Finding our way to The Way one situation at a time. I don't know how great it will be, but I expect it will be interesting, and I look forward to it going on past all reason because wonder is just that way. Are you coming or not?
God is the first and the last God is she who is honored and she who is mocked God is the whore and the holy woman God is the wife and the virgin God is the the mother and the daughter God is a sterile woman who has many children God is she whose wedding is extravagant and who didn’t have a husband…. God is the silence never found God is the idea infinitely recalled God is a barbarian among barbarians…. God is a foreigner in, and a citizen of, every land ...
These words are adapted from The Thunder: Perfect Mind, a poem found among the Gnostic gospels at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945.
It only takes sitting with the poem to realize that it is of God, from God, to God, and so are we all.
I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing.
I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters, five granddaughters, one great granddaughter, and a great grandson on the way, within about ten minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.
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6 thoughts on “April 18, 2024 – B”
A thoroughly amazing and revealing poem. Each and every human personifies the God within, whatever their station or gender. Beautiful adaptation.
I am not familiar with Gnostic teachings but this reminds me of some very beautiful Sufi poetry I have read over the years…they see God in everything and everyone, and also see ‘Her’ as their beloved. There are a lot of Sufi songs which are love songs about intense longing, but ‘God’ is the beloved not a human form 🙂
“You are such a puzzle…
You are not seen, yet you are everywherе
You reside in every speck in all your glory
Yet my mind cannot fathom how and what you are
But I found you residing in my heart
You are such a puzzle…
When there is no one present except you
Then I can not understand why you are veiled ?
The one lost in your love
is the only one who has found something
You can not be found in any place of worship
But you are found in a broken heart
You are such a puzzle…”
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 
A thoroughly amazing and revealing poem. Each and every human personifies the God within, whatever their station or gender. Beautiful adaptation.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I am not familiar with Gnostic teachings but this reminds me of some very beautiful Sufi poetry I have read over the years…they see God in everything and everyone, and also see ‘Her’ as their beloved. There are a lot of Sufi songs which are love songs about intense longing, but ‘God’ is the beloved not a human form 🙂
LikeLiked by 3 people
“You are such a puzzle…
You are not seen, yet you are everywherе
You reside in every speck in all your glory
Yet my mind cannot fathom how and what you are
But I found you residing in my heart
You are such a puzzle…
When there is no one present except you
Then I can not understand why you are veiled ?
The one lost in your love
is the only one who has found something
You can not be found in any place of worship
But you are found in a broken heart
You are such a puzzle…”
LikeLiked by 3 people
The sufi’s are guilty of habitual intuition! As are all indigenous people everywhere. The priests and theologians led them astray.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Amen! Good sharing. Thank you!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Beautiful! Thanks!🙏
LikeLiked by 2 people