On My Mind

John 21:15-19

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" 

He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." 

He said to him, "Feed my lambs."

He then said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" 


He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." 


He said to him, "Tend my sheep."


He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" 


Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." 


(Jesus) said to him, "Feed my sheep. Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go."


He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, "Follow me."

Songs I Like

God Gave Me You - Dave Barnes

I’ve been a walking heartache
I’ve made a mess of me
The person that I’ve been lately
Ain’t who I wanna be

But you stay here right beside me
Watch as the storm goes through
And I need you

God gave me you for the ups and downs
God gave me you for the days of doubt
For when I think I’ve lost my way
*If* There are no words here left to say, it’s true
God gave me you

There’s more here than what were seeing
A divine conspiracy
That you, an angel lovely
Could somehow fall for me
You’ll always be love’s great martyr
Ill be the flattered fool
and I need you

God gave me you for the ups and downs
God gave me you for the days of doubt
For when I think I’ve lost my way
*If* There are no words here left to say, it’s true
God gave me you

On my own I’m only
Half of what I could be
I can’t do without you
We are stitched together
And what love has tethered
I pray we never undo

God gave me you for the ups and downs
God gave me you for the days of doubt
God gave me you for the ups and downs
God gave me you for the days of doubt
For when I think I’ve lost my way
*If* There are no words here left to say, it’s true
God gave me you, gave me you.
Gave me you.

Mine - Taylor Swift

Abundance vs. Scarcity Mentality

So something that I was reading in one of my class readings was about how as leaders, we ought to operate under an abundance mentality rather than a scarcity mentality. In other words, we ought not think that another's success takes away from our own. In fact, the idea that other's gain takes away from our own comes from a place of egocentrism. To feel threatened by another's success is a sign of our own own insecurity.

Beyond the realm of leadership, operating from a paradigm of abundance has great potential to open our hearts to a new way of being in the world.

What if we let go of fear and embraced challenge?
What if we stopped protecting our own assets and learned to be generous?
What if we stopped being stingy with our time and learned to give an extra 20 or 30 minutes to listen to the heartache of another without unburdening our own hearts of their sorrow?

So often we do not do the things we ought because we feel that we lose something in doing them and we fear being sucked dry.

While this does not mean that we ought to have no boundaries and let others TAKE, TAKE, TAKE without ever asking for our own needs to be met, I do think that this requires us to leave behind an adolescent egocentrism in favor of true Christian generosity.

I think St. Francis got this right:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon:

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope

where there is darkness, light

where there is sadness, joy

O divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

A Love Poem for your Sunday

I'm going to try to start up some weekly features on my blog. Starting this week - and hopefully continuing each week, I'm going to post a new poem, passage, reflection that I find about God's love, since something I've been thinking about lately is that my own life's mission - at its core -is to tell people how much God loves them.

This week's poem is "A Lover Who Wants His Lovers Near" by Rabia, in Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West by Daniel Ladinsky.

A LOVER WHO WANTS HIS LOVERS NEAR

He is

sweet that way,

trying to coax the world to dance.

Look how the wind holds the trees in its hands

helping them to

sway.

Look how the sky takes the fields and the oceans

and our bodies in its arms, and moves

all beings toward

His lips.

God must get hungry for us; why is He not also

a lover who wants His lovers 

near?

Beauty 

is my teacher

helping me to know He

cares for

me.