Dear Friends in Christ -
A few months back, my husband invited me to go with him to a series of lectures by the Dalai Lama. Though I studied Buddhism in my World Religions course in college and have known a few Buddhists over the years, Buddhism is clearly outside the realm of my expertise. But I was intrigued. And I definitely was interested in getting some time with my husband, so I signed on.
Ed and I spent May 20-23 trekking each day to Radio City Music Hall to listen . . . and to learn. I was greatly comforted to hear the Dalai Lama start out the first lecture by saying that it wasn't his intent to convince any of the thousands of people present - mostly Christians and secular humanists - to become Buddhist. He said that what he most wanted us to know was how much he respected each of us as human beings and how much he wanted to encourage us to do the practices (meditation, study, etc.) that would take us farther along our paths of faith.
By the end of the second day, I felt so convinced by the Dalai Lama that the practice of study would take me deeper in my faith and closer to God that I couldn't wait to get home to reach for my Bible. I read passages from the Bible on my iphone on the train on the way home.
We Christians are now living in the days following Pentecost; it's "ordinary time." "Green season" we call it, though it's really not a season like Advent or Epiphany or Easter. This is a time for getting back to the basics.
Sometimes I feel like God's voice to us (to me!) is a broken record: pray, read your Bible, give, keep the commandments. Why is the message the same old thing? Well, I guess when I/we are actually doing all this then we stand a good chance of getting a new message. Until then, we should expect that God to be consistent and persistent - because He loves us, and because this IS the Way.
Faithfully,
Janet+
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