{"id":25142,"date":"2025-04-30T09:54:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T13:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=25142"},"modified":"2025-04-30T10:33:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T14:33:51","slug":"25142","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=25142","title":{"rendered":"Listening to Nature\u2019s Sermons"},"content":{"rendered":"\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=\"So Will I (100 Billion X) Lyric Video - Hillsong United\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/C2U7ffUM5Ec?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard Rohr describes how nature reflects and reveals the wisdom and presence of the Divine:&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the backyard of our Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, a massive 150-year-old Rio Grande cottonwood tree spreads its gnarled limbs over the lawn. An arborist once told us that the tree might have a mutation that causes the huge trunks to make such circuitous turns and twists. One wonders how it stands so firmly, yet the cottonwood is easily the finest work of art that we have at the Center, and its asymmetrical beauty makes it a perfect specimen for one of our organization\u2019s core messages:<strong>&nbsp;<em>Divine perfection is precisely the ability to include what seems like imperfection<\/em><\/strong>. Before we come inside to pray, work, or teach any theology, its giant presence has already spoken a silent sermon over us.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Have you ever had an encounter like this in nature? Perhaps for you, it occurred at a lake or by the seashore, hiking in the mountains, in a garden listening to a mourning dove, even at a busy street corner. I am convinced that when received, such innate theology grows us, expands us, and enlightens us almost effortlessly. All other God talk seems artificial and heady in comparison.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Indigenous religions largely understand this, as do the Scriptures (see Psalms 98, 104, 148, or Daniel 3:57\u201382 [1]). In Job 12:7\u201310, and most of Job 38\u201339, YHWH praises strange animals and elements for their inherently available wisdom\u2014the \u201cpent up sea,\u201d the \u201cwild ass,\u201d the \u201costrich\u2019s wing\u201d\u2014<strong>reminding humans that we\u2019re part of a much greater ecosystem, which offers lessons in all directions.\u202f&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God is not bound by the human presumption that we are the center of everything, and creation did not actually demand or need Jesus (or&nbsp;<em>us<\/em>, for that matter) to confer additional sacredness upon it. From the first moment of the Big Bang, nature was revealing the glory and goodness of the Divine Presence. Jesus came to live in its midst, and enjoy life in all its natural variations, and thus be our model and exemplar.&nbsp;<strong><em>Jesus is the gift that honored the gift<\/em>, we might say.\u202f&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Strangely, many Christians today limit God\u2019s provident care to humans, and very few of them at that. How different we are from Jesus, who extended the divine generosity to sparrows, lilies, ravens, donkeys, the grasses of the fields (Luke 12:24, 27\u201328). No stingy God here! But what stinginess on our side made us limit God\u2019s concern\u2014even eternal concern\u2014to just ourselves? If God chooses and doles out care, we are always insecure and unsure whether we\u2019re among the lucky recipients. Yet once we become\u202f&nbsp;aware of the generous, creative Presence that exists in all things by their very nature, we can honor the Indwelling Spirit as the inner Source of all dignity and worthiness. Dignity is not doled out to the supposedly worthy; it grounds the inherent worthiness of things in their very nature and existence.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>====================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/app-link\/post?publication_id=547961&amp;post_id=158561295&amp;utm_source=post-email-title&amp;utm_campaign=email-post-title&amp;isFreemail=false&amp;r=2dkj2&amp;token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjozOTkyMzY2LCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxNTg1NjEyOTUsImlhdCI6MTc0NTkyMTExNywiZXhwIjoxNzQ4NTEzMTE3LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItNTQ3OTYxIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.FOQ-RaMwnby_p_oAn7Fyi-7j2nsS2dOHoeA9VVy20l4\">God is Closer Than You Think&nbsp;<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">how to notice the Spirit&#8217;s movements<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@cewgreen\">CHRIS EW GREEN<\/a> APR 29<\/td><td><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@cewgreen\"><\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td>&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/c348d3ec-1e99-4466-b65a-64a4a9493d61?j=eyJ1IjoiMmRrajIifQ.ND0qR5RKsmVnltuWgIlyr3BY7uwq2Kt9ZzX29UJK4cg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1100,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa29236ec-d3e7-488c-96c0-b7778dbca537_806x975.jpeg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>A Prayer in the Darkness 2017<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Someone sent me this question the other day:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>\u201cWhen someone is searching for connection with God but doesn\u2019t know that God is already walking with them, trying to connect in powerful ways they\u2019re not open to\u2014how do you guide them into opening themselves to God?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s the first thing to understand: we can\u2019t make ourselves\u2014or anyone else\u2014open to God, not by any direct effort of will. All we can do is allow, invite, welcome, permit. In truth, God\u2019s presence often appears most clearly when we\u2019ve stopped striving, when we\u2019ve given up trying to make anything happen. It\u2019s like remembering a word that\u2019s stuck on the tip of your tongue\u2014the harder you chase it, the more it eludes you. Only when you let go does it surface. Remember this: \u201cI am found by those who do not seek me\u201d is as true as \u201cseek and you shall find,\u201d so we do not need to fret. God will make himself known. All in good time.&nbsp;<br><br>That said, here\u2019s how I\u2019d try to help if someone came to me wanting to be open to God, but simply unsure how to be: Think back to those moments when goodness caught you by surprise. You know the moments I mean\u2014something happened that you couldn\u2019t have planned or made happen for yourself but suddenly you were made aware of how deeply known and loved you are. Remember moments when you found yourself thrilled to be alive, glad that this is your life. These are the clearest signposts of God&#8217;s presence, moments when the fabric of ordinary life become thin enough for us to catch a glimpse of what&#8217;s always there, holding everything together.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You may struggle to identify these moments in your own life. If so, don\u2019t worry. Sometimes it\u2019s easier to spot God moving in someone else\u2019s life\u2014or to spot what seems to be a&nbsp;<em>lack<\/em>&nbsp;of movement from God. Maybe you&#8217;ve encountered something so gorgeous it left you aching and speechless, or a kindness so pure it felt like light itself. Maybe you\u2019ve witnessed someone coming fully alive, seen them truly beside themselves with joy? Or perhaps you\u2019ve been stopped in your tracks by suffering\u2014a moment when your heart broke open and you knew, without doubt, that this pain mattered infinitely and you found yourself grieved at the absence of God. All of these stirrings in you are created by the passing of God, the way a curtain stirs when the wind comes through an open window.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When it comes down to it, there are two particular stirrings of the heart that I think best signal God\u2019s work\u2014<em>compassion<\/em>&nbsp;that draws us out of our self-focus toward others&#8217; suffering, and&nbsp;<em>gratitude<\/em>&nbsp;that opens our eyes to the countless gifts we&#8217;ve received. These aren\u2019t just feelings, mind you. They\u2019re more like practices, in fact, ways of engaging with the world that, though rooted in emotion, reshape how we live. Like John the Baptist crying in the wilderness, they prepare the way for meeting Jesus, bringing down mountains of pretension and raising up valleys of despair so that our path to God runs level and straight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Compassion breaks open the heart, sensitizing us to reality in and around us. And thanksgiving clears the air, driving back the darkness and the powers of evil that try cloud our minds and to break our spirit. When we name what we\u2019re grateful for, even if we do not couch it in explicitly theological terms, we possess our souls in patience, refusing to bow to doubt, fear, intimidation, despair. And that does not fail to work good in us. Like turning on the lights in a dark house, room by room, every spoken gratitude pushes back shadow, helps us breathe easier, lets us see more clearly, frees us to move.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God works through other emotions too, of course, though they\u2019re trickier to navigate. Take guilt, for instance\u2014not the crushing shame that makes us want to hide, but the gentle conviction that makes us aware of how what we\u2019ve done or left undone has harmed others, even slightly, making it harder for them to sleep well at night, to enjoy the good things in life, to dwell in the joy of the Lord, and to do right for those in their life who need them most. The same goes for anger\u2014especially anger on behalf of the most vulnerable, those who have been wronged by people who are actually responsible for protecting the vulnerable and weak. Sorting out the difference between righteous anger and unrighteous anger, between good guilt and bad guilt is itself a work of the Spirit, and the work of doing sorting makes us more truthful. And the more truthful we are, the purer our hearts are and the readier we are for God to \u201cshow up\u201d in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learning to read these signals takes time and practice. It&#8217;s like learning a new language\u2014and crucially, it&#8217;s not one we can learn alone. Some works of God we simply cannot spot in ourselves; we need others to witness it for us, to midwife our recognition. This is part of why we need to belong to a community of faith. Sometimes, we can only see God through our neighbor&#8217;s eyes. As we practice this discipline of recognition together, helping each other notice and name God&#8217;s movements, we begin to realize that God is already there in every center and circumference of our lives\u2014and has always been there, even when we were not ready to make contact, speaking life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Which brings me back to that original question about guiding someone into being open to God. As I said at the start, we can\u2019t force this opening\u2014in ourselves or anyone else. And here\u2019s the beautiful thing: we never need to. If they want to be guided, even slightly, that desire itself is proof that God is already at work in them, already leading them. Our task is simply to help them notice what\u2019s already happening, to name the ways God is already moving in their lives. And the very fact that we are there, desiring this good for them, is a sign to them as well as to us that God has been at work in secret for a very long time before anyone noticed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Father Richard Rohr describes how nature reflects and reveals the wisdom and presence of the Divine:&nbsp;&nbsp; In the backyard of our Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, a massive 150-year-old Rio Grande cottonwood tree spreads its gnarled limbs over the lawn. An arborist once told us that the tree might have a mutation that [&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\/25142"}],"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=25142"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25146,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25142\/revisions\/25146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}