The Second Name

The angel tells Joseph to name the baby Jesus, “Jehovah is salvation.”  In an earlier era a prophet predicts a virgin will bear a son and the child will be called Emmanuel, “God with us.”

We can carry those two names as secret names we remember to remind ourselves to think about.  These two names together tell us much about God.  God is with us and also He is salvation.  Together these names tell us where God is and what He can provide for us.

In the disclosure of God’s nearness to us we cannot help but understand that God wants salvation for us.  Wants us to experience that nearness.  Wants us to experience the salvation present in that nearness.  Wants us to discover the essence and activity of the Holy Spirit.

Isn’t that something we want as well?

Matthew 1:20 Do Not Be Afraid

Over and over again throughout the Biblical narrative God speaks directly or through angels, prophets, visions, or dreams to say “Do not be afraid.”

Here in the Nativity story Joseph is visited with those words.  “Do not be afraid.”   A reassurance in the midst of confusion, indecision, trepidation, anxiety, and yes, even fear.  “Do not be afraid . . . because . . .is from the Holy Spirit.”

Whenever the Holy Spirit is involved the outcome will be a good one.  Whatever the Holy Spirit is a part of will turn out to be of the will of God.  We can depend on the result.

Anytime we are willingly cooperating with the Holy Spirit we can be assured that any fear we might have will end in rejoicing.  We have multiple opportunities to allow the Holy Spirit to conceive newness in us.  Let us not be afraid to say yes to the  Holy Spirit.

Our Godchild

Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born”

…unto us, unto each of us a child is born, each of us is born our own individual godchild.  This child to be born in you and in me is not the same child, just as you and I are not clones of each other.

My godchild is unique just as yours is.  God has different gifts to give each of us in our newly birthed child, gifts that had been designed for us before our birth, gifts we will use to promote love and joy and peace.

This godchild in each of us will be a son, the transformed masculine, thinking, willing part of us, now with new God power, now willing God’s will in us, embracing the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit, imbued with all the creative insight and compassion our inner feminine can provide.

Through the Holy Spirit

Matthew 1:18 “found to be with child through the Holy Spirit”

How is it that we become with child through the Holy Spirit, that Spirit that blows where it wills and is not constrained or detained?  How do we access this unpredictable, uncontrollable spirit?  This Spirit that comes from God, that is of the essence of God.

We must use the part of us that is uncontrollable, that comes from the essence of our personality, the center of what we know about ourselves.  We must evaluate where we are, not physically but metaphysically, and where we want to be.  Or perhaps we can’t envision where we want to be.  We just know we’re not at a good place, not filled with excitement about our life.  Somehow we need some new life.

That is the first step.

Your Inner Wisdom Awaits You

Your Inner Wisdom awaits your engagement.  Whatever you choose to call it—Guardian Angel, God, Higher Power, Holy Spirit, it is that secret inner part of your personality.  The creative part.  The part that cannot be controlled by your conscious willful self.

Your Inner Wisdom is a force that can do for you what you cannot do for yourself–make you into your original self.  It is always a force for good.  It wants health and wholeness for you and can give that to you if you cooperate.

Your cooperation is required in the form of giving your Inner Wisdom permission to do whatever needs to be done in you to make room for the goodness it has to give you.

You can glibly say to yourself, “Sure, I give permission for something good to happen to me.”

But that is not enough.  In a written dialog you need to converse with your Inner Wisdom until you realize you want a new life with all of your conscious might.  And you need to discover that your Inner Wisdom is a benevolent force.  Then the permission becomes authentic.

You are always in control of the conversation.  And can stop it at any time.  There is no coercion. Your free will is left intact.  The conversation is not surrender, a leap of faith, a courageous act.  It is a dialog—questions and answers.  Begin with any question and listen for a response from deep within you.

You are on your way to experiencing God’s special miracle for you.

Each Day

The rising sun each morning shows us a new opportunity to find a fresh beginning place in ourselves—a clean slate where we can allow the Holy Spirit to write us a love letter.  We may carry fatigue or worry from the previous day, but the Spirit of God, that enormous benevolent energy, wants to give us, above, beyond, under, and through each new day, a fresh glimpse of what it means to be a beloved child of God in whom he takes great delight.

Ann Glover O’Dell

The Window of My Mind

I  washed the window of my mind

and sitting on the sill, looked out

for views of inspiration from my muse.

Parades gave me nothing as they passed

and wondered I where else to cast my eyes.

Suddenly a fine wind blew the casement open

and circulated dizzingly within

upsetting applecarts of art work

and opinions collected

during years of trips and education

contributing to theologies tried and true.

This fine wind sifted through it all,

blowing the stale and stagnant

into ingenious incinerators

then distributed assorted rainbows

as it exited toward the sea.

 

Ann Glover O’Dell

13 February 2017

The Call of Grace

What do we make of grace?—

that mysterious component

of the one we call The One?

And ‘the call of Grace’ that beckons our response?

Does ‘grace’ define forgiveness

or contain something more?

Does ‘grace’ include compassion?

And share equal bill with love?

 

Perhaps the call of Grace

an invitation hand-delivered so-to-speak

by Holy Spirit messenger

disguised sometimes as heaven’s hound

full cognizant of needed scent

whose Master has but to loose the bonds

that hinder him from leaping forth

to find the trail and once come near

nip at our heels until we turn relenting.

 

Ann Glover O’Dell

19 September 2016

Poems for Peace (remembering 9/11)

HOW CAN WE BE AT PEACE?

How can we be at peace when

spirit’s doors are locked against it?

Locked and bolted ‘gainst

we know not what for the

unknowing makes us fearful still.

Fearful of whatever lies beyond

paltry presumption of control

beyond concentrated consciousness

that knows so little

understanding even less.

Fearfulness that lies in wait

albeit quite against its will

for frequent fear is nonetheless

predictable and anxious huddling

in its womb is still more

to be desired than any sort

of openness to expectation’s

swaddling cloths of vulnerability.

How senseful that our fear

that chronic lodger

continues welcome with its stale

foul breath and stained attire

when we the landlords

with our legalese

could if we dared

advertise our “rooms to let”

and interview new prospects

always with the veto power

tightly clutched  within our ring of keys.

Ann Glover O’Dell      19 April 2004

 

NOT AS THE WORLD GIVES

‘Not as the world gives’

is your peace you said

yet we would be

content just now with

what the world defines

since such unpeacefulness abounds

we cannot entertain the notion

of a state within

when  all about us

life’s demise looms large.

 

Power plays take center stage

and those rehearsing roles

soon star in great performances

surprising e’en themselves

with prowess and precision patterning.

 

Oh greed where is thy pain

which piercing self to inner well

of generosity so makes our

substance sharing

more to be desired

than much fine gold?

 

Where is the understanding

of that peace not understood

by mortal minds but mandates

light’s deep penetration of the

soul’s storehouse of truth?

Is there a spirit energy

encased within your peace

propelling us

to show the world the way?

Ann Glover O’Dell   20 June 2004

 

BLESS AGAIN!

Oh, One, who once in time blessed

world with your creation

who promised greater blessing

to  begotten and beloved

who blessed with beckoning finger

a journey from the known into adventure

who blessed with ripe womb fruit

the barren and despairing

then tested trust by bid  progenicide

who staged new blessing by surprise deception

dishonor and a wrestling match

who blessed by  rank denial the boons requested

and blessed again with secret benediction

the ones you named your one and only ones.

 

Oh, One, come bless again!

o’erturn the graves of hatred

revive still births of spirit

spill out the coffers’ gold.

 

A Jubilee we seek, we need

where all now cleansed and shining

is ready for the new creation song.

Ann Glover O’Dell   4 June 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Called to be Messiahs

messiah= anointed one, messenger, deliverer

Are we ready/willing to be an anointed one? A special messenger? One visited by the Holy Spirit? Not one filled with hubris but rather filled with compassion and patience?

The holiness within us—the soul that is the part of us that will never die—the godness in the center of our being—that holiness yearns to be experienced by the totality of our personality.

Our inner sacrality does not, however, and will not interfere with our free will which is also sacred—meaning that our free will is totally under our control. It will not be compromised, even by the Wisdom Energy of the universe.

The kind of messiahship offered to each of us does not include an outward coronation or temple dedication. Rather it is manifest in the invisible placing of holy oil and the knowledge imparted to us that we are chosen. That we are God’s only begotten in whom he is well pleased. And with whom he desires intimate relationship.

Only then do we realize we have a special message to deliver—the message that is the deliverer– and we realize what that message is.

29 April 2015

WELL BEING

I recently read or heard, though I cannot find the source in Exodus (the story is worthwhile nevertheless), that before Moses went up the mountain to receive the law, the people brought to the Lord sacrifices of well-being. No explanation given. Perhaps that is what God wants most from us. Well-being. The sense that all is well in our deepest being.

Would God want us to sacrifice that well-being in the sense of giving it up to be destroyed—as an offering to be burned? I think not. What God wants is to experience our well-being—and for it to be obvious and experienced by others. The prophet says a humble and contrite spirit is what God requires as a proper sacrifice. Not to be destroyed on an altar, but rather given away. We give away our well-being as we give away ourselves in simply being in relationship to others. Our well-being, given to us by God, allows us to give ourselves to God as well in relationship.

We cannot achieve the kind of spirit God requires/desires in order to be at one with his Spirit until we have given up our egos—given permission for all that is false in our ego to be destroyed. The ego is what must be burned on the funeral pyre in order for true well-being to rise like a beautiful phoenix from the ashes. The choice is ours. Always. Our free will is never compromiseds

Oneness

The dogma that Jesus died for other peoples’ sins doesn’t work. Doctrine says because of his death, we will live forever. How could his death have anything to do with the essence of God present in every human being? How could belief in this doctrine change the fact that God has put part of Himself in everyone? Would God destroy that part of his essence if the personality carrying it did not accept Christian doctrine? I think NOT!

Jesus said he came that folks might experience life in all its abundance. Does belief in Christian doctrine fulfill that mission? I think NOT! If it did, folks wouldn’t be so burdened with guilt and anger.

If we are not in oneness with God as Jesus said he was, we are missing something we are intended to have. The way we get that oneness is not through a belief system. The way we come to experience oneness with God is through having all our mental, spiritual garbage incinerated—purged. And we cannot do that for ourselves. Only a Golgotha experience, orchestrated by the Holy Spirit with our permission, can bring us to oneness with God.

We are all strait-wired into the energy of the universe. Some trash has gotten into the line that must be cleaned out before we can experience our true identity