Spend time with Him you say?

Here I am at a Starbucks sipping on a Cafe Mocha, (ah whipped cream, coffee, and chocolate is there anything better:) writing about spending time with Jesus in contemplation. I look around and see people coming and going getting on with their busy days trying to maintain a schedule. There is a group having coffee and one in the group takes a call and steps outside and misses personal interaction because he has an urgent call that must be taken. They bustle out and others bustle in.

I know you're thinking its easy for you to spend time with Jesus but I am just too busy. How will I make my month if I stop to smell the flowers and talk to Jesus. There is not enough time in the day and something has got to give. These are real questions, so how does one contemplate in today's busy world?

I am not going to presume that I have all the answers to this question but I can say that I have developed some thoughts about the how to. I throw these thoughts out for you to consider as you negotiate the busyness that is your lives.

First of all I think it is good to look at what contemplation means. The dictionary defines contemplation as:
–noun

1.the act of contemplating; thoughtful observation.
2.full or deep consideration; reflection: religious contemplation.
3.purpose or intention.
4.prospect or expectation

As we can see by this definition contemplation is not only cloistering yourself in some monastary and meditating on the depth and scope of scripture. The first part of the definition speaks about "thoughtful observation." In this context this would mean thoughtful observation of what Jesus is saying to us or doing in our lives. I believe that this can be done in the busyness of our days. This can be done while we are driving between appointments or having a quick lunch. It can be done while we are between appointments or when we are having a coffee break. There are many opportunities each day to thoughtfully observe what Jesus is doing and saying.

He says that He will never leave us or forsake us. This means that He is always with us. So when we take these times out in our days we can trust that He is right there. This is walking in faith and not by sight. We can choose to look to Jesus or to our problems. As we choose Him He will fill us with His life and His love. He will show you the next step. Take advantage of the time you have each day to look to Jesus. He will do much more than you could think or imagine.

Blessings,

Glenn

More on contemplation

I have been a Christian all of my life. I accepted the Lord as my Savior at camp when I was seven and have gone up and down many mountains, regarding my faith, since then. Through all those stages of development there has been a cry or longing in my heart for more. I can remember a number of times in my life when I have cried out to the Lord that there had to be more. What I was experiencing in my Christian life and in my church was not enough. I read His word and did not see the power of what He taught and demonstrated evident in my life. So I tried to do more and more. I started small groups, was involved in deep bible studies, prayer meetings and chruch planting situations. At each step there was still this longing in my heart for more.

This leads me to the subject of this entry. This search for more of Jesus has led me to pursuit of a lifestyle of prayer and intimacy with Him. When I take time to stop, quiet my mind and listen to what Jesus is saying to me I find that I am at peace. I feel His love for me and sense the joy that He has in being with me and the cares of this world washes off me like the spring rains wash the winters dirt off the lawn. It is so refreshing! What I have come to realize that the more of Him can only come to us when we take the time out of our busy schedules to be with Him.

There is more but the more does not come from our doing but from our being. Learn to live life resting in the love Jesus has for you. His love is really never ending and He is waiting to show you. Spend some time with Him and let Him show you. This will give the strength you need to meet the pressures of your day.

Blessings,
Glenn

On contemplation

Here I sit in my prayer room adding a post to my blog. Your prayer room you say. Yes, since our kids have moved out, we decided to dedicate some space in the house where we can go to contemplate, meditate and pray. It may sound weird but it has proved to be very beneficial

Listening to Jesus has been central to the prayer ministry that my wife and I have been engaged in for quite a few years now. Engaging in this ministry has led us deepen our personal relationship with Jesus. We discovered that this required setting aside time to be quiet and contemplate on Father, Son and Spirit and connect with Him in a deep personal place. This, in turn, has led us into integrating contemplation into our daily lives. We found that, for us, the best way to discover this was to begin seeing a spiritual director. This has been most beneficial. I guess I said all that to say that it was on the encouragement of my spiritual director that we made this space in our house dedicated to prayer. It was that and the fact that we had the room because our kids have all flown the coop. But that's another story for another time.

This room has been very helpful to helping me create a space where I can focus on the Lord and what He is saying to me, what He wants to do in me, and what He wants to do through me. I have carved the space and now I am learning to discipline myself to carve out the time. That, at least for me, is the hardest struggle, to set aside my busyness and take some time every day to stop and re-center myself on Jesus and His priorities. For me this has been the hardest and probably most rewarding journey in my life.

I feel that our lives would be more fulfilled and our relationships richer if we would just learn to stop for a time each day and focus on Jesus and the words He has for us. He wants to speak to us, our job is to look to Him and ask Him to open our ears to hear what He is saying. I don't believe that contemplation is for some who are specifically called to a deeper religious life. I really believe that this is something that is attainable for each person and that as we individually pursue a greater depth of relationship the impact on our world would be profound. I encourage you to talk to the Lord about this. You don't have to have a prayer room to do it just a desire to love the Lord and know the incredible love He has for you.

Blessings,

Glenn

Hi all I'm back. I must tell you that I have been inspired by my son-in-law who has been blogging about his journey in quitting smoking, life in general and his observations at the gym. I have found them to be insightful and hilarious. Reading his entries has stimulated me to resume my "thoughts on the road."

I do understand that this is more cathartic for me than for anyone out there who might read it. In my reading, meditation, and daily ministry there are topics that run through my mind that I would like to write about. This is a venue where I can scratch that itch. Therefore I see today as a new beginning for me to share thoughts I have on various subjects. In doing so I encourage anyone who might read these entries to write a comment or contact me if they have anything to share on the subjects I might address. Or not that's up to you.

As I said there are a number of topics that I would like to write about. They include marriage, relationships, the church, contemplation and others. What I have to offer are my ruminations and are not to be construed as the last word on any subject. Some of the topics are controversial and some are areas of concern that keep cropping up in my daily activities. My desire is to create a dialog. I realize that this may not be the best venue for that but that's OK. Entering into this endeavor makes me think about what I really believe; which is something I think is important for all of us. In this pressure cooker we call life there is often not enough time given to really meditate on what we believe let alone actively put it into practice. Hopefully this little effort will help someone to stop and think a bit, and that will make it all worth while.

I look forward to hearing from anyone but most of all I look forward probing the depths of my relationship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit as we wrestle with some of these issues.

Blessings,

Glenn

Old ground, new insights

August 31, 2009

As I have said in different ways, I cherish the time I can have alone with God. To have the opportunity give yourself time to have the Lord minister deep into your spirit or instill new vision is a blessing of incredible value. I thank the Lord and my wife that I was able to make use of this opportunity. I won't share everything that took place in my time away because they are too personal but there are certain aspects that I would like to share.

I had a sense from the beginning that God wanted to do some fundamental, foundational work in me to prepare me for the next season. The picture I had was that of a lump of clay or a blank canvas that He wanted to mould our paint to create something new. What could this mean, I thought that at my age the moulding and painting was already done. It seems that God is always working on us to produce the person He has designed us to be.

Part of this process, I have discovered is that there are times that He reveals areas of our past that we feel we have covered. You know those pictures in our past that have caused some degree of pain. We look at them and then deal with them, right. Well sometimes he will return there because we have not completely dealt with all the pain these pictures can produce. For me this happened because He was saying it was time to go deeper, remove the boulders that were hindering me from building that clean, strong foundation I wanted for my life. That foundation that is built on knowing the love of the Father and living out of the identity He has given me.

He and I did this work using a combination of scripture, dreams, spiritual direction and prayer. By spending time in silence with Him He did some serious house cleaning and helped me to more clearly receive His love and walk in who He has created me to be. What a wonderful gift.

Its interesting that after this cleansing and building He is also continuing to say wait, walk each day with me and I will show you new things. My prayer is that I will have the courage to wait for Him and not run ahead in my own strength. This is a challenge, but He is with me and will lead me into His righteousness. Thank you Lord.
Blessings,
Glenn

Where to from here

August 11, 2009

Well we are back and we are glad. As we expected we hit the ground running which was very good. Mira was busy from the get go and I also had stuff to jump into.

I realized quickly, though, that I (Glenn) needed to spend some time with the Lord to see what this next season held. There were a few options but the one that seemed best, quite quickly, was taking an 8 day silent retreat and Loyola House in Guelph.

I know what you are thinking, Glenn taking off 8 days and then not talking. This cannot be possible. Well I want to set your minds at ease. This silent retreat would be my fourth and I must say that I love to spend that time talking to God, reading His word, listening to God in a beautiful silence. I tell you it is inspiring and invigorating.

I did this retreat from August 1-9 and am now going over my journalling and sorting out some of the things the Lord spoke.

I will take some time to think, pray and evaluate and then I think that I will share some of those things with you in this blog. I don't know if this is the forum for this kind of thing but I feel compelled to share the goodness of who the Father is with others. This will be a start.

Blessings to all,

Glenn

Back Home

July 21, 2009

Well we are back home. I always find it very interesting that no matter how long the vacation there comes a time at the end when you just want to go home.

There is great anticipation in the preparation and the early part of the travel. There is the fun and awesome connection with friends and family as the trip progresses. But at the end we just wanted to go home and get back to our regular life. (whatever that means)

It seemed that nothing much had changed when we returned. Our house had been left in pristine condition, thanks to Nancy White, and all we had to do was unpack. We did so and connected with our friends around the fire in the evening.

Monday morning dawned and we now realized the next season has started. For Mira this means much the same as she immersed herself immediately in prayer ministry.

For Glenn it is a little different. I do want to resume prayer ministry and must prepare and wait as God leads. This is a little scary because I'm not sure what it will look like. Will people actually want to see me again? Can I make this a viable vocation that produces income for me and my family? Am I listening to the Lord as I pursue areas of study and ministry or am I just following my own wants? These are questions that I ask myself.

I would ask for your prayers as I continue to see what this new season brings. I feel that God is leading us into an exciting time and am so pumped about the opportunities this will bring for us to minister to the body of Christ. What an adventure and I look forward to walking with you in it.
Blessings,

Glenn & Mira