If I have not one, not two but three small mishaps like this: (1) drop my pen [no biggie – just reach down and retrieve it] (2) immediately after ALMOST knock over a bottle of water (3) ALMOST miss a really urgent message — I finally “get it”, stop whatever I’m doing dead in my tracks and LISTEN WITH GREAT EXPECTANCY for a kind of breakthrough message from God.
IF I’M ALREADY IN FULL LISTENING MODE, He doesn’t need to “get my a-t-t-e-n-t-i-o-n.”

Ever get distracted?
Feel like there are two of you?
One who keeps drifting off
And the other keeps coming back
To God?

Do you finally remember
It was never your conscious decision
To go back to that place again,
Knowing full well God holds everything
You could ever want or need?

Take the bull by the horns this time.
When you feel that familiar tug,
There is no overwhelmingly
Powerful hold on you;
Nor a guy in a red suit.
Just a suggestion wafting from
That place you go to
No longer.

Are there certain places in your mind
(Hey, it’s just me again, don’t worry.)
Certain private places where
things just simply are accepted as
“The way things are”?
You see God everywhere …
In everything …
Well, … almost!
I want to tell you, if I may …
That’s Not Good Enough!!!

It’s those little places, little spaces,
That you wanna clear out
‘Coz they loom large
At the wrong-est time
Here’s what you can do:

‘See’ God right there
In that scary place
INSTEAD OF
What your frightened mind believes
Because in fact
The Spiritual truth is
The Way Things Really Are!!!

WHAT IF THAT BATHROOM WERE YOUR MIND? jes’ sayin’ [rjs]
○●□■♤◇♧♧♡♤□●○○■♧♧♡♡■□●○♤

Dont clean the house. Thats too hard. Clean a bathroom.
Put some music on. Clean it like an old friend is gonna sit in there.
Then go sit down. After awhile, go look at that clean bathroom.
The pride of seeing what you’ve accomplished will motivate you. Maybe the bedroom will be doable.

Baby steps.
Do a little, do it right!
Maybe it will shed some light!
Moving you to do some more
That’s what baby-steps are for!
Overwhelmed? That’s OK!
Listen to these words I say!
Push yourself to make a start
And watch what happens in your heart!

~Robert Rutherford

If someone were to ask you
“How are you today?”
And you wanted to answer truthfully,
You’d have to ask yourself
“How well am I loving today?”
And then you’d know.

IF IT IS TRUE that we are spiritual beings (and we are) and
IF IT IS TRUE that we live in more than one dimension at the same time (and we do) and
IF IT IS TRUE that the other dimension(s) are the realm of God, Himself – infinite Truth, Love and Life and
IF IT IS TRUE that God is instantly accessible to us anytime, anyplace, anywhere and
IF IT IS TRUE that our little lives, fraught with fleshly troubles can be helped beyond measure just by knowing more about the actual nature of God, then my question is this: “Why are we not doing everything in our power and beyond to learn and apply all that we can about such a magnanimous God?

I have talked this over
With You-know-Who
Many times.
Well no, that’s not true.
I listened very intently
As Holy Spirit told me
We (Him and me) are on
A different kind of journey.
Instead of ruffling feathers
We’re to reach those people
Trapped in mistaken beliefs
That becloud God’s Love.
Where Jesus and Holy Spirit
And God and them and me
Are one.

Jesus told us that the blind are incapable of leading the blind, as both will eventually fall into a ditch. While I agree with the statement, (since, you know, Jesus said it and all that) I also think that the blind are, in an ironic sense, capable of leading both their blind selves and followers to liberation.

There are theological positions that I now find quite absurd, heretical even, that were instrumental in helping to lead me to where I am today. The doctrine of Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA), for example, helped me believe that God was not angry with me, since it allowed me to imagine his terrible wrath as having been dealt with at the cross. Now, of course, I see this as a flawed, and ultimately untenable doctrinal position, but for a young man who had grown accustomed to seeing God as angry and vengeful, the idea of there having been a moment when all of it was emptied onto a sacrificial substitute allowed me the freedom to not think of God in terms of anger or wrath. Now, yes, ultimately I came to see the fallacies inherent in this idea, its lack of biblical and historical merit, as well as its straight up absurdity, but for a moment it allowed me to think beyond my then-present paradigm.

It was ultimately this idea that led me to consider the idea that God was non-violent and non-retributive, which I would have never given a second thought to had I not been allowed the freedom to think of God’s wrath as having been set aside, or dealt with through Christ’s death.

This was a case of the blind leading the blind. I was blind in my belief that God was angry, and the doctrine of PSA was blind in its assertions that God required the death of his son to deal with his anger management issues, but for a season it led me. Ultimately, it led me into a ditch, wherein I realized that my eyes had been closed and I’d had been blinded all along. God did not need appeasement as the gods of the pagans did, and his anger against humanity was never even a real problem requiring a solution! It was the time I spent in this theological ditch, pondering the implications of my former beliefs and coming to terms with the God Jesus revealed, that led me to the path I’m currently on.

I needed the ditch. I needed the blind guide.

It was God speaking to me in the only language I was capable of understanding in that moment, and it led me to realize how blind I had been. And who knows? I might find this experience repeating itself numerous times throughout my life before all is said and done!

So, while the blind cannot ultimately lead the blind, they can, in a sense, help them to realize how blind and enslaved they are. This is important, as we have a tendency to look back at our time beneath “blind guides” and consider it wasted, but those represent some of the most significant stretches of our journeys, because it was in these times, in these ditches, that we learned we had eyes, and how to use them.

Every leg of your journey is significant. Including times spent in darkness and ditches.
Jeff Turner