Diane Vogel Ferri’s full-length poetry book is Everything is Rising (Luchador Press). Her latest novel is No Life But This: A Novel of Emily Warren Roebling (Atbosh Media) Her essays have been published in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Scene Magazine, and Yellow Arrow Journal, among others. Her poems can be found in numerous journals such as Wend Poetry, Blue Heron Review, Rubbertop Review, and Poet Lore. Her previous publications are Liquid Rubies (poetry), The Volume of Our Incongruity (poetry), and The Desire Path (novel). She has done many poetry readings locally. Diane’s essay, “I Will Sing for You” was featured at the Cleveland Humanities Festival in 2018. A former teacher, she holds an M.Ed from Cleveland State University and is a founding member of Literary Cleveland. Her poem, For You, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of The Net 2023

Friday, March 7, 2008

Joshua

There is a wonderful book called Joshua by Joseph F. Girzone, a former priest. There are other Joshua books that followed but I liked the first one the best. Joshua is a present-day Jesus figure. Today I'm just going to share some passages from this book that make a lot of sense to me.
We all have to be content with slow progress, Joshua reminded him. Human beings are like plants. They grow in stages and those stages can't be accelerated. In due time plants bear fruit, and with human beings it is much the same. In the proper time and at the proper pace we grow into what God intends us to become. Events take place and strangers cross our path that force us to think. All these things God uses to teach us and suggest a different way of understanding things. So we grow, gradually, imperceptibly, under the subtle guidance of God's own spirit. Being conscious of our success is not important. The left hand should not know what the right hand is doing. That can lead to vanity.
People are so frighteningly rigid and limited in their understanding of things. Do you realize that God can be present in many different ways? In whatever form he uses we should be careful not to prejudice ourselves and say ' He can't come in that form or in this form' because if we do we reduce God to our own limited image, and in doing that run the risk of rejecting him if he comes to us in a way we don't expect. God may be one and he may be simple, but he can also manifest himself in many facets of his greatness.

1 comment:

Moohaa said...

Is this Joshua supposed to be a real person or is it fiction? It makes me nervous about "Jesus-like figure". I don't think there's anyone like Jesus.

But I quite liked the passages you shared. It is all very true and meaningful. God can come in many forms.

Great post!