“Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And, we are all mortal.”
– John F. Kennedy
Thought for Today
Walking the Middle Path
Copyright 2015 by R.A. Robbins
I walk the middle path. It can be a lonely place to be. It can be a dangerous and frightening place to be, caught between two extremes at war with each other with verbal, spiritual and even sometimes physical shots being fired by both sides. But as a Christian who tries to follow the teachings and example of the Master Teacher it is where I am called to be, shining the light of God’s love.
So, what does walking the middle path mean for me? Well, it means being a Christian. It means not being an “Evangelical” or a “Progressive.” It means not being a Democrat or a Republican. It means not being “conservative” or “liberal.” It means believing that being “pro-life” does not end with the birth of a child. It means believing in protecting and caring for children once they are here. Protecting and respecting the lives of individuals with disabilities. Allowing and encouraging everyone to grace us with their gifts. And, finally, not playing God with end of life issues, either by extending life by artificial means or prematurely ending it.
Walking the middle path for me means believing that peace is not best achieved by war. It means believing that frightened citizens arming themselves too often ends in tragedy. It means seeing the Christ in everyone, no matter what they look like on the outside or where they came from.
The middle path demonstrates loving our neighbor, even when they seem unlovable (I struggle with this). It means recognizing that we are all in this life to help and care for each other and that life is not meant to be a huge competition with winners and losers and no middle. It means seeing justice not as vengeance or retribution, but rather doing what is right.
Do I always stay on the path Spirit has set out for me? No. I veer off course, first once direction, then another — right, left, forward, back and sometimes even up and down. If you could trace my spiritual footsteps it would be a mess. I allow myself to get pulled off course by fear, loneliness, old beliefs and anger. But no matter how far off path I may get I always have to come back to my true center. To that place where love, light, peace and justice exist.
And that friends is our calling. To live in the world but not of it. To rise above the hatred and confusion of our times. To rest in God and to shine our light. There is no brighter candle in the world than the one who, through it all, is able to live a life of peace through faith. That candle is found in the middle path where Christ still walks.
Thought for Today
“The sky and the strong wind have moved the spirit inside me till I am carried away trembling with joy.” – Uvavnuk
Thought for Today
“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”
–John Ruskin
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/wind.html
Thought for Today
We return thanks to our mother,
the earth, which sustains us.
We return thanks to the rivers and streams
which supply us with water.
We return thanks to all herbs, which furnish medicines
for the cure of our diseases.
We return thanks to the corn, and to her sisters,
the beans and squashes, which give us life.
We return thanks to the bushes and trees,
which provide us with fruit.
We return thanks to the wind,
which, moving the air, has banished diseases.
We return thanks to the moon and the stars,
which have given us their light when the sun was gone.
We return thanks to our grandfather He-no,
that he has protected his grandchildren from witches and reptiles,
and has given us his rain.
We return thanks to the sun,
that he has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye.
Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit,
in whom is embodied all goodness,
and who directs all things for the good of his children.
– Iroquois traditional
Thought for Today
Copyright 2015 by R.A. Robbins
In spite of unseasonable wind, snow and unexpected weather of all sorts-
a gardener still plants.
And tends what they have planted—
believing that Spring will come.
– Mary Anne Radmacher
Thought for Today
Genie’s comment: My apologies for being late with this. It was a dark and stormy night and I slept in so I missed that the daily post didn’t go up on it’s own.
“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”
– William Wordsworth, Daffodils
Speak of Peace
Thought for Today
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” —Mahatma Gandhi
Thought for Today
Copyright 2016 by R.A. Robbins
“The good news is that Christ frees us from the need to obnoxiously focus on our goodness, our commitment, and our correctness. Religious has made us obsessive almost beyond endurance. Jesus invited us to a dance…and we’ve turned in into a march of soldiers, always checking to see if we’re doing it right and are in step and in line with the other soldiers. We know a dance would be more fun, but we believe we must go through hell to get to heaven, so we keep marching.”
― Steve Brown, A Scandalous Freedom
Fro more on Steve Brown visit: https://www.keylife.org/
espirational.com 