What is God’s role in your life? Where do you place Him in your list of priorities? Sometimes it’s a bit difficult to keep God at the center of our lives, trust me, I know. With all the distractions, hecticness, etc. But as sure as I’m breathing right this minute, I tell you we must keep Him front and center in our lives.
“Am I There”
Do you need Me ?
I am there.
You cannot see Me, yet I am the light you see by.
You cannot hear Me, yet I speak through your voice.
You cannot feel Me, yet I am the power at work in your hands.
I am at work, though you do not understand My ways.
I am at work, though you do not understand My works.
I am not strange visions. I am not mysteries.
Only in absolute stillness, beyond self, can you know Me
as I AM, and then but as a feeling and a faith.
Yet I am here. Yet I hear. Yet I answer.
When you need ME, I am there.
Even if you deny Me, I am there.
Even when you feel most alone, I am there.
Even in your fears, I am there.
Even in your pain, I am there.
I am there when you pray and when you do not pray.
I am in you, and you are in Me.
Only in your mind can you feel separate from Me, for
only in your mind are the mists of “yours” and “mine”.
Yet only with your mind can you know Me and experience Me.
Empty your heart of empty fears.
When you get yourself out of the way, I am there.
You can of yourself do nothing, but I can do all.
And I AM in all.
Though you may not see the good, good is there, for
I am there. I am there because I have to be, because I AM.
Only in Me does the world have meaning;
only out of Me does the world take form;
only because of ME does the world go forward.
I am the law on which the movement of the stars
and the growth of living cells are founded.
I am the love that is the law’s fulfilling. I am assurance.
I am peace. I am oneness. I am the law that you can live by.
I am the love that you can cling to. I am your assurance.
I am your peace. I am ONE with you. I am.
Though you fail to find ME, I do not fail you.
Though your faith in Me is unsure, My faith in you never
wavers, because I know you, because I love you.
Beloved, I am there.
– James Dillet Freeman
This poem received a lot of attention in 1971 when it was taken
to the moon by astronaut James B. Irwin on Apollo 15.
Irwin’s mother gave it to him before the flight and he actually
left a copy of the poem on the moon.
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“One Guy Didn’t”
Three guys were tried for crimes against humanity.
Two guys committed crimes.
One guy didn’t.
Three guys were given government trials.
Two guys had fair trials.
One guy didn’t.
Three guys were whipped and beaten.
Two guys had it coming.
One guy didn’t.
Three guys were given crosses to carry.
Two guys earned their crosses.
One guy didn’t.
Three guys were mocked and spit at along the way.
Two guys cursed and spit back.
One guy didn’t.
Three guys were nailed to crosses.
Two guys deserved it.
One guy didn’t.
Three guys agonized over their abandonment.
Two guys had reason to be abandoned.
One guy didn’t.
Three guys talked while hanging on their crosses.
Two guys argued.
One guy didn’t.
Three guys knew death was coming.
Two guys resisted.
One guy didn’t.
One …
Two …
Three guys died on three crosses.
Three days later,
Two guys remained in their graves.
One guy didn’t.
God to surround me,
God in my speaking,
God in my thinking,
God in my sleeping,
God in my waking,
God in my watching,
God in my hoping.
-Traditional Celtic Prayer
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Teach me, my God and King,
In all things thee to see,
And what I do in anything,
To do it as for thee.
-George Herbert
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“Getting Back to God”
All the aim of life is just
Getting back to God.
Spirit casting off its dust,
Getting back to God.
Every grief we have to bear,
Disappointment, cross, despair,
Each is but another stair
Climbing back to God.
Step by step and mile by mile, –
Getting back to God.
Nothing else is worth the while –
Getting back to God.
Light and shadow fill each day,
Joys and sorrows pass away,
Smile at all, and smiling, say,
Getting back to God.
Do not wear a mournful face
Getting back to God.
Scatter sunshine on the place
Going back to God.
Take what pleasure you can find,
But wherever your paths may wind,
Keep the purpose well in mind, –
Getting back to God.
– Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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