The concept of Te, as articulated by Lao Tzu, posits that true fulfillment arises from an understanding of one's truest self, a notion that resonates profoundly with our exploration of identity in this season of "Be Living Water." In our discourse, we endeavor to examine how this Taoist principle interweaves with the narratives presented in the Biblical book of Daniel and Victor Hugo's seminal work, Les Misérables. Each text offers a unique lens through which we can scrutinize the essence of humanity, the quest for authenticity, and the pursuit of harmony within a tumultuous world. As we navigate these profound themes, I invite you to reflect on your own journey toward self-discovery and the implications of these teachings for our contemporary existence. Through this introspective journey, we shall collectively seek to embody the principles of grace and compassion, fostering a harmonious coexistence in a world often rife with discord.

The discourse presented by Joshua Noel delves into the profound Taoist concept of Te, which encapsulates the essence of one's true self, a theme that resonates intriguingly with the narratives found in the Biblical book of Daniel and Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. In this exploration, Noel posits that the understanding of one's Te transcends mere self-identity; it embodies a harmonious alignment with the universe and a rejection of the self-centered tendencies often cultivated by modern society. As he articulates the existential inquiries that plague many individuals, such as 'Who am I?' and 'What is my purpose?', he establishes a connection between these queries and the societal challenges of our times, including the dislocation experienced in a rapidly evolving world characterized by technological upheaval and sociopolitical discord.

The discussion further examines how the principles of Taoism and Christianity, while distinct, converge at crucial junctures. Noel draws parallels between the Taoist pursuit of authenticity through the Te and the Christian doctrine of self-denial as a pathway to true fulfillment. By juxtaposing the struggles faced by the protagonists in Daniel and Les Miserables, he invites listeners to reflect on their own journeys of self-discovery amidst external chaos. This dual examination not only highlights the individual quest for identity but also emphasizes the necessity of engaging with the world compassionately and authentically, ultimately leading to a deeper understanding of oneself in relation to the greater cosmos.

Noel’s insights serve as a clarion call for introspection, urging individuals to contemplate their roles within the tapestry of existence, as well as the moral imperatives that accompany such reflections. He encourages a commitment to authenticity that harmonizes with the Tao, suggesting that the quest for one's Te is intrinsically linked to the broader narrative of humanity's struggle for peace and understanding.

Takeaways:

1. The concept of Te in Taoism is fundamentally about discovering one's truest self and living in harmony with the universe.
2. The teachings of Jesus and the philosophies of Taoism converge significantly on the idea of self-emptying for the purpose of finding true fulfillment.
3. In a world filled with chaos and conflict, understanding our place and identity is essential for fostering harmony and compassion.
4. The characters in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables embody the struggle of finding grace and authenticity in a polarized society, reflecting our own challenges today.

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Lao Tzu once wrote, if you want to become full, let yourself become empty.

Jesus once said, whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.

This is Be Loving Water, a show that seeks a way to imitate Christ so that it benefits all and is in conflict with none.

In our modern context, we may not come away with any solid answers each episode, but the hope is to honestly engage with the world that we live in and to struggle together to be our best selves.

I am Joshua Null, and I am a Taoist Christian who seeks to be true to himself and true to Christ.

To the best of my abilities.

I may not always be the smartest in the room, but.

But I am committed to being honest about who I am and to look to both Christian and Taoist traditions for wisdom from sages, pastors and theologians who have paved the way before me to wisdom.

Have you ever been just curious on how to, like, find yourself?

Like, who am I?

Like, what am I about?

What was I meant to be?

Why am I here?

You know, those big existential whatever questions I think a lot of us wrestle with?

A lot of people use different phrases.

You know, the people who aren't like the tutti whatever philosophy types might say something more like, I feel like I was born in the wrong time, or like, I don't feel like I was meant to be born in America or meant to be born wherever I am.

You know, there's like, everybody.

A lot of people have this feeling of like, just misplacement or curiosity of like, why am I here?

What am I for?

What is the point of me?

These are big questions.

And I think it doesn't matter what time you're in, you ask these kind of things.

I think it's especially hard in today's world of like, AI and you know, immigrants being mistreated here in America, people using slurs one another and being like, pat on back, oh, yeah, you know, that kind of bravo, whatever crap we keep hearing everywhere.

You know, technology has taken the place of a lot of human roles and a lot of humans stopped acting human towards one another.

The world's kind of war torn, there's a lot of mess.

And I think particularly it's hard to be like, who am I in the midst of this?

Because you're like, it feels selfish to even ask that.

But I think it's important to ask that because who you are matters to the state of the world.

Our world can't get back in harmony, can't find the Way the Tao can't find Jesus.

If people aren't finding themselves first, we can't find these other things.

Harmony exists when all the parts are synced up, all the parts are in tune, if you will.

That includes you, it includes me.

And that's a hard thing to wrestle with in times like this.

Even times not like this, when everything's fine, sometimes it's even harder.

You're just.

Everything else is fine.

But I don't feel fine, though.

I think these questions are always important.

It's something that Daoism gets a lot at, really focuses on when it talks about the Te.

So if you heard the book the Tao Te Ching, that's like one of the big books for Taoism.

Te is a huge part of that.

Te is your truest self, the you that you are meant to be, if you will.

And it's not just about humans.

Everything I think has a Te.

I might be pulling from Shintoism there, I'm not sure.

Again, I'm not the best Taoist, but last episode I kind of introduced how I want to talk about Daniel, the book of Daniel from Hebrew and Christian scriptures, as well as Victor Hugo's novel Les Misera.

And I'm going to bounce back and forth between the two.

Throughout some episodes, we're just going to focus on one, some are just going to focus on the other.

I told you next would probably be Daniel.

I'm not doing Daniel today.

I'm doing Taoism stuff.

In the next episode, I'm also doing Taoism stuff.

I want to show you guys why, as a Taoist Christian, some of these Daoist themes really fit into this conversation, and I think some really important ways.

So when we talk about the Te, your truest self, there's a lot of ways to get at that.

So what I want to clarify that it's not.

It's not this thing that maybe you hear a lot in America that's like, be true to yourself or follow your heart.

It's not that it's saying is like, there is a. I'll use myself.

I'm Joshua.

There is a Joshua that does exist, can exist, might exist.

Who is the truest Joshua.

And that's the one that's in complete harmony with the Dao, with the way of everything.

And what a lot of Taoism teaches is once we started creating tools and different stuff, not that tools and stuff are bad, but a lot of what humanity has done is broken itself away from the rest of nature, treated ourselves as something so wholly different that we stopped Being in tune with the harmony of the universe.

So tay is finding your truest self that is in harmony so that you aren't sitting there with these questions like, oh man, why do I not feel right in this time or in this place?

Or why do I feel like I was born here and not some other?

You know, like if you're asking those questions like, yeah, finding your tay is the answer to that.

You need to feel like you're in harmony with the world around you.

And that's about finding your day, finding your truest self.

The Bible does a lot of this too.

So in Christian theology it's a little bit different.

It's more of dying to yourself.

And what it's saying isn't like you don't exist, but it's rather like this you that you've become, that's so self centered, you need to die to that.

And once you do, you'll find you can live in Christ.

That kind of Christian theology is a little weird.

That's actually pretty similar.

Taoism isn't saying live for yourself, make it about yourself.

It's actually saying, no, be yourself by being in harmony with the rest of the nature.

And the only way to do that is to let go of yourself, to lose yourself.

If you want to find your fullest self, empty yourself, stop making it about you.

So in a way, Christian theology and Taoism harmonize on that part of the tune.

There are some important ways where they're going to stray.

And this is where Christian theology has a lot of different beliefs.

So I don't think Christian theology all agrees on this one.

But if you're in America, places like America, you might have heard similar stuff like you were born evil, you were born with the need of a savior, something like that.

So here's where the divergent occurs.

In a lot of Christian theology they'll say there's the story of Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis where man sinned and that sin passes down in some way so that we are all in need of a savior.

There are scriptures that say all have sinned in need of the glory of God.

And the way that some people interpret a lot of this is being that when Adam sinned, we all sinned.

There is a verse that says, just as when Adam died, we all died, so in Christ we all live.

When Christ was resurrected, we're all resurrected with him.

Something along those lines.

I'm not quoting scripture, I'm trying to make this more of a Taoist episode today.

But I need to get to some of this.

So some of your main thoughts in Christianity around how you were born, what you were born as.

One is going to say that that sin, either from guilt, association, literal genetics in some like Catholic theology is passed down so that you were born a sinner.

The moment you're born, you're bad and you have to find salvation to get right with God, to be in the way, to be good again, because you don't start off good.

Now other Christian thoughts are going to say that one sin perpetuated these systems that make everyone's born into a different system of sin.

So that you may be not born sinful, you might be born good, but if you're born into these systems, it makes you more likely to sin because all of the systems are cultivating sinful nature, bad nature, ways that I would say are out of the dao, where we're war hungry, self centered, lustful stealing.

If you're born in systems of these things, you're likely to also develop the same yourself.

And that's what the original sin does.

So these are different doctrines of original sin or how sin is treated.

Other Christians that I tend to be more in tune with are going to say, no, yeah, everyone has sinned.

That's actually just a true statement.

Some people might not say that, but I think that's a true statement.

Everyone has sinned, which kind of makes original sin.

We don't need that doctrine.

But I'll ignore that for now.

And I think I thought differently when I started this podcast is dummy for theology.

And I've really developed my own thoughts and feelings more as I've talked to people like Thomas J ord and people from like open and relational Christian theology camps.

And one of the things that I really see is like, I think I do believe God doesn't create things evil and he's created all of us.

So I think he's created everything good.

It seems like JRR Tolkien also believes everything's made good thing goes bad.

And what they will say then is that you need to repent, turn to Christ and then in salvation you become.

You go from a sinner to someone who is life giving, who is acting out salvation, who is acting out Christ, who is being Christ, being living water and the world around them.

Right.

And I think that is a good way to find harmony.

I actually, I've experienced that.

I've prayed for salvation, I've turned from my own sinful ways and that's how I began my journey.

But I think there's something deeper there where I'm not just like, oh, so there's a Calvinist theology is that we're all totally depraved, we're all completely evil.

We need to constantly be asking for forgiveness because our nature is just bad.

I don't think that's right.

I think it's right that I need salvation, that I sinned and that I needed to turn to Christ but sees the one who's defeated sin, the grave, those systems that we talked about, all of that stuff, Christ defeated all of it.

So whatever root is right doesn't matter to me theologically.

What I know is that I need to depend on Christ to overcome any of that.

But I don't leave it there.

I leave it with, there's still more, that I'm still here for a reason, as myself.

I didn't die and suddenly become a clone of Jesus, you know?

Right.

I'm still me, just a me who found salvation in Jesus.

And now I need to know what it means to be Jesus, to be living water in the world that I live in as myself.

And that's where the tay comes in for me.

That's really important idea.

What does it mean to be a me that's in harmony with the world as it should be in harmony with Jesus, with salvation, with the Christian fathers, with Taoist philosophers.

What does it mean for me to be myself in a way that that is in harmony?

That's what the te really is all about.

When I first learned of this stuff, I learned of it, believe it or not.

A lot of the stuff I learned from these two books, the Dao of Pooh and the Taya Piglet by Benjamin Hoff.

And he's kind of explaining Taoism through the lens of the stories of Winnie the Pooh.

It takes a lot of creative liberties, does a great job of explaining what the stuff is.

Someone with a brain like mine kind of needed these kind of explanations and examples to really understand what we're talking about.

Taoism isn't really a belief system, religion, philosophy, whatever you want to call it, that defines things and more gives you examples.

So this is what the dao is.

It looks like this Jesus was similar, right?

Jesus didn't really give people answers.

He told parables.

Taoism is very similar to that.

So it's helpful to me that it was Winnie the Pooh stories.

These were examples.

It was telling me.

Rather than giving me a definition, it was showing me what.

What is the dao?

What is tay?

What is wu wei?

We'll talk about that next episode.

And one of the things to Me that was so weird is like Piglet.

He's always so fearful.

He's always just afraid.

That can't be what tay is that I'm just afraid of everything else and isolating myself.

But then I see who Piglet really is.

I missed this in the Winnie the Pooh story.

Somehow Piglet is always the one that's like, well, maybe Rabbit's just this.

Maybe Eeyore's just.

Maybe Pooh's just.

It's like Hagrid.

If you watched Harry Potter, it's.

Well, they're misunderstood creatures.

Piglet does a lot of that.

It's this understanding that I'm not hoping for Eeyore to be anything other than Eeyore.

He's Eeyore.

I'm not gonna hope for Winnie the Pooh to not come in my house and eat all my honey.

He's gonna eat the Pooh.

That's what Apu does.

A tigger bounces.

I'm looking at the things for what they are, and I'm happy that they're them.

And rather than trying to change Eeyore to make him a happy donkey or to change Tigger, I'm looking at myself going, how do I change me so that I can see?

Oh, well, yeah.

Or maybe he didn't show up at the party because he's feeling down today.

So I'm changing me where I'm understanding, where I'm showing compassion, where empathy.

I'm changing me to be in harmony with what's around me, not trying to change the people and the things around me.

Saying that in a world where Donald J. Trump's the president of America, where ICE agents are going out, is a hard thing to say.

But I have to come to the conclusion I'm not going to change these people.

I can change me.

I say, how can I live in harmony, a world where these people are doing evil things?

And what does it mean to live in harmony in a way that I'm not being silent in the face of evil, but I'm also not asking people to be anything other than what they're being.

This is what is.

How do we make sense of the world now?

How do I live in a way where I'm not silent about evil being true to myself?

How do I be water when everything else is fire?

That's the questions that you're getting at when you're thinking about your tay.

And I think these are important questions.

Again, I do not think it means being silent in the face of evil.

I think there's a Way to stand up.

And we're talking about that next episode.

Wu Wei is what we're going to be talking about.

It's action without effort, how do I stand up and where I'm not fighting against what people are, but I'm still doing what's right, where I'm still finding the dao and trying to sync up with it.

Not just harmonizing with the evils of the world, but harmonizing with the world as it should be.

We'll talk about more of that last time next time.

I do want to mention too, C.S.

lewis talks about.

He doesn't.

I don't think he says te.

He talks about we don't find our truest selves until we find Jesus.

And in Jesus, in salvation, in Christ, we get this liberty.

That's why I love the book of Galatians.

It talks a lot about liberty, talks a lot about how I was once a slave to sin or I was once a slave to the law, where I thought I had to obey certain rules, these rigid structures to find Christ.

I thought that if I sinned, you know, that I was stuck in my sin, I couldn't find a way out.

And what salvation does is it breaks all of those chains.

This is what Galatians is saying, right?

It's saying that I'm no longer a slave to the law.

There's no rigid structure of if I do xyz, I'm going to find Jesus.

There's no xyz, I'm going to find harmony with the world.

There's no formula to finding myself even.

And I don't want to be a slave to sin where I just cave into my desires for self centeredness, my desire for violence, my desire for whatever.

I'm not caving to that sin.

But I'm also not following these rich structures.

What's it look like?

It looks like depending on Christ.

So I'm free of both of those things.

And what C.S.

lewis is saying is that's when I find my truest self, who I really am.

It's not defined by this sinful stuff of like where I want to live for myself.

And it's not defined by these rules that I find a way to obey.

It's something else, nothing greater.

And I think that in a way, I don't think Christian theology has really good language for it.

I think it has a lot of good ideas and doctrine around it.

But I think te is perfect language for what we're talking about.

It's my truest self.

Isn't any of that My truest self, I think, is in Christ.

But my te.

I have to find me.

I have to find who I am in Christ.

And I think the books of Daniel and Les Miserable are going to do a great job at helping to find just that.

So we'll go ahead.

Let's talk about the Book of Daniel a little bit.

We're not going to get into any of the nitty gritty details or anything of that.

We're going to talk a lot more about Daniel in the future.

When I go through these books chapter by chapter, whatever.

I don't know exactly how I'm going to do it, but we're going to go through the books.

We're going to have episodes that are just about Daniel, not about.

Where do I see this in Daniel, you know, like I'm doing today in next episode, but for now, the day of Daniel.

I also want to look at Daniel and Les Mis.

For me, it's a little bit of yin yang.

So, Daniel, we're going to see those who are under the law, under the king's rule, who are under here, you know, the ones who are being impacted by these actions.

Les Mis will see a little bit of that, but we're going to more focus on this.

People who are able to enforce law, people who are able to choose to give grace.

So to me, that's kind of the yin yang.

I'm seeing Daniel Morris, the yin of, like, what do we do when we're the ones who are underneath the resume, where we don't have the resume, we don't have a say.

Les Mis kind of gives us ideas of what to do when we do have a say.

So that's kind of a little bit of the yin yang.

As we go through this Book of Daniel, in chapter one, we see people's names get changed.

The Hebrew kids, you know, Daniel, they're not named Meshach, and there's Bendigo, but in my mind, there always will be.

But I forget what their Hebrew names are.

But all four of them, they have their names changed.

We don't remember.

For some reason, we don't remember Daniel's Aramaic name, and we never remember the Aramaic.

We don't remember the Hebrew names of the other three of the four kids.

But they come.

You know, I say kids, I think they were younger at this time.

I'm not sure if the scripture says that.

We'll get into that when we start getting into the details.

But they have their names changed.

Talk about wondering who you are in the world.

Imagine your whole people becoming enslaved Subjected to a different kingdom, a different culture completely.

And the first thing to do, changing your names.

I don't like your language.

So you don't get Hebrew names anymore.

You now have Babylonian names, names after our gods, names after our beliefs.

That's going to be a challenge to identity.

That's a challenge to your tay.

I'm going to go through all the chapters, but if you think about some of the different places.

So if you think about chapter four, you see, King Nebuchadnezzar loses himself.

He goes out, he becomes like a wild animal.

He ends up with one more chance to find Jesus, to turn from his evil ways.

But what?

Another display of identity, Right?

He completely loses his humanity.

It's a question of identity.

It's a question of who are you?

Who are the ones who are oppressing you?

Daniel, thrown into the lion's den for his beliefs, for doing the same thing he's always done.

How do you find harmony in a world where you get thrown to lions just for praying to the same God you always prayed to, even in the prophecies?

I think the entire point of the Book of Daniel is to explain chapter seven personally.

We'll get to that a little bit later.

But really, like chapter seven and eight, you see these beasts that represent the different kingdoms of man.

And when the anointed one, when God comes into the picture to save rather than a beast, he's represented with someone like the Son of Man.

What does it mean to be human when all these nations, all these things, come and try to subjugate others try to put themselves over everyone else, when they try to belittle, when the marginalized are being shot in the streets, like here in America, when something called alligator Alcatraz exist because we don't like brown people, when the rulers are throwing slurs against people who are from other ethnicities, when you live in a world where war is constant, when you live in a world like Daniel, where your people are subjugated to another culture so much that you're not even allowed to pray to your God.

The humanity is what's in question.

And these rulers, these kingdoms, these nations are represented by beasts, by animals that aren't even real animals.

Like, it's like lying with different parts, like it's not even true to itself.

It's not true to being a lion.

I think that's intentional.

I think it's intentional that God chose how he wanted to be represented in this prophetic vision, the human, someone like the Son of Man.

Because it's important that that we understand what it means to be human in a world where the nations and rulers want to strip people's humanity away.

That's why I think the Book of Daniel is going to be really important, especially understanding our tay and understanding the world we live in today for ourselves.

Not trying to, oh, these are why the ruler is bad and we're going to take them down.

But no, we're not looking at, like, how the rulers lost their humanity.

We are a little bit in chapter four, but mostly we're thinking of, like, what do I do?

What does it mean for me to find my te?

When the rest of the world, the nation I live in, seems so out of sync.

Then the book of Les Miserables, the novel by Victor Hugo.

Three different characters, I think, really show when we're talking about the tei, what we're looking at.

We have Bishop Muriel, one of the first characters to see.

One of my favorite characters in all immediate media.

I've said about Uncle Iroh recently, both are true.

I would love to just sit down and hear Uncle Iroh and Bishop Muriel have a conversation.

If an animator wants to make that happen, I'm down.

I'd watch it.

Bishop Muriel.

I might be saying his name wrong too.

Sorry, I don't speak French, so some of the pronunciations are going to be just awful.

As we go through that, we see him finding room for others.

He was like, oh, where are there going to be rooms like church?

Pretty big.

What about that room?

You can't use that room.

That's not for bed.

We put beds in there.

It's for beds.

He finds a way to give grace.

When someone steals from the church rather than punish him, how dare he take from the church?

And that's the greatest sin.

He goes, maybe a kid needed bread.

Let him have some bread, man.

Bishop Muriel is the definition of be living water.

And as we get into his teachings, you're going to see, like, I tear up, man.

Hearing about this character, Victor Hugo imagined the amount of grace that he showed to others, the amount of love that he that was in his teachings.

You know, he would say stuff like, is it the one who stole that sin, or is it the one who created a world where he felt like he had to steal?

Was that the greater sin?

These questions he asked, they're vital to understanding the world cultures like the ones we live in, like cultures like the world anyone's lived in in the last couple thousand years.

Bishop Muriel is just so vital to understanding that.

And what he does is he finds a way to be in Harmony with this world around him.

He subjugates himself to other religious rulers in his denomination who I think just suck.

But he still puts himself under them, respects them.

When a kid comes to steal from him, he's not showing his power and authority.

He's finding a way to be in harmony, even with this kid showing him grace.

Bishop Muriel just.

Yeah, I'll probably have a whole episode just about him soon.

But Jean Valjean, you know, our leading protagonist, find a way to accept grace.

Some of us have a hard time when someone shows that charity to us, being like, you know what?

I do need this.

He does a great job because he was shown grace, of showing others grace.

Wherever he goes.

He allows people space to be themselves.

If you see Jean Valjean show up, people end up showing them true as selves, for better or for worse.

People are comfortable in him.

They know that he is soft enough, he's quiet enough, gentle enough, that he allows space for others.

And we're going to see that throughout the story.

And he just has this quiet goodness.

I think Shyamajan has quite the journey.

I don't think he starts off true to himself and nature.

He's trying to steal from the church.

He struggles running from the law.

He's very much not in harmony, but what we see him become.

This man of quiet goodness that's allowing space for everyone to be their authentic selves.

He finds his tay throughout the novel.

And it's an incredible story.

Of course, we have Javert.

I'm pretty sure I'm saying that wrong.

But you see him so dedicated to doing the law.

You know, this person broke the law, and this is the punishment.

This is what we got to do.

This is it.

Rigid rules, rigid structures.

It keeps him from ever seeing Javan Jean for who he is.

It also keeps him from seeing who he is himself.

He's so stuck to the role that he has to play that he stops seeing himself as human.

And we'll see that as we go through Victor Hugo's novel.

All these characters are vitally important, I think, to understanding what it means to find yourself, but the you that you're meant to be.

The one that is in harmony with all things.

Not the you that's living for yourself or following your heart, but the you that's seeking out harmony with those around us in the world around us.

Thinking about the te.

Thinking about the world we live in, the worlds imagined in the book of Daniel and in Victor Hugo's novel.

Incredible.

I say imagine.

I don't think Daniel was a literal Story.

I think there probably was someone named Daniel.

Some of it was literal, but I think it's like historic fiction kind of stuff.

But that's besides the point.

I think the story of Daniel is incredibly important.

It's one of my favorite books of the Bible.

Pietro Hugo's novel Les Miserables is one of my favorite novels.

I think I've read it every year the last, like, five years.

It's, to me, deeply meaningful.

Anyway, as always, you guys know I like to end our show with three takeaway questions and a point of meditation.

So, again, you know, we're not takeaway actions.

I'm not giving you clear answers.

I'm not giving you a structure.

If you do this, you've got to find your te.

I just want you guys to think about these things.

Number one, am I actually my truest self?

Super basic.

It's just a question.

What is the tay?

Are you the you who can be in harmony with the world that you live in?

And if you're not, what does it take to get yourself to being the kind of person who's able to be in harmony, not fighting against, not fighting fire with fire, but being water, even if you're in a world of fire?

How can you be your truest self in the world you live in right now?

This one I'm looking at.

Jean Version.

I'm looking at when Nebuchadnezzar never could bring himself to do.

How can I authentically be grace to others?

Bishop Muriel didn't just show grace.

He was grace to the world he lived in.

How can I authentically be grace to others?

Finally, number three, How can we live out grace in times of such polarization?

We live in a world where right hates left.

Left hate America, hates China, China hates America, Russia, Ukraine, Palestine.

Like, just saying these words probably made somebody mad.

We live in constant polarization.

Oh, you Baptist.

Oh, you Pentecostals.

Oh, you're a daoist Christian.

Why not just a mere Christian?

Mere Christianity.

I love CS Lewis, but we're constantly looking for a reason to be against one another.

How can we live out grace in times of such polarization?

How do we live out grace?

My point of meditation today, I want you to read part of Les Miserable, Victor Hugo's novel.

You can find it pretty cheap online.

I think there's some free downloads on Amazon.

Maybe book one, chapter four.

You see a lot of these tales of Bishop Muriel, what he's doing, some of his teachings.

I want you to find one quote from Bishop Muriel.

Write it down.

I want you to read it out loud once a day for the next week, morning, night, whenever you have time, really, and just contemplate what the meaning of that quote is to you in your own context.

There's a reason you chose that quote.

Why contemplate these things in the next week?

Again, that's book one, Chapter four of Les Miserables.

Bishop Muriel has some just incredible things to say.

I think just meditating on these things can help all of us find harmony, find the way, find Jesus.

I do not hope that this conversation has left you with any clear answers or instructions for your life.

I hope this conversation has instead how to best be true to yourself as a unique individual and be true to Christ as the source of all life.

Remember, we are to be water, beneficial to all and in conflict with none.

We are called to be Christ, loving everyone and ready to lay down our own lives for others.

Thank you for joining me in my own struggles to love myself, others and God better.

I hope this has encouraged you finally.

I really hope this has encouraged you to be living water.