From Silence+Something To Say

This podcast episode is a meditation on the flourishing word: Friendship.

Here is the question: What does God want in creating us? Why am I here? 

Here is my answer which defines my life: God has created us for an intimate transforming friendship with himself—both now and forever.

As the Jesuit Priest William A. Barry says: I maintain that God, out of the abundance of divine relational life, not any need for us, desires humans into existence for the sake of friendship.

For me, this means two things about the reality and nature of God and my life.

First, within God’s heart resides a passionate longing for friendship with us.

Second, our response to this good news takes the shape of becoming a friend of Jesus and befriending others. God has created us for intimate friendship with himself—both now and forever!

May this meditation bring you encouragement and God’s steadfast attachment love which gives us joy and peace.

With you on the Journey, 

Rob+

Resource: Beyond Loneliness: The Gift of God’s Friendship (Upper Room).   

 

Trevor Hudson is one of the most respected voices of spiritual wisdom and authentic Christian spiritual life in South Africa and beyond. I am so grateful to have this opportunity to spend time with him. 

If you are looking for someone to companion you, lead and guide you, teach and inspire you into an authentic Christian spiritual life, I cannot recommend Trevor Hudson more highly enough. I have been reading his books and listening to his teaching for twenty-five years. He is a deep source of wisdom for a flourishing life in God. 

In this Sacred Conversation (Conversatio Divina) Trevor gives us a gentle and honest glimpse of his life, by revealing his journey in the wounded context of contemporary South Africa where Christ still leads his followers into “Another Kind of Life” in the Kingdom of God. His experience with Apartheid and his fellow black Christ Followers in South Africa, his exposure to racism, his own and his country, is deeply moving. I was also delighted to ask him about two principal voices in his life: his friendship with Dallas Willard and his encounter with the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola.

About Trevor Hudson

Trevor Hudson is a Methodist minister, pastoral therapist, and retreat leader in Benoni, South Africa. Trevor has been part of the Methodist movement  in Southern Africa for more than 40 years. Serving primarily around Johannesburg, South Africa, he is deeply committed to the work and ministry of the local congregation. A significant part of his weekly work is the giving of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius.

Besides his local commitments, Trevor travels widely, preaching, teaching, and lecturing in the areas of spiritual formation, spiritual direction, and pastoral therapy. He lectures at Fuller Seminary, Pasadena, in their Doctor of Ministry (Spiritual Direction) program, and he also works closely with Upper Room Ministries, the Renovaré International Institute for Christian Spiritual Formation, the Dallas Willard Center for Christian Spiritual Formation, and the Jesuit Institute in South Africa.

He is the author of 15 books.

My favorite books include: Discovering Your Spiritual Identity (IVP) and Beyond Loneliness (Upper Room).

Trevor is married to Debbie, and they are the parents of two adult children, Joni and Mark.

Below is the Video of our conversation, followed by the full audio podcast as well. 

I begin by asking Trevor how he first encountered Christ. He tells of how his heart was “ambushed by the love of Christ“  after hearing the story of Jesus from a friend. Enjoy! With you on the Journey,

Rob

 

 

The heart-rending events we have encountered over the past days, the atrocities we have viewed, and the words we have heard, devastate us. This is a crucible moment in our country. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry reminds us that as followers of Jesus we are to ask ourselves, “What would love do?” Then we are to go and do what love requires.

I believe we must put listening first.

This new season of my Podcast focuses on what I call Flourishing Words. Our first word is:

LISTEN

Right in the middle of the great 8th chapter of Romans we are called to:

Listen To The Groans

Romans 8:22-27. As South African Methodist Pastor Trevor Hudson says: “These verses tell us that three voices are groaning at the same time. They groan all around us, as well as within us, all the time. If we listen deeply, we can hear each one. Listening to these voices together helps us to find our way into God’s purposes for our lives. As we listen to these groans we are drawn into a deeper faithfulness, both in our personal discipleship and in our life together as God’s people. Most importantly, when we listen to these groans, we begin to have a much clearer understanding of how we can play our part in God’s healing of our fractured world.”

Creation groans

We groan

The Spirit Groans 

As we listen, we will want to respond.

Thank you for listening to these contributions towards the flourishing life and dream of God. I pray they inspire your Christ Following and seeking a more abundant way of life.

With you on The Journey,

Rob+

Resources for this episode:

Trevor Hudson: Listening To The Groans   

N.T. Wright: The Crown and The Fire

Dear Friends:

In this transition time between what we knew as life before to what life is to become, I have sensed an invitation to deepen my craft and sharing with others. I am entering a season of renewed intentional creativity.

God is the Great Creator.  He has called each of us to be creators of the good, the beautiful, and the true. I have always loved creating with words, through writing, through teaching and preaching, and now through my podcast: From Silence+Something To Say.  

To that end, I am launching a New Season of my podcast.

It is titled, Something To Say: Words of Flourishing Life.

It will have two expressions: 

1. A Flourishing Word. Each podcast episode will be a focused reflection on one word, a word drawn from the Bible, the greatest and most reliable resource for life and meaning in this world. 

These words are at the heart of wisdom for life.  The following are core to my encounter with the Way of Following Christ: 

LISTEN

FRIENDSHIP

TREASURE

GRACE

LIFE

SEEK

ABIDE

SILENCE 

ABOVE

KINGDOM

DESIRE

2. Conversatio Divina. The practice of conversation is a sacred act, and invokes the idea of conversatio divina, understanding that genuine listening conversation as nothing less than prayer. I will be engaging in occasional flourishing Conversations with special guests who inspire my life and journey in Christ.  

I’m very excited about my first very special guest coming in early June!

My prayer is that these new episodes will be transforming and bring flourishing with God, with your own life, and with those you love.  

With you on the Journey,

Rob+

 

 

 

 

 

Yes its Easter, and my joy and faith are strong! However, it is a challenging moment all over the world, and we cannot evade it. The 24 hour news cycle can be overwhelming.

Sometimes you just need to hear a bit of blues guitar!  It can even bring you a wee bit of joy. (Watch good blues guitarists in their craft, Like B.B. King.)

Here is a fun little post that harkens back to my Rock and Jazz days (many, many moons ago).  I still love all kinds of music.

I produced this little blues piece together with Garage Band loops.  It’s just enough to get the idea. It made me smile! 

And if you do have the blues, they will pass. We can always return to the joy of the Lord,  who is our strength. We were made to run on the fuel of joy. 

Stay strong my friends. 

Rob+

 

 

This is a sharing of my heart, reaching out to all who listen. 

 

This Uncertain Time is one we carry with the whole world, with every human being. Knowing this is as hard for everybody else, we acknowledge that our healing is bound in each other’s. It has made us one.

 

I treasure the Celtic wisdom: “We live in the shelter of each other.” 

 

Shelter

 

A word with meaning beyond our understanding now. 

 

I pray for resilience of spirit and soul, mind and body for you. Let your heart be wide open to the Loving Attachment of God, in whom we are always secure, always held, in a love that will carry.

 

 

God has given us each other      And we will never walk alone

In the shelter of each otherWe will live.We will live (In the shelter)In the shelter of each otherWe will live (Your arms are all around us)We will live.

 

With you on The Journey, 

 

Rob+

 

 

 

The influential French writer Simone Weil believed that attention is the very heart of prayer, and her French forebear Blaise Pascal also felt that “inattention is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life.”

Perhaps Lent is about becoming more aware – through daily attentiveness – to the reality that we are created-from-the-dust-living-spirits, that we are enough, that everything we need and long for is already ours in Christ.

In this podcast, I offer a “reframing” of Lent, not to change its meaning, but rather, to take a picture we have all grown accustomed to, and surround it with a new frame, one that allows us to see the picture afresh. 

Lent can be seen as an invitation to live a more Attentive Life, finding God’s presence in all of life.

I find these words of Leighton Ford leading me  into this Lenten Season:  “I do realize that this life stage requires not so much doing for God as paying attention to what God is doing.”

Attentiveness.

My prayer is that my reflections for the season of Lent will be encouragement to you. 

“You will do well to pay attention [to the prophetic word] . . . until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”  2 Peter 1:19 

Ever with you on The Journey,

Rob+

 

 

Once again, I found joy and synergy with God in the gift of preaching at Emmanuel Episcopal Church today.  I am so honored to serve their very fine Rector and my friend, Fr. David Bumstead. So grateful.

The focus of my sermon from the Gospel lesson for today, was receiving the grace to “answer the call.” The call is the greatest opportunity one can ever be given in this life. That call is to become a Christ Follower and Apprentice of Jesus Christ. We are called to a life beyond superficiality to one of eternal significance, to be with him in order to be like him. 

Saint Basil the Great articulated the goal of Christianity as “Likeness to God as far as possible for human nature.” Everyone of us—because of God’s presence and action in our world—can partake in the divine-likeness (2 Pet 1:4).

I also love the way South African Methodist pastor, author, teacher, and spiritual director Trevor Hudson expresses it with these words:

“I have come to see that the central issue of the gospel of Jesus involves the gracious opportunity to become a new kind of person and to enter into a new way of life. Available to anyone who responds wholeheartedly to the invitations and call of Jesus, his gospel embraces both the forgiveness of our sins and the recovery of abundant life”. – Trevor Hudson

May you find these words a source of wisdom. Pray for the grace to accept the call of God in your life and how you can live well and beautifully, no matter what your circumstances.

With you on the Journey, 

Rob+

 

Today it was my privilege to join the newly established mission congregation of All Souls Episcopal, Horizon West, FL.  I was deeply grateful to supply for their talented and gifted prospective Vicar, Fr. Matt Ainsley, who is doing exceptional ministry there.

The Feast of the Baptism of Jesus invites us to live our lives as Jesus would live them if he were us. Baptized into Christ we learn to: See this world as he sees it, to count on and depend on the Holy Spirit and the Reign of God, and to discover our deepest identity – we are the Beloved of God. 

May God richly bless Fr. Ainsley and the formation of God’s people at All Souls! 

Rob+