A Friend's Thoughts

Monday, June 10, 2013

June 7, 2009

We call this Meeting for Worship.

I think, however, that God would rather be served than worshiped.

I think God would rather be a parent and counselor than an idol.

I think God would rather we ask for guidance and support rather than simply hope for it.

I think God wishes for God's fullest expression which, on this planet, is not possible without human participation.

"Albert Schweitzer once said, 'I don't know what your fate will be, but I do know this: the only ones of you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.' In my new day, dear God, I don't know what my fate will be. But I know that when I ask, 'What of You can I bring to this moment?', I may be completely confident in the guidance I receive."

April 13, 2008

There was an essay in the "This I Believe" series on National Public Radio this morning* concerning pain -- the proper sharing of the pain of citizenship. The gist was that we tend to avoid bearing our full share of that pain and that our nation is much the worse for our doing so.

In the quiet reflection of Meeting for Worship, I find peace and comfort. I find relief from stress and pain.

But much the greater benefit of being in this circle of friends and seekers is the increase in my capacity to bear the proper pain of citizenship.

* http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89558974 (Sharing the Tragedy of War, by Aileen Mory, April 13, 2008)

January 27, 2008

Dear God, I ask your help in finding greater joy and contentment.

The answer You give me today is,

"I have given you much joy and contentment without effort on your part. You call that grace. More important, I have given you the capacity to find joy and contentment when it is not easy to do so. See what you can do with that."

Winter, 2007

Long ago, members of the Religious Society of Friends were called Quakers because some of them – our predecessors – literally quaked to experience the presence of God. No wonder! I’d quake, too, if I experienced God being right here right now!

But I believe God is in every person – in each of us here now – and I’m not quaking. Why not? Is it because, in my imagination or my faith, there’s such a difference between God as a separate presence and God diffused within each of us? Is it because I am so accustomed to being with people that God in you – in even one of you – or in me is not God enough to quake for? Is it because I am far from fully experiencing God in people, even myself?

May 28, 2006

Tomorrow is Memorial Day, a day of most special honor to all veterans of our nation’s armed forces. What are we, as Friends, to do on this martial holiday? I think we are to acknowledge that countless brothers and sisters have worked very hard, suffered very much, and often given their lives in service of this nation and the cause of peace as best they perceived that cause, or at least as they were ordered by our leaders. We are to give thanks for such sacrifices and the immeasurable benefits we’ve received from them. And we are to set self-righteousness aside.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

April 10, 2005

As they prepared for the grueling, four-mile Harvard-Yale Regatta, a young oarsman confided to a veteran, “Sometimes I just don’t think I can make it.”

After a moment of silence, the veteran softly replied, “I know. You just have to have faith in your training.”

Another story. An octogenarian monk was on his deathbed. A younger monk attending him asked, “Brother, do you feel anxious as death approaches? Do you feel sad?”

“Why should I feel anxious or sad?”, asked the elder. “I have been preparing for this moment for sixty years.”

Each moment of our lives can prepare us for the next moment, small or great, common or mysterious. Let us reflect and decide on the kind of person we want to be. Let us use each moment as training to be such a person. And let us have faith in our training.