A Rose by Any Other Name

A number of you were interested in this question.

What do we mean when we say “God”? Who is God?

Here are some possibilities:

1.

a. The Merciful,

b. The Source of Peace

c. The Protector

d. The King, The One with the complete Dominion

e. The Great Forgiver

2.

a. Defender against Evil

b. Fate, Destiny

c. Seasons, Law, Good Order, Peace

d. Beauty, Adornment, Dancing

3.

a. Master

b. Creator

c. Resurrection and Life

d. Judge of the Living and the Dead

The groups above are from different religious traditions. Maybe you guessed that already. Maybe not.

The links below show where I got these names of God from. A challenge: maybe seeing the names of the links, you’ll be able to tell which tradition each group (above) comes from. Maybe not. Maybe you can learn something about God from these names-for-God. Maybe you can’t.

Are these different faith traditions talking about the same divine spirit? About something completely different from each other?

Pantheon of Greek Gods

100 Biblical Names for Jesus / Names_and_titles_of_Jesus_in_the_New_Testament

99 Attributes of Allah

A Procedure for Love

In our culture, we might start to think we can find a rule for every situation. The way we approach our legal system (are we a "litigious culture"?) and the way Quakers habitually approach problems of "process" have something in common.

But there are situations we can't cover with a pre-set plan and procedure. Rules come with loopholes to exploit, and there are always ways to break rules in secret.

There are people who seem to approach every problem with the question, "how can we make a procedure that permanently solves this problem?"

Among Quakers, we try to connect our souls and hearts with the divine... with Love, with God.

Do we let procedure take over the role of human care, human connection, as a way to solve problems? Do we think we can make a pre-planned process that'll accomplish what love can accomplish?

We can make habits that bring us closer to God, but there isn't a rule that'll make people have love in their hearts.

Deep Life in our Hearts

deep life in our hearts

the things that go beyond words

friendship and community

being who we are

sticking to our word

the things that are forever

is that what the spirit of love is?

Quakers and Ministry

With thanks to my friend Amy Kietzman and the description of ministry at the Quaker Information Center site.

During our meeting for worship, we hope that ministers will only speak if their speaking will deepen the worship. We hope there will be a sense of power and energy in what they have to say, and that when that power isn't there inside them, they'll be silent.

We hope for ministry that has enough depth to cross the distance between us, to touch not just the person speaking but everyone who's there.

We hope for ministry that has a depth to it that'll stand the test of time - that next week, or next month, or next year, it will still have relevance, power, importance in our lives and our hearts.

We hope for ministry, and worship, to be present not only during one hour of scheduled worship, but also in our meetings for worship for business, in our committee meetings, and in our other times together. We hope that what we say and what we do not just on Sundays, but for the rest of the week too, will be touched by a sense of the depth that we look for in our worship together, that our words and actions will be meaningful for more than a tiny moment, and will have have meaning that goes beyond ourselves, alone, alone.

A Quaker Way of Doing Business

With thanks to my friend Maggie, whose joyful spirit played a part in inspiring this message.

When we go to business meetings, do we focus on being what "God / Love / Integrity" is calling us to be? Do we live up to our potential to make the meetings a kind of worship, to speak only when we can speak from deep love, passion, and a shared sense of community? Do we try to make it possible for everyone to get what they need, rather than turning ourselves into adversaries? Do we direct our thoughts towards the ways that deep energy and passion within the whole group will be brought out?

Would you be willing to participate in lovingly trying to help the people we meet with, focus on what excites our energy and passion,

what brings us together,

what draws a sense of love into us?

Quakers and Hurrying

So the ideas for this blog post have been bouncing around in my head for a couple months, but I just didn't get around to writing them down.

So I've been thinking about how it's so easy to never do today what could be done tomorrow instead... like writing a blog post about procrastinating, right?

Or like trying to help folks in Haiti be prepared for hurricanes.

The trouble is, when it comes to preparing for acts of God, isn't so useful to wait until afterwards to prepare.

So, feel free to say that I'm looking at things through rose-colored glasses way too much here, but I think there's a good side to "acts of God" or whatever you want to call them - the good side I'm seeing is that if life throws challenges at us, we often rise up to meet them and we really enjoy the process of learning to overcome them, too. Mind you, I could live without any challenges the size of hurricanes.

Anyway, one of the things that I think God sometimes does by giving me difficult circumstances in life, is tell me to get off my lazy duff and do something. You know, so I don't spend my whole life laying in bed thinking about how bored I am and how nothing that I do really matters to anybody anyway...

Bet I'm not the only person who needs a good kick in the butt to get up and do something useful. Wish it weren't quite so big a kick in the butt as, a bunch of people I know and like live in a village that could potentially be wiped out by hurricanes and flooding. D'oh! Well, at least there's a possible solution. Best estimate I've heard so far says that saving the village from erosion will require a wall that costs some $50,000 US dollars - well within reach for a well-organized fundraising campaign, especially since we've already got money lined up to cover about half this cost. Wanna help make the rest of it happen? Contact julianbrelsford //at'\\ gmail.com

Quaker Worship and Children

I've been thinking about the way children often can't sit still in a Quaker meeting. They're often fidgety and sometimes they like to ask, "are we almost done yet?" And adults sometimes, too, you know.

And you know how Quakers got the name, Quaker? You probably do - people would "quake" or shake, because God was telling them to get up and do something, and they just couldn't hold it in. Or God didn't want them to hold it in, at least.

We often don't even think about the possibility that fidgety young Quakers, the ones who don't sit still in Quaker Meeting, might be unable to sit still because of some kind of Quaker ministry they're called to share.

Now, I'm not saying that every fidgety kid has something to say during meeting that all of us ought to hear.

But I wonder if every fidgety kid has some kind of "ministry" that we ought to be helping them express - it could be speaking, drawing, painting, cooking, fixing stuff with wrenches and hammers...