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In This Moment
National Magnetism
President Bush's schedule this week includes stops in Tuscan, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas, to garner support for his proposed immigration law changes that would extend guest worker privileges for up to six years for illegal immigrants already residing in the United States, before being required to return home for one year to reapply for a new work permit. Having already signed new legislation to strengthen border protection with increased monies and approval for one thousand additional patrol agents, Mr. Bush is hoping to appease two of his main support groups, the business community, which considers foreign workers good for the economy, and conservatives, who see fighting illegal immigration as a priority. Meanwhile, Congress has shelved the issue until next year because they are divided on the scope of the changes and on whether illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay. Perhaps this time is appropriate since Mr. Bush, in his desire to keep his dwindling political support alive, is sending a mixed message to the country he leads.
Since when has it been appropriate to simultaneously strengthen our resolve to keep people out of our country, while allowing people who have entered illegally to stay, at the same time United States companies are outsourcing jobs to foreign countries? President Bush seems to be playing fast and loose with the concept of what it means to work and support oneself and a family in a country led by a government that likes to believe it places great emphasis on the quality and value of human life, when frequently in tis domestic and foreign policy decisions it does not. Foreign workers, whether Mexicans entering illegally or Indians who provide customer service for AOL from the comfort of their office in Bombay, work for less money. In the case of the Mexicans who will be allowed to stay for three to six years, they will develop skills, be ready to move up the corporate ladder a rung or two, and then be forced home, and perhaps not be allowed back. What business wouldn't love that? No pay increases, no ongoing benefits packages and no retirement plans with which to be burdened.
My understanding is that business is not the sole foundation of the United States, but we certainly do love to believe that unless we come back to the bottom line, and live by it, we are not being wise, or at the very least, not very smart about about how another country will take advantage of our weakness and steal our pots of gold. With all due respect to our ancestors, that's historically what we have done, particularly to the Indigenous North American peoples. In modern terms, we are so worried about our wallets that we are selling out our own people and using other countries to do it. Protecting our southern border isn't about national protection as much as it is our government trying to convince the voting populace that they care about us, hear our fears and will respond. The problem is that the government has created the fear to which they are responding.
Despite our government's best efforts to destroy us, there is something about our country that draws people here, and I believe it would serve us well to recognize that and embrace it. Despite the fact that we have come to the conclusion that people from other countries come here, illegally or not, to steal what we have, or to take advantage of us in negative ways, we are wrong. People come here because they want to emulate the good parts of this country, the hope, the strength, the opportunity, in their own lives. They come here to do what they can with the resources of an abundant nation. Think what a compliment that is to us as a country. In its way, it's like extra people showing up at your house for Thanksgiving because you have the house with the best reputation for hospitality. It has its price, but infinitely more blessings,. We welcome human resources that many countries can only dream about attracting. And whether these resources stay with us or return home, they still make our country and our world a better place. "Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back." (Luke 6:38)
Despite it all, we are being given back exactly what we are giving out as a country. Our greed and aggression are well-known around the world, and we are not appreciated or admired for sticking our collective nose in the business of any variety of places it doesn't belong. Our motives are not pure, and are usually driven by political or economic gain. But somewhere in all of that mess, we are also sending out a claim on human decency that creates a welcoming bond with those who choose our home as their new home, permanently or temporarily. Telling people they aren't welcome doesn't work because it is not true. There is always room at the table for one more.
Until next time, God's blessings.
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In This Moment
Advent
What is your first reaction when you know you have guests coming to your home? My first instinct is to begin a list of all the things I need to do before they arrive, make space in my schedule and my home so that they are comfortable being here, and give myself permission through my planning to enjoy the treat of their presence. Menus, grocery shopping, extra linens and small touches to create hospitality, completed ahead of their arrival mean I am not scrambling through the visit like an insane innkeeper, and my guests feel a part of the rhythm of my household, not an out-of-place cog putting the whole place out of balance. Preliminary preparation, beyond presenting a welcome atmosphere, also draws me to recall how my visitors came into my life, how we have journeyed together, and how we enrich each other's lives in the present. Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year holiday bring many people across the country, and from other countries, to reunite with family, friends and shared memories that, if properly retold, embellished and cherished, deepen ties over time. It is a season of making room, opening our lives and remembering.
Making room in our lives seems to be a particularly challenging thing. Something about being busy and exhausted suits our culture, but also keeps us from engaging life in a meaningful, purposeful way. Having made the trade off, we've also left behind a relational quality of life that, over time, weaves warmth, kindness, love and beauty into our hearts and souls. A busy life isn't necessarily a full life, but we work very hard to convince ourselves otherwise. It's interesting to me that Christmas decorations have to be integrated into a living space, most obviously a Christmas tree that takes up more space than a lounge chair and a coffee table combined. How do we make that happen? What do you need to rearrange in your living room to give the tree its due? What kind of inconveniences do you tolerate because of the pleasure of the tree's scent, decorations and lights mean more? Pine needles clogging the vacuum, furniture squeezed closer together and maybe a little out of place, assigning someone to crawl underneath to water it each day, just don't seem to be insurmountable issues. We welcome the joy, and set aside any thoughts of annoyance. We make room.
The people who now populate our lives once made room for us, and we made room for them. A mutual agreement was made to retain the connection, develop it and nurture it into a relationship. How would your life be different if one, two, or three choices ago you had walked around and away from the opportunity to love someone? Reflecting on our lives in a "It's a Wonderful Life" way is good for the soul. We forget or set aside the miracle of human relationships so easily in place of everything else that seems to matter more. We do touch other lives every day, and lives touch us. Because of this human contact beliefs change, the trajectory of our lives alters and we can find ourselves in new places without having realized how we got there. And we may be surprised at just how good it feels. Investing in each other, sharing coffee, conversation, friendship, love, does take up space in our lives, space that deepens our pleasure and satisfaction in being human, who we were created to be. Having been created for community, each time we make room in our lives for someone else, in any way, we are carrying on the creative process with God, and with which God blessed the world at its beginning.
Pondering this day after Thanksgiving can be poignant. Making room and opening our lives to people doesn't guarantee they will remain with us. Drifting apart, dancing in and out, shaking hands and waving good by, all happen over the years. Not everyone stays, or is meant to stay, as permanent fixtures in our day-to-day existence. Sometimes the space we make for someone is temporary, but they linger in our hearts. Remembering all these personal moments and connections, whether long-term or short-lived, keeps all of the people who have touched our lives alive in the present as if they haven't moved outside our circle of life. And, in memory, they have not left us, or become fragile, or stagnant. They are as vibrantly alive as the day they first said hello.
Advent comes again this Sunday, and initiates the new church year. It is a time we can't quite imagine will ever come again, and when it does, we are in ave. Advent simultaneously encourages us to make room and open our lives to the newness of preparing once more for God With Us, and also welcomes us to remember the beauty and grace of those we love who remain in our lives, and those who remain only in our hearts. God's Word becomes flesh and dwells among us in many, glorious ways.
Until next time, God's blessings.
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In This Moment
Thanksgiving
President Bush pardoned a turkey today from serving as the centerpiece of someone's Thanksgiving table. An annual tradition since the Truman administration, the turkey's gain has also become a timely distraction for flagging Presidential polls. While President Bush's ratings have been dropping like the proverbial ton of bricks, the turkey story, and his announcement today of the eminent withdrawal of 50,000 U.S. troops from Iraq, should help move that number back up in the coming days. What is good for the turkey is apparently good for the President, and in turn, good for the country. Whatever the political reasoning, we have much to be thankful for in being able to welcome our troops home soon, and we can begin to hope that the war in Iraq will also be over as well.
President Lincoln, when he declared Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863, faced a very different war. There were no opportunities for troop withdrawals, and this war was not a field trip to another part of the world, but one being fought, quite literally, in the backyards of the country's citizens. What was Lincoln asking our ancestors to do on that first Thanksgiving? What are we asking of ourselves this Thursday as we gather together as a nation to celebrate Thanksgiving once again?
President Lincoln gave the United states of 1863 a great gift when it was needed most. As most wars do, the Civil War had already lasted much longer than anticipated, had ravaged the country's human and material resources, and had almost destroyed all hope of a national future, let alone any normalcy or peace. In offering this first annual day of giving thanks, President Lincoln gave the country back a hope and a future. The country would come through the conflict, be whole once more, and celebrate Thanksgiving together in years to come. What Lincoln was teaching the United States, and asking it to do, was to believe in its collective destiny in order to be able to have the strength to create it when that time came. Lincoln, like Abraham before him, and Martin Luther King, Jr. after him, did not make it to the Promised Land of a reunited country, but he did prepare the country to move forward into a post-Civil War world, to realize hope at a time when hope had walked away, leaving the United States empty handed.
That collective destiny has emerged as a present-day hope we can see in the ongoing creation of a country that is still committed to being a society that cares about and invests in the greater good. Intentionally focusing our attentions on gratitude for even this one day a year directs us toward our own destiny as a country in a much more positive way. A full table, surrounded by people we love and with whom we choose to spend time, is part of the manifestation of what Lincoln's intention was for the United States' families of 1863. Their legacy is now in our hands. Considering our nation's domestic policies and international relations, how can we move this part of the legacy forward, and what legacy are we creating as our contribution for our descendants? How do we make this day about them, and not only about ourselves?
Although a national holiday, Thanksgiving also has faithful roots in our gratitude to God for the abundance in our lives. God, as our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, has blessed us richly, and continues to do so. Jesus' words, "Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours (Mark 11:24)," link faith and gratitude firmly together. Each is necessary in all circumstances to carry us through to that next step, and the one after that, and the one after that, until we are back on solid ground. A deeply spiritual man, I suspect President Lincoln was familiar with this text, and imparted its wisdom to a nation sorely in need of faith in itself to see a future, and create the path to its unfolding. We do well to pay attention to that wisdom again today.
That first Thanksgiving legacy lives on in us. Our country has choices to make about our present and how that will impact our future. Our view of the world, how we fit into the process of healing our planet of old wounds and wars, will be our guiding force. Remembering that our present thoughts, beliefs and prayers are already heard and being manifested, makes that impact immediate and profound. Thank you, God, for the grace to continue.
Until next time, God's blessings.
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In This Moment
A Time for Healing
Growing opposition to the war in Iraq increased this week as more violence erupted, including suicide bombings in several Western-branded Jordanian hotels which shocked the world, and less promise of the United States military as a stabilizing presence in the region became more and more evident. Even those in strongest support of President Bush's decision to use military force against Saddam Hussein have come to the conclusion that we must pull out of Iraq as soon as possible.
Representative John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania) has drawn us back to the most basic of reasons to reconsider our presence in Iraq. Murtha, known as one of the most hawkish members of Congress, voted for both Desert Storm and the use of military action in Iraq, and supported these endeavors with single-minded vigor. But, having also criticized the Bush administration in November 2004 for short-changing the troops on equipment and body armor, Murtha saw first hand on visits to recovering soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center what effects that one decision cost in human potential. Murtha stated simply that, "I see a kid blown apart, and it breaks my heart." John D. Conyers, democratic Representative from Maryland has said of Murtha's change of stance, "It's a turning point in the growing opposition to the war."
The criticism from the White House ranges from calling Murtha's comments a political move for future key committee positions should we elect a Democratic president in 2008, to this simply being bad timing as Iraq is trying to stabilize its government.
While the political front heats up here in the United States, and the Iraqi people battle to hold on to what hope they have left, there are several questions with which each country struggles, individually and as an uneasy team. What is the United States really spending its human and military resources on in this particular war away from home? Do the Iraqi people still want our help? What is the plan for the United States eventual withdrawal? These mutual questions must also be balanced against our need as a country to view ourselves as the world's benefactor, but simultaneously not tending to managing our own business here at home. If Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath taught us nothing else, it taught us that we control vast quantities of the world's resources, but we don't steward them very well at all, least of all our own people.
As Representatives Murtha and Conyers, as well as countless others, petition for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, they call for the United States, from the White House to each citizen of our country, to really think about what we are doing in yet another domestic conflict in another country. The atrocities perpetrated by Saddam Hussein have only to be presented in court. There is no dispute there. But the atrocities of the civil war in Rwanda are already documented, even turned into a critically-acclaimed movie, and we did nothing to stop them. It is likely that some people who knew at the time of this recent slaughter of millions cared, but were unable to act. It is equally likely our own government chose to ignore that with which it would not benefit us to intervene. We have given generously to other nations through the years in financial, material and human resources, but we have also chosen very clearly what battles we would fight for and with other nations.
This latest call for withdrawal of our troops has a human face, and calls for the United States to accept a new role, that of wounded healer. As people of faith, this idea of Jesus exemplifying the vulnerability and simultaneous strength in knowing human suffering and pain, is born of the faith that, as the third chapter of Ecclesiastes reminds us, there are times for each of many purposes under heaven, including birth, death, planting, reaping, killing and healing. It is time for us to decide what time it is for us. Healing would be a new challenge, something we are not yet equipped to handle. Having invested most of our short history in claiming what we believed was ours, we are at another turning point, another moment in history at which we can make different choices. There would be a cost, of course. We may be perceived differently by the world, by each other even. But, there is a season, a time and a purpose for everything under heaven. This is the time for peace, the beginning of healing.
Until next time, God's blessings.
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New Article from Creating Women Ministires
Journaling Our Thoughts, Feelings and Faith
Contemplate for a moment how you felt the instant you laid eyes on your very first love. Is that how you feel about this person today? What do you think about this person, if you even think about them at all anymore? Remembering back to that moment, are you able to articulate your faith experience from that time? How would you describe your faith now? Where our thoughts, feelings and faith fit into our journaling process are as crucial as every other element, if not more so. Recognizing them as the main ingredients of the whole of life is about as simple, and as complicated, as as it gets. If you are able to clarify your thoughts, feelings and faith around an earlier or present experience through journaling them, you have the capacity to transform your life.
Undisturbed and unexamined, old thoughts can continue to direct us down unusable, personally destructive paths, leaving us wondering why our lives are miserable and frustrating. Perhaps your organizational skills are a challenge for you, and each time you are in a position to plan an event, personal or professional, you become frustrated and are not sure where to begin. Your mind goes in three different directions at once, you are unable to focus on a set of steps to put together the theme, the activities, the refreshments and the guest list. Journaling this process in the present can help you focus your energy, understand where your thoughts are taking you, and, over time, help you redirect your thoughts down more productive avenues.
Negative feelings, set in emotional concrete and stroked fervently over the years, scrape away at our souls until, turning to hardened calluses, we no longer remember to feel anything other than bitterness and resentment. Left unexamined, unchallenged, life passes us by. All the positive energy in the world bounces off the solid boundaries of someone determined to remain mired in disillusionment and denial. Writing down how we feel about whatever is happening in our lives mainly gives us perspective. From heart, to pen, to paper, we are creating a channel for our feelings, and a little bit of space that gives us breathing room, and an opportunity to make different feeling choices for ourselves. When we have become so intimate with a pattern of feelings that we can only sense the trench deepening beneath us, we need to create a new pattern. Journaling can help us create that new, potentially life-altering pattern by first giving us the opportunity to recognize the old one we are in without judgment or fear.
By the same token, faith left unexamined is usually a faith not lived, and becomes a faith that succumbs to stagnation or death. Prayer is clearly a key component to infusing energy, strength and purpose into our faith, but journaling can again give us the opportunity and the framework to recharge ourselves by releasing old patterns to make room for the new. Have you ever consciously asked yourself how your faith spoke to you in any given situation? How about when you were faced with a tough disciplinary situation with your child? Or when you were trying to decide on how to balance your work with your personal life? How did your faith speak to you as you woke up this morning? All of these are situations in which our faith is present, whether we use its strength and wisdom purposefully in our lives, or not. Journaling how we understand our faith has, or has not, addressed our lives recently or in the past, can help us begin to use our faith consciously and regularly.
Considering how our thoughts, feelings and faith speak to us in the journaling process invites God to the dialogue, a God-centered conversation in which we can observe how and when our beliefs were engaged, or not engaged, in the process of living. An examined life transforms to an informed life, and an informed life transcends to a consciously-lived life. When we are conscious on our journey, it's a whole lot easier to recognize God and follow our purpose in life.
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New Article from Creating Women Ministries
Journaling Experiences and Events
How did you spend your day yesterday? When was the last time you went to see a movie? Can you remember the plot line? What did you do on your last vacation? Did you enjoy a particular meal, or visit a special tourist site that meant something special to you? While none of the answers to these questions matter in the overall scheme of life, they are a part of your life, and may very well matter to you at some point in time.
Learning to journal our experiences, and the special events in our lives can teach us about the fluidity of daily situations, how they fit together, and how they impact each other. Through journaling our experiences we can make connections to and through the flow of our lives. Perhaps as a child you always spent Thanksgiving at your grandparents' house, saw aunts, uncles, cousins and assorted friends and neighbors around the holiday table. Although you enjoyed the experience, each Thanksgiving as an adult has a certain poignancy about it on which you just can't place your finger. Taking time to journal through the next Thanksgiving Day, the day after the festivities are complete, may help you make connections about your present feelings and how they are associated with the holiday. Did you have people come to your home this year, or did you visit someone else's home? Or maybe you gathered friends together and celebrated at a favorite restaurant, then came home for dessert. Was the day relaxed or stressful? Was the weather warm and bright, or cloudy and damp? Were you excited about the day, or dreading it for weeks prior? Now, you can start with these most recent experiences of the holiday, comparing and contrasting this day with all those yesterdays, remembering as much about those earlier holidays as possible, and see how the connections of feelings, thoughts and experiences reveal themselves to you. Connect your present to your past, fill in the blanks, and through the process you will come to understand and enjoy your life more fully.
When we talk about our days as a series of vignettes gathered into a group that create the whole, we begin to also see the weeks, months and years, and our lives, as woven together into a cohesive pattern, rather than time that has slipped through our hands like so much sand on a beach. We often wonder where time goes. In journaling your daily experiences you can see it all laid out before you with as much detail as you choose to embody it. Take a few moments and jot down everything you did yesterday. My guess is that you will discover some surprises in how you use your time, and in how you view the way you use your time. What have you automatically deleted from the list before your pen touched the page? How do you feel about your accomplishments? What would you like to exchange out as a "do over" for next time? How honest have you been with yourself about the events that are now part of your personal history?
Beyond getting you in the groove of recognizing how you manage your time and personal resources, journaling your daily life is effective in showing you parts of your life, in your own words, parts of your life of which you may not even be aware. Things like behavior patterns, personal preferences, relational triggers, what you avoid and what you embrace, are all issues that can arise and be tracked when you regularly journal your experiences. Thinking about your job after you leave work is almost inevitable, especially if you are unhappy with your circumstances or irritated with your co-workers. Sometimes the people we live with, love them though we do, are annoying, cranky and intrusive. Or, perhaps, it's all in our perception. When you write out these scenarios of the thorns that are perpetually in your side, you either begin to get really sick of hearing yourself repeat the same theme over and over, or you begin to recognize the patterns creating your responses, and you see how you can make different choices to create the reality you want. Journaling draws us to consciousness, which leads us to making our lives better places, if we want them to be.
The practice of growing familiar with regular journaling will serve you well in many ways. Vacations, special dinners, historical sites, and personal adventures, can be recalled and relived when written about as part of your daily life, or as individual vignettes to be cherished on their own. Journaling the experiences and events of your life is a tangible way to remember how well you have lived, and how well-lived you plan your present and future to be. Journaling affirms for each of us that we can only live our own life, so we may as well have a good, conscious time doing it.
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In This Moment
Liberia's Woman President
Commander in Chief, the new ABC television drama chronicling the fictional presidency of the first woman President of the United States, has not presented us with a pretty picture of politics as usual in Washington, D.C. Suspecting that we are still seeing a less brutal version of what people will do to make their own political will known, I am at once startled by what we have been able to accomplish as a country under such internal adversity, and saddened by the amount of energy and resources wasted on undermining other people's success.
Not so in Liberia.
Ellen Johnson-Sirlenf is Liberia's new president, and the first woman president in African history. Although her opponent, former soccer star George Weah, claimed election fraud and demanded a rerun of the poll, the United Nations mission in Liberia saw the elections as free and fair, as did other international observers. With 97 percent of the vote in as of this past Sunday, Johnson-Sirlenf, a Harvard-educated economist, who served as finance minister and with the World Bank, Citibank and the United Nations, had earned 59.4 percent, Weah, 40.6 percent. The basis for her victory can be traced back to a campaign earlier in the year to get women to register to vote. Johnson-Sirlenf also encouraged women, on her travels through the country, to go to the polls to make history by having a hand in electing a woman leader. Apparently this made sense to a lot of women.
My guess is that this emergent political force had little awareness of its own strength until the right leader wove a thread among its members, gathering them into a unity with a purpose. But they do understand the basic needs of their country, and how they affect day-to-day living. Electricity, water, education and health care cannot be disguised as luxuries when managing a business or a family household. The people who elected Johnson-Sirlenf know she means to help them take action to make these improvements a reality in their own lives.
Liberia's challenges remind me that within many congregations there are a number of threads that can be woven among groups of people, ready to be gathered together by a leader who understands their strength before they realize it themselves. Paul knew this about the church at Corinth. Well-known for its struggles to become the congregation Paul envisioned with the Corinthian membership as they initially came together as a church, Paul continued to hold up that vision to them. Paul visited the congregation whenever he could, and when he couldn't, he wrote the letters that give us a glimpse of who they were and how they came to be. Writings on spiritual gifts and vocational ministries allude to discussions held on who was to do what job in the church structures, and how each effort strengthened the body called Christ's. The verses so often quoted about what love looks like, and doesn't look like, were born of human frustration over imaging God in daily living in extraordinarily harsh times and circumstances. In Paul's words are the threads gathering these emergent manifestations of God's grace together in God's name. Paul's affection for these people was clear. "I give thanks to God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge." (I Corinthians 1:4-5)
The Liberian people have survived civil war and economic hardship, and are now ready to manifest the vision Ellen Johnson-Sirlenf shares with them, a vision of physical security, political inclusion, and the basic conveniences of life we take for granted. This first gathering thread is only the first, and a potent beginning for a new Liberia.
Until next time, God's blessings.
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In This Moment
Customer Service Rating: God
Holiday shopping season officially starts the day after Thanksgiving. Traditionally called Black Friday, what for most of the country is a day to sleep late and socialize with visiting relatives and friends, is for retail workers the beginning of the countdown until close of business on Christmas Eve. Swarms of people come out to see what is available, enjoy the decorations and wistfully lament how fast time goes by. How can it be Christmas again already?
It's the retail rhythm of life, and stores are the official worship centers of this highly consumeristic season. As a precursor to this main event, an article flashed across my computer screen last week, indicating that disgruntled shoppers were taking charge and fighting back against poor customer service. I can only imagine what these irate and aggravated customers did to vent their frustration regarding being overcharged and underserved. But I also know what it feels like to stand behind the counter, exhausted, aiming to do everything I can to help, but what I have to offer is seen as not enough.
What customers who complain about poor customer service will not tell you is their whole side of the story. They won't tell you they have not ordered their merchandise early enough to be delivered before they need to be on the plane to their mom's house in another state. They won't tell you that they broke the pretty blue and white vase, the last one in stock, as they put it into their car. It was , you see, broken when they purchased it, and they want a refund. They also won't tell you how they held up the line behind them being unpleasant to a sales associate who was unable to locate their item in the back room because they had ordered a completely different product from another company.
What you will hear is the partial story. Although it is the truth, it is not the whole truth. The truth, the whole truth, is that many of us know we have put too much pressure on ourselves regarding shopping and entertaining, we have waited too long to be able to complete our tasks thoroughly, let alone joyfully, and so we become frustrated, blaming other people at hand for our poor choices. I have stood on this side of the counter too, and recognized the bitterness and enraged feelings that begin to rise inside me like music from a horror movie, as the hidden monster was about to strike.
Raising this issue now is a moment to remember all the times I realized, as I rang people up for ornaments, holiday serving pieces and collector nutcrackers, that blaming retailers for poor customer service is a lot like how we treat God when our prayers are not answered and things don't go our way. Prayers are very much like sales transactions. We place our order for the work, the relationship, the house, the vacation, the weather we want, move on to the next task, and assume God is at work on filling our order. when we realize that the order hasn't been filled to our specifications, we often become irritated, blame God and wonder why God is being mean to us, ignoring us, or not giving us what we want. What about that whole asking and receiving business in the bible? Doesn't that really work?
Our overabundance of material wealth in the United States has backfired on us in so many ways. We assume that if we want something, it must be available, and be available when we say so, even when we are dealing with God Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. God's abundance is always at our door, but not always at our disposal. God isn't about supporting our use it/toss it society, regarding material objects or human resources. God is also not about being dictated to according to the terms we set for how we think things should run.
In chapter forty, verse twenty-five, the prophet Isaiah asks us, on God's behalf, an important question: To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? Do we really want to be treating God as a purveyor of poor customer service in our lives? Do we really think God isn't treating us kindly or lovingly just to make our lives miserable? I do believe God has an interesting way of working with circumstances that doesn't usually enter my mind, except in retrospect. But I also believe that God has my best interests in mind, and is quite delighted to help whenever asked with an open mind and heart.
It's my heartfelt hope that as we stand on the threshold of another holiday season, that we can approach each other with open hearts and minds, remembering that, given the truth and a chance, most people will do their best for each other, simply because they can and they want to.
Until next time, God's blessings
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In This Moment
Baking Bread
Holiday activities are stirring among us. The weather is easing into a crisp chilliness that is comfortable in calling out our warmer coats and scarves. Balanced against homes warmed by evening lighted windows and rich stews bubbling on the stove, we are taking our first steps into the time of year that beckons us to enter the mysteries of faith, hope and new life itself. Some of my favorite childhood memories are from this time of year in my mother's Saturday morning kitchen. My mother is a practiced and skilled baker, and she made good use of her creative gift, manifesting cookies, cakes, pies and sweet rolls that make my mouth water and my mind drift with remembered pleasure even as I write these words. Any Saturday could include one or more of these items, and Christmas holiday preparation particularly focused on fruit cake,cookies, sweet rolls, and pies. (The abundance of fruit cake jokes in our culture is lost on me because I have eaten good fruit cake all my life.) But the staple of all these baking days was bread. Baking bread tied all these Saturdays together into one grand, fond memory of a kitchen filled with warm scents, laughter, creativity and love.
My mother learned the fine art of bread baking from her mother-in-law, who lived across the alley behind our house. These lessons were solidified before my memory began, but I witnessed the patterns and rhythm of a defined plan that always exhibited specific, consistent results. Each ingredient was added in order, integrated into the process in the way that would ensure its proper place with its companion components, and the the kneading would begin. Once completed, the dough, covered gently with a cotton dish cloth, was set into the warmed oven to raise. Once risen, the dough was then punched down, divided among the readied loaf pans and set back to the task of raising again before the official baking began. While the creation process evoked a warm, satisfying aroma, the end result, pulled from the oven with round golden crusts, looking like works of art, wafted of contented abundance like nothing else imaginable. We barely let it cool enough to slice it, slather it with butter and taste it melt in our mouths.
On rare occasion, only one that I can remember, this beautiful scene was halted by the dismal performance of yeast that was simply unable to complete its work. No matter how gifted, skilled or practiced the baker, if the yeast doesn't work, the bread doesn't rise, and you are left looking at some very heavy, chewy loaves of mismatched ingredients. The same can be said if the yeast is not left to do its work once blended with the other ingredients. Too little kneading creates huge piles of raw dough, unshaped, uncontrollable and impossible to bake. Too much kneading tells the yeast its services are no longer required, and perfectly good bread gives up the fight and falls as flat as its sibling which came to the table unable to rise at all. It is a delicate balance, this infusion of yeast into the process of baking bread, and how it is handled once in the mix makes all the difference in the success of the end product as it is removed from the oven.
It is no surprise, then, that Jesus chose to use this image to challenge his followers to ponder a new understanding of God's kingdom. "And again he said, 'To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened." (Luke 13:21) Interesting that bread making hasn't changed in its basic form in over two thousand years. Interesting too, that the woman in Jesus' parable did not force the bread into submission, rush it to move more quickly than would be appropriate to achieve a healthy result, or change it into something it wasn't designed to be or do. In short, the woman did her part, then let the yeast rise to the occasion, doing what yeast was intended to do for the bread to become bread.
Fortunately, God is a very practiced and skilled baker, one who is acquainted with the mysteries of the powerful activity of yeast, and with the grace of well-placed faith that, left to its natural devices, will do its work, in its time.
Until next time, God's blessings.
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In This Moment
God and Creation
The NBC drama, The West Wing, is giving us something this Sunday evening that real life doesn't deliver, a real, live debate of the political issues facing the fictional presidential campaign of Democratic Congressman Matthew Santos and Republican Senator Arnold Vinek. These characters, played by Jimmie Smits and Alan Alda respectively, decided between themselves in last week's episode to set aside formal negotiations, canned formats and the wishes of their campaign staffs, to simply debate openly. Now, the actors playing the roles are spending this week preparing by reading position papers, practicing with their coaches, wondering how they will perform, and who will win.
It has been an interesting process, this campaign from behind-the-scenes that is only implied in the news blasts we receive from the media in real elections. Both fictional candidates have struggled with the balance between personally-held beliefs and publicly-declared responsibility to represent their constituency. What is most fascinating is how each man articulates this balance. Wanting to believe our real-life candidates are as imbued with passion and integrity for the political process, and those of us they represent, I am still anticipating my conversation experience.
Intelligent design, as an educational alternative to evolution, is one of the campaign topics already addressed. If may or may not be entered into the Sunday night debate, but it is an interesting new label for what in the past has been called creationism. Creationism indicates a belief that God created the earth, and continued on to finish up the world in six days, resting on the seventh day. Intelligent design similarly focuses on a larger power creating the world in an orderly fashion, with purpose in each step, but does not place a time frame of one week around the process. Evolution presents the concrete process of what we know, so far, of how we as human beings came to be, as well as how the whole of our environment shaped itself.
The usual argument is, at its core, a proof text for the separate but equal attitude we as a culture attach to concepts that demand too much of us, and with which we really don't want to struggle. Inviting all perspectives to this table means each participant would have to be served with hospitality, kindness and respect, but not necessarily be as clear on their original position as when they first sat down. Dismissing any long-held belief would be shown the door, because disrespect would not, could not be tolerated, in order to develop a true discussion of openness and mutuality. Quite frankly, separate but equal suits us because then we don't have to explore our faith or expand our understanding of scientific values, and how they benefit us in highly practical, and sometimes mysterious, ways.
Those who reflect on the theological concept of intelligent design, pose the idea that we as human beings are more comfortable, and I would add, more confident, in believing there is a purpose to our presence here, and how we arrived in the first place. The randomness of asteroids, dinosaur deaths as precursors to our own opportunity for life, and who happens to avoid the many pitfalls of the natural selection process, makes us nervous. It is disquieting to, say the least, whenever our faith is challenged, but particularly in its foundational belief that God has this whole creation process wrapped up, that this is one thing on which we can rely. Those who have a belief system that does not depend upon the juxtaposition of faith and science might say that God, as Creator, has many tools with which to work, and many people with whom to share them. Contrary to an either/or debate, the belief that God created the universe in the first place doesn't follow through to the point that God completed the whole creative process related to humanity.
While the earth as we know it was ready to receive us, however many years ago, we have also moved forward a bit culturally since we began our stint here as cave dwellers. We have chosen, through all these years, to move out of the caves and into progressively more comfortable dwellings, not because God planted them in front of us and turned over the keys, but because we created the path, with God, in each new step of our evolutionary process. Fire didn't come from Ebay in a FedEx box delivered to the front door. The wheel didn't arrive from Goodyear just as we decided we had to get home in time for Christmas. My point is that we have been granted the gift of creativity by our Creator, and in many ways, we have done well with it. We live longer, more healthy lives than ever before. Many of us have the luxury to take time to determine our own futures. In other ways, we have ignored our responsibility to this creative process to which God has called us. At the most basic level, there are still people who die from lack of food, medicine and shelter that could be provided by more equitable distribution of wealth. When we stay rooted in the belief that either God or evolutionary process created us, we deny our sacred responsibility to use what skill we can to continue to craft the world into a worthwhile place for all humanity.
So, I will be watching The West Wing debate this Sunday night, if only to see what a real debate may look like, one in which the participants don't spout party lines, and don't assume that the United States population can only see the world in poorly packaged dualities designed to divide and conquer. I do want to believe that we, as citizens of this country are imbued with passion and integrity for our political process, and how we choose to use that to impact the world.
Until next time, God's blessings.
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New Article from Creating Women Ministries
Journaling Memories
God gave us memories that we may have roses in December. Although these are not my own words, but a quote from a source long forgotten, I have returned to them frequently for their truth and beauty. Roses being one of my favorite flowers, It is an easy bridge from the image of the red blossoms that pose for a few weeks each summer in my back yard to my Auntie Viola, who taught me to love them as she did. While Auntie Viola passed on years ago, and my roses are settled into their out-of-season repose, the idea that our memories are gardens reflecting the rich detail of our lives and its accessibility to us, means we can revisit our experiences, thoughts and feelings amy time we want, and enjoy again the tangibility of relationships and events from earlier times. Happy memories rekindle warmth, tenderness and delight. Tougher situations recalled give logic and perspective to feelings that, at the time we lived them, overwhelmed or frightened us. Memories are important parts of our lives. Working back through dimly lit hallways from our childhood, high school or college years teaches us not only where we have been, but also how our choices have shaped our lives. Redirecting our memories to challenge us to grow into who we want to become is also the gift of recognizing how we may choose to view past experiences and life in the present moment.
Retracing memories is perhaps one of the most useful tools to reveal our lives to us in new ways, and to assist us in integrating our experiences as lasting, positive parts of our lives. Journaling this process is particularly useful for several reasons. Just as a written historical record of an event creates a touchstone to which we can return for reassurance, hope or confirmation, so does a journaled account of a memory. What was your first day of school like? What ever became of the presents and the guests from your thirteenth birthday party? Where were you, and what were you doing, when we crossed over into the new millennium? What did you like best about your vacation last year? What is your first memory of your grandparents? All of these are roses blooming in your memory, ready to be savored. If you have no idea where to begin, the idea itself can become your toehold. Almost like an object lesson, favorite items related to the memory can also jostle our minds, relinquishing long-buried facts and feelings that can be jotted down, pondered and reassembled into an orderly, cohesive format. Report cards, art projects, favorite articles of clothing, and photographs, can help nudge your psyche to assist you in retrieving almost any memory you would like to reconnect with, and have at hand whenever the mood suits you.
Being able to return to our memories allows us to remind ourselves of where we were, where we are now, and where we would like to direct ourselves in the future. Rather than playing tricks on us in the midst of stressful or anxious times, our memories can serve us, become our allies, our comforters and our guides. Remembering and writing down how you lived through a challenging experience, such as losing a job or facing an undesirable move to another part of the country, gives you a foothold if a similar situation ever comes up again. Cherishing the moment of grace as your first love enters your life is a great blessing. Remembering it each time you come back to it in your journal makes that experience a blessing for all time. Reminding yourself of the sweetness of a summer's night in the middle of winter means you can still hold onto the rhythm of life in the seasons themselves. Rather than feeling stuck in our memories, unable to release them to move forward in our lives, journaling our memories allows us to place them in perspective, integrate them into our lives, and use them as tools to continue to create and develop our futures.
To that end, memories are also great mysteries that evolve over time as they overlap in our hearts and souls, and fill in the gaps in our consciousness that we have left behind. It is fascinating to me that our whole lives are literally stored in our heads. Granted, there are a few pieces of information flitting around in each of us that is better left untouched and silent. But most of this compact filing system, and how we've organized it for ourselves, is quite a miracle. The more we know of our memories, the more we can unravel the great mystery that is our own in which to delight. It is a tremendous gift to know oneself fully. From that point of reference can be launched many good choices, from career to life partner. Nobody else can do that for us, or should. Journaling your memories puts your life work in your own hands, and allows you to shape your future with consciousness and wholeness.
Finally, what is wonderful about journaling memories is that you can start wherever you like, and continue in any direction you choose. It is your life, your garden and your roses. Equally wonderful is the garden you can create in your heart and soul, a garden you can visit any time, any season, whenever you choose to open your journal and remember.
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In This Moment
Sacred Doors
While you are cleaning up the aftermath of Halloween, you may also like to know that yesterday was Reformation Day on the Protestant church calendar. It was on October 31, 1517, that the then-Roman Catholic priest, Martin Luther, nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of his church in Wittenberg, Germany, sparking a debate and a series of events that came to be known as the Protestant Reformation. On another door, in present-day, Bristol, Rhode Island, John Anderson, an award-winning wood sculptor, is making his mark on church history. Mr. Anderson's work is being created to adorn the doors of his church, dedicated ninety-two years ago to St. Elizabeth of Portugal. His pastor, the Rev. Thomas J. Ferland, invited Anderson to do the work, made suggestions for themes for the carvings and considers it particularly meaningful that the work is being contributed by a parishioner of the congregation. Each of these men, in creative, powerful ways, will be remembered by the people around them, and the people who have and will come after them.
By the these two examples, it is clear that doors are not just practical fixtures in our homes, businesses and public buildings. More than protection from the elements and maintainers of our privacy, they are entryways between worlds, portals of transition that help frame our thoughts and behavior. Doors get our attention. They give us information and guidelines by which to proceed to the next step. It is no wonder then, that Martin Luther, ready to see the church include the people in the pews as full-fledged participants, chose the church door as his bulletin board. People came to church expecting certain things, the same things we expect when we go to church: prayers, scripture readings, music, communion. One difference in the usual routine, particularly a large, detailed list of what needed to be addressed, and changed, to fully bring the church to the people, would be noticed by more people, including church hierarchy, because it was planted before them at the transition between their everyday secular world, and the sacred sanctuary that connected them to their faith community.
Rev. Ferland's desire to showcase his parishioner's talent is such a public format may have its roots in this same recognition that things get noticed when they are posted where people travel on a regular basis. Although not presented in such a dramatic fashion, or to make a public stand, Anderson's carvings, which should be completed next year, are designed to tell part of the story of the life of st. Elizabeth, and symbolize the writers of the four gospels, as represented in Ezekial, as a human face, a lion, an ox and an eagle, for Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. As the ninety-five theses were noticed, so will be these carvings for years to come.
Perhaps the declarative quality of posting important information and stories that tie into our lives in profound ways, is not just good marketing, but also good theology. It is, after all, not uncommon for God to use transitional portals in our lives, moving between work or personal worlds, to draw our attention, and help us move in new directions The old saying about God opening a window when a door closes for us, I believe, is true. But I also am sure that God uses closed doors to impart key points to us on sacred bulletin boards that would otherwise be facing the wall if we were able to walk through them wide open and unabated. When we understand the communication God is trying to impart, the door usually opens to reveal what we would not have seen, or perhaps not understood, had we not been graced with the opportunity to read the writing or view the carving placed before us. At these times, the secular, everyday life merges with the sacred, spiritual flow of God among us in transformative, life-altering ways.
Perhaps, too, closed doors are not meant to deny us, as much as they are a request to deter us, to redirect us to an integral portion of our journey that would be best not to be denied. Along with asking and searching, we are called to knock on these doors in front of us when we encounter them. We are led to receive, find and, "for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened (Matthew 7:8)." And so, we are also called to interact with God in this transformative process. When we choose to move forward, recognizing these doors as transitional opportunities, the adventure begins, or continues.
Until next time, God's blessings.
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In This Moment
Daylight, Savings and Time
It's that time of year again. At two o'clock this coming Sunday morning, while you are fast asleep, you will be given back what was taken from you earlier this year: that extra hour of sleep you have been missing for far too long. What will you actually do with your extra hour during this glorious time of year known as turning the clock back, the one time of year we can actually save time, and consciously choose to use it in any way we want? Catch up on sleep, stay up later because you can? Or will you bake cookies, read a little extra something special, spend some extra time with your partner or call a friend for a chat? For all the times we say we don't have enough time, we do get, once a year, a little bit extra.
Given this gift, how well do we steward it? Having three hundred sixty-four other days to consider the point of if we had more time, we should make this a national holiday, with lots of fanfare, perhaps even special sales, decorations and festivities. There could be parades, tailgate parties with holiday foods designated to highlight this most momentous of days. All of this could be grandly accomplished in that last hour of extended sunlight on Saturday evening. Bonfires, fireworks and a final toast to the last pretense of summer could all round out the evening.
You probably think that this is all a little silly, right? Fair enough. Perhaps you are also thinking this sounds like a nice way, a gentle, considerate way, to transition into the coming months. Like squirrels gathering nuts and berries, and bears layering on winter weight to cuddle down and curl up for the brutality of the weather that is to come, we human beings may also need to save something of the buoyancy and flexibility of a time that allows us to stretch ourselves out into the world and reach for the stars. For those of us in the north country, it is supposed to be a record winter for snow and cold. Saving a bit of summer in our souls is almost necessary to remember that spring will come again. It is one of the most important times of the year to remember, as the Gospel of John shares with us, that, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."
In the framework of light and darkness we use to define time, it is interesting to me how we manage this one, across the board, equal gift. Each of us may not live as long as our neighbor, or we may be blessed with more years. Regardless of that fact, each day we do have is, barring the time shifts between standard and daylight savings time, twenty-four hours long. That being the case, how can we never have enough time? And what about the days that we say we can't wait to see end. How did they become longer? While raking leaves today, I decided I would continue until it got dark. I didn't finish the work, but I did pretty well. What I didn't do was pretend that I wanted to control the setting sun, or push myself to finish what was a two session task. I felt a sense of connection to my Midwestern pioneer roots, a time when people used the lights and the darkness to their advantage, not as a competitor to beat as in a frantic race, completing daylight tasks while there was daylight, and wrapping up their nighttime activities with relatively little overlap between candlelight and lights out. There us something to be said for respecting those rhythms of life God set in place on the first days of creation.
For those who like a little nighttime chat with God, the stars and the noon still offer a few nights respite each month from time moving too fast, or too slow, all through the year. God may not be behind Daylight Savings Time, but God does know a thing or two about the brilliance of abundant light in all kinds of dazzling forms.
Until next time, God's blessings.
