March 13, 2022

01

Be right about what needs to be done
and do it.
In each situation as it arises.

Being right about what needs to be done
is a simple matter
of living in right relationship
with the right kind of emptiness,
stillness and silence,
and the right kind of relationship
with yourself
and your circumstances.

The right kind of relationship
with our circumstances
is a matter of working to have
no expectations,
no agenda,
no opinion
regarding each situation as it arises.

Once we have something personal at stake
in the situation,
we generate our own internal noise
that disrupts the emptiness,
stillness
and silence,
and interferes with the signals
coming from our Inner Guide.

Then, we have to find our way back to
the Gateless Gate,
turn the light around,
and tune into our instinct, intuition,
perspective and perception
in order to regain our balance, 
achieve harmony
and put ourselves in accord with the flow of the way,
right here, right now,
seeing what we look at,
hearing what is being called for,
knowing what's what
and what needs to be done.

That leaves doing it,
then we move into the next situation,
and put the process into play again,
and again,
and so on,
for the rest of our life.

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02

"Church" means only three things:
"Everybody here all thinks alike,
and we only ask questions
that are allowed to be asked.
If you don't like that,
you aren't welcome here!"

Jesus said, "You shall know the truth
and the truth shall set you free."
And people in churches all know the truth
but they are bound to the truth they call truth
and can't be free
to ask the questions that beg to be asked
and to say the things that cry out to be said.

Asking the questions that beg to be asked,
and saying the things that cry out to be said,
lead us to seeing what's what,
to hearing what is being called for
in order to do what needs to be done,
when it need to be done,
where it needs to be done,
how it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
with nothing in it for us
beyond the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it
in each situation as it arises
al our life long.

No one wants to be that free.

The freedom to do what needs to be done
crimps, and cramps, our style.
"That's asking too much!", we say,
and bury ourselves in distraction,
diversion,
drama
and denial
until death mercifully relieves us
of the burden of having to be free.

I retired from the ministry
after forty years and six months of
"service to the church,"
serving five churches in three states,
and was paid by all of those churches
to talk to people about God.
But.
Not one of those churches,
and not one church anywhere,
at any time,
so far as I have been able to tell,
wanted me to tell them anything about God
they had not already heard.

How free is that?

So, of course I said things they had not heard,
but.
Those were all things they could not hear.
And so, they asked,
"Jim, why don't you talk to us
about things we can understand?"
And when I said,
"Because those are the things
that keep you from being free
to do the things that need to be done,"
they would look blankly
and either leave,
or stay and put up with me,
hoping that one day I would begin to make sense.

The ones who could hear what I was saying
didn't need to hear it
because they had already figured it out
for themselves.
Which is what everybody ought to be about,
and putting it into practice
in doing what needs to be done.

So, I retired,
but did not quit,
and here I am,
doing what needs to be done.

And you?

–0–

03

Hope is way over-rated.
People who cast about
because they "have lost all hope,"
haven't lost hope--
they have the same amount
they always had--
what they have lost is the fire.

They have lost the glint in their eye,
the length of their stride,
the strength in their voice,
their belief in what they are doing.

They have given up
because nothing seemed to be working,
and they equate that with having no chance,
which they think means having no hope.

Deliver me from people like that!
They expect somebody to restore their hope
when what they have to do is get the fire back.

They need to recover their vision,
their sense, of what needs to be done,
and put their shoulder to the wheel
in doing what needs to be done
whether it does any good or not!

And that is something they do 
in the silence of their own shadow!

It takes the right kind of emptiness,
the right kind of stillness
and the right kind of silence
for the mud to settle and the water to clear,
so that the realization of what is calling us to action
can stir to life within us
and urge us to do what needs us to do it--
Anyway! Nevertheless! Even So!

We bring the fire to life 
when we invest ourselves 
in the work that needs to be done
no matter what,
and become the hope we seek,
encouraging those who can be encouraged,
and plowing past those who cannot be,
giving them no mind
because we are doing a great work,
and can't be bothered by the whining and complaining.

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04

What are your strengths?

What are your virtues (What are you good for? What can you be counted on to do?)?

What are your interests?

What are your loves?

Live to bring these things to life
in the life you are living!

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