Words are so powerful and Buechner's reflections in this book of daily meditations are amazing!
From Frederick Buechner, Listening To your Life:
"Faith. Hope Love. Those are names of course, those three - as words so worn out, but as realities so rich. Our going-away presents from beyond time to carry with us through time to lighten our step as we go. And part at least of the wisdom of the third one is, as Rinkitink* heard it, "Never question the truth of what you fail to understand, for the world is filled with wonders." Above all, never question the truth beyond all understanding and surpassing all other wonders that in the long run nothing, not even the world, not even ourselves, can separate us forever from the last and deepest love that glimmers in our dusk like a pearl, like a face."
*Rinkitink in Oz is the tenth book in the Land of Oz series written by L. Frank Baum. Published on June 20, 1916,
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
REMEMBER
If you buy yourself one meditation book for this year, buy Listening to Your Life - Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner. The entry for January 16th is posted here in its beautifully written entirety. It is one of my favorite passages from Buechner (originally from his book, Whistling in the Dark). Yes, I own all his non-fiction books and a wonderful DVD of two young journalists interviewing him at his home in Princeton. Everyone needs at least one spiritual mentor or two or three. He is one of mine.
Remember
"When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.
For as long as you remember me, I am never entirely lost. When I am feeling most ghost-like, it's your remembering me that helps remind me that I actually exist. When I'm feeling sad, it's my consolation. WHen I'm feeling happy, it's part of why I feel that way.
If you forget me, one of the ways I remember who I am will be gone. If you forget me, part of who I am will be gone.
"Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom," the good thief said from his cross (Luke 23:42). There are perhaps no more human words in all of Scripture, no prayer we can pray so well."
Remember
"When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.
For as long as you remember me, I am never entirely lost. When I am feeling most ghost-like, it's your remembering me that helps remind me that I actually exist. When I'm feeling sad, it's my consolation. WHen I'm feeling happy, it's part of why I feel that way.
If you forget me, one of the ways I remember who I am will be gone. If you forget me, part of who I am will be gone.
"Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom," the good thief said from his cross (Luke 23:42). There are perhaps no more human words in all of Scripture, no prayer we can pray so well."
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Life Itself Is Grace
Trying to keep a blog going is tough work, and so I decided to close off this blog. However,the book, Listening To Your Life by Frederick Buechner has inspired me to keep the blog going. It is a daily meditation book and I resolve to use it as a starting point each day. January 1 - "Life Itself Is Grace"! and January 2 - "If God Speaks"! Buechner recommends that grace and God are found in the everyday, the ordinary, the mundane. He provides wonderful examples in these two meditations - things like kissing a spouse goodbye or taking your child to school in the morning. Too often these events slip through our hourglasses of time and before we know it the precious ordinariness of our days are gone forever. Just ask any mother or father whose last child goes off to college, or a young mother or father putting their child on the school bus for kindergarten for the first time. Not monumental events in the realm of things, but monumental enough in an ordinary life. I never really thought about how God's grace is with us through these moments. I hope that there was some part of me way down deep that recognized God's presence and grace in the humdrum of my daily existence. Did I hear Him speak to me when I was washing the family's clothes, food shopping, preparing meals? Do I hear him now in the quiet hours of retirement with my husband? Is He speaking to me in the stress of caring for the elderly? Sometimes when I am feeling overwhelmed by my current life situation, I need to stop and remember that life is grace and God is speaking to me. There is purpose here - a ministry perhaps - do I feel it? Do I hear it?
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