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Living The Solution – Online Newsletter |
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September 14, 2005 ISSUE |
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Opening Thoughts:
There are times, like the past couple of weeks, when news
of tragedy or disasters unites us. We find ourselves lifted
out of the “little world” of our own cares
and we become aware of others. Sometimes it is hard to
be in this space. You can feel helpless and hopeless looking
at the amount of suffering such as we’ve seen along
the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.
So, before too long, we might pull our heads back in our
shell like a turtle and go about the business of living.
Yet, some of us will be changed and start living in a way
that is consistent with caring for – not judging – all
people. Then we begin to see the world in a new light.
Peace and joy,
Tom Gilbert
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IN THIS ISSUE
Feature Article: Shelter From the Storm
In The Spotlight: The 30,000 Campaign
Daily Thoughts: Led By The Spirit
Prayer & Sharing Requests
Quotable: Questioning Faith |
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| FEATURED
ARTICLE |
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Shelter
From the Storm
Song Reflection by
Tom Gilbert
Bob
Dylan - Shelter From the Storm
© 1974 Rams Horn Music
[Editor note: Since hurricane Katrina and its devastating effects have been
so much in the news we are featuring this "Song Reflection" again.
It's not specifically about a hurricane - Bob Dylan does have a song about
one, but it refers to a wrongfully imprisoned boxer. But, perhaps this song
and the accompanying reflection will speak to the "storms" in your
life.]
Every song on Bob Dylan’s classic “Blood on
the Tracks” album is a gem and I could (maybe I will) do a reflection
on each of them. I love “Tangled Up in Blue” and “Simple
Twist of Fate” and I always thought you could make a great movie out
of “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts”.
Yet, it’s "Shelter From the Storm" that has spurred the most
soul-searching and insight.
The sheer beauty of the poetry paints vivid word pictures over the course of
this five minute Dylan masterpiece. Bob takes us on a journey of desolation
and loneliness; destination - unconditional love. Themes of loyalty and gratitude;
questioning and hard knocks; awe over innocence in a harsh world and the price
of holding the tension between all the opposites that collide over the dusty,
rocky trail of life’s journey are enough grist for many late night philosophical
discourses.
So, to give you my take on this in a few short paragraphs is intimidating.
But, I’ll give it a whirl.
Read more here.
Discover more thought provoking articles
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| IN THE SPOTLIGHT |
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The 30,000 Campaign
Taking action to overcome poverty
Great natural disasters and
terrorist attacks quickly get our attention.
Of course, they become the headlines in the media,
so you can hardly escape the news.
Unfortunately there is ongoing suffering and
death in the world of a major magnitude that
doesn’t make the nightly news. Every day
30,000 children die a preventable death due to
extreme poverty. This shouldn’t be when
the world now has the technology and power to
prevent it.
The leaders of the world are gathering at the
United Nations September 14-16. You can join in solidarity by fasting – even
if it is just one meal during these three days – to show your support
for a call to action. Furthermore, you can take action by telling President
Bush and others that you support the 30,000 Campaign.
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has resources to help you grow spiritually. It’s
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you support our ministry – thank you!
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DAILY THOUGHTS & REFLECTIONS |
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Led
By The Spirit
My counsel is this: Live freely, animated
and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness.
For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with
a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness.
These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times
one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given
day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic
compulsions of a law-dominated existence?
It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own
way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation
of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness;
trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition;
all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence
to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and
lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a
rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community.
I could go on. This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If
you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.
(Galatians 5:16-21— The
Message)
Live freely, animated and motivated by
God's Spirit. Wow, what does that look like? It certainly
does not look like what most of us do in how we live our
lives. We all seem to be drivn by very different motivations.
Just the sound of it is freeing and strikes something in
our being — a longing for something that we keep striving
for but can never attain through our own efforts.
You may look at these verses and think, "But I try to live right. I don’t
live like a person who does not go to church, who doesn’t ‘know’ God." But
Paul is not writing this to non-believers; he is writing to believers and his
point is, the natural result of living our lives from any motivation other than
love with a passion from our heart towards God is bound to bring us a life of
frustration and disappointment.
We were not created to live for self, to live life based on what "I" will
get out of it. Nor were we created to live life "safe". We were created
to live life from our heart, from love, first for God, then for those around
us. We will only find the happiness, joy, and peace we so long for when we live
the way we were created — living from our hearts, taking risks (faith),
and living an adventure with God.
Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit.
Live it with Passion
Pete Reinbold
Get daily inspiration with a Scripture verse and commentary
at
Daily Thought |
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PRAYER REQUESTS & RESULTS |
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Prayer works. It really does.Submit your prayer
requests and we will pray for them.
Of course, we keep your information confidential.
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My thoughts are shared regularly on the pages of
our web site, especially on
the Journal pages.
We welcome and appreciate your feedback. If you would
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guidelines.
It is our hope that the content of Living The Solution will
stimulate you to deepen your faith. That is certainly a result for us in both
our writing and reading. If you would like to see articles on a particular topic
or you have comments please let us know.
Send an email
Quotable: Questioning Faith
"We too often forget that faith
is a matter of questioning and struggle before it becomes
one of certitude and peace. You have to doubt and reject
everything else in order to believe firmly in Christ,
and after you have begun to believe, your faith itself
must be tested and purified. Christianity is not merely
a set of forgone conclusions. Faith tends to be defeated
by the burning presence of God in mystery, and seeks
refuge from him, flying to comfortable social forms
and safe convictions in which purification is no longer
an inner battle but a matter of outward gesture."
—
Thomas Merton
Copyright 2005 Living the Solution, all rights reserved.
Tom Gilbert
Editor/Web-servant
Living The Solution
www.livingthesolution.com
P O Box 25584
Albuquerque, NM 87125-5584
Toll free 1-800-399-2564 ext 105 (US only) or 505-247-3232
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