From ucsb.edu/~stp:
Daily Devotional:
Surrender and Spiritual Hunger
I have received a variety of very interesting responses over the past year to my email signature. The line I use is, "Faith, surrender, and hope are only as important to life as, say, breathing."
The people who have responded (among them several Friends) have invariably asked specifically about my interpretation of the word "surrender," (as though faith and hope were themselves well-understood). There are several quotes I'd like to contribute here.
St. Francis prayer opens with, "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love." Psalm 19, in the recent translation by Stephen Mitchell, begs, "Let me keep surrendering myself until I am utterly transparent." A landmark song with the title "Awaken" by one of my all-time favorite rock bands, who are called Yes, has the line (shouted at full volume) "Oh closely guided plan, awaken in our hearts!"
It feels as though everywhere I look, I hear artists and seekers crying out in surrender, not simply asking for God's intervention, but asking to be led, asking to be made instruments of God's will, and recognizing that it involves our listening better, not God's yelling louder.
If only it were easy for us to arrange for our lives to be taken over by the spirit. We have to make a place for it; the process requires slowing down, letting go of our momentary attachments, listening, making an explicit place for divinity in our lives. In one of her books on angels, Doreen Virtue presents the following rules for bringing Angels into your life: (1) Live your life with full integrity; (2) Acknowledge (explicitly) your faith in Angels; and (3) Have the silence to hear what they're saying.
In the end, returning to my email quote, I actually have a much harder time defining and staying in touch with faith and hope than maintaining an attitude of surrender and spiritual hunger.
Daily Devotional:
Surrender and Spiritual Hunger
I have received a variety of very interesting responses over the past year to my email signature. The line I use is, "Faith, surrender, and hope are only as important to life as, say, breathing."
The people who have responded (among them several Friends) have invariably asked specifically about my interpretation of the word "surrender," (as though faith and hope were themselves well-understood). There are several quotes I'd like to contribute here.
St. Francis prayer opens with, "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love." Psalm 19, in the recent translation by Stephen Mitchell, begs, "Let me keep surrendering myself until I am utterly transparent." A landmark song with the title "Awaken" by one of my all-time favorite rock bands, who are called Yes, has the line (shouted at full volume) "Oh closely guided plan, awaken in our hearts!"
It feels as though everywhere I look, I hear artists and seekers crying out in surrender, not simply asking for God's intervention, but asking to be led, asking to be made instruments of God's will, and recognizing that it involves our listening better, not God's yelling louder.
If only it were easy for us to arrange for our lives to be taken over by the spirit. We have to make a place for it; the process requires slowing down, letting go of our momentary attachments, listening, making an explicit place for divinity in our lives. In one of her books on angels, Doreen Virtue presents the following rules for bringing Angels into your life: (1) Live your life with full integrity; (2) Acknowledge (explicitly) your faith in Angels; and (3) Have the silence to hear what they're saying.
In the end, returning to my email quote, I actually have a much harder time defining and staying in touch with faith and hope than maintaining an attitude of surrender and spiritual hunger.
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