Reverend Walter Johnson

Reverend Walter Johnson

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Dear Family and Friends.

I would like to share with you some of my "friends". These are readings which I have found very valuable in my own life and which have been meaningful to share with others. I extend my deep appreciation to both the authors of these readings and to the many people who have gifted me with them.

I hope you find meaning and joy as you let them brush over your soul.

Peace,

Rev. Walter E. Johnson



The Meaning of Friendship

Oh, the comfort - -

the inexpressible comfort

of feeling safe with a person.

Having neither to weigh thoughts,

Nor measure words - -

but pouring them

all right out,

just as they are,

Chaff and grain together - -

Certain that a faithful hand will

take and sift them - -

Keeping what is worth keeping,

And with the breath of kindness,

Blow the rest away.

- Dinah Craik

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I Keep You Only As I Let Go

I hold you, dear,

And yet I know

That only a small part of you

Is here within my arms.

The part of you

That I may touch

is but a portion of your life.

Ambitions, hopes and dreams

Fierce passions, and new joy

Within you

Lie unshared . . . . .

I keep you only as I let you go

And hold within my arms,

Which are forever open

And unbinding,

The you I cannot know

By coupled hands.

Evelyn Eichler

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Faith

When you have come to the edge of all the light you know

And are about to step off into the darkness of the Unknown.

Faith is trusting one of two things will happen.

There will be something solid to stand on

Or, you will be taught to fly.

by Patrick Overter

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The Pattern of Life Like a Patchwork Quilt

Life isn't given to us all of a piece;

It's more like a patchwork quilt -

Each hour and minute a patch to fit in

To the pattern that's being built.

With some patches gay - and some patches dark,

And some that seem ever so dull -

But if we were given to set some apart,

We'd hardly know which to cull.

For it takes the dark patches to set off the light,

And the dull to show up the gay -

And, somehow, the pattern just wouldn't be right

If we took any part away.

NO, life isn't given us all of a piece,

But in patches of hours to use,

That each can work out his pattern of life

To whatever design he might choose.

Helen Lowrie Marshall

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My Blanket of Love

By Sharon Johnson Hagberg

My love for you is like a blanket

for it will wrap you in warmth

when you are cold

It will lie with you quietly

while you are sleeping

It will comfort you

when you are scared

And if a hole should ever appear

in our blanket of love

May the needle of hope

and the thread of forgiveness

sew it up in time

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Strange How I'm Made

It's strange how I'm made: Half mystic and half nut. My eyes upon the stars, my feet deep in the mud

One moment I'm lying and the next I'd die for the truth!

One moment I'm kind, big-hearted, understanding, loyal; the next, sneaky and cruel.

It's weird how a soul can be split up like that - - part God, part scallywag.

It's inconvenient, too, because you're never quite sure which part is on the job! Just when you think you are all set to act the saint, something inside goes flop - and there you are anything but a saint!

Yet, at other times, when you don't care how you behave, something in you leaps up like a flame: All the muck in you is burned away. And, for a flash, you're tall and clean and strong.

Once it used to get to me to be like that. I hated myself . . . . I hated life. I felt I'd been betrayed by God who made me such a mess.What was life worth if one was so full of flaws? So strong, yet weak; philosopher and fool?

Yes, once because I could not be the perfect thing I wanted to be, I hated life.

Now, I know that flawed lives are good and serve a purpose in God's kindly plan. Only those who've lied can feel a liar's shame. Only cowards know the bitter blame cowards must face. And only those who've failed can understand the fear of defeat.

So, through my weaknesses, I possess the key to every heart that's sad, shamed, or soiled. Through my blunders, I've found tolerance and pity in the place of my lost pride.

So God, I'm glad you made me as I am. Mystic and nut, philosopher and fool. My eyes upon the stars, my feet deep in the mud.

For I have learned that flawed lives can serve you well. I have found that both stars and mud are swell.

Author unknown

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A Meditation: Focus Person

Who is the person sitting next to you?

You might say a name, and describe how tall he or she is, and the color of his or her eyes and hair.

But none of these things are what the person is.

A person is invisible activities.

Who then is this person sitting next to you?

-1-

The person sitting next to you is suffering. He is working away at problems. He has fears. He wonders how he is doing. Often he doesn't feel too good about how he is doing; and he finds that he can't respect or be a good friend of himself. When he doesn't feel good about himself and finds it hard to love others, he suffers.

He is suffering when two things are trying to lead him in different directions. They clash against each other. He is in indecision, and he is disorganized; and in indecision and disorganization one is so close to chaos that suffering becomes intense. For it is only when energy is in motion and in pattern that we are really happy.

The person next to you is suffering partly because he is repeating patterns -- of relating himself to other people, ways of solving his problems. These ways didn't work too well once, but he learned them in a situation where he was very tense and somewhat fearful. Because of that he over learned them; they tend to be the only ways which he can use. And so he goes on trying to solve his personal problems by using ways of feeling and attacking his problems that don't work well, but were the only means that he could find when he was in a state of desperate need.

-2-

The person sitting next to you has a right to be a person; that is, she has a right to choose and decide, to have a private life of her own. She also has a right to be understood. And unless she can be understood by other people, she is thwarted from being a person. To be understood - how desperately we all want it.

The person sitting next to you has some things that she can do well. There are some things that she can do better than anybody else in the whole world.

The person sitting next to you has a right to be active; to run herself, to be showing responsibility to other people.

Believe me, this is true about persons and to know that they are suffering, and struggling to be a self - is wisdom more precious than rubies.

-3-

The person sitting next to you is an inexhaustible sort of existence. Within him are energies that have only been partially awakened. Nine-tenths of his possibility has not yet been touched off. There is all kind of good that is struggling to be born from way within that person. There are also anxieties and hatreds that are struggling to get themselves expressed. Sometimes if only these could be expressed, he would be free to love other people, At other times those deep energies are so intense and rigid that it would take quite a while for him to become able to love others. At the core of every person are these inexhaustible energies.

Deep within people is a great toughness for their own integrity - a great tenacity in the face of adversity. Human nature is the most indestructible thing that we know. It has an unlimited ability to take whatever comes - to go on surviving in the midst of unbelievable difficulties and persecutions. A person is an extremely tough tenacious existence with an overpowering will to survive, attain completion, and express something of himself in the world.

-4-

The person sitting next to you us a unique world of experience. Within her is constantly going on a world premier of unique experiences - that no other person has ever had, nor will ever have.

Thus, the person sitting next to you is a cluster of memories of the past and expectations of the future. She is really a whole colony of persons, of inner inhabitants, of people met all during a life. Something of these people has entered into this person forever. So that the person sitting next to you is really a city - a community. In that community lives still the father and mother of this person, the boys and girls with whom he played most. The people with whom she went to school; all the live things of this world that came and interacted with this person. They are still deep within.

Each person is this world of experiences. And when a person drops out of a group, there is lost a whole universe of meaning - loves and hates and events in which many people have been gathered.

-5-

The person sitting next to you is the greatest miracle and the greatest mystery that you will ever meet. The person sitting next to you is sacred.

Dr. Ross Snyder, Chicago Theological Seminary

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Snowflake Prayer

O God,

In obedience to Thy claim I surrender myself to Thee this day:

All that I am and

All that I have

To be wholly and completely Thine for Thy using.

Take me from myself and use me:

Where Thou wilt,

When Thou wilt,

With whom Thou wilt.

And, I am for Thee against myself.

Dr. Charles Wiston

Note: When on furlough from his missionary work in China, Dr. Wiston was hiking with his daughter in the high Sierras of California. He was struck by the grandeur of these mountains of granite and with the realization that they were carved to their magnificence by nothing but light fluffy snowflakes. Snowflakes which over time piled up and formed glaciers which then had the power to slowly but relentlessly carve and polish these wonderful stone works of beauty. This prayer and others like it are like the snowflakes which, over time, can pile up on our souls and slowly but relentlessly carve our being into the magnificent creations God intends for each one of us.

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The Dash Between The Dates

Graveside services were over now. Everyone had left and I was alone. I began to read the names and dates Chiseled here and there on every stone. The name showed whether it was Mom or Dad, Or daughter, or baby son. The dates were different, the amount the same, There were two dates on every one.

It was then that I noticed something " _____ " Just a simple line. It was the dash between the dates, And placed there, it stood for time.

All at once it dawned on me, How important that little line! The dates placed there belong to God, But the line is yours and mine. It`s god who gives this precious life, And it`s He who takes away;But the line between He gives to us To do with what we may.

We know he`s written the first date down Of each and every one; And we're sure the hands will write again, For that last date has to come. The hands will write the last date down Quite soon, perhaps, for some; But upon the line between my dates and yours, I trust He'd write, "Well done, well done!"

Note: Thanks to Patty G. for passing this on to me 3/91. If the author is known to someone, please call Rev. Walter Johnson, Chaplain, Mission Hospice so credit can be given.. (650-697-6212) Thanks

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