FootprintsintheWind.com

If we agree that God is eternal You and can never be It, if we agree that God is unbound, unboundable and therefore utterly free, we could never that this or that about God for God can choose otherwise, we can never install handles on God, we can only hope to meet God and meet again. Meetings are unreliable, unpredictable. We cannot have faith in our concept of God, for we can never know all about God. God is You and free as we to meet in different ways. No person is ever wholly known. We must go out not in trust but in knowing we own nothing and control nothing ultimately and for ever and so we too are free to meet You. Free in meeting You. Freed by meeting You. Set loose.

:- Doug.

I catch the glance, for an instant it holds me and I decide to answer or turn away. But for that instant, there was a noticing of the knock on the door. Not conscious willingness, but a primal acceptance, as a babe catches a mother’s or father’s gaze. You! Then comes the flicker, then the decision.

:- Doug.

We do not know all that is possible.

:- Doug.

You!

:- Doug.

God is not the candle and God is not in the candle any more than in any other physical object. God is not the book and God is not in the book any more than in any other physical object.

:- Doug.

The days of the month go no farther than 31, the days of the week are limited to 7. These are not eternal truths, but human convenience. Carefully must we assign meaning to our observation.

:- Doug.

These one-page articles are too long to say what can only be said in a glance, too long to touch the profound.

:- Doug.

Beautiful sunlight
Beautiful day
A-dawning
Wonder is we seldom say
Beautiful cloud-light
Cozy blanket, warming & a-living

:- Doug.

Ahh! So much we miss
when we see someone as other
—strange, unknown, alien—
we miss seeing others
—people like us, full with
mystery, loving, longing to be known

:- Doug.

Our whole work is conversation. Whole, as in rounded, full, complete, healing. Our, as in each person on this globe. Conversation, meaning turning with, a picture of dancing, and a picture of turning over a compost heap to keep it working! The only way we have to love one another is conversation, which may be words, may be silences, may be a touch or a glance.

:- Doug.

We are living reduced lives and under the surface we know it. So we try to fill the empty feeling with food, drugs, abdicating our power to sports or political heroes. No wonder we are troubled. No wonder our politics are bizarre. No wonder we are fat!

:- Doug.

When we could have participated wholly
We are living reduced lives

:- Doug.

The promise in Daniel 4:27 is “there may perhaps be a lengthening of your tranquility.” No guarantee in this direction: in the opposite no tranquility, no sleeping easily. You’re not buying peace, a penny for an hour, all you’ve got for a lifetime supply. God, life, is sovereign. Instead, only “perhaps.”

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1225

Clouds float by against a deep blue
edges reaching out to one another
collecting together

and we below are busy with
that which busies us
so we do not notice

how without effort and worry
the world does its work
clouds float by against a deep blue

Please pass it on.

© c 2012, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/291-0022, or by e-mail to mailto:Doug AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com

Snow! How beautiful!
Snow! Let’s make a snowman!
Snow! Let’s ski and sled!
Snow! Dangerous driving!
Snow! Slow going!
Snow! Yuk!
Snow makes the world other

:- Doug.

We live in a world of possibility
And you,
You are authorized!

:- Doug.

The snow how it clears the air
Covers the dirty streets and withered grass
With freshness: possibility swirls around us!

:- Doug.

Life can change in a twinkling
Like the weather around here
Keep working, here’s hope

:- Doug.

They were elected
But you were selected

:- Doug.

With others, risk.

:- Doug.

Invite to life!

:- Doug.

To engage the world, invite
Inviting is scary:
welcoming differing voices to your hearth
you might be obliged
to turn your life or words
You must drown to breathe
You must, now, invite

:- Doug.

Today we don’t want to speak our questions and fears, to tell one another what concerns us about the other’s words and actions: we simply walk away. We don’t try to resolve differences—or imagined differences—we walk away. We are timid, do not want to hurt another’s feelings, or more precisely want to avoid the work of conflict, so—we walk away. We choose isolation over the possibility of life-giving encounter.

:- Doug.