Prosperity Is More than It Seems
Prosperity gets a lot of attention. It’s something almost everybody wants. Some feel it is something they don’t have, or at least not enough of. Over time and in many cultures, it has developed a focused meaning: money.
In fact Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology gives the Bible definition of prosperity this way: See Wealth.
Healthy Prosperity
In the waiting room at the local hospital, while Cindy experiences a simple procedure, I notice rows of empty chairs. My first thought:: “That means health prosperity!”
Shakti Gawain’s Creating True Prosperity (excerpt) is a down-to-earth, well-grounded look at the subject. She spells out what it really means…or can and should mean. Prosperity is the experience of having plenty of what we truly need and want in life, material and otherwise.
I pick experience, truly, and otherwise as key words in that definition. Of the three, experience is most significant.
Money or wealth is not prosperity. The contentment, enjoyment we allow ourselves to experience from what we are, what we do, and what we have are what matter (in that order). By letting ourselves think that money is what matters, we surrender our power to create the experience.
Eric Butterworth said, Prosperity is a way of living and thinking, and not just money or things.
How many people have you known who were truly happy, although they were not wealthy? Perhaps even financially impoverished? Does their happiness suggest they feel prosperous? If so, doesn’t that suggest theirs is a self-created experience?
Have you known people who were affluent, wealthy, prosperous by dictionary definitions but experiencing a “happiness poverty”? Do they create their own experience?
Two suggestions:
- Write out (by hand) a list of what that gives you peace, happiness, contentment, satisfaction.
- Daily write out (by hand) 5 or 10 sources of gratitude. Include what you’ve experienced in the past 24 hours. Think of events, emotions, excitements…not just “things”.
For some thoughts, ideas about praying concerning prosperity: Why Not Pray for Prosperity?
Praying Thanks for Prosperities
Giver of Goodness,
the blessings you pour upon us
come in every imaginable shape and size,
purpose and presence,
meaning and manifestation.
The riches we know thanks to you are many,
not merely money.
The riches are but signs of the infinite goodness,
unconditional love, eternal peace that we are
as your creation.
As we experience that truth,
we know true prosperity.
And so it is. And so we thank you, God.
Amen.
Love and blessings,
June 23, 2017
In: Joy, Love, Peace, Prayer, Praying, Prosperity, Spirituality
Spiritual Authenticity: The Power of Letting Go
Thomas Keating
This morning I was thrilled to read: Spiritual authenticity is always in some way or on some level about letting go. That appeared in Richard Rohr‘s Center for Action and Contemplation meditation.
I enjoyed feeling clarity thanks to the explicitness of his statement. Just let go. I understood the words and I felt I had a grasp of their meaning. But thankfully I continued to read.
We become free as we let go of our three primary energy centers….
That triggered my recollection of reading Thomas Keating, about centering prayer. He explains that we experience virtue, awareness of the Christ we are, by releasing three instinctual needs. We are born, Keating says, with theses innate desires:
- Survival and security
- Power and control
- Affection and esteem
Those are what Rohr called “energy centers”. And they are strong energies, certainly. How hard do we work–well into our adulthood, perhaps our entire lifetime? We strive to surround each of ourselves with security of job, family, community, education, and more. Consider our often ongoing efforts to obtain and then maintain power and control over our very existence. Finally, none of us can deny we are intent in desiring and seeking affection that conveys esteem.
Some may call these “ego centers”.
So, to what is letting go really the key? What lies between letting go and knowing spiritual authenticity? Is there a sequence we can expect and even follow? Is there a how-to?
Keating suggest we experience spiritual authenticity. Such are virtues which are the fruit of humility and results of human development “in the right direction.” By the way, pride is the result of developing “in the wrong direction”. Such pride is cause and effect of our refusal to let go. It fuels our demand that we ourselves fulfill — conquer! — the instinctual needs.
In a wonderfully in-depth interview Keating responds to the question: What practices would help us grow in humility?
He answers simply: The first one is prayer. Ask God for humility. The second practice is to spend time every day in silence, to be with yourself at a deep level, without thinking.
Check these links to a couple of previous Prayerful Life posts about praying…and silence.
Praying in Our Authenticity
Our efforts, Sweet Spirit, are to find, to know, to love
true Oneness with you.
Thank you for the awareness that the truest path
to such Oneness is by letting go.
Thank you for helping us see our effort
is not to fill those needs ourselves.
Our effort is to let go of feeling need
and therefore know the wonderful truth:
that our Christ Spirit, One with you,
fulfills our every need.
Thank you, God, for this key to our authenticity.
And so it is. Amen.
22 June 2017
In: Authenticity, Christ Spirit, God, Humility, Prayer, Praying · Tagged with: Authenticity, Christ, Humility, Prayer
Summer Solstice: The Longest Day
Summer Solstice – Stonehenge
The 2017 Summer Solstice occurred officially last night at 11:24 CST. The Summer Solstice is when the Sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer (23.5 degrees north). A solstice marks the start of the season: summer in this case. Because the earth tilts on its axis, we get maximum sunlight on this one rotation. I like that the NY Times says earth takes a “dip toward the sun”; sounds like dancing with the stars.
And by the way, the northern hemisphere’s Summer Solstice and the southern hemisphere’s Winter Solstice are the exact same time, same thing. Except that what is the longest day north of the equator is the shortest day south. So, we have a Summer Solstice North which is the Winter Solstice South.
Here in Central Texas today, we’ll get somewhere between 14 and 14.5 hours of daylight. Sunshine most likely. It’s interesting to me that we identify the solstice by the length of the day, not the shortness of the night. Today is, after all, the shortest night of the year.
Although it’s never been fully explained (nor need it be!) the phenomenon at Stonehenge is that at the “solstice moment” the sunlight rises directly behind the Heel Stone, just outside the Stonehenge circle. Then the light hits the Altar Stone spot on, dead center.
One more interesting tidbit. Summer Solstice and midsummer are associated with one another but not identical. Midsummer, also known as St. John’s Day, is celebrated sometime close to the solstice. Sort of like our Monday holidays: scheduled for the culture’s convenience. Midsummer’s Eve was a significant party time as featured in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
I share all this while I’m certain that time and the many ways we (I) measure it, observe it, allow it to govern us is an entirely human creation. I am convinced that God has no need for time. The miracle of earth rotating about a star gave us the chance to pay attention to “when”.
A Prayer to the Solstice
Sweet Creator of the Universe,
the beauty of natural time brings wonder.
The perfect harmony of sun and earth,
movement and flow, change and cycle
are miracles we can enjoy day to day,
season to season.
Thank you for special significances
illustrated by marvels like the solstice.
And so it is. And so we let ourselves enjoy.
Amen.
21 June 2017
Good Fruit. Unexpected Blessings.
Fruit Blessing
Sunlight’s strewed across the maple syrup brown concrete floor.
My barefoot takes cool from the floor. Across the lobby’s expanse, day’s end sun carves shadows four, five times taller than the metal door frames.
One door clatters open, startles me. Older woman, maybe, almost elfin and with two cloth satchels that pull her arms down straight, sidles through before the door clatters closed.
She smiles as she puts both bags in the chair beside me. She says, “I’ll sit here,” pointing to the 3rd chair, “and I must wash my hands. I won’t be but a moment.”
She’s not. An almost scurry-step brings her back across the lobby from the ladies room. As she nears our chairs — hers, the satchels’, and mine — she smiles again. “Would you like a snack? I have some fruit.”
“No, thank you. I just had a too-big sandwich before I got here.”
“Are you sure? I have good fruit.” She lifts a brown paper lunch bag from one satchel. She repeats, “I have good fruit.”
Somehow I know to ask, “What good fruit do you have?” I remember to smile.
I notice she wears a name tag, turned halfway upside down. Ann. She slowly, dramatically draws a ziplocked bag with apple slices. “I have apples.”
Her hand goes again into the bag. She pauses, as if waiting for me to guess. I raise my eyebrows, my “I don’t know but show me” expression.
Her hand emerges from the bag with a perfectly orange orange. Cradling it so, so gently, she offers it to me with the simple blessing: “Orange!”
“No, and thank you, Ann. What other fruit do you have?”
She looks into the bag, expecting to be surprised. Almost as if she cannot see the bottom, she lifts her hand in a high arc and dives it into the bag. Quickly it appears and she grins. “It’s a plum! Doesn’t it look delicious!”
It does. It truly does.
“I’ll let you go on with your writing. And writing by hand. I like that. It makes you part of what you write. I’ll be quiet for you and your writing.”
I drew a line across the page. I started writing what you see here.
Blessings Unexpected
Good Friend God!
What beautiful abundant joy you share
in such simple, unexpected ways. Thank you
for the gift and even more
thank you for the awareness to recognize,
to receive, and to accept the gift.
And so it is. And so we thank you, Good Friend.
Love and blessings,
20 June 2017
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