Jim's
2005 Peace Plans
Jim's 2005 Letters
2004 Letters
Jim's
2004 Peace Plan
2003 Letters
Jim's Letters from CPT team in
Colombia 2003
Burnout, Prayer, and Hope
12/15/07
Hello friend,
Teaching prisoners how to pray and meditate as a way of reducing
violence in their lives is a ministry of Bo Lozoff, Director of
humankindness.org. Bo in Its a Meaningful Life- It Just
Takes Practice says, “When we integrate committed service to our
lifestyle, the temptation may arise to lighten up on our (quiet time)
personal spiritual practices. But I believe that's what leads to
burnout for so many people. Trying to dedicate yourself entirely
through outward activity, no matter how much you seem to be helping
others, will sooner or later chew you up and spit you out if you don't
take time for inner silence as well. It's like trying to breathe out
all the time without breathing in. How long can that last? Be sure to
breathe in, too, so that you're helping others from a deeper place (p.
295).”
Thomas Keating, in his book on Christian meditation, Open Heart
Open Mind, says, “The principal effects of meditation are experienced
in daily life, not in the periods of meditation itself." I always
imagined meditation purpose was for some kind of euphoric
experience. A friend shared that they can always tell when I miss
my quiet time by the way I relate to them. This confirms the truth in
what Keating says.
I have been working at trying to keep a quiet time discipline
since the 70’s. There have been lots of times when I started over
again. Like learning a sport, it takes lots of practice. I have read
lots of books on quiet time over these years; little by little I work
the wisdom of the sages into my quiet time practices.
When I started my peacemaking, one of my secret fears was that I
would become burnout, cynical, and hopeless. But to my surprise I have
more energy for peacemaking and hope for peace than when I started. It
has become easier to miss a meal than my quiet time. My sense is that
keeping a disciplined quiet time of meditation, reading and prayer has
made a lot of the difference.
May this encourage you to take time to be quiet regularly.
Peace, Jim
Planting in California
and Oregon Letter #15 11/20/07
Dear Friend,
“Thank you so much for coming to share with the students; I am sure we
will talking about this for a number of days,” remarked one of the
staff members at the Wellspring Friends School in Oregon.
“Wow, look at the donations they made,” I said to my friend Cyrus
after my presentation at the Modesto Junior College. Cyrus
responded, “Students don’t have much money, so when they make donation,
you know you touched them.”
“These books about peacemaking will be great for our library; I’ve been
thinking that we need something along this line,” remarked the
librarian after I contributed peace books after giving a presentation
in four classes at Mission High in San Francisco.
I had many good conversations and feel my sharing was received very
well in the 25 venues at which I presented in Oregon and California. It
was quite exhausting at times, though it seemed well worth it.
Pray that the seeds planted in that trip would sprout, grow, and
flourish.
Thanks for your prayers and the financial support that enabled me to
make this trip.
Blessings of peace to you this holiday season,
Jim
Here is a photo of many of us who attended the Pentecostal
Charismatic Peace Conference in San Francisco. At the bottom center,
wearing a tan coat, is Dario Lopez, the keynote speaker. He is a
Pentecostal from Peru. Preaching from Amos, he shared how the
Protestant church in Peru has fallen into the trap of blessing the
government rather than challenging it to walk in the light like Amos
did. I could see many parallels to the USA situation. Dario is a pastor
of a church in a Lima slum.
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