A heart that seeks after Thee

How wonderful it is to be a keen collector of stories because God always presents me with such interesting episodes to share. 

Got into a cab today and to my surprise, I heard Hebrew worship songs being played by the cab driver. After a while, I told the cab driver that I was surprised to hear Hebrew songs. He told me that he had converted to Judaism in his 40s. He said that he kept having strange dreams over many years in which he was asking people around him "who am I" in his dreams. And for some reason he felt that it was God who gave him the recurring dreams. He had been of another faith and he was given a bible. He read it and he said that even today, he still doesn't understand a lot of it. But he started believing in God the Father and he was very drawn to the Old Testament. As a result, he started meeting people who had converted to Judaism or believed in the God of the Old Testament. I asked him whether he was attending a church or synagogue and he said no, but that he would meet frequently with a small group who all believed and followed Jewish practices. He asked me "are you a believer or a follower?" My question to him was "what enables us to get to heaven?" I listened to him because he was putting forth his reasons as to why he believed in Judaism. He shared his perspectives and his understanding of the Bible. I respected that even though I may not agree with some of his views or beliefs, but I felt that it was neither the time nor place to engage him on such things. So I listen intently without rebuttal. At the end of the journey, I told him that if he continues to believe in God the Father, God will be faithful to him. 

Reflection: I was brought to Matthew 7:7 by my conversation with this cab driver. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." I was deeply humbled by his seeking heart because he is actively finding God in his own personal way.

To a nation that was not called by my name

I felt very touched after reading an article and watching a YouTube video which features Hazem Farraj. He mentioned Isaiah 65:1 in talking about God's pro-active love and how it is oftentimes revealed through dreams and visions.

Isaiah 65:1 (ESV)
I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;
I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me....
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
to a nation that was not called by my name.

Make them look

Writers should look for what others don't see

Excerpt: In a larger sense, there are other blankets we don’t want to lift and see what lies underneath. There is a kind of truth—that’s a big word—that we hate to look at. It could be a face in the street, someone who looks in pain, someone who’s suffering. We turn away—we can’t look at everything. But I like poems that occasionally do that to the reader: make them look.

The Summer Day - Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

I happened to be standing - Mary Oliver

I don’t know where prayers go,
or what they do.
Do cats pray, while they sleep
half-asleep in the sun?
Does the possum pray as it
crosses the street?
The sunflowers? The old black oak
growing older every year?
I know I can walk through the world,
along the shore or under the trees,
with my mind filled with things
of little importance, in full
self-attendance.  A condition I can’t really
call being alive.
Is a prayer a gift, or a petition,
or does it matter?
The sunflowers blaze, maybe that’s their way.
Maybe the cats are sound asleep.  Maybe not.

While I was thinking this I happened to be standing
just outside my door, with my notebook open,
which is the way I begin every morning.
Then a wren in the privet began to sing.
He was positively drenched in enthusiasm,
I don’t know why.  And yet, why not.
I wouldn’t persuade you from whatever you believe
or whatever you don’t.  That’s your business.
But I thought, of the wren’s singing, what could this be
if it isn’t a prayer?
So I just listened, my pen in the air.

Bits & pieces

1. What are you grateful for?

2. What are you proudest of?

3. What’s been the happiest moment of your life so far?

4. What’s been the hardest moment of your life, and how did you get through it?

5. What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in life?

6. How would you describe yourself as a child? Were you happy?

7. Who has been kindest to you?

8. How do you want to be remembered?

9. If your great great grandchildren could listen to this years from now: is there any wisdom you’d want to pass on to them? What would you want them to know?

10. If you could honor one person in your life — living or dead — by listening to their story, who would that be, what would you ask them and why?

(lifted from http://ideas.ted.com/10-questions-to-ask-your-family-aroun…/)

Close encounters of the unusual kind

Got into a cab a few nights ago and the elderly lady driver started talking to me about her life and her loving relationship with her husband/boyfriend. Then she mentioned that two years ago, she almost wanted to do something stupid and her husband said he would also follow her. I asked her what happened etc - long conversation, at the end of which when I alighted, I gently reminded her to take care and treasure all that she has now. Life is precious.
Lesson: Take buses more often. Can save money, too.

Was at a bus-stop tonight and this lady started talking to me, asking me how to let it go if someone has hurt her badly or if someone in her family has placed a charm on her? I asked her "oh dear, what do you mean? What happened?" A much shorter conversation this time, because when the fifth bus pulled up at the bus stop, she stood up suddenly and said "that's my bus".
Lesson: Can afford to take cabs on some nights.

Big lesson: Lord, thank you for trusting me to offer comfort and encouragement to strangers. Every encounter is a divine appointment. Amen.