Dear John, George, Herman, Susan and all, First, George thank you for the meditation. I have been reading with interest these two threads: one about the sensibilities and practical safety in avoiding angering people in the larger world, the second about how we listen to each other when our values do not match. Tenderness in my subject line is not some sentimental value of being nice to each other. It's more like the RS1 illustration of feeling everything (every perspective) through burned raw nerve endings. Quakers use it in talking about how you hold Business Meeting where the objective is "to descern God's will." There is a great book by a Jesuit who came to observe and participate called Beyond Consensus. Recognizing you are in a corporate endeavor to do more than what humanly possible, you must make extreme allowances for the others doing the process. You aim to treat each other tenderly. Of course, the world does not use this standard, but one can hope the People of God could. It is the gift and duty of Those Who Care to be sensitive when others cannot. Indeed, its how you know who they/we are. Grace and Peace, Love, LIGHT, mary ________________________________ From: George Holcombe <geowanda1@me.com> To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> Sent: Thu, September 20, 2012 5:09:56 AM Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] A good reflection on Romney Part of my early morning meditation is coming across some of the writers, spiritual guides, etc. and I got Richard Rohrs this morning and thought about us. " THE REIGN OF GOD There are always two worlds. The world as it operates is largely about power; the world as it should be, or “the Reign of God,” is always about love. How can you live in both worlds at the same time? As you allow yourself to loosen your grip on the first, you will gradually see the inadequacy and weakness of power as domination or control. You will then tighten your grip around the second, which is the ever purer motivation of love for others instead of yourself. Any exercise of power apart from love leads to brutality and evil; but love that does not lead people to a whole new kind of power is mere sentimentality and emotion. I must admit, it is rare to find people who hold both together in perfect balance—who have found their inner divine power and use it for others. Prayer: Your will be done. George Holcombe 14900 Yellowleaf Tr. Austin, TX 78728 Mobile 512/252-2756 geowanda1@me.com Hope appeareth, but it is not your Hope—you do not have anything to do with it. It just appeareth. It comes as a stranger, as an alien—it just appeareth! You do not even know why you hope. How in the world could you hope when there is absolutely nothing to justify any hope? ~Joseph W. Mathews
