Monday Morning Meditation #4: Awareness of God's Presence

I continue along the path I started a month ago, reading through Genesis sequentially and stopping when something strikes me as needing greater attention. This week I got as far as the 28th chapter of Genesis. (Yep, it's going to take years at this rate to make it all the way through the Bible, but then, I'm in no hurry. The journey is more important than the destination, as I blogged in an earlier post.)

Reading: Genesis 28:16

Meditation: As I meandered through Genesis, a few things blipped on my radar screen momentarily: where we get government taxes (Joseph required all to give back 1/5 of the produce to the Pharaoh), where we get tithing (Jacob/Israel promised God 1/10 of all he owned and acquired), how often angels appeared to people in those days (probably today, too, a topic of some interest to me, considering that I just made a series of posts about angels), and how often barren women, especially quite old ones, were blessed with children.

What truly jumped out at me, though, was verse 16 in chapter 28: "And Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said: 'Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.'" I wonder how many times God is in a place where we are and we know it not. Because we are too busy tending to matters at hand, whatever they may be. Because we are too focused on ourselves. Because we are tired. Because we are not alone. Because we just don't think that way. And then I recall how Doah, in visiting the old mission town where I live for the first time, said to me quite simply in his limited, mentally-challenged language, "God here," and nodded his head in great satisfaction. He knew. In his great limitation of mental faculty, he knew. In his naivete, he knew. He knew what people of much greater intellectual prowess do not know. It causes one to stop and wonder, doesn't it?

And that is far as I can go with you on this Monday morning. I must retire to prayer to ask God for enlightenment to know when I am in His presence, to express my regret for any opportunities to be with Him that I missed, to give thanks for His willingness to be with me (with us all), to offer praise to a God who cares enough about us to be present to us, and to tell Him how I revel in His presence now that the shock I felt the first time I knew He was present with me has turned to joy. (I know God knows all of that since He knows me better than I know myself, but I still like to tell Him -- the telling may be more for me than for Him, but I suspect that He does not mind.)

After that, I will spend some time in contemplation with this wonderful God who came after me, brought me into His flock, and has never abandoned me.

I will now leave you to your prayer and contemplation.

If you pick this up as a weekly devotional activity, please share with me and others your own thoughts about the message of Genesis 28:16.

Have a good day and a good week!

Monday Morning Meditation #3: Legacies from the Tower of Babel

I have made it as far as Genesis, Chapter 11 (yep, I decided to continue in a sequential fashion, which is very unlike random me) before coming across the story of the Tower of Babel. I had to stop and reflect on that story because had there been no destruction of the tower and scattering of the people, along with confusion of tongues, I would have no employment today. You see, I have worked in 24 (about to be 25) countries as an interpreter, translator, foreign-language teacher, cross-cultural consultant, and language-program administrator. My repertoire of foreign languages exceeds 20 and continues to grow. So, of course, the story of the Tower of Babel caught my attention. Post-Babel, in the world in which we live and the one where I try to bridge cultures, our biggest problem internationally is understanding each other well enough to stop killing each other, or, better, not to start the killing to begin with.

Reading: Genesis 11:1-9

Meditation: In re-reading this passage, I noticed something beyond the outcome, i.e. the scattering of people across the world and the rise of a myriad languages. Something else speaks out from these verses: hubris. One hears overweaning pride and conceit in the words of the people: "Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, with its top in heaven, and let us make us a name." God's response was to prevent this, scattering the people, and making it difficult for them to communicate with each other. It would seem that "making a name" for oneself is not what God considers important, yet how often do we want to do just that? How often do we want our children to do that? How often do we admire those who have done that? How often do we congratulate friends whose offspring have done that? Making a name, it would seem, is very important in American culture.

One of the people I would like to emulate is our former landlord, Ernie Camacho. Anyone who knows baseball probably recognizes that name from World Series XIV, which he pitched, as well as his former pitching for more than one national baseball team. Ernie was a small-city boy, the son of immigrants (friends of ours), who had made a name for himself. The question is: Does anyone know where Ernie is now? He finished his career in the early '90s and returned to the town of his youth, living with his Mexican-Catholic parents (our friends), and working as a high school school janitor. Yes, as a janitor. Why? He started out as a school counselor, but took on the janitor's job because, as he told me, the students opened up more to a janitor than to a counselor; they had nothing to fear or prove with a janitor. As an international educator, I have a long way to go to reach the level of janitor. Maybe I won't make it, but I try. I have come to know many janitors worldwide; they have been good teachers for me. Some day maybe I will be as good a teacher as they. For that, I pray. I suppose I could quit my job and seek one as a janitor, but (1) I am not ready for that because I like what I do and I know that God is able to use us wherever we are (it is, in fact, a job that God has permitted after obviously closing doors to alternatives) and (2) I am not good enough at the skills required of janitors for anyone to consider offering me a job.

And that is far as I can go with you on this Monday morning. I must retire to prayer to ask God for guidance as I continue to try to be an adequate conduit for Him and for my organization in bridging cultural and linguistic differences, to express my regret for each of those instances where I "blew it" because I was not ready to understand "the other" or failed to do my homework in advance of meetings, to give thanks for a lifetime of unexpected and undeserved opportunities to meet representatives of the scattered tribes descending from the days of Babel, and to offer praise to God who understands us even without words. Yes, that is what I will pray for to begin with, but then, I will take up the more important theme, to ask God to show me how to be His janitor, to sweep any sense of my own self-importance under the carpet of fraternal love, and to trash any pride that may remain hidden within me for I do not need it. The latter is, unfortunately, not a one-time prayer. I need to have long, periodic conversations with God about that -- and do.

After that, I will spend some time in contemplation with this wonderful God who loves me in spite of my pride and failures.

I will now leave you to your prayer and contemplation.

If you pick this up as a weekly devotional activity, please share with me and others your own thoughts about the message of Genesis 11: 1-9.

Have a good day and a good week!

Monday Morning Meditation #2: Blowing Our Heritage

Where does one go after the first chapter of Genesis? For lack of a better plan of action, I moved over into the second and third chapters of Genesis. Why not?

Reading: Genesis 2, Genesis 3

Meditation: In reading these chapters, I noticed something I had glossed over before: "And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." Hmmm....Fine job that we did! And I do mean "we." Yes, Adam and Eve managed to get themselves thrown out of the garden, but there are people living in these areas today, especially the area of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. They are called Iraqis -- and Kurds and Sorranis -- and they are at war. Historically, there has been much fighting in this area, constantly destroying natural beauty, and now the US has launched its campaign against this area. Let's see -- the University of Baghdad more than 30% destroyed, national treasures stolen from museums, and historic landmarks gone forever. It seems that we are not keeping what God has given us very well, certainly not "dressing" it. Or, do we somehow think that this task involves only people from a bygone era. And what about generalizing this task? Does it not generalize to include our natural environment wherever we are. Perhaps George Bernard Shaw's words -- "Go where no one has gone before and leave a path" -- should not refer to the physical world but the metaphysical one. Perhaps the backpacker's motto -- "pack in, pack out" -- should refer to both physical and metaphysical worlds. We don't need to leave our psychological garbage strewn around any more than our physical garbage.

In Chapter 3, God is quoted as saying now that Man has eaten of the Tree of Knowledge (of good and bad), the Tree of Life should be put off limits and kept away from Man, lest he eat from that, too, and live forever. Oh, my! I think Mankind just lost a good deal of trust -- and we do not seem to have done much over the centuries to regain it. How many times have we turned away from God? Murdered his prophets and His Incarnation? Silenced those who would speak on His behalf? Tried to act like Gods -- judging others, making decisions with nary a thought as to what God would see as good, setting up our own ethical systems (some in contradiction to scripture)? If we had a chance to live forever by eating forbidden fruit, how many would do it? (I think the % of today's population answering "I would" would be quite high.)

There are apparently things that we are not supposed to know, as with the knowledge that came from eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. Adam and Eve, gaining that knowledge, changed their relationship with God for the worse. How many times do we receive bounty from God and stll ask why God gave it to us? Or, on the other hand, when something goes wrong, blame God, and demand to know why He did not intervene? Maybe we are not supposed to know because knowing, as in the case of Adam and Eve suddenly knowing good and evil, would further spoil a simple, trusting, loving relationship to God.

And that is far as I can go with you on this Monday morning. I will now retire to prayer (to ask forgiveness for all those times I fail to dress and keep the places and people God has put before me and all those times I have asked to know why when I really only needed to accept God's will, to beg for another chance to try not to fail, to give thanks for all the chances I have been given and all the love I have been given even when I have not deserved them/it, and to offer praise for the great kindness of God that forgives over and over and lets us try again and again and loves us forever and ever). And then I will spend some time in contemplation with this wonderful God, and will let you do the same.

If you pick this up as a weekly devotional activity, please share with me and others your own experiences in doing so. What words did you choose for meditation? What insights did you have? What have you been given to understand that would be appropriate to share and from which we might all benefit?

Have a good day and a good week!

Monday Morning Meditation #1: And God Saw That It Was Good

Where better to start a meditation series called Monday Morning Meditation than at the beginning? That was the question that posed itself when I began thinking about where I should look for the first posting in the series. So, figuring that there is nothing more "at the beginning" than Genesis, I shall take the first chapter of Genesis.

Reading: Genesis 1: 1-31

Meditation: In reading this chapter, the first thing that leaps out at me are the words, "And God saw that it was good." Those words repeat over and over. What that means to me is that everything we have is good. The world is good. Most important, we are good. While sometimes our lives look dark, dangerous, and depressing, that is only on the surface and from our limited ability to understand our world. We should rejoice, rather than ever thinking about ourselves in negative terms. There is no reason for low self-esteem if God found everything He made "very good." Nor should we find other people "bad" if God has found them good. We need to see the God-seed in them and love them, no matter how we would really like to judge them! Where we or the world is not good is where we/mankind have made it not good. These words also mean to me that everything in this world that God found good -- the people, the animals, the environment -- we are beholden to do everything we can to keep good.

And that is far as I can go with you on this Monday morning. I will now retire to prayer (to thank God for all the goodness that He has put into the world and into my life and into the people around me) and contemplation and will let you do the same.

If you pick this up as a weekly devotional activity, please share with me and others your own experiences in doing so. What words did you choose for meditation? What insights did you have? What have you been given to understand that would be appropriate to share and from which we might all benefit?

Have a good day and a good week!