God Got It Right

Easter Sunday is coming.  Thousands of sermons will be spoken, ten thousands of songs will be sung, throngs will attend church or mass and untold millions of Easter eggs will be hidden and rediscovered. 

Through it all, remember that God got it right.

The tomb was empty.  

John 20

Hope remains.  

I Peter 1:3

Our faith rests in a God who got it right. 

I Peter 1:21

His love has always been there.  He then put his plan into play.  He needed a go-between, a fall guy. 

The fall guy wasn't guilty, but He did his part anyway.  He walked the full course, He played His part, and He became the sacrifice, because that is what His father asked of Him. 

He trusted God to get it right.

On Sunday we celebrate the God of mercy and grace.

On Sunday we celebrate the Christ of the empty tomb.

          Hope is restored.

     Reconciliation has come.

Eternity is secured for those who believe.

God got it right!

P Michael Biggs

www.up-words.net

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

A Bit of Advice

I’m going to give all of us some of the best advice I’ve heard lately.  I’m speaking to you and to me, for I need this as well.

Here it is.  You might want to sit down for this one. 

That’s it.  Take care of yourself.  

This is not a sign of egotism

Or puffing up of oneself

Or flaunting your own worth and goodness

Or even putting on airs

Or any of the other metaphoric phrases we could find. 

We have to pause occasionally and simply take care of ourselves.  We need to get off the tread mill, stop the merry-go-round and any other descriptor you want to use and be good to self.

There is no doubt in my mind that Carolyn and I love and adore one another.  However, we each have to seek those moments of aloneness when we pamper ourselves.  For Carolyn, she allows herself occasional times of space and restoration from work, from family and all else in her life.  She does this in various ways – a ferry boat ride, relaxing coffee time with a best friend, reading and reflecting on a good book and a dozen other ways.

For me, I sometimes crave silence.  Occasionally on a Friday night we will attend a large Catholic cathedral in downtown Seattle.  This space gives me thirty to forty-five minutes to go inward and think, meditate, have directed or non-directed thoughts, sing or not, but mostly it affords me an alone moment with hundreds of others who are seeking whatever it is they also seek in that space and time.

How do you take care of yourself?  Let me offer you a few ideas.

~Ride a ferry to nowhere - a simple float over and back in the sun and breeze.

~Read a book.  Occasionally put it down and reflect on the words read.

~Get a massage.

~Pray with no pressure, no agenda, no form, and no outline.

~Exercise

~Walk around the block or down a quiet trail.

~Hop on your bike and take a spin to anywhere and nowhere in particular.

~Put on a CD of some of the world’s great piano sonatas and use headphones.

~Sit by the surf, lay back against a driftwood log and soak in the beauty.

There are hundreds and thousands of other ways you can think of to care for your inner self.  Let your imagination take over from here. 

One fine word, actually three final words.

Just DO It!

P Michael Biggs

www.up-words.net

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

My Inner Child

Thousands hear these voices every day.  If you hear them also, I have some encouraging news.  Keep reading.

~~~

What are the voices saying?

My inner child is fragile.  I am marked by the way I was raised.

Be gentle with me.  I feel vulnerable.  I often give off a false bravado but inside I am shaking in my boots.  I want to believe in me and my goodness,

but I’m afraid. 

For a long time I've listened to the voices and stern remarks and rejections.  They still ring in my ear.

How do I teach my inner child that it is now safe to come out and play?

How do I trust myself, my instincts, my wishes and desires?

How do I follow the beat of my own drummer?

For many years I've heard these thoughts pounded into me.

  “You are lacking.” 

  “You have nothing to contribute.” 

  “Kids are to be seen and not heard.”

  “Don’t be too loud.”

  “Don’t show off.”

  “Don’t be normal.” 

I had boundless curiosity and enough energy for two rockets, and you tried to beat that out of me.

I am marked and I am fragile.

These voices are giants in my mind and I can’t see around them, over them, and I certainly can’t run between their legs. 

Help me.  Show me the “how”.

I don’t try for fear of failure and ridicule.

I fear criticism because I received so much of it.  What do I do? 

God, will you help one such as me?

And then the answer came.

You are safe.  Come to me.

(Matthew 11:28 

I have a plan and a future all mapped out for you.

(Jeremiah 29:11)

Your dreams are my dreams, for I put them there.

(II Chronicles 15:7)

Be at peace.

(Philippians 4:6-7)

All is well. 

(Isaiah 41:10)

I've got you.

(I Peter 5:6-7)

I am your God.”

(Psalm 46:10)

P Michael Biggs

www.up-words.net

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

Happy Again

When devastation comes along we often wonder … “Will I ever be happy again?”

Happiness is the land we all seek. 

Anne Lamont says, “I have seen many people survive unsurvivable losses, and seen them experience happiness again.  How is this possible?”

Help Thanks Wow

Have you faced down death – either your own or that of a loved one?

Anne says “Death will not be the end of the story.”

So where does one begin the walk of daily restoration?

We start in the here and now.  It’s a daily process.  We do the hard thing – we grieve, we process, we mull, we meditate, we seek counseling, and as Anne says “We find God in our human lives, and that includes the suffering.”

You take care of you – and if that means you are thirsty, you get a glass of water, or whatever your immediate needs may be.

Happy Land can come again, if you are willing to do your part.  It’s all about wise choices, and following the recovery steps. 

This is a huge topic.  If you are struggling with this subject, please consult a trusted licensed counselor of your choosing.

P Michael Biggs

www.up-words.net

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

A Great Prayer

In the Hall of Fame of prayers we could list a few.

The Lord’s Prayer has to be at the top.

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi is a great one.

The Serenity Prayer is a cherished one as well.

How about this one?

 

“God help me.”

Ever had to pray that prayer?  I have. 

And the amazing thing is … this prayer is heard and responded to by God just as the all-time-hits prayers.  Now note this – I am in no way making light of these great prayers.  Sometimes, however, we can’t form the words and thoughts in the moment and about all we can get out is “Help.”

God is not offended. 

He is not put off.

He doesn’t think you are lazy.

He comes near. 

Yeah.  He comes near.

I think God understands our humanness more than we allow Him to. 

And he comes near. He stoops down and lifts us up.  Wow!  Can you picture that one?  God comes along and lifts us up when we can’t do that for ourselves.  That is amazing to me. 

What a great prayer – “help”!

What a greater God!

(This blog is inspired by Anne Lamott's book -  

Order Help Thanks Wow HERE!)

 

P Michael Biggs

www.up-words.net

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

Singing

Let me tell you a true story as related by Anne Lamott in Help Thanks Wow.

“My friend Mason, who is fifteen and has brain cancer, had a massive bleed eighteen months ago.  He was in a coma and then for many months in a deeply silent condition where it seemed to me, but not to his mother, that he was brain-damaged.

One day his mother e-mailed me a video from Mason’s rehap hospital in Texas, titled “Mason Singing.”  My heart leapt.  His brother had filmed him in a music therapy, sitting in a wheelchair between his mother and his therapist, who was playing “He’s Got the Whole Word in His Hands.” 

At the end of the line, Mason would make a sound that was close to “hands,” and everyone cheered.  I inwardly groaned, having imagined something so different, so much better. “

Later that morning I went up along to my praying place.  I prayed for a glimpse of wisdom.  By the time I got to the bottom of the hill, I was amazed that Mason, silent for so long, had sung. “

There is singing, and there is singing.”

Amazing insight.  Amazing experience. 

To be able to hear singing in the middle of a mess indicates a rare individual indeed.

Listen for the singing in unusual places.  That’s the best kind of music.

Look for subtle signs of hope at odd moments in your relationships.

P Michael Biggs

www.up-words.net

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

A Heavy Weight

I recently listened to the audio book Psycho-Cybernetics read by Dan Kennedy.  He said this: 

“A grudge is a heavy weight to bear.”

Let me tell you a true story:

I know a man who has carried a grudge against some of his siblings for seventeen years.  What a waste. 

Seventeen years of nursing resentment, anger, and hatred, all over a disagreement about the way some minor parts of the family’s estate should have been handled. 

No money was changing hands.  No one was getting less than their share of the estate.  Yet he was challenged and thus the grudge.  What a burden.  

The weight of that grudge has cost years of separation from his siblings.  No one knows what it might be doing to him physically and mentally because he has shut them off.  What a tragedy.

Grudges are a heavy weight to bear. 

I’m not sure why I’m writing this today.  Mostly, I hope it will cause some reader somewhere to recognize themselves and get over whatever grudge might still exist.  We have to reach the point of forgiveness, resolve, release and let it all sink to the bottom of the ocean.

Seventeen years is a long time to carry that heavy of a load.  One month is a long time to carry that kind of a load. 

You need a rest my friend.  Lay it down.  Walk away from it. 

Anne Lamott sums up our thoughts beautifully.

"Not forgiving is like drinking 

rat poison and then waiting

for the rat to die."

P Michael Biggs

www.Up-words.net

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

Cherished

To feel that we are loved and cherished in life is one of the great pursuits. 

Consider this:

“And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so?

“I did.

“And what did you want?

“To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.”

The Poem Late Fragment

Raymond Carver

One of the great heritages a parent can leave a child is the feeling of being loved and adored.  The word “beloved” has some strong synonyms.

   Dearly loved

      Much loved

         Adored

            Favorite

               Darling

Don’t we all want to feel “much loved’?

Isn't it comforting to be adored?

My prayer is that we will find ways of expressing the esteem we hold for the “precious people” in our lives, and may we redeem the moments we have with those close to us.  May they feel “loved” and re-name themselves “the beloved one.”

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time