Monday, January 31, 2022

The Will To Join

Last night, Radio Majestad (a music station just down the street from our house) celebrated its 51st anniversary with a block party. This being Honduras, most styles of Latin music were the order of the evening. While I had considerable background in swing dancing, I had very little in the way of Latin dance. This didn’t seem to matter to any of my dance partners, as either I was able to fake it or they were willing to give me a quick tutorial. Or both! 

Fr Richard Rohr likens the life of God to a dance which pulls all creation in, and that sin is to basically “sulk in the corner”, refusing to join and bottling oneself up instead of sharing one’s life with all others. I didn’t need to be a professional dancer to join the locals in their celebration, I just needed the will to join and the humility to learn.  

-Jacob 

The True (False) Self

Well, we made it and we got settled in!! Our home is inviting and friendly-and so are the locals! I can’t count how many times I’ve been helped by everyone from office staff to strangers in just getting around and getting what we need! 

The trip over was stressful - after all, transporting two toddlers in 24 hours of flying shouldn’t be that hard…right?? 

Fr. Thomas Keating talks about our “emotional programs for happiness”- habitual patterns of thought or expectations that end up depriving us of peace and driving us to sin. It is through the circumstances of life that frustrate these emotional programs that we learn what they are - they reveal the “false self”, the “old Adam” awaiting healing from Christ. The trip over and preparing for it has given me a great gift - namely a better look at myself and what I need from God. 

-Jacob

Declaration of Dependence

I am not self-sufficient, it is not all under my control…and what a relief that is!! What an invitation to trust the all-holy Father, “God f...