Sitting at the beach this morning I was reminded of why we were/are created....to enjoy the creation: which is, to enjoy ourselves. I am constantly drawn to the water. I find it peaceful. Refreshing and healing. It hints at the secret of a life well lived.

I don't need to be anymore aware of the need for God's grace to live a spiritual, holy life than I need to be aware of gravity to walk down the road. I certainly need gravity, depend upon it, without it even crossing my mind for a moment - and still I can walk a pretty straight line, if I do say so myself. It is no different when it comes to the necessity of God's grace, God's energy, for me to live a spiritual, holy life. God's grace is as all pervasive as gravity to the spiritual seeker (or non-seeker, even to the denier), and it does not depend upon us recognizing it. To say that God's grace is only available to those who give God proper credit is to attribute to God a superman-sized ego. Obviously, to recognize the author of life, to recognize the source of power and grace is an undeniable benefit, but is it essential or necessary? I don't believe so. The sun shines on the good and the bad, as they say.

In the biblical witness, the nations carry on their business operating within the grace and energy of God, mostly without giving credit or recognizing God at all; often attributing God's grace to other sources - until such time as he has sent a witness to them (and it is arguable that Israel's task of witnessing to the nations is truly more as a means of formation and instruction for Israel than for the nations). While it is clear that God wanted Israel, his chosen people to recognize the source of grace and life, it is only after God had taken considerable effort and time to reveal himself very deliberately to Israel. For the rest of the nations it was business as usual until such time as evidence and witness was brought to bear upon them. Only then was there a call to responsibility and accountability amongst the nations. And in that business as usual there was, inherit within their cultures, religions, traditions - a sense of the holy, a sense of morality. They sought to embody what they understood as the higher way within what they perceived as their own efforts, or even in dependence upon something (a god, a power, ancestors etc), and yet all of their efforts found their success through the grace and energy of God.
What does this mean? What am I trying to get at? That God is not an egomaniac. That the sun shines upon the good and the bad. That holiness is not the slave or property to any dogma or system. I copied my last post, Words to Live by from Ephesians, a christian scripture text, because it not only was formative in my life, but because I believe those principles, those values, are universal. While the text is tinged with a christian theological flavour, the concepts of honesty and love are universal. Life is not a slave to dogma or systemization, nor is the grace of god.

Words to Live by.

"Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil.

Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have wherof to give to him that hath need.

Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear.

And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you.

Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.

But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becometh saints; nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not befitting: but rather giving of thanks."

Return/New Day

Goodbye, dirty days - though I may drag you out in a brown bottle haze.
The man I was is who I want to be.
Time to put off the old man and return to the new,
Man of character and principle - walking in the middle path...
I'm seeking the Way in the changes of each day.



Respectability - to myself first, and to those I love.
Restoration - what's within my grasp, without iron dogma of what's above
Return - to the principles and character that I held to be important
Realization - that principles are a guide, not a forced reality; that character is a reflection, not the reality. That reality is beyond the sound of my voice, the ripples from my actions, and the eloquence of my tongue - and yet everything is in contact with reality.