Edward Hays ~ Author, Artist & Storyteller
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The Pentecostal Gift of Ears

5/30/2012

 

The Pentecostal Gift of Ears

Gifts of the Holy Spirit always come as surprise gifts! On Pentecost the disciples were bowled over at their unexpected gift of tongues allowing them to be understood by those of countless different languages. Also unanticipated is the Spirit’s gift of ears that gives the ability to hear God speaking back to you. But be forewarned. Don’t pray for or desire this surprise gift of the Spirit lest the following happen to you.

One Sunday a pious business owner, following his weekly custom, attended church. As he prayed the penance rite, “I have greatly sinned…,” a commanding Voice roared in his head: You fraud! You don’t really believe you’ve sinned, but you have! You’ve cleverly scheduled the hours of many of your employees so they only work part-time and so you don’t have to give them their just benefits. You damned counterfeit Christian—and I do mean damned! Quickly, the businessman stumbled out of his pew, and fled fearfully from the church.

That same Sunday, the pastor held aloft a big black bible while passionately shouting, “God says here in Leviticus 18, verse 22, that you shall not lie with a man as with a woman, such a thing…,” and then he threw in, “‘homosexuality and gay marriage…’ is an abomination to God!” Instantly, a Voice thundered inside his head: I never said that! Ancient tribal elders 2,500 years ago said those words, and to give them credence and authority claimed that I, their God, said them!

Frustrated, the pastor attempted to regain his composure by pretending to cough repeatedly. As he did, the Voice roared on: Stop slandering my good name you hypocrite or else in roaring thunder I’ll announce to the people in this church your…little secret! To the stunned astonishment of the congregation, their pastor, his face pale with panic, clumsily stumbled out of the pulpit and ran screaming out of the church.

If you have ever wished you could hear God speaking to you, don’t anymore! Mindful the Spirit’s gifts come as surprises, be careful what you say when you pray. Whenever reciting prayers or singing hymns always look ahead to see the words you’re about to say. If they aren’t what you truly feel—or what you really believe—don’t utter them, lest you hear God talking to you.

The Shaker-Upper

5/23/2012

 

The Shaker-Upper

Sunday is the Fiesta of the Spirit, the feast of Pentecost when Christians longingly pray, Come, Holy Spirit, Creator blest, and in our hearts take up thy rest. But one would have to suffer from dementia to sincerely pray that pious petition. To desire the Holy Spirit come to you would require forgetting the chaotically disturbing visits from Holy Spirit that turned lives upside down, made unmarried maidens pregnant and changed destinies.

A white dove, blazing tongues of fire and strong winds are among the symbols of the Spirit of the Holy, yet for those living in the center of the country a more accurate symbol would be a tornado! Powerful twisters appearing out of nowhere uproot trees, level buildings and destroy everything in their path best visualize how the Spirit uproots lives and topples the antiquated. A more accurate invitation to the Spirit could be:

                “Come, Holy Twister, shaker-upper blest.
                Strip away comforts, leave us holy unrest.
                O Divine Wind, destroy the decaying old.
                Create again your House, youthful and bold.”

Such a destructive-quaking Pentecost is what is needed for today’s churches—and it was just such a crucial trembling-awakening that was called for by Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest arrested and imprisoned by the Gestapo. Before he was hanged in 1945 he wrote, “There is nothing we modern people need more than to be genuinely shaken up. Rather than live in an utterly false and counterfeit security, we need to allow our inmost spirit to be moved by God so that we might begin to live in that movement and disquiet of heart that results when we are faced by God.”

The Spirit gifted him with a message for us about the urgent need in our religious lives to be to shaken up! Atheism is not the most dangerous enemy of religion. It is the Soft-Trinity of comfort, complacency and “counterfeit security” that saintly Alfred Delp denounced. We are comfortably cocooned from life’s harsh realities by multiple public and private security systems.

So the next time you’re shaken up by some minor disaster, consider it the blessing of a visitation of the Spirit shaking you up to examine what truly is your security. As for praying “Come, Holy Spirit,” certainly do so. And should you hear a roaring sound like an approaching freight train—run for the basement and pray for a miracle.

Check Your Axe Handle

5/17/2012

 

Check Your Axe Handle

“No Littering” signs are common in public places. Litter is the unsightly trash of throwaway bottles, paper and plastic containers and other rubbish seen in parks, vacant lots and along shoulders of highways. Litter culprits are thoughtless, self-centered people who rather than responsibly discarding their trash, just toss it away anywhere convenient.

“Expressing anger is a form of public littering,” said Willard Gaylin, and I agree. I would add, so is private littering as well. Homes as beautiful as any in Better Homes and Gardens  can be ugly trash dumps due to the angry outbursts of those who live in them. Offices, too, can be garbage dumps of the silent litter of unspoken hostility between workers and the angry outbursts of bosses who easily fly off the handle.

“Flying off the handle,” as a metaphor for losing your temper, appeared in the mid-1800’s frontier days when pioneers whittled their own axe handles to insert into iron axe-heads from the East. When cutting down trees and chopping firewood these axe  heads could fly off their crude, homemade handles and injure anyone nearby, including the axe user.

Anyone prone to “flying off the handle” and wishing to avoid littering with their eruptions of anger should take time to find the causes of their loss of self-control. The causes of outbursts of anger are many. For some they come from an inner hidden river of anger that can furiously blast up to the surface by some trivial event. For others, angry littering happens when others—or even life itself—fail to meet their expectations. Stop littering by changing your unrealistic expectations, likes and strong dislikes, into relaxed laid-back preferences.

Another way is to practice not flying off the handle before you typically would. Do this by imagining filming a movie of yourself remaining calm whenever tools, machines and technology fail to work properly. Or practice with making another movie of yourself (who dislikes waiting!) peacefully enduring a long wait for service in a store or in a doctor’s office. Practice, practice…until your composure remains peaceful and calm when typically you would lose your head—or the axe’s.

Don’t litter, even in private, and you will enjoy a healthier and happier life.

The Bull’s-eye

5/10/2012

 

The Bull’s-eye

Sinning, our most popular activity after shopping, has been defined by Christian theologians as, “A grievous moral violation of God’s Law”—while Hebrew Scriptures depicted it as, “Missing the mark.” I find this latter description more accurate than even another theological definition, “Deliberating turn away from God.” Rarely—if ever—do we intentionally turn our backs on God, and so it seems that serious sin is a rarity.

Typically, we sin when aiming to do one thing but our excessive love of self causes us to miss the bull’s-eye. Upon reflection, our conscience—shaped by previous formation—pronounces us guilty of sinning since we often judge ourselves as we imagine God judges. Never, ever presume to judge as you think God judges! No one, church or temple knows the heart of God. So ponder this Zen tale.

Once in a mountainous area notorious for harboring bandits was a village that uniquely had an old, retried Samurai warrior as its protector. The villagers proudly showed all visitors examples of their protector’s expert skill with the bow and arrow, pointing to round targets painted on walls of some houses in which in each red bull’s-eye was a single hole. “See, such an expert is our great Samurai protector,” boasted the villagers, “that not a single robber dares molest our village.” When the visitors asked to meet this talented Samurai, the villagers with mournful faces answered, “Ah, it’s most unfortunate, but today he happens to be away walking in the mountains.”

One impressed visitor eager to meet this Samurai warrior nodded and departed…but only a short distance away to await the Samurai’s return. After night settled softly on the village and all were asleep, by the light of a full moon the visitor watched as an old man entered the village and began shooting arrows into the blank walls of buildings. Then removing the arrows, with a paint pot and brush, he quickly painted concentric circles with a bull’s-eye around the holes left by his arrows! Then grinning, he silently slipped away into the darkness.

Who in their life hasn’t shot some sloppily aimed arrows, then regretted sinning by missing the target? But what if while we are asleep, our passionately understanding and loving God comes and paints target circles with a big red bull’s-eye around the holes of our sins? Then silently, smilingly slips away.

Going Into the Woods

5/2/2012

 

Going Into the Woods

This musing is the reverse of “being out of the woods”—it is about going into the woods. Henry Thoreau, desiring to live as fully as possible, went into the woods of Walden Pond to live a solidarity life amidst nature. “I went to the woods,” he wrote, “because I wanted to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

Something no one wishes is to discover at the hour of death “…that I had not lived!” Unlike Thoreau, few if any can go off to live in a remote cabin in the woods, as work responsibilities and family duties prevent such an idealistic withdrawal. However, another way exists to achieve Thoreau’s goal. My old Potawatomi Indian friend, Leslie Evans, often quotes the famous words of the Indian Chief, Dan George: “Today’s a good day to die!” He tells me that he uses those words like a daily mantra—regardless what big agenda he has planned for the next day.

“Oh no,” say my blog readers. “This isn’t going to be another reflection on death is it?” On the contrary, it is about enjoying life in great abundance. I know this from experience as I also use Chief Dan George’s words in the morning when getting out of bed, driving my car, and before sharing a meal with a friend. Those five holy words at the dawn of a new day cause it to explode with possibilities and even adventures. When driving, I like to tag on to his words, “…and this is the last time in my life I shall enjoying driving,” or before a meal, “…and this is going to be my Last Supper with this good friend.”

I have found it especially beneficial to inject Chief Dan George’s words with a powerful dose of imagination in order to activate the feeling that whatever I’m doing is being done for the very last time. That sense of absolute finality added to his words seems to magically squeeze life in great abundance out the most common of activities and changes miraculously the monotonous mundane into a marvel.

If you desire to feel the high voltage surge of life flowing through you, it is advantageous to be deeply convinced that you may actually die—today! Believe that with your whole heart, and you will be rewarded with what Thoreau sought in the woods—that when it’s time to die you will know you have truly lived!

So if today you are asked, “Where are you going on this fine day?”, answer back, “I’m happily on my way to my grave.” Living daily under the sinister shadow of death will enable you to both live and die happy, and to be vivaciously alive.


    Edward Hays


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    Haysian haphazard thoughts on the
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