"location, location, location..."

"our house
is a very, very, very
fine house..."

I could find a perfect correlation between Crosby, Stills, and Nash's "Our House," with this post -- but it would be a reach. I just love it. And it's about a house. So....

This post is about a different kind of house. A house that is not just historic and well-built, but eternal.

In this week's Bible study is Jesus' parable of two houses:

“Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

"And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."
 

As I have written about before, my first "aha" moment with this parable came some years ago, when I realized that  by building his house on the rock, it did not mean that the "wise" homeowner would not face storms. In fact, the same exact storm assails both houses. The only difference is -- one doesn't fall.

For so many years, I thought that by building my house on a rock, I was somehow insuring that I would not face storms -- or at least not as rough a storm as if I hadn't. So, when I faced the battering waves of fear, doubt, illness, lack, inharmony -- I thought I'd failed to build on the right foundation. It was somehow my fault. Back to the spiritual drawing board. This insight has helped me immeasurably. I don't go there anymore. The same storm assails both houses. The only difference - if I build on the rock, my house will not fall.

But this week's realization was just as profound for me. The parable is not about the house - at all. It has nothing to do with the builder's skill or the materials he/she has chosen. It is, in fact, all about location, location, location.

Where are you building? Are you choosing to cast about for "the right," view outside the window? Or, are you casting within -- building your house - your consciousness of things, on the gospel message of "the kingdom."

In Luke, when the Pharisees try to trick Jesus into laying the foundation of his ministry in a particular place -- Jerusalem or Nazareth, with the Pharisees, Sadducees, Greeks, Romans, Jews, Samaritans, or Canaanites, we read:

“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there!

for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."
 

Where are we founding our sense of being - of actual existence? Our own, or another's? Are we seeing ourselves - or our neighbor - as being planted in this dogma or that doctrine? This party or that side? One nation, race, religion, gender -- or another? Or, are we seeing each of our fellow creatures as houses built on a Rock -- the kingdom of God? A location that is ever-constant and never-variable - within?

I have lived in 61 houses to date. Here is what I have learned about house hunting. Houses can be renovated, added on to, fixed up, torn down, and rebuilt.  New carpet, fresh paint, window boxes, and shutters.  But...

The location is changeless. If a particular location gets intense western sunlight all day -- that's not going to change. If the soil is rocky or near the ocean, surrounded by rolling hills or majestic mountains -- that's not going to change. If you are building your sense of being on what is temporary, shifting, and variable -- it will, by its very nature, change.  If you are building the structure of your life on what is changeless, within -- that will always be there to cultivate. And when the storms come, you will not fall.

Location, location, location - within...

offered with Love,

Kate

"a nameless impartation of Love..."

"oh we saw the face of angels,
for good reason this joy is in our hearts..."
- Sara Groves

In church this morning, the theme of our sermon seemed to be on the power of "blessing," and included the Bible story of Jacob wrestling with the angel at Peniel (Genesis 32). And although I'd been asked to re-post an earlier piece I'd written about this story a few days ago, this morning, something new came alive for me.

And this "something new" came from Mary Baker Eddy's brief exegesis of that account in her primary work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures where she posits:

"The Jacob questioned his deliverer. "Tell me, I pray thee, thy name;" bu this appellation was withheld, for the messenger was not a corporeal being, but a nameless, incorporeal impartation of divine Love to man, which to use the word of the Psalmist, restored his Soul, -- gave him the spiritual sense of being and rebuked his material sense.

"The result of jacob's struggle thus appeared. He had conquered material error with the understand of Spirit and of spiritual power."

The angel -- by refusing to claim for itself a personal identity -- had given Jacob a sense of his own oneness with Spirit, his own sense of dominion over error. Wow...

Finally it all made sense to me. In denying Jacob an answer to his query, the angel was not invoking some kind of spiritual hierarchy, a holier-than-thou, you-don't deserve-to know-my-name sort of power play, but giving Jacob the ultimate gift. A lens on his own spiritual identity. The angel wanted Jacob...now Israel...to realize that it was all, already, within himself. There was no entity or being "outside" of himself which had facilitated his awakening. The angel could not give Jacob it's name, because it didn't have one. It was truly "an incorporeal impartation of divine Love..." directly from God, to His precious son Jacob/Israel.

We all have angels, "God's thoughts passing to [us], spiritual intuitions pure and perfect, the inspirations of goodness..." wrestling with (and more accurately "within") us, not against us...all the time. We need look no further, than to the cherished hopes waiting deep within our own hearts, to find them there.

And today, I'm thinking this is the perfect "job description": "a nameless, incorporeal impartation of divine Love..."

always with Love,

Kate

Here is a link to Sara Groves' "Joy is in Our Hearts." I hope you enjoy it.

"Safe in the arms of Love..."

"I want a heart to be forever mine,
I want eyes to see me satisfied,
Gonna hang my heartaches out to dry...
Someday I'm gonna be safe in the arms of love,
Safe in the arms Of Love"

I heard the first verse of Martina McBride's "Safe in the Arms of Love," the other day, and there wasn't a moment's hesitation to my response...

"Hey, I've got that...I've already got all of that."

And it was a feeling that ran very deep...like an underground river.  I didn't have to reason it out, or ponder it for a long time...it was as immediate, and present, as any feeling I've ever had.  And I think maybe, it just might be, that Jesus' message of "the kingdom of heaven is within you" is finally getting through! 

It infinitely clear that, the only heart that will ever be "forever mine," is...well, mine.  That the one, and only, love that I can always be sure of, is the love that I am feeling...for God, and for others.  It's within me...and nothing can take it away.  Nothing, and no one, can deprive me of its constancy, its reliability, its ever-presence.  It's source is God, Love...so, by reflection, it is mine...and it's forever mine.  Because I am His, forever His. 

That doesn't mean that the affection, warmth, and tenderness that I feel,  from others...my loved ones -- family and friends...brings any less sweetness, happiness, and joy.  Quite the contrary.  I experience each moment of their love with an even greater wonder and delight because it is no longer a measure of how much love I have in my life.  The love in my life is full and overflowing...but it comes from within...not without.   It's only defined by the love I have to give, not the love I hope to get.

And as for those "eyes that see me satisfied..."  Well, they look back at me from the mirror every morning.  I know that, as Mary Baker Eddy says, in her poem, "Satisfied":

"It matters not, what be thy lot
so Love doth guide."

It no longer matters whether I am experiencing a lot of love, or that my lot in life...at any given moment....is lean with aloneness, or gaping with opportunities to grow in grace, to be a blessing in the world I walk in.  As long as I am letting Love guide my heart, my motives, my speech and actions, I have the right to be...and am... satisfied.  And I can see this contentment in myself, and know that it is unshakeable.

So tonight, as I sit here thinking about all the campers, counselors, staff, and bunkhouse parents...who have gathered at various summer camps across the country to grow spiritually, and make new friends ...I am feeling such deep peace knowing that the kingdom of heaven is within each of us, that our hearts are guided solely by Love, that we are  safe in, and as, His outreached arms of extended blessings...and, that we are...right now...satisfied. 

rest well....

Kate