Pablo Giacopelli's Blog
June 15, 2015
The Light at the end of the tunnel
One of the things that the appearance of Jesus did in history was spoil the show most people were so involved and passionately pushing forward.How true is Is amazing as look back at this event how people totally misunderstood Jesus and his message as they missed the fact that Jesus was not saying to stop the show as much as he was saying that the show could be so much more if we looked at the same script he was flowing with.
As I think about this event I start to see that maybe what Jesus meant when he said that you could not put new wine into old wineskins was that we could not enter into the reality of the show he was living in with the same approach we were currently undertaking. Perhaps God knew that the restrictive and controlling systems and reality we had created would limit the dance he all along longed to have with his creation to the tune of the unforced rhythms of grace and not rules. Or maybe he was trying to show us that there was a lot more happening to and in us when we stopped and observed things we think very little of like taking the time to watch the trees wave in the wind and the flowers dance in the cool of the summer breeze. Or watching the waves deliver both their powerful roar out in the open ocean and their gentle touch when they finally reached the shore. Or how about the sunset and the way the sun gently kisses the waters in the horizon as it goes on to fulfill the promise that though the night might be long the morning will eventually come so the show can go on.
It is true that when God showed up in Jesus the impact he had upon history was so evident that even the calendar we use was changed. Yet as I look further and deeper I see that perhaps what this Dad of ours came to help us see was that the light at the end of the tunnel was not an illusion like the tunnel we believed separated us from this eternal light within us called his Kingdom…
Have a great week!
-pablo-
As I think about this event I start to see that maybe what Jesus meant when he said that you could not put new wine into old wineskins was that we could not enter into the reality of the show he was living in with the same approach we were currently undertaking. Perhaps God knew that the restrictive and controlling systems and reality we had created would limit the dance he all along longed to have with his creation to the tune of the unforced rhythms of grace and not rules. Or maybe he was trying to show us that there was a lot more happening to and in us when we stopped and observed things we think very little of like taking the time to watch the trees wave in the wind and the flowers dance in the cool of the summer breeze. Or watching the waves deliver both their powerful roar out in the open ocean and their gentle touch when they finally reached the shore. Or how about the sunset and the way the sun gently kisses the waters in the horizon as it goes on to fulfill the promise that though the night might be long the morning will eventually come so the show can go on.
It is true that when God showed up in Jesus the impact he had upon history was so evident that even the calendar we use was changed. Yet as I look further and deeper I see that perhaps what this Dad of ours came to help us see was that the light at the end of the tunnel was not an illusion like the tunnel we believed separated us from this eternal light within us called his Kingdom…
Have a great week!
-pablo-
June 11, 2015
The First commandment starts with us
Over the years the first commandment Jesus encouraged us to observe was to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, strength, and mind. On face value this encapsulates all of our being which for most of us is made up of the parts we like and like to show others as well as the parts we don’t like and we prefer to hide in the dark. Now in my own life I am discovering that the best way to see this commandment fulfilled is to actually embrace and love every part of myself and not just the sides I am proud of. You see, when I only embrace the side that I am happy with I also allow God to only embrace this part of me and not the whole of my being. Now the funny thing is that we do this out of shame and false pretense as we think that God somehow is not aware of it or perhaps doesn’t want to know about it or go there as he is only interested in what is clean, whole, and shinny. Yet, the reality is that God is already there within our darkness and is very interested in it as it is here that he wants us to understand first how much and how well he loves us in spite of this hidden place within us.
I would love today to encourage all of us to begin the day by giving ourselves a big hug and embrace as much as we can of ourselves. As we do this let us close our eyes and ask Dad to helps us see from within which areas we are holding back from him that prevent him from giving us the unconditional hug and embrace we all long for.
Remember the only way we are going to see the first commandment consistently fulfilled in our lives, is if we start doing what it says with the whole of ourselves and as we do this I know that slowly but surely we will begin to also see and feel God doing the same in return. #oneenablestheother #modernfigleaf
-pablo-
I would love today to encourage all of us to begin the day by giving ourselves a big hug and embrace as much as we can of ourselves. As we do this let us close our eyes and ask Dad to helps us see from within which areas we are holding back from him that prevent him from giving us the unconditional hug and embrace we all long for.
Remember the only way we are going to see the first commandment consistently fulfilled in our lives, is if we start doing what it says with the whole of ourselves and as we do this I know that slowly but surely we will begin to also see and feel God doing the same in return. #oneenablestheother #modernfigleaf
-pablo-
June 1, 2015
Healing or Accomplishing?
When Adam left the garden he set out to build a new reality where results and getting it right are king. This desperation to cover the nakedness he felt meant that he ushered in a new world order where man would begin to do in most cases whatever it took to make sure that they stopped feeling naked. This approach brought in something called the wounding of the heart. If you are like me and you have done any kind of life in this reality you have both hurt and have been hurt by others.
When we begin to wake up we begin to understand that what God is after is the condition of our hearts and not helping us to obtain the results and accomplishments we so desperately seek in the reality we live in. Is important to understand also that this truth can only be understood and seen from our heart and not our minds. This is why Gods approach is about loving and healing us and not repairing us and developing us into something we are not.
Take some time this week to consider which one of these two paths is the prevalent one that you find yourself walking on most of the time. This is an important discovery to make as one will lead you to a healthy inner life where as the other one will lead you to discover that it is not necessary to die to understand and experience what hell is all about.
Have a great week!
-pablo-
When we begin to wake up we begin to understand that what God is after is the condition of our hearts and not helping us to obtain the results and accomplishments we so desperately seek in the reality we live in. Is important to understand also that this truth can only be understood and seen from our heart and not our minds. This is why Gods approach is about loving and healing us and not repairing us and developing us into something we are not.
Take some time this week to consider which one of these two paths is the prevalent one that you find yourself walking on most of the time. This is an important discovery to make as one will lead you to a healthy inner life where as the other one will lead you to discover that it is not necessary to die to understand and experience what hell is all about.
Have a great week!
-pablo-
May 30, 2015
Grace
Grace is the only lover you will come across in this life that is attracted to all of your short comings. Where you are at your worst, she is at her best. Where you believe you have made the biggest mistakes and made a mess of it, she truly comes alive if you let her.
Grace is shy. She is only at home when we loose that selfreliant illusion from our lives that tells us we can make it on our own if we just manage to get it right. While we try hard and live out of our ego she is present too, however, we fail to notice her as she is not one to force herself as we do through our attempts to make life work in our own terms.
Her rhythm is unforced and her pace is easy. She brings rest with her and shows up when we least expect her to. She adds color to our lives and a true heartbeat to our hearts. We owe her every breath we have ever taken and will ever take. She has the power to bring life where all others have pronounced death, and that is because she is connected to the very heart of the one who gave her freely to us.
Only our daddy could have come up with something so beautiful and true as she is. There is no precious metal or currency that could pay for her or keep her. She sets us free because she has been delivered to us for free. There is no beginning to her nor an end. She will always go further, higher, and deeper than anything you or I can do.
In case you are wondering what the requirements are today to discover her and understand her...
That you sit back and relax smile emoticon
-pablo
Grace is shy. She is only at home when we loose that selfreliant illusion from our lives that tells us we can make it on our own if we just manage to get it right. While we try hard and live out of our ego she is present too, however, we fail to notice her as she is not one to force herself as we do through our attempts to make life work in our own terms.
Her rhythm is unforced and her pace is easy. She brings rest with her and shows up when we least expect her to. She adds color to our lives and a true heartbeat to our hearts. We owe her every breath we have ever taken and will ever take. She has the power to bring life where all others have pronounced death, and that is because she is connected to the very heart of the one who gave her freely to us.
Only our daddy could have come up with something so beautiful and true as she is. There is no precious metal or currency that could pay for her or keep her. She sets us free because she has been delivered to us for free. There is no beginning to her nor an end. She will always go further, higher, and deeper than anything you or I can do.
In case you are wondering what the requirements are today to discover her and understand her...
That you sit back and relax smile emoticon
-pablo
Relax
God says do not harden your hearts - I have been meditating about this for a little while now in the hope of being able to understand in a practical way what this might look like and what the impact of this action looks like in our lives.
As I meditated I began for some reason to think about muscles and how they work and are renewed. As I sat there I tensed the main muscle on my leg and kept it tense for a short while. As I did this I noticed that this was very much a voluntary movement which rendered my muscle useless as in this state of tension nothing could enter nor exit from it. I also noticed that unless I relaxed it the muscle would cramp up and remain hard and in pain until treated. This led me to think about how so many of us go to see a physio or a masseuse in order to help us relax the tension of our muscles, which accumulates from daily use, in our bodies by pressing on them to encourage the flow of blood into them in order to renew the muscular tissue.
Therefore please consider the following with me today. Muscles are tensed both through our voluntary choice as well as by just doing life. A muscle that remains tense is not able to function as it is designed to and in time if left hardened it will become injured thus disabling the person from being able to function in their daily lives. Furthermore muscles work best when relax, warm, and loose and it is a painful process both to soften and heal a muscle that has been shut down.
Our heart I believe is very much the same. Life happens to us and as it does we all inevitably hurt and become hurt. This hurt over time hardens our hearts leading them to shut down. Like the muscles the only way for this hardness to be rubbed out is by allowing the only one that can to massage it out. His hands if you see with the right eyes will come in the form of adverse situations, difficult people, and uncomfortable circumstances. Yes they will be very painful and most definitely not pretty but if we remain present and still as we are told on Psalm 46:10, in time both our hearts and lives will become soft again so that we are once again able, as Psalm 46:10 once again says, know that he is God...and most certainly good!
Have a great and relaxing weekend!
-pablo-
As I meditated I began for some reason to think about muscles and how they work and are renewed. As I sat there I tensed the main muscle on my leg and kept it tense for a short while. As I did this I noticed that this was very much a voluntary movement which rendered my muscle useless as in this state of tension nothing could enter nor exit from it. I also noticed that unless I relaxed it the muscle would cramp up and remain hard and in pain until treated. This led me to think about how so many of us go to see a physio or a masseuse in order to help us relax the tension of our muscles, which accumulates from daily use, in our bodies by pressing on them to encourage the flow of blood into them in order to renew the muscular tissue.
Therefore please consider the following with me today. Muscles are tensed both through our voluntary choice as well as by just doing life. A muscle that remains tense is not able to function as it is designed to and in time if left hardened it will become injured thus disabling the person from being able to function in their daily lives. Furthermore muscles work best when relax, warm, and loose and it is a painful process both to soften and heal a muscle that has been shut down.
Our heart I believe is very much the same. Life happens to us and as it does we all inevitably hurt and become hurt. This hurt over time hardens our hearts leading them to shut down. Like the muscles the only way for this hardness to be rubbed out is by allowing the only one that can to massage it out. His hands if you see with the right eyes will come in the form of adverse situations, difficult people, and uncomfortable circumstances. Yes they will be very painful and most definitely not pretty but if we remain present and still as we are told on Psalm 46:10, in time both our hearts and lives will become soft again so that we are once again able, as Psalm 46:10 once again says, know that he is God...and most certainly good!
Have a great and relaxing weekend!
-pablo-
