JC's helper: Competitive old fool.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Competitive old fool.

I walked up to Swampy Summit and back over Flagstaff again today. Last Sunday afternoon I took just under three hours to do it, but must have used muscles I seldom use because nearly all week parts of me hurt. I did a bike ride yesterday for my Saturday exercise. Today as I headed out on my hike I put my tramping boots on for more comfort, and assured my wife I would take it easy and just amble. "No fast walking for me, just a cruise!" There is something about hills! There is something about junctions in tracks! I am always thinking ahead, looking at my watch and saying to myself, "I reckon I can reach the top, ... or the corner... or the junction by...." I think if I am going to just amble I need to leave my watch at home! I ended up doing the walk 8 minutes faster than last week! I am such a competitive old fool, I compete against myself. Why can't I relax and just enjoy a stroll? Still I think I am getting fitter.

I found this little rock with little pink flowers on the top of Swampy Summit. They grow there in that windswept, cold and isolated spot. I guess we could call it "God's landscaping".

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The Blog's title

I am a Workplace Chaplain to the NZ fireservice.

At the firestation every time one man sees me he yells, "Here comes JC's helper!". I guess I am happy to be called just that... "Jesus' helper". I am a follower of Jesus.
A a quote from Dave Andrews in his book, "Not Religion but Love".
"Being a devotee of Jesus is not a matter of subscribing to a certain set of dogmas, obeying rules and regulations, and getting others to subordinate themselves to them.

The essence of being a devotee of Jesus is to live in sympathy with God as Jesus did; feeling the throb of God's heartbeat, and teaching our hearts to learn to beat in sync with the love that sustains the universe.

It means developing our capacity to sense intuitively what causes love pleasure, and what causes love pain, and doing everything we can to enhance the pleasure, and diminish the pain."

I love this charter.

The Charter for Compassion

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.