Tag: God

Posted on

Merton’s Prayer of Abandonment

Arenal Volcano

 

I made this photo from the “Hanging Bridges” in the area in 2010. It is the most popular volcano because of its nearly perfect conical shape. It also reminds me of the strength and steadfastness of God in my life.


I just shared this on my spiritual blog called HIS SPIRIT which has been neglected lately with my focus on Costa Rica (and no longer using), but because it is as much about my move to Costa Rica and the risk so many here in Nashville think I am taking, I decided to share it on this blog too: 

As I am two days away from the move to Costa Rica, I am trusting God more and expecting Him to give me more purpose in life than I have felt in my simple volunteering in church and other places here in Nashville. And the fact that I don’t know everything that will happen is part of the adventure and excitement of the move. I am abandoning a lot of supposed security here in the states, though financially I know it will just get more difficult for me in the states. (And friends will still be friends from afar!) In the process of this thinking I was reminded of the poem/prayer by Thomas Merton which I may have shared somewhere earlier. I discovered it in 2012:

Prayer of Abandonment
Thomas Merton
 
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain
where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and that I think I am following your will
does not mean I am actually doing so.
But I believe
the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire
in all I am doing.
I hope
I will never do anything
apart from that desire.
And I know if I do this
you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
I will trust you always
though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear,
for you will never leave me
to face my perils alone.
Posted on

Is God Laughing at Me?

Possibly the most important post I’ve made yet on this Costa Rica decision process is on my spiritual blog called His Spirit with a post titled:

Is God Laughing at Me?

If you are following this decision-making process, I hope you click above and read that one post, my most thought-out post yet.  

Posted on

If you want to hear God laugh . . .

When I ordered a good map of Costa Rica from Amazon.com I also grabbed a cheap little paperback titled The Golden Gringo Chronicles which is also the name of Bob Normand’s electronic newsletter about him retiring in Costa Rica.

The best thing tonight was at the end of Chapter 7 he used an often used quote from Iyanla Vanzant (without giving her credit) but one I hope to keep in mind during this whole process:

“If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans.” 

Now, if I could just get God to tell me His plans for me! One of my prayers!

Bob lives in Quepos at Manuel Antonio National Park which was one of the first places I noted as a possibility for me, so that makes reading his book even more interesting. I intend to avoid the mistakes he made and that is one reason he wrote his true story book of retiring in Costa Rica.