A Tribute To Chu-La
-------------------------
Have you ever seen a broken vessel,
Sunk into a shallow sea?
Is brine and bone
and all alone
what we're destined for eventually?
But it's captain stands right beside me.
She wanted me to see
The ship she chartered
before she parted
from her blessed lifelong journey.
Her broken mast and hull -
less frightening when she stood with me.
She showed me the ropes
and offered her hopes
I would help other captains at sea.
My poem honors the woman who gave her body so I and other medical students could study anatomy. I know very little about her other than, in life, she was employed in church administration. I called her "Chu-La" - short for Church Lady - because "chula" means "cute" in Spanish, and I thought she might have smiled at that. May God rest her soul - and mine too when my time comes. +Joseph Bishara
Monday, April 26, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Homeless sapiens
Homeless sapiens
We wouldn’t have been able to enter St. John’s United Methodist Church at 6:30 pm that Monday, were it not for the playful six-year-old boy who came barreling down the hall to let us in before disappearing as quickly as he came. Harry (let’s call him), the church volunteer – a thin, pleasant, 81-years-young, church volunteer – and his wife weren’t told we’d be coming. They were less than excited to see us as they were in the midst of cleaning up after dinner for three families their church was hosting. Harry said all three of the families were single-mother and wouldn’t it be better if we came back later when kids – the little heathens, I mean angels (wink, wink) – were in daycare and a mother could give us a proper interview.
As Harry took us on a tour of the place he told us more about Family Promise. Family Promise asks churches in the community to house a few homeless families (no more than fourteen people) for one week every few months. These families are moved from church to church each week and have 90 days to resolve their circumstances to find homes. Additionally, each church community is responsible for feeding these families breakfast and dinner. Between 7:30am and 5:30pm the families are out on their own, kids in daycare, and parents trying to find work and housing. According to a report for the Tarrant County Commissioner’s office, nearly one third of Fort Worth’s homeless population in 2007 were children, but in this microcosm, children were two thirds.
As we walked I got more and more uncomfortable that no one told these women that we’d be here. There we were, walking around in their 'homes', hoping to catch a glimpse of one, like tourists in a wildlife homeless refuge, or worse, a homeless petting zoo. Demeaning, to be sure, but it seems that is one of the difficulties of being homeless – it seems part of being homeless is to feel less than human, and when we come to ‘look’, there’s a realization in their gazes coming back, “why are they intruding on me? … oh yeah, I’m no longer of the human species … I’m a Homeless sapiens.”
The building’s wing had two stories. The first floor was a corridor of meeting rooms and a sizeable kitchen and eating area. Having finished eating, all the young children, none older than eight by my estimation, were running around happily and noisily up and down the hall. The upper floor had small classrooms, which would double as bedrooms this week for the families, and a commons room with a big television, sofas, and a few small tables and chairs for board games – much like a big living room. Two mothers were on couches watching the television as their children ran around the room. The big plasma television had images of beautiful, wealthy people furrowing their brows at each other in exotic settings – the bikini beach, the bikini pool, ooh there’s a diva slap, and a cop trying to solve a crime from his $100k sports car – a drama commercial so out of touch. I sit for a while on the couch watching absurd television and finally, (call her) Belinda, a 38 year old latina mother of speaks to me. She’s already talked to someone at the center and she’s tired of giving interviews. I tell her it’s no problem and she doesn’t have to tell me anything. I think she saw that Brittany and Alyssa were playing with her daughters so well that she decided to open up.
She was born in Mississippi but moved to the Lubbock area shortly thereafter and grew up here. She went to Wilson High School, married young and then moved to the Dallas area. She divorced her husband there and started and ran a successful retail shop for a few years. She had her two daughters (call them Marina - 6, and Chloe - 4) by a man she is no longer with. She moved back to the Lubbock area after some financial setbacks brought about by health issues her children were having. Marina has a severe peanut allergy and Chloe has had one near-fatal asthma attack. Those two emergency room visits put Belinda into tens of thousands of dollars in healthcare debt. Both the National Coalition for the Homeless and the Tarrant County Commissioner’s report cite studies showing a high correlation of poor health with homelessness, with the former going so far as to say, “… a serious illness or disability can start a downward spiral into homelessness…”. Belinda also faced business challenges with her dress shop so after the breakup with her daughters' father, she decided to move back to the Lubbock area to be around family. She brought a sizeable inventory to start a new dress shop here and kept it going for about a year. She has had a job with Body Works that she says didn't pay well and she started struggling with bills and now has her own health problems - she is diabetic and the stress of her situation started to affect her health - tremors and facial ticks. She can't afford to put her youngest in daycare and anticipates more free time once her youngest daughter can attend school. She would like to continue her dress shop but needs more capital to start. She has family in the area which she says is in worse shape financially than she is, so she hasn't approached them for help - with the exception of her father. Her father, widowed a few years ago when her mother died, has since remarried and her father's new wife doesn't want Belinda around. Anyway, all her family is south of town but her car doesn't work very well. While Belinda seems appreciative and grateful for Family Promise, she also explained the difficulty of that situation. She has to be out by 7 am and pack up everything she and her two daughters will need for the rest of the day until evening. She lives out of suitcases and has to be prepared to move to a different location every week.
My goal was to have a proper conversation with one of “them”, and I certainly did. “The Homeless” is not an abstract idea for me now. It’s someone as old as me, with as many children to care for as me, with more business success than me struggling to give her children stability. I expected to be humbled by what I saw. I myself was homeless for a couple of months in college, living out of my car and making due. However that was for a finite amount of time which I knew would end when the dorms were reopened for the fall semester and I certainly didn’t have two children in tow. According to Tarrant County’s report, about half of all homeless people have mental illness, or substance abuse, or both, so I know that some of these families are struggling in ways beyond what is showing. Still, I was so impressed with Belinda. She wasn’t looking for a way to leech off of a charity and she didn’t blame anyone for her situation. Her children’s uninsured medical needs had disastrous consequences, but she certainly didn’t blame her daughters. Unfortunately for Belinda and her little girls, homelessness can exacerbate existing health issues and add illnesses. I’m not sure Belinda knows how she would change the health care, except to say a peanut allergy or asthma and no health insurance has been debilitating.
In the end Harry actually had fun playing board games with the little girls, I am persuaded because of the attention Alyssa and Brittany showered on “the little heathens, I mean angels” (and also because he wasn’t as stretched-thin as he would have been without us there, maybe). He was so impressed with Alyssa, Brittany, and I that he wanted us to keep in touch and tell him how our medical training was going. It was clear to me that the whole experience reminded all of us – all of us including Belinda – that Homeless sapiens are human beings.
We wouldn’t have been able to enter St. John’s United Methodist Church at 6:30 pm that Monday, were it not for the playful six-year-old boy who came barreling down the hall to let us in before disappearing as quickly as he came. Harry (let’s call him), the church volunteer – a thin, pleasant, 81-years-young, church volunteer – and his wife weren’t told we’d be coming. They were less than excited to see us as they were in the midst of cleaning up after dinner for three families their church was hosting. Harry said all three of the families were single-mother and wouldn’t it be better if we came back later when kids – the little heathens, I mean angels (wink, wink) – were in daycare and a mother could give us a proper interview.
As Harry took us on a tour of the place he told us more about Family Promise. Family Promise asks churches in the community to house a few homeless families (no more than fourteen people) for one week every few months. These families are moved from church to church each week and have 90 days to resolve their circumstances to find homes. Additionally, each church community is responsible for feeding these families breakfast and dinner. Between 7:30am and 5:30pm the families are out on their own, kids in daycare, and parents trying to find work and housing. According to a report for the Tarrant County Commissioner’s office, nearly one third of Fort Worth’s homeless population in 2007 were children, but in this microcosm, children were two thirds.
As we walked I got more and more uncomfortable that no one told these women that we’d be here. There we were, walking around in their 'homes', hoping to catch a glimpse of one, like tourists in a wildlife homeless refuge, or worse, a homeless petting zoo. Demeaning, to be sure, but it seems that is one of the difficulties of being homeless – it seems part of being homeless is to feel less than human, and when we come to ‘look’, there’s a realization in their gazes coming back, “why are they intruding on me? … oh yeah, I’m no longer of the human species … I’m a Homeless sapiens.”
The building’s wing had two stories. The first floor was a corridor of meeting rooms and a sizeable kitchen and eating area. Having finished eating, all the young children, none older than eight by my estimation, were running around happily and noisily up and down the hall. The upper floor had small classrooms, which would double as bedrooms this week for the families, and a commons room with a big television, sofas, and a few small tables and chairs for board games – much like a big living room. Two mothers were on couches watching the television as their children ran around the room. The big plasma television had images of beautiful, wealthy people furrowing their brows at each other in exotic settings – the bikini beach, the bikini pool, ooh there’s a diva slap, and a cop trying to solve a crime from his $100k sports car – a drama commercial so out of touch. I sit for a while on the couch watching absurd television and finally, (call her) Belinda, a 38 year old latina mother of speaks to me. She’s already talked to someone at the center and she’s tired of giving interviews. I tell her it’s no problem and she doesn’t have to tell me anything. I think she saw that Brittany and Alyssa were playing with her daughters so well that she decided to open up.
She was born in Mississippi but moved to the Lubbock area shortly thereafter and grew up here. She went to Wilson High School, married young and then moved to the Dallas area. She divorced her husband there and started and ran a successful retail shop for a few years. She had her two daughters (call them Marina - 6, and Chloe - 4) by a man she is no longer with. She moved back to the Lubbock area after some financial setbacks brought about by health issues her children were having. Marina has a severe peanut allergy and Chloe has had one near-fatal asthma attack. Those two emergency room visits put Belinda into tens of thousands of dollars in healthcare debt. Both the National Coalition for the Homeless and the Tarrant County Commissioner’s report cite studies showing a high correlation of poor health with homelessness, with the former going so far as to say, “… a serious illness or disability can start a downward spiral into homelessness…”. Belinda also faced business challenges with her dress shop so after the breakup with her daughters' father, she decided to move back to the Lubbock area to be around family. She brought a sizeable inventory to start a new dress shop here and kept it going for about a year. She has had a job with Body Works that she says didn't pay well and she started struggling with bills and now has her own health problems - she is diabetic and the stress of her situation started to affect her health - tremors and facial ticks. She can't afford to put her youngest in daycare and anticipates more free time once her youngest daughter can attend school. She would like to continue her dress shop but needs more capital to start. She has family in the area which she says is in worse shape financially than she is, so she hasn't approached them for help - with the exception of her father. Her father, widowed a few years ago when her mother died, has since remarried and her father's new wife doesn't want Belinda around. Anyway, all her family is south of town but her car doesn't work very well. While Belinda seems appreciative and grateful for Family Promise, she also explained the difficulty of that situation. She has to be out by 7 am and pack up everything she and her two daughters will need for the rest of the day until evening. She lives out of suitcases and has to be prepared to move to a different location every week.
My goal was to have a proper conversation with one of “them”, and I certainly did. “The Homeless” is not an abstract idea for me now. It’s someone as old as me, with as many children to care for as me, with more business success than me struggling to give her children stability. I expected to be humbled by what I saw. I myself was homeless for a couple of months in college, living out of my car and making due. However that was for a finite amount of time which I knew would end when the dorms were reopened for the fall semester and I certainly didn’t have two children in tow. According to Tarrant County’s report, about half of all homeless people have mental illness, or substance abuse, or both, so I know that some of these families are struggling in ways beyond what is showing. Still, I was so impressed with Belinda. She wasn’t looking for a way to leech off of a charity and she didn’t blame anyone for her situation. Her children’s uninsured medical needs had disastrous consequences, but she certainly didn’t blame her daughters. Unfortunately for Belinda and her little girls, homelessness can exacerbate existing health issues and add illnesses. I’m not sure Belinda knows how she would change the health care, except to say a peanut allergy or asthma and no health insurance has been debilitating.
In the end Harry actually had fun playing board games with the little girls, I am persuaded because of the attention Alyssa and Brittany showered on “the little heathens, I mean angels” (and also because he wasn’t as stretched-thin as he would have been without us there, maybe). He was so impressed with Alyssa, Brittany, and I that he wanted us to keep in touch and tell him how our medical training was going. It was clear to me that the whole experience reminded all of us – all of us including Belinda – that Homeless sapiens are human beings.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Dead Burying Dead
I see dead people now. I'm a first-year medical student studying human anatomy and nearly every weekday I study structures in the carcasses of people who chose to donate their deceased bodies to our medical school. We students, of course, study these dead to ready ourselves to study the living. I suppose in some ways the experience is quite special in that these persons have allowed me to see the parts of their bodies in ways no other person has.
Quite a strange feeling, to be confronted with the mortality of my species on a daily basis. I wonder if, out of respect for the dead, I have purposely chosen to let it bother me. It's as though my heart were questioning, "If I forget I am dealing with the physical half, do I deny the existence of the other half, diminishing that person's existence?"
I ask many questions now -- the experience shakes them out of me. What were they thinking as they approached death? I wonder if they gave their bodies out of fear ... fear of dying without having done something selfless with their lives, or fear of God, or fear that their loved ones won't be able to afford the cost of burial. I look at the limbs of my own body now, knowing their machinery and functions, but I wonder if these arms are part of "me" -- would I lose a part of "me" were I to lose an arm? ... or how much can be taken from my body and it still be "me"? If my organs were donated to others after my death, would part of "me" still be alive? (I don't think so.) Were I brain-dead but my body on life-support, would I still "be there"? (I kind of think I would be.)
One other concern is Death overriding my joy in life. Will I be always thinking about my own death and the death of friends? I think it would be easy for a person like me to lose the "joy of living", unless of course, that person had an 8-year-old starting football (which I happen to have). It is my new-found therapy to watch my 8-year-old practice football. I think we anatomy students need reminders about what life means to counteract the meditation on death.
Quite a strange feeling, to be confronted with the mortality of my species on a daily basis. I wonder if, out of respect for the dead, I have purposely chosen to let it bother me. It's as though my heart were questioning, "If I forget I am dealing with the physical half, do I deny the existence of the other half, diminishing that person's existence?"
I ask many questions now -- the experience shakes them out of me. What were they thinking as they approached death? I wonder if they gave their bodies out of fear ... fear of dying without having done something selfless with their lives, or fear of God, or fear that their loved ones won't be able to afford the cost of burial. I look at the limbs of my own body now, knowing their machinery and functions, but I wonder if these arms are part of "me" -- would I lose a part of "me" were I to lose an arm? ... or how much can be taken from my body and it still be "me"? If my organs were donated to others after my death, would part of "me" still be alive? (I don't think so.) Were I brain-dead but my body on life-support, would I still "be there"? (I kind of think I would be.)
One other concern is Death overriding my joy in life. Will I be always thinking about my own death and the death of friends? I think it would be easy for a person like me to lose the "joy of living", unless of course, that person had an 8-year-old starting football (which I happen to have). It is my new-found therapy to watch my 8-year-old practice football. I think we anatomy students need reminders about what life means to counteract the meditation on death.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Jonathan's Arrow
Saying good bye to someone dear is no small task. When I read the account of Prince Jonathan sending the signal to his beloved friend that it was time to flee, I think of him pulling the bowstring far past his teary cheek, knowing he wouldn't see his friend for a long time, (and so I sketched this picture).The image for me is one of a friends saying goodbye.
Ain't Worth The Blues (song)
Ain't Worth The Blues
song by Joseph Bishara, (c)2009
[E] Talking to an artist [A] friend of mine
[E] Had her heart torn [B7] all apart
So she picked [E] up a brush,
some [A] paints and a canvas
[E] For to put her [B7] pain in [E] art.
I [A] said, I know you're [E] feeling sad
'bout [A] all that you've been [E] through
I [A] know you're all torn [E] up inside
From this [C7] fellow who you [B7] knew
Uh-huh-huh
[E] Save your blues for [A] someone,
Who [E] loved you through and [B7] through
I [E] know where you are
'Cause I've [A] been there before and
[E] This one ain't [B7] worth the [E] blues.
So [A] paint your picture [E] bright girl
[A] Yellow, green, or [E] red
But [A] paint this picture right [E] girl
And then [C7] get him right out of your
[B7] head.
Buh-buh-buh
[E] Blue is very [A] special
In [E] all its shades and [B7] hues
So in Art [E] or this song,
I just [A] think you're all wrong,
[E] He just ain't [B7] worth the [E] blues.
(music solo)
Ma[A]genta, mauve, or [E] teal
rose, [A] pink, or maybe char[E]truse
You got your [A] ambers, browns, tans,
lime [E] greens, or cyans
But [C7] easy on squeezin' on them [B7] blues.
Buh-buh-buh
[E] Beige or olive [A] drab
[E] Purple might work I [B7] bet
Or try [E]gold, silver, bronze,
orange, [A] green, indigo,
burnt [E] ochre, or [B7] even vio[E]let.
[E] Save your blues for [A] someone (you done
wrong),
Who [E] loves you tender[A]ly (like me)
It's [E]easy to see,
y'oughtta save [A] them blues for [E]me ...
'cause [D?] He ...
ain't no [C7]good for you [B7]baby.
[whistle solo]
[E] Please don't refuse.
Put your[A]self in my shoes.
[E] Don't make me [B7] sing no more [E]blues.
[E] Don't get confused.
Squeeze some [A]other paint tubes
'Cause [E] he ain't [B7] worth the [E]blues.
He ain't worth 'em ... He ain't worth 'em
song by Joseph Bishara, (c)2009
[E] Talking to an artist [A] friend of mine
[E] Had her heart torn [B7] all apart
So she picked [E] up a brush,
some [A] paints and a canvas
[E] For to put her [B7] pain in [E] art.
I [A] said, I know you're [E] feeling sad
'bout [A] all that you've been [E] through
I [A] know you're all torn [E] up inside
From this [C7] fellow who you [B7] knew
Uh-huh-huh
[E] Save your blues for [A] someone,
Who [E] loved you through and [B7] through
I [E] know where you are
'Cause I've [A] been there before and
[E] This one ain't [B7] worth the [E] blues.
So [A] paint your picture [E] bright girl
[A] Yellow, green, or [E] red
But [A] paint this picture right [E] girl
And then [C7] get him right out of your
[B7] head.
Buh-buh-buh
[E] Blue is very [A] special
In [E] all its shades and [B7] hues
So in Art [E] or this song,
I just [A] think you're all wrong,
[E] He just ain't [B7] worth the [E] blues.
(music solo)
Ma[A]genta, mauve, or [E] teal
rose, [A] pink, or maybe char[E]truse
You got your [A] ambers, browns, tans,
lime [E] greens, or cyans
But [C7] easy on squeezin' on them [B7] blues.
Buh-buh-buh
[E] Beige or olive [A] drab
[E] Purple might work I [B7] bet
Or try [E]gold, silver, bronze,
orange, [A] green, indigo,
burnt [E] ochre, or [B7] even vio[E]let.
[E] Save your blues for [A] someone (you done
wrong),
Who [E] loves you tender[A]ly (like me)
It's [E]easy to see,
y'oughtta save [A] them blues for [E]me ...
'cause [D?] He ...
ain't no [C7]good for you [B7]baby.
[whistle solo]
[E] Please don't refuse.
Put your[A]self in my shoes.
[E] Don't make me [B7] sing no more [E]blues.
[E] Don't get confused.
Squeeze some [A]other paint tubes
'Cause [E] he ain't [B7] worth the [E]blues.
He ain't worth 'em ... He ain't worth 'em
Monday, January 19, 2009
Empty Ambition
I have failed at accomplishing many of the tasks I had hoped to achieve by now. However, 'failure' is not a fair characterization of my past few decades -- failed ambitions perhaps.
I am a fan of the idea of monasticism, especially the Coptic variety. Coptic monks, both historical and contemporary, seem always to have something to say to me, either in their writings or in the way they live their lives and accept their deaths, and I have had a gold mine of blessings in having corresponded with a couple.
Recently, perhaps the most famous living Coptic monk wrote a letter I felt was directed squarely at me. His Holiness Shenoudah III, the patriarch and figure head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, had an excerpt of one of his books published in a magazine. I reproduce it here, hoping it will give as much comfort to others as it does to me. Quoting this is difficult for me, since by doing so, I confess a serious flaw in my own character that I am only now recognizing: ambition.
--------------------------------------------
An excerpt [translated?] from "Release of the Spirit":
Do you know what things you ought to escape from? Escape from the interests, the hopes and desires. Escape from all such things if you really want to attain the release of the spirit.
My beloved brother, please let me go a little deep into you heart to talk to you frankly: You have great hopes which you are much concerned about and which occupy part of your heart. They even occupy your imagination and so that when you are alone they come to you as daydreams and when you are asleep you dream of them. You have certain aims which you know most and cannot deny. You want to be important, you want to be known by others and venerated by them. You have hopes regarding fame and good reputation, authority and power, hopes regarding wealth, social positions, knowledge, titles, future, appearances and credit. You have certain desires concerning your home, food, clothing and various pleasures of the body. You do not live in the world but in fact it is the world that lives in you, and dominates over your heart, your mind, your imagination and your will. As for your spirit, it is imprisoned within all this; it desires to be released of the fleshly desires, as "the flesh lusts against the Spirit" (Gal. 5:17).
These hopes and interest make you miserable, my beloved brother, because not all of them can be achieved.
This of course makes you discontented. You long for such things and this longing makes you unhappy. So, you make your plans and seek the means to achieve them: you think, meet certain people, write down notes, go and come, strive and try hard; then you sit and wait. You may get bored and tired of waiting and of having hope. You may get desperate and become anxious or feel afraid of failure. Thus you become unhappy. Perhaps your labor and attempts end up unsuccessful and you do not attain your desire, thus making you even more unhappy.
A more dangerous consequence is that you may go astray because of such hopes and desires and fall into deceit, beating about the bush, fawning and flattery, lying or worse things. This is what one of the wise men once said, 'A person will certainly fall into hypocrisy if he wants to hide something within himself.'
I know that you feel tired and I pity you. But when will you live in the fire of hopes! What is amazing concerning such worldly desires is that they make you unhappy even if they are realized. For when you attain what you desire, you will be pleased; such pleasure leads you to seek more. As the Lord Jesus Christ said: "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again"(John 4:13). And when one feels thirst, one seeks water to quench one's thirst and the more one drinks, the more one will feel thirst and desire for water.
So, my beloved brother, I want to discuss the matter with you calmly. Why do you hold fast to certain worldly desires while you know that "the world is passing away, and the lust of it"(1 John 2:17). You are like me - a stranger on earth and the hour will come when you will leave the world and all its possessions. You have come naked from your mother's womb, and naked you will return (Job 1:21). You will be forced to leave the world with its glory, wealth and fame and descend into a pit in the ground like any other person. Whatever authority, pleasures or fame you attain in this world will not protect your mortal body against corruption or prevent the worms from feeding off of your body. On judgment day, you will stand before God destitute of all worldly possessions. You will keep nothing from the world except your works, whether they be good or evil.
Therefore, my beloved brother, it is not good for you to confine your interests and hopes to this earth. Do you not remember that this earth brought forth to you thorns and thistles! It had once accepted the blood of Abel the Righteous and the cisterns hewn in it can hold no water (Jer. 2:13).
Take an example of our fathers the saints who lived on the earth before us and whom the earth was not deserving to be trodden on with their feet. Those holy fathers did not attain that holiness except after emptying their hearts of the love of the world and its worldly material. They no longer had any desire or lust, nor any possession in the world. And because they did not hold on to anything in the world, it was easy for them to leave it - they longed for their departure.
As for you, my beloved brother, you still have some worldly desires and, "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matt. 6:21). Your heart clings to the dust and its glory so that the spiritual matters lose their value in your sight. This is the same temptation with which the devil tried to tempt the Lord of glory, "the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me" (Matt. 4:8,9).
Now, consider, if you possess all such things and lose your soul which you imprison in a golden cage of desires, what will this avail you? Your soul wants to be set free.
I am a fan of the idea of monasticism, especially the Coptic variety. Coptic monks, both historical and contemporary, seem always to have something to say to me, either in their writings or in the way they live their lives and accept their deaths, and I have had a gold mine of blessings in having corresponded with a couple.
Recently, perhaps the most famous living Coptic monk wrote a letter I felt was directed squarely at me. His Holiness Shenoudah III, the patriarch and figure head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, had an excerpt of one of his books published in a magazine. I reproduce it here, hoping it will give as much comfort to others as it does to me. Quoting this is difficult for me, since by doing so, I confess a serious flaw in my own character that I am only now recognizing: ambition.
--------------------------------------------
An excerpt [translated?] from "Release of the Spirit":
Do you know what things you ought to escape from? Escape from the interests, the hopes and desires. Escape from all such things if you really want to attain the release of the spirit.
My beloved brother, please let me go a little deep into you heart to talk to you frankly: You have great hopes which you are much concerned about and which occupy part of your heart. They even occupy your imagination and so that when you are alone they come to you as daydreams and when you are asleep you dream of them. You have certain aims which you know most and cannot deny. You want to be important, you want to be known by others and venerated by them. You have hopes regarding fame and good reputation, authority and power, hopes regarding wealth, social positions, knowledge, titles, future, appearances and credit. You have certain desires concerning your home, food, clothing and various pleasures of the body. You do not live in the world but in fact it is the world that lives in you, and dominates over your heart, your mind, your imagination and your will. As for your spirit, it is imprisoned within all this; it desires to be released of the fleshly desires, as "the flesh lusts against the Spirit" (Gal. 5:17).
These hopes and interest make you miserable, my beloved brother, because not all of them can be achieved.
This of course makes you discontented. You long for such things and this longing makes you unhappy. So, you make your plans and seek the means to achieve them: you think, meet certain people, write down notes, go and come, strive and try hard; then you sit and wait. You may get bored and tired of waiting and of having hope. You may get desperate and become anxious or feel afraid of failure. Thus you become unhappy. Perhaps your labor and attempts end up unsuccessful and you do not attain your desire, thus making you even more unhappy.
A more dangerous consequence is that you may go astray because of such hopes and desires and fall into deceit, beating about the bush, fawning and flattery, lying or worse things. This is what one of the wise men once said, 'A person will certainly fall into hypocrisy if he wants to hide something within himself.'
I know that you feel tired and I pity you. But when will you live in the fire of hopes! What is amazing concerning such worldly desires is that they make you unhappy even if they are realized. For when you attain what you desire, you will be pleased; such pleasure leads you to seek more. As the Lord Jesus Christ said: "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again"(John 4:13). And when one feels thirst, one seeks water to quench one's thirst and the more one drinks, the more one will feel thirst and desire for water.
So, my beloved brother, I want to discuss the matter with you calmly. Why do you hold fast to certain worldly desires while you know that "the world is passing away, and the lust of it"(1 John 2:17). You are like me - a stranger on earth and the hour will come when you will leave the world and all its possessions. You have come naked from your mother's womb, and naked you will return (Job 1:21). You will be forced to leave the world with its glory, wealth and fame and descend into a pit in the ground like any other person. Whatever authority, pleasures or fame you attain in this world will not protect your mortal body against corruption or prevent the worms from feeding off of your body. On judgment day, you will stand before God destitute of all worldly possessions. You will keep nothing from the world except your works, whether they be good or evil.
Therefore, my beloved brother, it is not good for you to confine your interests and hopes to this earth. Do you not remember that this earth brought forth to you thorns and thistles! It had once accepted the blood of Abel the Righteous and the cisterns hewn in it can hold no water (Jer. 2:13).
Take an example of our fathers the saints who lived on the earth before us and whom the earth was not deserving to be trodden on with their feet. Those holy fathers did not attain that holiness except after emptying their hearts of the love of the world and its worldly material. They no longer had any desire or lust, nor any possession in the world. And because they did not hold on to anything in the world, it was easy for them to leave it - they longed for their departure.
As for you, my beloved brother, you still have some worldly desires and, "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matt. 6:21). Your heart clings to the dust and its glory so that the spiritual matters lose their value in your sight. This is the same temptation with which the devil tried to tempt the Lord of glory, "the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me" (Matt. 4:8,9).
Now, consider, if you possess all such things and lose your soul which you imprison in a golden cage of desires, what will this avail you? Your soul wants to be set free.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Heart of Soft (a new song of mine!)
Heart of Soft
(my song's working title -- got a better one? please share! Hope you enjoy it.)
by Joseph Bishara
copyright Joseph N. Bishara
_________
A heart of soft / and a mind of steel,
And these two things / will help you feel,
I've thought oft, of a heart that's soft,
and a mind of steel.
Laughing often, and loving much,
A helpful hand, a baby's touch,
one more moment, with the ones you love,
Laughing often and loving much.
BRIDGE:
Words were spoken by a man in his dying day.
He said, "Child, if you want to live, don't let time blow away."
a second mile / a higher road,
a better friend / a lighter load,
ears to hear / the grace bestowed,
a desert quenched / as the water flowed.
Salt of earth / a common man,
sacrifice / take a stand,
an amputee / made whole again,
for the greater good / and the common man.
BRIDGE:
With every breath it seems, we're closer to our graves.
Let's live our lives and do what's right to make our better days.
A heart that's soft / and a mind of steel,
And it's these two things / that help us feel.
Set your thoughts aloft / with a heart that's soft,
and a mind of steel.
(my song's working title -- got a better one? please share! Hope you enjoy it.)
by Joseph Bishara
copyright Joseph N. Bishara
_________
A heart of soft / and a mind of steel,
And these two things / will help you feel,
I've thought oft, of a heart that's soft,
and a mind of steel.
Laughing often, and loving much,
A helpful hand, a baby's touch,
one more moment, with the ones you love,
Laughing often and loving much.
BRIDGE:
Words were spoken by a man in his dying day.
He said, "Child, if you want to live, don't let time blow away."
a second mile / a higher road,
a better friend / a lighter load,
ears to hear / the grace bestowed,
a desert quenched / as the water flowed.
Salt of earth / a common man,
sacrifice / take a stand,
an amputee / made whole again,
for the greater good / and the common man.
BRIDGE:
With every breath it seems, we're closer to our graves.
Let's live our lives and do what's right to make our better days.
A heart that's soft / and a mind of steel,
And it's these two things / that help us feel.
Set your thoughts aloft / with a heart that's soft,
and a mind of steel.
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