Sunday, November 18, 2018

November 23, 2018


TEXTURES

Stop complaining.

Study textures.

Touch the carved heart in the tree.

Taste the potato chip.

Pet the dog.

See the bent back of the old man.

Watch the little kid take her 678th step.

Stand at a grave and ask, “How was it?”

Study the palm of your hand 
and then 
wave and say, “Hi!” to someone.


 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2018



November 23, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“Religion, whatever it is, is a man’s total  reaction upon life.”  


William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902



THANKSGIVING 
AND 
TYPES OF PEOPLE 


INTRODUCTION

Robert Rodenmayer wrote a book called, “Thanks Be To God.”

In it  he says that there are 3 kinds of giving:

·       grudge giving,
·       duty giving,
·       thanks giving.

1) GRUDGE GIVING

A grudge giver says “I hate to give.”

This person gives little, for “the gift without the giver is bare.”

2) A DUTY GIVER

A duty giver says “I ought to give.”

This person givers more, but there is no song in it.

3) A THANKS GIVER

A thanks giver says, “I want to give.”

This person givers everything. They show forth the image of God to the world.

QUESTION

What kind of a giver do we tend to be most of the time?

WILLIAM BARCLAY

“The rabbis had a saying that the best kind of giving was when the giver did not know to whom he was giving and when the receiver did not know from whom he was receiving.”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

in today’s gospel, we have the 10 people with leprosy and only one came back to give thanks.

One out of ten is pretty bad.

ME -- YOU

Me? You?

What kind of a person am I?

Am I a person filled with gratitude or am I person filled with grudges?

Did the 9 other people get healed of their leprosy and not get healed of their grudges?

We don’t know.

Picture how easy it would have been to hang onto grudges -- after years and years of being shunned, pointed out, rejected, called, “Unclean!”

Leprosy was a double whammy.

Why / how did this one get freed?

Jesus says it was “faith”.

DR. HANS SELYE

In his book, Stress of Life, Dr. Hans Selye, said that “one of the simplest ways to reduce stress is to develop a sense of gratitude.”

The person who focuses on life’s blessings invariably experience contentment and peace while those who focus on crosses complain about them.

CONCLUSION

The conclusion is obvious.

Keep your eye on the good stuff and give thanks.

November 22, 2018

IGNORED

Have you ever started to tell a story
and someone cut you off and began
telling their story - and you sat there
feeling frustrated and sort of alone?

Well, now you know what it feels like
to be a parent or a preacher or a kid,
of for what it’s worth: now you know
what it feels like to be God - most days.



© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018



November 22, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“A  religious  person is one who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair.” 

Abraham Joshua Heschel     

November 21,  2018


PING PONG GAME

God loves ping pong.
You know that, right?

Everything is moving,
even when it seems, it’s not.

Blood is flowing through
our inner subways.

Stars and the sun and moon
are this gigantic amusement park.

Foxes and groundhogs go hunting
every night in the dark.

God has his ping pong paddle
and asks, “Are you ready to serve?”


© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018



November 21, 2018


Thought for today:

“don’t pray  when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.”

Leroy Satchel Paige