Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
April 5 - July 5, 2022
In this book I’m using the Beatitudes to represent nine shifts we are invited to make in order to live in greater coherence with reality. To live in a new way and to see the world become different and better, we must learn to act from this higher state of kingdom consciousness. Jesus invites us to confront our distorted responses to life and return to what is most real and true. The Beatitudes chart this path back to reality.
Poverty is when a person doesn’t have enough or when they feel like they are not enough. Something is lacking materially or emotionally.
When we become aware of what we lack, our first instinct is to grab and grasp, holding on to whatever we believe will make us feel safe and secure.
If you were to make a list of the top five things you tend to worry about, what would they be?
What would I have to see and believe differently about the nature of reality that would allow me to be less anxious?
Anxiety breeds a sense of scarcity and greed. Gratitude fuels a sense of abundance, contentment, and generosity.
We are meant to be part of the flow of abundance: to open our hands to receive what we need and share what we have with others.
Jesus invites us into radical trust: believing that nothing can separate us from what is most essential to our well-being. The divine presence is with us through whatever difficulties we face. It’s an invitation to live with open hands, giving our sacred consent, and speaking a radical yes! to life, no matter what may come. It’s an invitation to trust that the One who made us will bring us through.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. May we own our poverty, celebrate the reality of abundance, live with open hands, and walk in the way of trust.
Face pain by making space to mourn.
Face pain by waiting in stillness.
Our energy and attention often go toward looking back with regret or looking forward with anxiety. Divine comfort is found in the present moment, where you are right now: “Be still, and know that I am God.”
Face pain by writing a complaint.
Face pain by mourning with those who mourn.
Brokenness and pain are not the end of the story. Jesus invites us into the reality that even in the middle of difficulty, if we have the courage to name and sit with our pain, we may experience healing and solace.
The whole universe is God’s creative realm. We have been given a small piece of that as our personal “kingdom” to manage. Our bodies. Our minds. Our time. Our money and possessions and the influence we have in relationships. We are being invited to adopt a new identity as agents of liberation. We are invited to care about everything our Creator cares about: the dignity of human life at every stage, care of creation for future generations, just and sustainable economic policies, and care of immigrants and the poor, to name a few.
If we aren’t actively working for change on both personal and systemic levels, then we are complicit in keeping things the way they are. The system is indeed broken, but we are that system. If we want to see change, it will have to begin with us—with our hearts and minds, our actions, our voices, and our votes. This Beatitude invites us to move from apathy to agency: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for [justice], for they [will] be satisfied.
Someone who understands their need for mercy naturally extends mercy to others.
Look with love by seeing with eyes of compassion.
Look with love by practicing positive speech.
Look with love by letting go of resentments.
We can become so divorced from our true selves that it’s difficult to make real contact with God, ourselves, or one another. If I’m wearing my mask and you’re wearing your mask, we are only relating to each other’s personas. Hiding or denying our mixed motives doesn’t make them go away. Shame does not help us change nor cynicism help us heal.
Show the real you by telling the truth about yourself.
Show the real you by being wholehearted in your decisions.
Show the real you by practicing secrecy.
Show the real you by allowing God to see what’s inside of you.
Each day I have a choice. I can live by my first instincts: anxiety, denial, competition, apathy, contempt, deception, division, anger, and fear, or I can choose to live from a higher state of consciousness: trust, lament, humility, justice, compassion, right motive, peacemaking, surrender, and radical love.
