An old song I wrote at...sixteen, seventeen...a lifetime ago. I still like the last verse.
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A Momentary Life...
- Thread starter Town Heretic
- Start date
PureX
Well-known member
Finished building this balance beam for my 7 y.o. mini-niece Sienna. So I sent her mom a photo with a note to let her know it's ready.
"I know a little girl who's looking for one of these"
Got back this: "... that turned out great!!!! Sissy is so excited!!! Def b out very very soon to get maybe tomorrow!!!! Thx u sooo much u made a little girl very happy!!!
What a nice day.
"I know a little girl who's looking for one of these"
Got back this: "... that turned out great!!!! Sissy is so excited!!! Def b out very very soon to get maybe tomorrow!!!! Thx u sooo much u made a little girl very happy!!!
What a nice day.
John Mortimer
New member
I work for a wage in what americans would term, a "grocery store".
One day not that long ago, there was an infant - no more than six months old - being taken round the store by his/her mother and we both caught sight of each other at the same moment. I smiled and instantly he/she smiled back. That smile honestly changed my life. There was such purity in that smile! No assessments, no judgements, no self-interest......just a whole hearted smile that was expressed more so by the eyes than the mouth.
I was so moved by this moment that I had to take my break early and get space and peace to think about why it had had such an effect on me. Then I realised that, quite spontaneously, a deep spiritual question that had been bothering, (maybe even tormenting me), had been resolved. The Hindu / Buddhist concept of "nothingness" or the "void" had always troubled me because I could not dis-associate the concept from dismal, bland, uneventful darkness. However, now I had experienced that "nothingness" as it truly is, in the eyes of that adorable infant. No assessment, no judgement, no pre-judgement, no self interest, just.........??? And that's the thing; I can't really find a word for what that was but it was heaven on earth.
One day not that long ago, there was an infant - no more than six months old - being taken round the store by his/her mother and we both caught sight of each other at the same moment. I smiled and instantly he/she smiled back. That smile honestly changed my life. There was such purity in that smile! No assessments, no judgements, no self-interest......just a whole hearted smile that was expressed more so by the eyes than the mouth.
I was so moved by this moment that I had to take my break early and get space and peace to think about why it had had such an effect on me. Then I realised that, quite spontaneously, a deep spiritual question that had been bothering, (maybe even tormenting me), had been resolved. The Hindu / Buddhist concept of "nothingness" or the "void" had always troubled me because I could not dis-associate the concept from dismal, bland, uneventful darkness. However, now I had experienced that "nothingness" as it truly is, in the eyes of that adorable infant. No assessment, no judgement, no pre-judgement, no self interest, just.........??? And that's the thing; I can't really find a word for what that was but it was heaven on earth.
Thunder's Muse
Well-known member
John Mortimer
New member
...and yet, others, (like me), recognise you just the same!
Of course, outsiders like me only pick up on certain things, but maybe those certain things were virtually unnoticeable to you before?Thunder's Muse
Well-known member
...and yet, others, (like me), recognise you just the same!
I didn't see anything good about myself before....so yeah, I think you are right
Look up above. Your experience is what I call listening to the smile of a friend.
John Mortimer
New member
PureX
Well-known member
Often, it's those quiet little moments that most strongly exemplify the gift of being.
I didn't see anything good about myself before....so yeah, I think you are right
My dear friend, I have heard your good through cyberspace!
I call such moments "at-one-ment". When I am lost to time and space and united with all that is. I've experienced them many times and while their duration is fleeting still, always regard them as exquisite gifts meant to be lived and treasured.
Or as Calvin used to say "I've been transmogrified!"
Thunder's Muse
Well-known member
Thunder's Muse
Well-known member
I love to watch my youngest 2 children with their Dad. He is a great Dad....and they simply adore him. The looks they get in their eyes, the way they hug and kiss him....I could watch it all day long
I LOVE to see great big rough guys [brickies] with their small children...don't tell me there is no God.
Thunder's Muse
Well-known member
I know, right. You get these big, tough, strong dudes...total men...and yet a small child can melt their heart....
So I was thinking lately about the apostate again. Well, it I was reminded of my position on apostasy and how I've maintained the apostate falls out of the state of belief in his understanding of God because he vested his trust in his expectation/notion of God and not in God Himself, of God transcendent and beyond his ability to frame beyond the example of Christ and the Word.
But there's another thought in that and it is this...God has told us we can't really comprehend Him, only note His nature as He expresses it to and in us. So none of us can say we apprehend God, which is why I believe faith is vital and stressed in the Word as it is...it's also part of the hope for those who have been disabused of their love for their notion of Him, who nevertheless desired Him.
And if that's so then they may be as mistaken in their current state as they were in their approach and God is not done with them, whether or not they believe they are done with Him.
But there's another thought in that and it is this...God has told us we can't really comprehend Him, only note His nature as He expresses it to and in us. So none of us can say we apprehend God, which is why I believe faith is vital and stressed in the Word as it is...it's also part of the hope for those who have been disabused of their love for their notion of Him, who nevertheless desired Him.
And if that's so then they may be as mistaken in their current state as they were in their approach and God is not done with them, whether or not they believe they are done with Him.
Lon
Well-known member
Moments in time, are actually microcosms of eternity that escape time, that they are not moments at all, but views of the eternal.
5 years ago, my beautiful wife was struck with lymphoma and a variety of doctor's had no idea what it was but a form of Hodgkins likely.
My mother-in-law called me on the phone and prayed for me. She prayed I'd have strength. She prayed God would comfort me.
I was and am eternally, forever touched, that the mother of my wife, would forgo her own hurts and fears, at losing a daughter, step out of that debilitation, and pray for me, as her son-in-law.
My wife lived and my mother-in-law died three years ago, but not before telling me how much I meant to her and her daughter. Eternity stopped, or more rightly exploded forever, in those precious moments in time, 5 years ago, that will be with me the rest of my life.
There are perhaps a few dozen more or less of such eternal moments in our lives. Thanks for creating a thread that makes us all take a moment to remind ourselves where God has touched us, in our moments in time, where we live, and changed us forever.
-Lon
5 years ago, my beautiful wife was struck with lymphoma and a variety of doctor's had no idea what it was but a form of Hodgkins likely.
My mother-in-law called me on the phone and prayed for me. She prayed I'd have strength. She prayed God would comfort me.
I was and am eternally, forever touched, that the mother of my wife, would forgo her own hurts and fears, at losing a daughter, step out of that debilitation, and pray for me, as her son-in-law.
My wife lived and my mother-in-law died three years ago, but not before telling me how much I meant to her and her daughter. Eternity stopped, or more rightly exploded forever, in those precious moments in time, 5 years ago, that will be with me the rest of my life.
There are perhaps a few dozen more or less of such eternal moments in our lives. Thanks for creating a thread that makes us all take a moment to remind ourselves where God has touched us, in our moments in time, where we live, and changed us forever.
-Lon
I was surprised by the hostility that met my position on apostasy within the few apostate who considered or answered on it, given that to follow my argument was to understand an investment of hope in anyone who once had the genuine impulse to know and/or follow God; further, that the impulse itself was and remains a thing that can be vested and experienced as it should have been if not for the interjection of an object in which that impulse was vested and of which it cannot be said to have been God, between the apostate and God.
But a man who desires separation from God desires rejection of that former affiliation. He is in the throes of something that will resist any attempt to reconcile him with the good and salvific impulse and I am now convinced that only prayer and God's own time will make any real difference for him. He is beyond the process of reasoning against his fall having by virtue of that mistaken object believed himself to have been reasoned out of it.
But a man who desires separation from God desires rejection of that former affiliation. He is in the throes of something that will resist any attempt to reconcile him with the good and salvific impulse and I am now convinced that only prayer and God's own time will make any real difference for him. He is beyond the process of reasoning against his fall having by virtue of that mistaken object believed himself to have been reasoned out of it.
Lon
Well-known member
My snapshots of eternity, are as my camera, dishelved, but incredibly meaningful moments that are viewed through the thick gel of time, by the tail, but well beyond it's confines. I believe something eternal indwells us, simply because we are inhabited by it. Everything screams against the short life-span toward not just everlasting meaning, but significant eternal meaning. I think, this conveyance, if not by me, will be retold on earth as it already has been:
ALASKA!
Every Jack London Jack of us Called of the Wild, has dreamed that dream and captured our imaginations, and longings, if not our selves.
(the rest of you? If that didn't grab you, nothing to see here It 'might' not be your eternal moment, but I'm trying to share....
It was late at night, which in Alaska means, "I'm Blind!!!" without headlights or a reading map. Remember the scene in Bruce Almighty where he grabs the moon and pulls it to 30x closer? That's Alaska. God did it a long time ago, but our 'artificial lights' bounce off the atmosphere and cloud the sky. Just once, one time a year, we should have a mandatory world-wide power outage (well, unless you have smog, but the rest of us). The sky in Alaska is brilliant with stars. Because they are the only lights in the sky, they are many times brighter and closer appearing than anything in the lower 48. On this night, I was doubting, and feeling sorry for myself. It wasn't a permanent job and I had gotten the news that it was going to end sooner than later. The sky was its usual brilliance that night, no clouds, clear, dark, beautiful. I could see the Big and little dipper. They came to my eyes rather quickly. There was Orion's, and the Milky Way, especially milky. I thanked God for the beauty of it. It put my little concerns in perspective. A few stars started falling then. Just a couple of meteorites burning in the atmosphere leaving trails. Still, brilliant and noticeable. I worked the nightshift and had an hour drive to home from Wasilla to Big Lake where I lived. It was a longer road home when I was thinking about what I was going to do next. The Northern Lights began waving in the sky. It wasn't just a single sheet of magnetic light, but waves, more than I could count shimmering. Sheets of brilliant color waving and undulating. If you haven't seen them, think 'moving rainbow at night' as to beauty. I remember a few of my first rainbows as a child. Rainbows and Northern Lights remind us that the Heavens display the handiwork of God. That was my lesson, my comfort, my reminder of eternal amongst the brutal ticking of the clock. My employment minutes were ticking away but seemed rather unimportant against this backdrop. I thanked God for this. It was a special drive home. Driving the last 10 minute leg to home, the sun crested the mountains and splashed beautiful hues into the sky, then, and more incredibly, the mountains turned to a molten bronze, as if God were pouring His forged metal over the mountain tops. I have never before or since seen the like of it. I had to pull over for a few moments (not explaining that). That hour drive is indelibly etched in my mind and consciousness like no other nature/outdoor experience. It is the pinnacle mark against all other outdoor experiences I've ever had, and it is a momentary snapshot of eternal life which David spoke of thousands of years before me - Psalm 19
ALASKA!
Every Jack London Jack of us Called of the Wild, has dreamed that dream and captured our imaginations, and longings, if not our selves.
(the rest of you? If that didn't grab you, nothing to see here
It 'might' not be your eternal moment, but I'm trying to share....It was late at night, which in Alaska means, "I'm Blind!!!" without headlights or a reading map. Remember the scene in Bruce Almighty where he grabs the moon and pulls it to 30x closer? That's Alaska. God did it a long time ago, but our 'artificial lights' bounce off the atmosphere and cloud the sky. Just once, one time a year, we should have a mandatory world-wide power outage (well, unless you have smog, but the rest of us). The sky in Alaska is brilliant with stars. Because they are the only lights in the sky, they are many times brighter and closer appearing than anything in the lower 48. On this night, I was doubting, and feeling sorry for myself. It wasn't a permanent job and I had gotten the news that it was going to end sooner than later. The sky was its usual brilliance that night, no clouds, clear, dark, beautiful. I could see the Big and little dipper. They came to my eyes rather quickly. There was Orion's, and the Milky Way, especially milky. I thanked God for the beauty of it. It put my little concerns in perspective. A few stars started falling then. Just a couple of meteorites burning in the atmosphere leaving trails. Still, brilliant and noticeable. I worked the nightshift and had an hour drive to home from Wasilla to Big Lake where I lived. It was a longer road home when I was thinking about what I was going to do next. The Northern Lights began waving in the sky. It wasn't just a single sheet of magnetic light, but waves, more than I could count shimmering. Sheets of brilliant color waving and undulating. If you haven't seen them, think 'moving rainbow at night' as to beauty. I remember a few of my first rainbows as a child. Rainbows and Northern Lights remind us that the Heavens display the handiwork of God. That was my lesson, my comfort, my reminder of eternal amongst the brutal ticking of the clock. My employment minutes were ticking away but seemed rather unimportant against this backdrop. I thanked God for this. It was a special drive home. Driving the last 10 minute leg to home, the sun crested the mountains and splashed beautiful hues into the sky, then, and more incredibly, the mountains turned to a molten bronze, as if God were pouring His forged metal over the mountain tops. I have never before or since seen the like of it. I had to pull over for a few moments (not explaining that). That hour drive is indelibly etched in my mind and consciousness like no other nature/outdoor experience. It is the pinnacle mark against all other outdoor experiences I've ever had, and it is a momentary snapshot of eternal life which David spoke of thousands of years before me - Psalm 19
Spoiler