Family Yesterday

[ChristianMystic]

My parents are in their 80's and a song from Allen Jackson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-BemA7z8W0) came to their text message from no one knows where. But they listen to it all the time and are inspired. They played it for me yesterday during my routine Sunday visit.

I offered the interpretation that the great lesson in the song is about how when we are young, we tend to be oblivious to the fact that LOVE is the point and very success of Life Itself. The singer realizes this and in the wealth of this spiritual awakening, would not drink of a fountain of youth, if one was presented to him.

Yet my father stubbornly dreams of maybe winning the lottery and having more enjoyment of this life.

I created a parable for my father, seeing how he is. "Imagine an orphan," I said, "who had a loving benefactor. That benefactor gave the orphan all he had, and when the child was of age, the benefactor sent him into town. 'Here is a thousand dollars' the benefactor said. Go and build me an orphanage and learn to show the love I show you.' But when the young man went into town, all he thought about was himself. He dreamed of being rich like his benefactor, and he spend the money on food and his own business ventures. Yet when he returned to the benefactor, the benefactor showed him as much love and understanding as ever, because the benefactor is love itself. So, the young man was shamefaced, hoping that when he is sent into town again, he would do better.
I explained that the benefactor is God, and that living with the benefactor is the spiritual paradise which we come from and will return to after this life, a realm full of the Love of God. The town is this life. And our forgetting why we were sent here (to learn to show the love God shows us in the spiritual paradise) happens when we get caught up in the vanities of this world.
But so as not to be lost in self-righteousness, sometimes I wonder how stubborn my own heart appears to God (see my post about my Dark Night of the Soul). How must God feel about my dull soul? As frustrated as I feel to see my own parents stuck in the vanities of this world, not apparently ready to learn the spiritual lessons of life, even at the end of life?

But hopefully, my God-inspired words might help them on their journey. I pray...

 

[ChristianMystic]

Sorry to duplicate this post but I thought my first post was lost when I did not see it posted...

 

[TheNarrowPath]

Dont be too hard on your parents. They raised you and you turned out okay, right? Continue to pray for them, I will say a prayer for them too.

 

[Seeker47]

Not long ago I learned a hard lessen; seniors often have a deep knowledge that they cannot share, no matter how much they want too. We are just not in any condition to hear. I wish I'd had more time just to be there and listen with my heart.

 

[ChristianMystic]

Not long ago I learned a hard lessen; seniors often have a deep knowledge that they cannot share, no matter how much they want too. We are just not in any condition to hear. I wish I'd had more time just to be there and listen with my heart.

I agree that I should always keep my mind open to the possibility that I don't fully understand.

 

[MsMediator]

Yet my father stubbornly dreams of maybe winning the lottery and having more enjoyment of this life.

As frustrated as I feel to see my own parents stuck in the vanities of this world, not apparently ready to learn the spiritual lessons of life, even at the end of life?

When you say you dad wants more enjoyment in this life, what do you mean by that?

I've noticed people in general want things they have not had or have struggled to obtain. Maybe on the surface your father wants money/vanities, maybe underneath, his feelings are more understandable. He may be well-intentioned and may think money may solve all his problems (we do have to acknowledge that having money solves monetary problems). I would just continue to remind him that money is not the answer to all our problems, and there are other more important matters in life.

 

[JohnDB]

When the time comes that when a person (of God) is no longer controlled by fears and wants...there's not a lot left to drive them except for the relationships they have.
And what sort of person is left without fears and wants defining them anymore?

Isn't that what Heaven is going to be like?

What sort of skills are you going to bring into Heaven without grabbing after money or avoiding things you are fearful of?

When all relationships are laid bare and shallow flattery is worthless...what happens?

 

[ChristianMystic]

When you say you dad wants more enjoyment in this life, what do you mean by that?

He may be well-intentioned and may think money may solve all his problems (we do have to acknowledge that having money solves monetary problems).

Oh, I sympathize with his frustrations that more money would at lease alleviate some concerns of his. But I see that these concerns are themselves a misplacement of the soul's attention, for all of us, but particularly for the elderly. While we are all called to transcend the concerns of this world and have faith in God's providence and turn rather to the things that God finds important--showing love to others and building up incorruptible, spiritual treasures-- how much more important is this to those who are inevitably departing this life and are blessed with last opportunities?

But again, I don't judge. I only pray for in love. Because I know God must see my own soul as stubborn in its own way. As we judge others, God judges us by the same standard. Would that I could love even more, rather than being "disappointed" with others.

Just the other day I was asking myself, how important is my "appointment of expectation" that others can be judged to disappoint?

 

[ChristianMystic]

Isn't that what Heaven is going to be like?

I think that Heaven is a spiritual realm devoid of time and space and limitation, where we are directly exposed to the Love of God, manifest in all his gifts of Creation. This physical world is subject to scarcity, want, and limitation because God's gifts of love here (beauty of a tree, ripe fruits, cool breezes, health) are subject to place and moment and quantity, and in many instances, labor to help produce and maintain. In the spiritual realm, there is no limitation of place, movement, quantity, and no imperative that we earn our bread by the sweat of our own brow.

I feel that God created this realm of time and space in order to nudge us into coming together with one another if we wish to see a heaven-like earth. If we do not work together, this world would be harsh, arduous, full of want and hunger. Our ultimate lesson in this life is to learn to give love, as God gives us love in Heaven and more dimly on earth. He even came down to us to demonstrate this: "Love one another, as I have Loved you" (John 13:34).

A good analogy I use is that we are spiritual infants being challenged by God to grow up to childhood. Infants know only to succor, to seek milk from their parent, and they are quite single-minded in this. Hence do we seek to "enjoy" things, from the simple man down to the mobster who seek to consume, consume, consume of the "stuff" of this world--all are equally infants. But these "goods" we seek to enjoy were originally given and are constantly given by the Love of God. And God wants us to see that love itself is the point, not the stuff. By learning to love one another and to give of ourselves, we might begin to show God that we are worthy children indeed.

So are YOU content to be an eternal, succoring infant, or a child of God. A child of Love?

Much less a lithesome parasite, the succoring infants among us who intentionally abuse and use our fellow persons in order to satisfy our appetites, like mobsters and racists and tyrants? lol

 

[pottersclay]

Plan your day as though it is your last
Live your life as though you have forever.

 

[Mofastus]

When the time comes that when a person (of God) is no longer controlled by fears and wants...there's not a lot left to drive them except for the relationships they have.
And what sort of person is left without fears and wants defining them anymore?

Isn't that what Heaven is going to be like?

What sort of skills are you going to bring into Heaven without grabbing after money or avoiding things you are fearful of?

When all relationships are laid bare and shallow flattery is worthless...what happens?

It's been a while, thank you very much.

 

[Dirtman]

My parents are in their 80's and a song from Allen Jackson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-BemA7z8W0) came to their text message from no one knows where. But they listen to it all the time and are inspired. They played it for me yesterday during my routine Sunday visit.

I offered the interpretation that the great lesson in the song is about how when we are young, we tend to be oblivious to the fact that LOVE is the point and very success of Life Itself. The singer realizes this and in the wealth of this spiritual awakening, would not drink of a fountain of youth, if one was presented to him.

Yet my father stubbornly dreams of maybe winning the lottery and having more enjoyment of this life.

I created a parable for my father, seeing how he is. "Imagine an orphan," I said, "who had a loving benefactor. That benefactor gave the orphan all he had, and when the child was of age, the benefactor sent him into town. 'Here is a thousand dollars' the benefactor said. Go and build me an orphanage and learn to show the love I show you.' But when the young man went into town, all he thought about was himself. He dreamed of being rich like his benefactor, and he spend the money on food and his own business ventures. Yet when he returned to the benefactor, the benefactor showed him as much love and understanding as ever, because the benefactor is love itself. So, the young man was shamefaced, hoping that when he is sent into town again, he would do better.
I explained that the benefactor is God, and that living with the benefactor is the spiritual paradise which we come from and will return to after this life, a realm full of the Love of God. The town is this life. And our forgetting why we were sent here (to learn to show the love God shows us in the spiritual paradise) happens when we get caught up in the vanities of this world.
But so as not to be lost in self-righteousness, sometimes I wonder how stubborn my own heart appears to God (see my post about my Dark Night of the Soul). How must God feel about my dull soul? As frustrated as I feel to see my own parents stuck in the vanities of this world, not apparently ready to learn the spiritual lessons of life, even at the end of life?

But hopefully, my God-inspired words might help them on their journey. I pray...

Honor your father and your mother.