Preparing a Place

Alanna shares her growing awareness of the overlap between the inner and outer world, which has been drawn into focus for her through the act of building a house. It seems that striving for permanence in the world of decay has brought her to embrace the possibilities for infinite growth and rejuvenation in a world known only to the heart. -Editor.

Garth and I are building a house. I keep moving back and forth between the natural reality and effort involved in constructing a dwelling place, and the spiritual or metaphorical implications inherent in this act.

In True Christianity 89, the concept of home is used as a simile for the goal of regeneration -

The Lord's life followed this path because the divine design is for people to prepare themselves to accept God; and as they prepare themselves, God enters them as if he were coming into his own dwelling and his own home."

Click to read more ...

A Taste for Sweetness

Alanna writes about the development of taste in infancy - sweet first, and only later salty, sour, bitter and savory - and how this progression mirrors spiritual growth. -Editor.

I recently listened to an interview of the chef Grant Achatz conducted by Terry Gross for her program “Fresh Air.” Achatz was diagnosed with tongue cancer. His treatments were ultimately successful, but he lost his sense of taste in the process. Remarkably, his sense of taste has been gradually restored, beginning first with sweetness and then progressively incorporating the others tastes- bitterness, sourness, saltiness, and umami. Achatz reasoned that this process followed the basic development of the sense of taste in infants, which begins with an appreciation of sweetness. This idea instantly reflected a few truths to me about the Lord and his relationship to us. It mirrors how the Lord leads us through pleasure.

Click to read more ...

Meditate! | Abide in Me

“Thus says the LORD: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the LORD.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

Click to read more ...

Meditate | Meditate in it

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Joshua 1:8

This ‘Book of the Law’ is the Lord. I have a small but growing sense of this. The Lord is the Word. The Word is alive, as opposed to my mechanical and reactive ego, which is dead. And by ‘dead’ I mean lacking the Lord’s life (charity and truth), which is obvious when I witness that it is only interested in itself and its own benefit. The Lord is all goodness and all truth. This is why it makes sense that I would need to meditate in it, because I, of myself, am not the Lord’s goodness and truth.  Without the Lord’s presence as the Word in my mind I would not be capable of observing what is out of alignment in my life. When blessed with his presence I can ‘observe to do all that is written in it.’ I trust that walking this way will be prosperous, as it says in Joshua, because the alternative is so dire. 

Meditate | Arise

“After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, it came to pass that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying: ‘Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them-the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.’” Joshua 1:1-3

 I have been meditating on this scripture for a few days now. I began listening to the sermons given by David Millar on the book of Joshua, and they have enriched my perspective greatly. Millar describes the transition of consciousness that takes place within the individual who begins to bring attention to the quality of their inner landscape. This is represented in the Word by the shift in leadership from Moses to Joshua. Now that Moses has died, Joshua represents the Lord. It says, “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you.” The sole of Joshua’s (the Lord’s) foot is the literal sense of the Word. I have been thinking about the word ‘tread’.  It evokes a certain pressure and contact. Every place inside myself, or every state that I find myself in, that I bring the Word to bear upon, the Lord has already given me. It gives me a sense of the Lord’s real power, and I am enjoying witnessing that power in the infinitesimally small way that I can.  But, I must arise, wake up, and engage the Word in my inner life to witness anything at all.

Meditate | "Come, buy and eat."

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts,

Come to the waters;

And you who have no money,

Come, buy and eat.

Yes, come, buy wine and milk

Without money and without price.

Why do you spend money for what is not bread,

And your wages for what does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good.

And let your soul delight itself in abundance.” (Isaiah 55:1-2)

The Lord is calling everyone to come to ‘the waters.’ I interpret ‘the waters’ as his very being, but more specifically his complete expression in the Word. Although I don’t completely understand it, I love how it somewhat nonsensically encourages those who have no money to come and buy without price. I am given an image of over abundance: an open market in early November at the peak of the harvest. This is a picture of what the Lord is offering to us all the time. It is a picture of who he is. I read ‘eating‘ as accepting and assimilating, and thereby becoming one with what is offered. In this case it is the Lord’s goodness. This is corroborated by the word ‘listen,’ which I associate with obedience. Spiritually speaking, if we do his will- if we eat what is good - we will never go hungry. In fact, if we let ourselves, we may even delight in abundance.