In the book, Walking In The World As A Friend, Nadine Hoover asks the questions: 

• How do I experience the Living Spirit? 
• How am I tendered by this Inward Grace? 
• Can I notice when I’m rigid and soften in my body, mind, thoughts, feelings, soul, or spirit? 
• How do I let love abide in me, turn to love, and feel loved and loving towards others and nature? 
• What do I need to bring into my life or let go of to feel the sacramental wholeness of life in every moment?

In a conversation I had with my friend, Christopher, this morning he reminded me of the tautology (a statement that is true by necessity or by virtue of its logical form) that when we experience love, give love, receive love and generate love through compassion and empathy that is the living spirit.  

Love is the essence of the Christ impulse (or however you wish to name it).  

John 15:15 states that Jesus no longer calls his followers servants but friends because he has made known to them everything he learned from his Father. This shift signifies a relationship of trust and intimacy.  As Quakers we call ourselves Friends for a reason.  We relate to one another as sharing an experience of the living spirit.  In our own way Spirit moves through us.   And it moves in a particular way ... through the deep respect and love we have for each other as seekers on the path to greater understanding; accepting of our foibles and missteps as well as our moments of insight into the continuing revelation.

As Nadine Hoover put it: "Love is to feel a tender affection for and a sense of the preciousness of another, while free
to take leave without ill judgment or retribution."  What a pleasant counterpoint to our current social situation in which harsh words, anger and violence seem to be the "norm." 

Thoughts of anger, violence, hatred, revenge and the like are like the sharks circling the disabled vessel in Homer's painting, The Gulf Stream.  These are the farthest from love and bring us no closer to the movement of Spirit. 

What is deeply important now is to observe how we act toward not only our beloved ones but also the least of those amongst us and the ones we wish to revile. To maintain decency and equanimity in the face of our own disgust is vital.  It may be our access to love and how the spirit moves within us. 

~ Joseph Olejak

Christ, was prophesied in scripture as a "root out of a dry ground" (Isaiah 53:2)

A few weeks ago in meeting for worship someone mentioned this scripture and I've been thinking about what it means for my life? What was Isaiah pointing to? 

When I am faced with challenges in life I often give it over to a higher power.  I know as a human with plenty of challenges I have limited capacities to solve problems.  I also know that when I sit in quiet worship I can tap into sources of understanding that my "thinking mind" may not have access to. Sometimes called a "peace beyond understanding." My mind is the ground that I'm used to using, but that ground can be dried up with stress, worry, and anxiety. 

And yet, the spirit of Christ is with us.    

Some of the questions I am contemplating this morning are: 

• Can we give over our cares to a higher power? 
• Am I required to white knuckle solo through every challenge? 
• Am I too proud to ask for help? 
• Where did I get the notion that I'm in this existence all alone? 
• Where does the line between burden and asking for some assistance lie? 

We can feel both humbled and deeply supported by the notion that Christ is with us. That spirit infuses so much in our community. It arises at the moment we realize that we are not alone (a root out of dry ground) and when connect with the spirit of Christ (a root that arose out of dry ground)  

I'm okay with being both a supplicant and a supple root.  It's not either / or but and / both.  We can move between these spaces of supporting others and at times asking for what we need.  

Photo credit from Meta AI with human prompts by Joseph Olejak 

~ Joseph Olejak