Life as an Easter Person

Five weeks of soul searching and introspection in Lent has only touched the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. My messes and my chaos has not evaporated, but during these weeks I have challenged myself in a number of areas. I have experienced God working in and through the events around me, challenging me to grow in my faith and openness to God’s will.

Five weeks ago, we began by remembering how God created all that exists out of the chaos of a primordial mess; and now in Holy Week we witness Jesus Christ encountering a very real chaos and mess in the religious system and thinking of the time. The powers that be chose to destroy Jesus, to eliminate his interpretation of who God was and what relationship was desired between God and his people. If God were human (looking for fair treatment like we do), I think at that point, God could have chosen to wipe out humanity for their crimes, their unrelenting and unloving hearts.

But God is greater than fair and just; God is gracious and loving and kind.

The problem for us lies in the fact that this is so great, it is to us almost as unfathomable to us as understanding God. We cannot grasp such goodness, and if we cannot grasp it, how can we live it?

By ourselves, I don’t think it is possible. But that is where faith comes in, that is where hope blossoms, and as we experience God’s goodness, we can love and live in faith and hope.

We are like flowers opening. The more we open to the goodness of God, the more we can feel it and know that we are surrounded and upheld by this great love. My prayer for all of us is that we experience this great love which we glimpse through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. We are an Easter people!

Lent Week 5: Walls can move!

In these first four weeks of Lent, we have observed, dreamed, reclaimed our identity as a child of God, and recognized our blessings. As we worked through these steps, at least for myself, I found I hit a wall.

I was going along nicely observing, dreaming, feeling myself as a child of God, claiming my blessings, and then I hit a week of serious overwork and exhaustion, leaving me wondering if I had made any progress at all. The wall I was most trying to challenge was still right in front of me: my chronic overwork.

For all of us there are walls in our lives; walls that limit and keep us from being the persons we were meant to be, leaving us feeling trapped or without options. Then there are walls that may need to be rebuilt that have been trampled or broken down. This leaves us feeling defeated and perhaps vulnerable and without defense.

In my experience, walls are all different in that some are real, some are not, some are stationary but some can be moved. Sometimes we have to go a new direction, sometimes we have to challenge the wall and break through it, sometimes we need to build a new wall. Whatever the wall is in our lives, this is a time when we need to pray. For the only sure help I know is that of God and God’s power.

And you will recognize this prayer for it is ages old. So this week we pray; we pray for ourselves and for others:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
(Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi)

As we pray this week, let’s challenge the walls that we perceive around us, and look to see if there are walls that should be in place in our lives. Sometimes we feel inadequate on our own, but our loving God has more power than we can imagine. So, be sure to ask for what we need.

You can expect one more post for this Lenten Series, as Lent always culminates in Easter.

Lent Week 4: Blessed by God to be a Blessing

It seems ironic to me that in one of the wealthiest countries in the world so many people are distressed and unhappy. We have more stuff than we know what to do with, but it doesn’t bring us much happiness. Commercials and advertisements continually try to convince us that we need things that other generations regarded as luxuries. If the commercials and advertisements do their jobs well, we will purchase their product.

Truth be told, Americans are buried in their junk. I look around my house and I am appalled at all the junk that has collected here and there. Moreover, having just gone through the finances for the last year as we prepare for our income taxes, I am saddened by purchases made that I never used or were not really needed.

My soul yearns for a simpler way. I believe that God calls us to live in a simpler way. We have been blessed to be a blessing, but all this stuff can seem like a curse. It all needs to be cared for, to be dusted, to be organized, whatever.

This week, we will focus on God’s plan for us: we have been blessed to be a blessing, not to hoard things, not to move piles of junk around, not to feel overwhelmed and defeated. So how do we begin to simplify?

Stuff is either needed or not. If it is needed, (really needed, really utilized) then it should have a place and be there. If it is not needed, recycle it to the appropriate place. Goodwill and other agencies can always use appropriate donations.  God will bless what we give away and thus we will be doubly blessed as we move toward simplicity.

This is the week for moving out any of the things surrounding us that we barely or never use. Here’s my motto for the week: When in doubt, throw it out! This will be hard for me, because I am a “Keeper!” So invite God into the chaos of our lives, feel the breath of a healthier time coming, and move forward with God’s blessing.

Lent, Week 3: Whose Am I, Anyway?

Verse 3 of Genesis states: And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

And in the very next verse, God recognizes the goodness of the light.

How often have I heard someone who did something very well immediately dismiss and discredit what they have accomplished. Perhaps it is the traditions in which we grew up, that a child would get a big head if there were compliments and praise. Perhaps it is the critical teaching model where mistakes are highlighted, skipping over the good parts and the accomplishments. Too many of us have internalized this negative approach, and don’t recognize or acknowledge the good in ourselves or what we do at all. People have told me they have no gifts. Not only is this sad, but it is untrue. What such a statement means is that they are unable to recognize the gifts that they do have.

Genesis 1, verse 27 tells us that God created humankind in his image. It doesn’t say this once, but for emphasis, repeats it: In the divine image, he created them (people – us, you and me). And the verses go on to say that he blessed them, and gifted them with the entire creation that God had just completed. And then, when God looks at everything that he has made, it is not just”good”, it is “very good.” For human beings are the jewel in the crown of creation.

This week we will recognize whose we are and the gifts that are given to us from our loving and gracious God. Do our gifts need to be developed? Do we need extra training? Can we utilize them better? Can they effect positive changes in ours and others lives? Practice using them.

I also encourage you to feel gratitude. The one point I most enjoyed from the book and movie Eat, Pray, Love is the advice from the guru to learn to smile from the inside out, smiling even in your liver. And when we smile more, from the inside out, it is easier to see our gifts and the many blessings we have received.

Lent Week 2: Dare to Dream!

Did you ever notice that dreams are never dismissed in the Bible? Maybe they only reported the important ones. On the other hand, I think today we dismiss them much too quickly.

This past week we looked at the chaos in our lives, the messes in which we allow ourselves to live. Hopefully we realized that we have it within our power to create something different, should we desire. I also realized that I was responsible for what was happening in my life, and if I didn’t like it, maybe now is the time to change it. Complaining or blaming never are very helpful.

So this week we will envision what could replace the chaos that we identified. Instead of my usual approach (which would be to make a detailed plan and then tackle the work), I am going to allow myself to dream, to imagine, to envision. I encourage you to do the same.

This week whenever something seems chaotic to you, think about what could make it better. What would the ideal be? How would that make you feel? What would it take to get there? So visualize, think about, see things in a new light. Allow yourself to dream; what have you got to lose?

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

The Sabbath: a gift from God!

I don’t know why, but I always find it somewhat irritating when I am told to take time and smell the roses. Perhaps it is irritating to me, because there is such a conflict within me between all that I feel I need to do, and my own desire to take some time of rest.

Today is Sunday, God’s prescribed day of rest for each of us. It can’t always work out that this particular day be a day off, as work schedules can interfere. Still it seems clear that one out of seven days should be set aside as a day of rest, which I will refer to as “Sabbath” for the rest of this article.
We’ve come a long way from the time when to do anything on the Sabbath was considered a sin. In fact we are so far removed from that notion of thinking that Sabbath has become a lost day. It is too easy to pile on all kinds of tasks and errands, and in the end, God is not honored, nor has anyone rested.

Here is a breakout of the letters in the word rest:
R= Relax! Take time to sit still, to be silent, to breathe, to remember God who gave you so many blessings.
E= Enjoy! Take pleasure in the people who are around you, in a good book, or play a game with those you love. Look around you and discover what gives you delight.
S= Sense what you need. Practice self-care. If we need to sleep, today is a chance to take time for it; each of us knows what we need better than anyone else. Do it.
T = Trust in God. God has ordained this day of rest. The Bible tells us to remember the lilies that do not toil, but still God cares for them, and we are worth so much more! So let us put aside our fears and worries and simply Trust!

So I am going to apply these to myself, and relax, enjoy, sense what is needed, and most of all, trust that in the big scheme of things, God will manage without my doing a few extra little tasks. And to be sure that I follow this, I have a sheet of paper set aside so that if I think of a task that needs to be done, for today, I will simply write it down, and then practice trust that the tasks can be completed on a day that is not my Sabbath.

Lent, Week One…Genesis 1:1-2

So we start. Our focus this week will be on awareness or recognizing where we are. Genesis 1:1-2 states this:

“In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.”

In order for this little journey to work, we will first have to admit and recognize where we are. It is interesting to note that God creates our world out of what is described as a formless wasteland, that darkness is covering deep holes, and then after stating what does exist, we are told that a mighty wind swept over the waters. A mighty wind literally translates as “a wind of God” or a spirit of God.” Sometimes it is translated as the “breath of God.”

Each of us has chaos in our lives at various times, and sometimes it seems like too much of the time. Each of us has darkness and feel like there are huge pits with which we have to deal. This week we will look at naming the areas in our lives that are chaotic and out of control.

For me one area I need to examine is my chronic overwork, always taking on too much and working to the point of exhaustion. I have a thousand and one things I am interested in and never enough time to get to them all. I move on to the next project without ever really finishing the current project. My office is a total mess. My computer has files all over it from all sorts of endeavors. The flip side is that I do not relax well; I certainly rest poorly, and as a pastor, the Sabbath doesn’t really happen (as I work these days.) This has the effect of damaging not only me and my life, but also my relationships with those around me.

So, how do we start? This week it is our task to document areas in which we would like change to happen. If you have a whole list of areas, I would recommend choosing a primary one for a starting point. For me, I have gone around my home and take a photo of the parts of my house which are the most annoying to me and I want cleaned up. (Isn’t that just what a chronic overworker would do: turn this into another project?)

My goal, for me and for us, is to have us move our lives to a place that honors and celebrates God’s plan for each of us. Certainly, it is not to remain in the chaos. We need to allow the breath of God to move over the chaos in our lives.

Let me know how it goes for you. Peace, —Pastor JaneAnn