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Putting Feet to Your Faith

Putting Feet to Your Faith –

This morning, in worship service, when one of the staff members went up on stage and gave the announcements she talked about a missions class. She said; “This class will help you put feet to your faith!” To my knowledge, this is the first time I heard this phrase or at least the first time it resonated with me. I liked the idea of beliefs and action coexisting, what I think, say and do being in sync.

Later I reacted to a post from someone on Facebook who’s having a rough couple of weeks. There has been progressing in the recent past but for some reason, the last month or so battles thought won were being fought again. I replied to her post; “I understand and live these “honest and ugly” truths. It’s tough, feeling like you have to start over, but I’m reminded by wisdom and therapy that we’ve grown, have learned/are learning, experienced a new normal and the starting line has been moved. We may not be where we want to be but thankfully are not where we started.”

Even when it seems like our journey is two steps forward and three, maybe five, steps back we are making progress. We ask, no plead, for the faith to keep walking, to put feet to our faith.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

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Catch Me

Feb 16

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for mindful quote of the day

Catch Me –

Pastors, social workers, nurses, doctors, organizations, and ministries are, by design, places where people get help. The help comes in many forms but the places which offer assistance are staffed, mostly, by people who want to reach out to the unfortunate among us. These unfortunate ones are not always poor, addicted, homeless, challenged mentally, grew up with poor role models, but many do bear one or more of these burdens.

The urge is to rescue them. To be the hero in the story of their lives. To sweep in with our resources and connections and leave them in awe at how their lives are now healed and whole. However, it doesn’t take long to discover we may want to help but we do not have the power to change their lives. Only they can do what needs to be done. They must be the hero, their own rescuer. We can provide them with the tools and skills to begin the transformation but they do the work of lasting change.

It is this way for all of us. Too often we want the easy way to self-discovery, enlightenment, and fulfillment but there is no easy way. It is a journey both inside of us and out. We will have company on the road of life but the steps to the destination must be our own.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Mindfulness

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Tags: #addicted, #among, #assistance, #awe, #bear, #begin, #blessings, #burdens, #catch, #catchMe, #challenged, #change, #company, #connections, #destination, #discover, #doctor's, #easyway, #enlightenment, #forms, #fulfillment, #grewup, #healed, #help, #hero, #homeless, #inside, #journey, #leave, #lives, #mentally, #ministries, #needs, #nurses, #offer, #organizations, #Pastors, #poor, #power, #powerless, #provide, #reachout, #rescue, #rescuer, #resources, #roadoflife, #rolemodels, #self-discovery, #skills, #socialworkers, #staffed, #steps, #story, #sweep, #tools, #Toooften, #transformation, #unfortunate, #unfortunateones, #urge, #way, #whole, #work, Design, Nature

Still

Nov 29

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for hospital room

Still –

I am sitting at the foot of the hospital bed of my friend who’s been suffering for the last several weeks. The room is quiet except for the loud hum of a pump which is pulling toxins from his body and the oxygen machine, both attached to him. He’s still, trying to find the sleep which eluded him last night. He received a pain shot from a nurse a few moments ago and hopefully, this affords him a quiet mind and a less painful body for a while.

He looks weak, not at all the man I’ve known for most of my life. I know him and if he could leave this place he would in a moment, hospital gown and all. In fact last night someone asked him if they could do anything for him and he quipped; “Trade places with me.” I smiled and thought; “Be careful what you ask for…” It’s these little jokes he still manages that show me he’s still fighting, still holding on, still not ready to take his final steps into eternity.

His legs twitch while he tries to nap. I wonder if they are the result of a dream? Perhaps a time when we were hiking on the Appalachian trail or playing T-Ball, maybe it was working on a construction project at his home. I hope it’s good dreams and brings him happiness, even in sleep.

Still. Still hanging on. Still suffering. Still funny. Still hoping. Still trusting the path to what’s next is not too difficult.

blessings,
@BrianLoging
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #Appalachian, #ask, #careful, #construction, #difficult, #dream, #eternity, #fighting, #final, #good, #happiness, #holding, #hope, #jokes, #little, #manages, #notready, #path, #perhaps, #playing, #project, #result, #show, #sleep, #steps, #still, #Stillfunny, #Stillhangingon, #Stillhoping, #Stillsuffering, #Stilltrusting, #T-Ball, #time, #whatsnext, #wonder, #working, Hiking, Home, Trail

Born Again

Nov 11

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Born Again –

I desire to be born again, each day emerging from a blanket cocoon, different from the person I was yesterday. Each day we take steps toward who we will eventually be at the end of our lives. Some are making progress toward love, grace, kindness, and peace, others walk in another direction.

What we do today determines who we will be tomorrow. This is a truth I try to live by. What we put our minds to, invest our emotions in, allow our spirits to inhabit, shapes the person we’ll be tomorrow and in the future. We underestimate the “big” and “little” experiences we encounter each day. We dismiss character flaws, hidden hurts, negative habits, and other behaviors and attitudes that either place chains on our souls.

To emerge, new each day, takes work today. We choose where our path will go, not what our path will go through, but its destination. We can’t make our path easy or difficult but we can decide how we handle both. The decision isn’t on tomorrow’s agenda but today’s.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Contemplative Quotes

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Answers

Aug 6

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for zen silence

Answers –

I was reading an excerpt from a book by #LaurenceFreeman this past week. One sentence has stuck with me; “Answers are not what we need. What we need are questions which cannot be answered.” I read and reread this selection many times.

We live in a world, perhaps humanity is made this way by our cultures and societies, in which answers are what we seek and find. While certainly, we would want answers, conclusions, discoveries, of the sort which would end poverty, crime, diseases, however, the most important answers are the ones which cannot be answered.

This is a paradox. Answers comfort us, direct us, help us find our way in the world. However, answers do not lead us to the most important of all truths. God, for example, is by definition, one who cannot be fully and completely known. The deeper we dig to find knowledge of God the more questions we find. It is the same with our existence, our purpose our place in the universe.

Silence as the answer to life’s biggest questions. Many say if you cannot or will not look for the answer then why ask the question? It is when we are able to be still and silent in our souls with the greatest questions unanswered that we find the path of wisdom.

blessings,
@BrianLoging
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Contemplative Quotes, Wisdom

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Tags: #answers, #comfort, #complete, #conclusions, #definition, #direction, #discoveries, #fullyknown, #journey, #paradox, #path, #steps

TheWannabeSaint.com

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Putting Feet to Your Faith

Catch Me

Still

Born Again

Answers

Brian Loging, OSBO

@BrianLoging

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…..a place for sojourners on this spiritual path called life

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Putting Feet to Your Faith

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Catch Me

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Still

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Born Again

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Answers

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Brian Loging, OSBO

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