Simplicity

We need not go running to the wind to find all of the different pieces.  Change can happen inside of us, then radiate into all else we do.  When we boil it all down, it comes down to love.  All I say and do is defined by how I love.  Thinking of life as a jigsaw puzzle trying to find all the different pieces to make me whole, gives me a headache.  But what if, what if it were simpler than this, what if more beautiful.  In the depth of our soul, in the ground of our being, we have a desire for love, for mysterious, all consuming love.  Letting this speak to us changes us from the inside out.  Then it's less of a puzzle I try and figure out or constantly rearrange to look better and better, more something I fall into, more something I let consume my very being.  Then we're not on our own, Jesus is molding our very existence, changing us at the ground level.  Now all of the sudden I'm connected to something much bigger, something that always joins, always gives, all combines.  And I find my sisters and brothers here with me, each being transformed by the same love, connecting us to each other.

If we each had a personal commitment to this kind of love, this simple and beautiful love, I believe the world would be a much more beautiful place.  All of the sudden, achievement isn't the name of the game.  Who makes more money isn't who wins.  Even my so called religious achievements aren't so important to me, all that matters is seeing the love with more clarity, all that matters is giving myself more fully over to it.  But a commitment to this kind of love takes discipline.  We each have a thousand things vying for our attention, each a thousand things promising us something if we but only seek after it.  A commitment to this radical kind of love takes us pausing, looking full into it, and returning to this gaze enough times until the love is all that matters to us.  Now my life isn't fragmented into all of the things I do, or all the things I seek security from, but it's base if love, and the love radiates to all I do.  I want love to be my instructor, my mentor, my friend, my Father.

Freedom for Freedom's sake (2 songs)

True freedom doesn't ask for anything in return.  This is the mark of true freedom, it is freedom for freedom's sake.  It is freedom that leads to new levels of freedom.  It is true invitation, true gift.  It is freedom that leads to a new, bigger and more spacious place.  Often I hear the voice of freedom through music, and I hope you enjoy these two songs I'm posting.