Daily pages of reflection...for knowledge, understanding, to wisdom
Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

Maturity Measured

November 11, 2019
Year 4, Day 315 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Adulteress, Lucas Cranach the Younger and Workshop, ca. 1545–50

We may miss the meaning of both human and spiritual maturity in our preoccupation with only physical maturity.  When we speak of our children reaching their maturity we may strike on the image of a young person beginning their majority on graduation from high school, or reaching his or her twenty-first birthday.  It may be a short period that is widely appreciated and sought after in the physical appearance of the individual for decades after firm flesh and inner energy have been diminished, perhaps lost, along with innocence.  The period is so attractive to the self of persons that even society tends to forgive early violations of maturity, and permits youth some delay, a factor necessary for the health of… Read more

Erosion and Change

November 10, 2019
Year 4, Day 314 | No Comments
Section of The Crucifixion, Pedro Orrente, ca. 1625–30

Erosion and change serve up good and ill in our lives.  We are informed that erosion of useful land areas is threatening to the good of earth and human beings.  A large earth scar in America is named, The Grand Canyon.  It began millennia ago as a rivulet flowing in a southwesterly direction, almost undetected but slowly moving grains of earth in the direction of the flow – very slowly.  Today that flow, which grew in size to a river called Colorado, has cut a great ditch in the earth that is counted as a national treasure of beauty and grandeur not to be interfered with in its natural formation.  What if the myriads of fields that I have observed… Read more

Life, Media,Truth

November 9, 2019
Year 4, Day 313 | No Comments
Section of The Crucifixion, Pedro Orrente, ca. 1625–30

The following is integral to Pages preceding this one – for this date.  The ideas are related to faith, to faithful commitment, to the call of God to search during mortal life for his will and direction for the person of faith.  Growth to spiritual maturity is the human ideal approved of God.  The Apostle Paul accented the matter in the Epistle to the Philippians.  No mortal will have all life concepts lined up perfectly.  Some will be at a distance, near or far, but the heavenly citizenship rests for entrance on the faith acceptance of the gospel as set forth in the words of Christ.  John 3:16 and 5:24 are straightforward statements of the redemptive experience.  Although follow-up is… Read more

Reality From Vision

November 8, 2019
Year 4, Day 312 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Adulteress, Lucas Cranach the Younger and Workshop, ca. 1545–50

Jesus lived in two massive contexts, one spiritual with his deity inescapable and one physical, also inescapable during the period chosen to take it on.  He, like all other human beings had to take on the context of daily natural life – to eat and drink, perform his ablutions, scratch an itch, and the like in human conduct and necessity for the comfort and maintenance of human life.  His deity was identified in his teachings, in his miracles, and in his holiness (thought/conduct).  His intense interest in all persons, and his actions related to individual persons.  He maintained the practical thought that the key to understanding Christian life is found in the individual in relation to Jesus Christ.  As important… Read more

Life, Media, Truth

November 7, 2019
Year 4, Day 311 | No Comments
Section of The Descent from the Cross, Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1435

It is not likely that we carry over to daily life what history has taught us about the influence of the means of learning.  We tend to accept what society gives us so to form us personally rather than the reverse – giving to society what it needs to teach for the improvement of our lives.  Our experience is more persuasive than the classroom.  Everything about us teaches us.  We need, somehow, to hook everything up for good. For several generations in the forming of America the elementary level of education was largely influenced by the McGUFFEY READERS.  Youngsters brought up on them lived to praise their value both as a learning tool for language, and for values in life. … Read more

Persona

November 6, 2019
Year 4, Day 310 | No Comments
Section of The Descent from the Cross, Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1435

Jeremiah wrote often of the voice of the Lord and the people.  His shepherds and owners of the flocks appear to have sworn at the weather. It was part of their response to God in a cultural practice.  To find the equilibrium each person ought to have, and from which that person lives and works there ought to be a conscious understanding of one’s own tolerances and boundaries in which he or she lives and functions.  It surprises me that the pattern seems to be foreign even to many well educated professionals.  When I am asked my opinion of current society as it may be related to that which I knew in my formative years, my answer is always the… Read more

Failure and Guidance

November 5, 2019
Year 4, Day 309 | No Comments
Section of The Taking of Christ, Caravaggio, 1602

The matter of geography is in the line of lights guiding our lives but it is not usually decisive as related to success, as God interprets success.  Success with God is found in faithfulness.  Each person has enough information to determine personal faithfulness in the interpretation of his or her own life and work.  That observation does not mean that determination is easy.  It does take some insight, knowledge of self, and the Scripture, with prayer and willingness to follow one’s star (calling). Obedience to Scripture, some practical perception of our abilities, all covered by believing prayer and application, means we can gain God’s will in our lives – even if we may seem to fail in the effort.  We… Read more

Sayings/Proverbs

November 4, 2019
Year 4, Day 308 | No Comments
Section of The Crucifixion, Pedro Orrente, ca. 1625–30

This Page is written in the context of the date for the years preceding series of these daily paragraphs dealing with the context of life for the Christian in self-formation – personally and socially.  This is achieved through various themes, but done best in understanding and using informal personal procedures that assist the individual, and invariably spill over into the relational (social) context of life that begins with family members.  The three Pages for this date leading to this one relate to sayings, proverbs or thoughts that tend to form us.  If taken seriously they offer a kind of motivation in the life of the self that this is the way, and I will walk in it.  Although elusive, or… Read more

Intentionality

November 3, 2019
Year 4, Day 307 | No Comments
Section of Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michaelangelo, 1508-1512

It is rather clear that successful people in life are largely intentional persons – they develop purpose, small or large, as time rolls along.  The purpose is personal and usually unrelated to celebrity status, financial benefits, or protection from failure.  These factors, and others, may appear later in the scenario, but they may be undetected or deliberate at the outset, even if carried through to accomplishment of the purpose of the seeker.  It wasn’t until Edison that inventors thought in terms relating their discoveries and inventions to business and profits.  One can almost sense the objectivity of purpose in reviewing the words of great achievers during their search and at the point of success.  It is present in Edison (electricity),… Read more

Change

November 2, 2019
Year 4, Day 306 | No Comments
Section of Adoration of the Magi, artist unknown

The meaning of this text relates, according to its context, to persons devoted to change – altering a satisfactory context, persons given to: change, disguise, diversity, personal prejudice, perhaps repetition, relating to changes for an abandoned context.  The concern is not in change, but those given to it without substantive reason – an attitude which is change for the sake of change.  It is basic to the meaning of style. According to those who study it, change is about the only thing we can be sure of in the course of daily living.  A pundit suggested that it be added to the observation that the only things we can be sure of are death and taxes.  Change may take place… Read more

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