1) The one the world knows
2) The one our friends know
3) The one we know ourselves
4) The one God knows
Lent--a period of penitence and fasting observed on the forty weekdays from Ash Wednesday to Easter in Christian churches--started last Wednesday, February 13th. Various churches participate in Lent in a number of ways. For some of us--with an opportunity to attend church more than once during the week--it offers time for additional reflection into our personal and spiritual selves.
We hear the expressions. . .
I have no life.
Get a life.
That is no way to live.
We each have times when we are over-whelmed, exhausted, mistreated or feel we are living without purpose--nothing is happening or too much is happening. What difference does it make? Sometimes, we adorn masks, a facade, so nobody knows who we really are or how we are really feeling. We can kid others; we can even fool ourselves.
But God always knows.
We are often troubled, but not crushed;
sometimes in doubt, but never in despair;
there are many enemies, but we are never without a friend;
and though badly hurt at times,
we are not destroyed.
At all times we carry in our mortal bodies
the death of Jesus,
so that his life may also be seen in our bodies.
2 Corinthians 4: 8-10
With God, there is always hope.
We are always being made new because of Jesus, the Christ.
***
Leo Buscaglia wrote. . .
Starting each day I promise myself not to try to solve all my life's problems all at once . . .
Starting each day I will try to learn something new about me and about you so that I may continue to experience all things as if they had just been newly born.
Starting each day I shall listen to you and try to see your point of view and to discover the least threatening way to offer you mine, remembering that wherever we are now we need not be there tomorrow.
Starting each day I shall not insist that you be perfect until I myself am perfect.
Starting each day I shall seek out the beautiful things that fill our world like flowers and blades of grass and dew drops on leaves, and people, and faces, and share my new-found beauty with you.
Starting each day I shall reach out and touch you gently with my mind, my eyes, and with my hands, for I don't want to miss you.
***
You may not see the connection--
but connections are always there--
in the following poem
written by one of our new Alpha writers.
It is powerful.
I wait for you
where the black leather seats of the diner
are no longer plush
and stuffing oozes like mashed potatoes
from stitching cracked like the rear view mirror
of the aged silver bus that carries your soul.
I walk to you
along fields of clover; thumb out
waiting for flower paint and peace sings
and you in beads and braids
hanging from the window
mellow and warm; swaying to old freedom songs.
We dance on lost highways and forgotten roads
haunting the American nights
where jazz is dead
and blues are the swirling neon
of too many bars pressed together in rows
pretending there's nothing wrong
with a place that says come in empty
and leave alone.
Chrystal
The poem is about the father she barely knew.
It could be about anyone once loved or--always loved.
Everyone has four faces--
1) The one the world knows
2) The one our friends know
3) The one we know ourselves
4) The one God knows
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18
Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry,
we do not lose heart.
2 Corinthians 4:1
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we are all baptized by one Spirit into one body. . . Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it . . .
1 Corinthians 12
Father, in the not-so-easy times of my life, help me remember that you are always near. May I be mindful of your love. May my face, my heart and my spirit reflect this love to others. To God be the glory.
Amen
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