The song “Heaven” by Live keeps going around in my head. Someone special put it there. Like him, I get a kick to hear songs in the popular media that deal with faith and spirituality.
You don’t need no friends
get back your faith again.
You have the power to believe.
Another dissident,
take back your evidence.
It has no power to deceive.
I’ll believe it when I see it, for myself.
I don’t need no one to tell me about heaven.
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don’t need no proof when it comes to God and truth.
I can see the sunset and I perceive.
(more…)
God, I don’t have great faith,
but I can be faithful.
My belief in you may be seasonal,
but my faithfulness will not.
I will follow in the way of Christ.
I will act as though my life
and the lives of others matter.
I will love.
I have no greater gift to offer than my life.
Take it.
Father,
I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let your will be done in me,
and in all your creatures.
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into your hands I commend my soul:
I offer it to you
with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord,
and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands,
without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father. Amen.
It is by the path of love, which is charity, that God draws near to man, and man to God. But where charity is not found, God cannot dwell. If, then, we possess charity, we possess God, for ‘God is Charity’ (1 Jn 4:8).
From a Zen Buddhism point of view, Jennifer posted a comment at Abyssal Mind that accurately describes what Christian mystics call detachment. Her favorite saying from Buddha is:
Suffering is wishing things were other than they are.
Very good point! She goes on to say,
Remembering this phrase during tough times has definitely helped me to let go of the need to control situations and to upgrade my ‘attachments’ to ‘preferences.’
I would add that one needs to keep this in mind also when times are going well.
