{"id":23534,"date":"2024-03-20T09:27:19","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T13:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23534"},"modified":"2024-03-20T09:41:39","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T13:41:39","slug":"23534","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23534","title":{"rendered":"Alive for a Reason"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tracy Chapman Heaven`s here on earth (with lyrics)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7Ig_2q5n5kc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Theologian Howard Thurman (1899\u20131981) believed that cultivating inner stillness allows us to experience the divine. Lerita Coleman Brown writes:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a seminary student walking home late one night, Thurman noticed the sound of water. He had taken this route many times, and he had never heard even a drip. The next day Thurman discussed his observations with one of his professors, who told him that a canal ran underneath the street. Because the noises of streetcars, automobiles, and passersby were absent late at night, Howard could discern the sound of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thurman equates these sounds&#8230; to the inner chatter within our minds that prevents us from being aware of God\u2019s presence. <strong>Quieting the surface noise in our minds is what Thurman urges us to do when he instructs us, as he does throughout his writings, to \u201ccenter down.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What <strong>attracts and holds our attention determines how and when we will experience God. \u201cIn the total religious experience we learn how to wait; we learn how to ready the mind and the spirit,\u201d he writes. \u201cIt is in the waiting, brooding, lingering, tarrying timeless moments that the essence of the religious experience becomes most fruitful. It is here that I learn to listen, to swing wide the very doors of my being, to clean out the corners and the crevices of my life\u2014so that when His Presence invades, I am free to enjoy His coming to Himself in me.\u201d<\/strong> [1] Thurman believed this activity may <strong>also require letting go of hatred and bitterness so that in coming into your center, you are coming into God as the Creator of existence because \u201cGod bottoms existence.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Brown finds in Thurman\u2019s writings an invitation to be open to the possibility of everyday mysticism for all.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thurman <strong>demystified mysticism by framing it simply. Mystics are people who have a personal religious experience or an encounter with God.<\/strong> This description has freed me and many others from thinking that God appears to people only after years of prayer and living an ascetic, isolated life. Thurman believed <strong>anyone can be a mystic if they are open to the experience. <\/strong>He opened a door to a world where mystics move freely among us and live ordinary lives. Mystics are the ones who can hear the water flowing beneath the street. They <strong>know how to quiet the surface noise enough to hear the meaning of all things coursing below daily life.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Everyday mystics are people who commune with the presence of God, receive guidance through prophetic visions, voices, and dreams, and commit themselves to living for God rather than solely for themselves. Their <strong>vision for life is larger and more expansive, knowing that they are alive for a reason, a purpose that will benefit human spirits they may never meet&#8230;.<\/strong> Thurman lived out an identity grounded in mysticism, as he regularly felt oneness with God and on occasion experienced visions. He also believed that <strong>mystical moments should stir people toward love, community, and social action.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>=================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23538\" width=\"646\" height=\"662\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image.png 480w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-293x300.png 293w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 646px) 100vw, 646px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Transformed by God\u2019s Goodness<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"auto\" height=\"15\" src=\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9\/images\/b66516eb-1f2d-8d90-0e02-d4223f78f6f7.png\">One by one, all of Naaman\u2019s pagan assumptions about Israel\u2019s God were dismantled. By refusing to even meet Naaman, Elisha was showing that Israel\u2019s God <strong>did not depend upon human mediators or experts. <\/strong>By not giving Naaman any elaborate healing ritual to perform, Elisha was revealing that Israel\u2019s God <strong>could not be controlled by magic or incantations<\/strong>. And by rejecting any gift or payment for his healing, Elisha was telling Naaman that <strong>Israel\u2019s God was self-sufficient.<\/strong> He needed nothing from the hands of mere mortals.The independence of Israel\u2019s God stood in sharp contrast with the deities of Naaman\u2019s country. Despite their ferocious reputations, pagan gods were dependent upon their human subjects for food (offered through sacrifices), and shelter (provided through building temples), and their blessings could only be cajoled from their hands (usually through the sorcery of priests). The entire premise of pagan worship was that gods could be manipulated because they had needs. But how do you control a God that has no needs?That was Naaman\u2019s shocking discovery in Israel. What kind of God needs no sacrifices, no temples, no priests, and no offerings? What kind of God cannot be managed with rituals and spells? At some point, an even more marvelous thought must have entered Naaman\u2019s mind. This God of Israel who needs nothing and cannot be controlled chose to heal his leprosy anyway. What kind of God freely loves and blesses a foreigner; the enemy of his people?<br><br>A casual reading of the story may lead us to conclude that Naaman\u2019s amazement and eventual devotion to Israel\u2019s God was the result of his cleansing from leprosy. We may assume it was God\u2019s miraculous power to heal that transformed Naaman\u2019s life. But it wasn\u2019t. Other gods were known to heal, and lesser deities could manifest miracles\u2014as we see in the story of Moses and the Egyptian sorcerers (see Exodus 7:8-13).<br><br>The real turning point for Naaman was not his healing, as amazing as that was. Rather, it was Elisha\u2019s refusal to accept Naaman\u2019s gifts. That is when the great man from Syria was confronted with the shocking fact that Israel\u2019s God had <strong>healed him expecting nothing in return. <\/strong>What transformed Naaman was <strong>not God\u2019s power, but God\u2019s goodness. In a word, it was grace.<\/strong><br><br>DAILY SCRIPTURE<br><a href=\"https:\/\/withgoddaily.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9&amp;id=a09362e9fb&amp;e=f52fc38132\">ROMANS 5:6-8&nbsp;<br>2 KINGS 5:1-27<\/a><br><br>WEEKLY PRAYER   Ignatius of Loyola (1491 &#8211; 1556)<br><br>Take, Lord, and receive all my freedom, my memory, my intelligence and my will\u2014all that i have and possess. You, Lord, have given those things to me. I now give them back to you, Lord. All belongs to you. Dispose of these gifts according to your will. I ask only for your love and your grace, for they are enough for me.<br>Amen.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Theologian Howard Thurman (1899\u20131981) believed that cultivating inner stillness allows us to experience the divine. Lerita Coleman Brown writes: As a seminary student walking home late one night, Thurman noticed the sound of water. He had taken this route many times, and he had never heard even a drip. The next day Thurman discussed his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23534"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23534"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23540,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23534\/revisions\/23540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}