle this moment up and take it back with me into the noisy, business of the daily grind. But God is all around us, even in the rush of the city. God is not only found in the beauty of this island habitat, but in all life as well. All we have to do is stop and appreciate the natural beauty of God’s creation that is found throughout earth, our island home. His creative touch may be nothing more than a bright little flower that has forced its way up between a piece of cracked concrete sidewalk, or a quaint garden in the middle of the urban sprawl. Yet God is found everywhere. All we have to do is look.  

The Pitter-Patter of God's Still and Quiet Voice

Rain, rain and more rain! Is it time to build an ark? The last time I checked my name wasn’t Noah, and the thought of being cooped up with all those animals is definitely unappealing to say the least!

Yet perhaps the rain teaches a lesson we can all learn. The famed monastic and theologian Thomas Merton gives us a different picture and understanding of the rain. In his work Raids on the Unspeakable he writes:

“I came up here from the monastery last night, sloshing through the cornfield, said Vespers, and put some oatmeal on the Coleman stove for supper. It boiled over while I was listening to the rain...The night became very dark. The rain surrounded the whole cabin with its enormous virginal myth, a whole world of meaning, of secrecy, of silence, of rumor. Think of it: all that speech pouring down, selling nothing, judging nobody, drenching the thick mulch of dead leaves, soaking the trees, filling the gullies and crannies of the wood with water, washing out the places where men have stripped the hillside! What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone, in the forest, at night, cherished by this wonderful, unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech, the most comforting speech in the world, the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges, and the talk of the watercourses everywhere in the hollows!

Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it. It will talk as long as it wants, this rain. As long as it talks I am going to listen.”

I believe it is time to stop worrying when the rain will stop, and begin to listen to its holy and majestic voice. By doing so we may just hear the still, quiet voice of God speaking through the pitter-patter of his divine creation.