Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Government is a contrivance of human
wisdom to provide for human wants. People
have the right to expect that these wants
will be provided for by this wisdom.

Jimmy Carter; on this date, 1976, he was
elected President of the United States.


I’ve been writing these Reflections now for over 7 years. There are nearly 1500 of them. Today I want to reflect on WHY I write them.

I write them as my principle form of Prayer. Which is the same reason I love preaching, which I do far less now that I am retired. Five to six days a week, I ponder an enormous range of comments and thoughts from a mind-blowing group of people and sources. I use these to think about human Life, about “God”, about Religion, about Art, about Good and Evil, about body and spirit and mind. About everything. Prayer, for me, is the way I open myself to Wisdom, however Wisdom is communicated.

I write them to Learn. About myself. About the World. About human beings. About emotions. About ideas. About Love and Hate and Mystery and Confusion and Desire and Despair and Elation and Freedom and Slavery and Frailty and Courage and Failure and Success and Sex ….. anything that pertains to being Human.

I write them to hear Wisdom and Graciousness. And to try and understand.

I write them to “train up” my Being. I’ve been at it for decades (along with preaching), and I still believe that at 65 I have lots to discover, and lots to affirm, and lots to let go of.

I don’t write them to tell people what to believe or what to do. I express my thoughts, with the recognition that we all have the freedom and responsibility to engage with Life and to learn its lessons.

I deeply believe that Jesus is not “sectarian”. Jesus is one of many Wisdom Teachers that Life has given to us, given to us by the deep deep Mystery we call “God” to help us to become fully human ….. and I equally believe that that fullness of humanity has to do ultimately with becoming a blazing flame of Love.

Jimmy Carter is, I believe, correct about Government ….. and I passionately hope that we in America will learn this again before we destroy ourselves. And I would paraphrase his words to say, “GOD is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants”.

I would like to think that America is a vehicle for this Wisdom. And that we will heal ourselves ….. soon.

Brian+