Living Deeply

What Really Controls Us? (Robert Johnson)

 

The unconscious is a marvelous universe of unseen energies, forces, forms of intelligence-even distinct personalities-that live within us. It is a much larger realm than most of us realize, one that has a complete life of its own running parallel to the ordinary life we live day by day. The unconscious is the secret source of much of our thought, feeling, and behavior. It influences us in ways that are all the more powerful because it is unsuspected.

 

A Frustrated Search (Joyce Meyer)

I remember the emptiness I felt in 1976 when, as a young Christian, I realised that doing the right things brought temporary happiness but not deep and satisfying joy…Without doubt, I saw God as big and powerful, and I wanted to remain safely within the borders of His provision, so I lived by the law of the church. I showed up for every meeting and signed up for multiple opportunities to serve Him, but my life was still full of irritations and aggravations that robbed me of true contentment. Many people frustrate their search for fulfilment, as I did, because they don’t know where to look for that one thing that will satisfy their desire for something more…I was a Christian for several years before I understood that true inner satisfaction is the most important thing in life and that it is the result of enjoying life through the abiding presence of God.

Johnny Cash Was A Man of Great Faith

BY KEN GARFIELD

Knight Ridder Newspapers

I'm glad "Walk the Line" is bringing Johnny Cash back.

But I hope the movie sparks more than a renewed passion for the man's music. I hope it moves us to see Cash's often tortured life as the embodiment of true faith. Here was a Christian with scars inside and out, a complicated soul who rediscovered and ultimately embraced God, even if the journey was filled with a lifetime of wild detours.

See the movie. Sing along to classics like "Folsom Prison Blues," which still give voice to those dealing with their demons and others who live like angels. Then dig deeper into his life and appreciate Cash for what he was: An imperfect person who reminds us that God doesn't turn his back on those who wear black.

The well-received film starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon focuses understandably on the love and harmonies of Johnny and June Carter Cash. Maybe we need a sequel focusing on the spirituality that helped bring so much depth to his work.

Growing up in Arkansas, Cash professed a belief in Christ at age 12. But as Christianity Today magazine wrote after his death in 2003, Cash lost sight of him in a haze of addiction, family problems and failing health. He described sex and drugs as demons and once said, "All of a sudden there'll be a beautiful little Percodan laying there, and you'll want it."

Years before he died at 71, Cash had found Christ and his June. Together, they gave him strength to turn his back on the devil. He was the same melancholy man whose hurts made him a poet. But he was older now, wiser, with an unmistakable contentment you could hear in that baritone.

When he and June rose to sing "Precious Memories" at the 1996 Charlotte, N.C., crusade of his dear friend, Billy Graham, he affirmed the sentiment he had shared in an interview two years before:

"I am not obsessed with death; I'm obsessed with living. The battle against the dark one and the clinging to the right one is what my life is all about."

I was channel-surfing the other night when I came across an old Arthur Smith show on public television.

It was a black-and-white tape from Smith's popular TV show years ago. This segment featured the Carolinas musical legend making small talk with Johnny and June Carter Cash.

I was about to surf on when suddenly they broke into that old gospel classic written by Arthur Smith, "I Saw a Man."

I listened to the harmony.

I turned an ear for that growl, rich, dark and somber, nearly off-key actually.

I admired, as always, The Man in Black's clothing, his way of showing solidarity with the have-nots.

I stared at his scars.

I saw a man whose life and death sends a message as powerful as any creed.

Any one of us can find God, even after we've lost him.

Made For Another World (CS Lewis)

If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.

The Wager (Blaise Pascal)

"Either God exists, or he does not." But which side shall we take?  Reason cannot decide for us one way of the other; we are separated by an infinite gulf.  A game is on, at the other side of this infinite distance, where either heads or tails will turn up.  Which will you gamble on?

Let us weigh the gain and the loss in betting that God exists.  If you win, you win everything; if you lose, you lose nothing.  Do not hesitate, then gamble on his existence.

You want to come to faith, but you do not know the way.  You would like to cure yourself of unbelief, and you ask for remedies.  Learn from those who were once bound and gaged like you, and who now stake all that they possess.  There are the people who know the road you wish to follow; they are cured of the disease of which you wish to be cured.  Follow the way by which they are set out: by acting as though they already believed.

Now what harm will come to you of you follow his course?  You will be faithful, honest, humble, grateful, generous, a sincere friend, truthful.  Certainly you will not enjoy those poisonous pleasures, ambition, and luxury.  But will you not have others?  I tell you that you will gain in this life, and that at every step you take along this road you will see so great an assurance of gain, and so little in what you risk, that you will finally realize you have gambled on something certain and infinite, which has cost you nothing.

Being Led Into Truth (Leslie Newbigin)

....to be truly human, alive to the spirit of God, and to be following Jesus, is to hear his call, follow, and also ask lots of questions. This is Augustine's:"I believe in order to know", credo ut intelligam. I begin with faithful acceptance of the one who is truth, and question, and share my journey with him, so that he might lead me into His truth. You cannot know any truth without question and doubt.