How are we to live?

[Mark Dohle]

How are we to live?​

What is really important in our lives? When I look inward, when praying, or just thinking, I see a lot of real issues, some of them quite painful, but in the long run, they are smoke and ashes. Sometimes I worry about how I am going to die. Or fret, that I sense that my aging process, is like a snowball rolling downhill, it gets bigger and it will only stop when it hits something. Or will just run out of momentum, and become still. I am not always worried about my death. However, I do believe that we have ‘weather’ within, and some days I can be very philosophical about life, death, suffering, and whatever serious human issues is presented to me. Then on other days, I can be a quite the ninny about it all. So I try not to take my good/bad (inner) weather too seriously, it will always move on.

Yet, how am I to live? When I die, and my body planted, a symbol of the sum total of my life, what is it that will go with me? I do believe that life will either hone us or wreck us. I also believe that we all have a place of freedom to stand from. It might be a small place in the beginning, and we may only have the desire to be freer, more loving, and more available to others, though still bound by habit. Yet every small choice made in freedom, and not some form of compulsion, or being pushed by society into a certain mold, only increases our captivity to make deeper choices that are rooted in freedom. It is then that we become childlike, or we mature into our true nature.

Sometimes we have to pretend to be loving, or kind, or just, while wanting to do the opposite. Yet in this ‘pretending’, we are really drawing from a deeper source (grace), a harder choice, and not the easier choice of just going along. The more we learn to make truly free choices, the less burdened we will be by others, and by our society. We can discover the wisdom of letting go of the compulsion to control those around us. To control another is probably the furthest thing from actually being loving that we can get.

Parenthood is different, since good parents are teaching their children simply how not to make fools of themselves at meals, not to pee in public, to act with respect, and hopefully, to act from a deep sense of what is good, and just, and yet loving. Hopefully by the time they reach adulthood. Besides, parental love is always moving towards separation from their children. Hopefully, a friendship which deepens between parents and children, which moves towards deeper communication between equals.

The greatest spiritual gift is ‘love’. And for good reason. When I am laid to rest, when my body returns to dust, what is left is what I have become, what I am truly am, what my (free) choices made me into. Will I be more deeply human as Jesus was, or will I become something less than human, a monster, actually, as CS Lewis talk about?

So how should I live? Well to do the next loving thing, which is harder than it looks. That is why I often fail. Yet God is also the most loving ‘thing’, so there is always hope, mercy, and the courage to take the next step until I can step no more.

Pray for me, as I pray for you, for we all journey together. –Br.MD

 

[Ellen Brown]

I don't know if this will help. Micah 6:8 sums it up and Jesus Christ essentially repeats it in Matt, Mark, Luke and John. I've seen all sorts of Clerical abuse and attempts at Unrighteous Dominion in the churches. As a matter of fact, I wonder why I am religious at all? The thing that holds me is my belief in God, and Jesus the Christ. So much of religion is satanic attempts at evil.

 

[james dixon]

One step at a time -

 

[Mark Dohle]

I don't know if this will help. Micah 6:8 sums it up and Jesus Christ essentially repeats it in Matt, Mark, Luke and John. I've seen all sorts of Clerical abuse and attempts at Unrighteous Dominion in the churches. As a matter of fact, I wonder why I am religious at all? The thing that holds me is my belief in God, and Jesus the Christ. So much of religion is satanic attempts at evil.

Yes, corruption is everwhere, and as a Catholic I know of it in the church. We are sinners, all of us, yet when men who should be shepherds abuse their power, it does so much damage to many. Yet Christ Jesus does work within the church, the tares grow with the wheat.

Yet I believe we are to pray for our leaders and shepherds, especially those who have fallen, as well as for their victims.

thank you for your comment Ellen.

Peace
Mark

 

[Mark Dohle]

One step at a time -

Amen brother!!!!!!!!

Peace
Mark

 

[Cooky]

How are we to live?​

What is really important in our lives? When I look inward, when praying, or just thinking, I see a lot of real issues, some of them quite painful, but in the long run, they are smoke and ashes. Sometimes I worry about how I am going to die. Or fret, that I sense that my aging process, is like a snowball rolling downhill, it gets bigger and it will only stop when it hits something. Or will just run out of momentum, and become still. I am not always worried about my death. However, I do believe that we have ‘weather’ within, and some days I can be very philosophical about life, death, suffering, and whatever serious human issues is presented to me. Then on other days, I can be a quite the ninny about it all. So I try not to take my good/bad (inner) weather too seriously, it will always move on.

Yet, how am I to live? When I die, and my body planted, a symbol of the sum total of my life, what is it that will go with me? I do believe that life will either hone us or wreck us. I also believe that we all have a place of freedom to stand from. It might be a small place in the beginning, and we may only have the desire to be freer, more loving, and more available to others, though still bound by habit. Yet every small choice made in freedom, and not some form of compulsion, or being pushed by society into a certain mold, only increases our captivity to make deeper choices that are rooted in freedom. It is then that we become childlike, or we mature into our true nature.

Sometimes we have to pretend to be loving, or kind, or just, while wanting to do the opposite. Yet in this ‘pretending’, we are really drawing from a deeper source (grace), a harder choice, and not the easier choice of just going along. The more we learn to make truly free choices, the less burdened we will be by others, and by our society. We can discover the wisdom of letting go of the compulsion to control those around us. To control another is probably the furthest thing from actually being loving that we can get.

Parenthood is different, since good parents are teaching their children simply how not to make fools of themselves at meals, not to pee in public, to act with respect, and hopefully, to act from a deep sense of what is good, and just, and yet loving. Hopefully by the time they reach adulthood. Besides, parental love is always moving towards separation from their children. Hopefully, a friendship which deepens between parents and children, which moves towards deeper communication between equals.

The greatest spiritual gift is ‘love’. And for good reason. When I am laid to rest, when my body returns to dust, what is left is what I have become, what I am truly am, what my (free) choices made me into. Will I be more deeply human as Jesus was, or will I become something less than human, a monster, actually, as CS Lewis talk about?

So how should I live? Well to do the next loving thing, which is harder than it looks. That is why I often fail. Yet God is also the most loving ‘thing’, so there is always hope, mercy, and the courage to take the next step until I can step no more.

Pray for me, as I pray for you, for we all journey together. –Br.MD

I do physical work for a living... And sometimes when I come home, instead of getting the sweet welcome I'm hoping for, I get something quite the opposite.

But I've been telling myself lately, that rather than getting frustrated and trying to fix the people around me by explaining how they should show me more respect for my hard work -instead I have thought about the possibility of "giving" instead.

...That seemed impossible at first (or at least backwards), but thinking deeper, I realized that nobody at home was really asking very much of me. It seems they just want my attention. So I can probably do that.

Maybe someone wants me to sit in the passenger seat and just be there for a trip to the store. How hard is that, really?

Maybe someone needs help solving a problem. How hard is it for me to just lend my mind for 10 minutes?

...Because if I always only do just what I want to do, then probably that does make me a monster!

 

[Cooky]

Also, I think reading, and even responding in word, rather than something just being a passing thought, really has the power to put it into deed.

...Because God could have imposed the gist of the scriptures on us in thought, but instead it was written. So that really says something.

IOW, thanks again, Br. Dohle.

 

[Mark Dohle]

Also, I think reading, and even responding in word, rather than something just being a passing thought, really has the power to put it into deed.

...Because God could have imposed the jist of the scriptures on us in thought, but instead it was written. So that really says something.

IOW, thanks again, Br. Dohle.

Thaks for your comments. Jesus, was the servant of all, a paradox, that I am still learning. To be present to others is a great gift.....a beautiful one.

Peace
Mark

 

[ObjectOfMercy]

How are we to live?

The just shall live by faith. Hebrews 10:38, Habakkuk 2:4

Matthew 13
52 Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.

In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. 2 Corinthians 13:1

Here you have 2 witnesses, in Hebrews and Habakkuk. The just shall live by faith.

 

[Samantha Rinne]

We are to live.

Stop looking to gurus and experts. Just live your life.

 

[Mark Dohle]

We are to live.

Stop looking to gurus and experts. Just live your life.

Yes Master......wise words.

 

[metis]

Micah 6:8 sums it up

My favorite verse.

 

[metis]

The greatest spiritual gift is ‘love’.

Amen. It's not just believing some things about God and Jesus but believing in Them through both our beliefs and our actions.