Sometimes it is
good to rewind and review where we have been in the last week. This is not an evaluation ~ there are no grades
~ just a wayless way we are all trying to travel. We started the week with this thought:
May I cease to be annoyed that
others are not as I wish they were, since I am not as I wish I was.
Maybe there was an idea you
had on Monday that seemed fabulous and filled you with enthusiasm. Now today, you are wondering, how could you
be so foolish? Who was that person who
thought that would work?
Or maybe you were able to engage one person as God’s beloved rather than
someone you had to fix or save or cajole to catch up with you.
We continued the week with
this beautiful invitation:
May the reality that I cannot
know the whole truth never keep me from bearing witness to what I can and do
see. I love blending that sentence with the with
from Wednesday: Before I see someone as a problem, may I see him/her/them as
a human being.
Both are true. We find ways to speak the truth in love and
other times I want a rewind button to shove my words back in my mouth because
my idea now is cringeworthy. It can be
tempting to run away. The cliché we live
by include that the grass is greener on the other side…or that things will be
better when I am there (on vacation, new volunteer opportunity,
or a different group of friends). Yet, we know that our problems tend to sneak
into the luggage when we escape on vacation or relocate to a brand-new city
thinking ~ “New place, new me!” Too
often the same old me shows up in the mirror of the bathroom before all the
moving boxes have been unloaded! Genesis
2 tells how the first human was lonely and God tried to make a companion. I love how God originally thought that the
porcupine or platypus or python would be a good mate! I want to say, “Really God, a snake?!?” But it was only another featherless biped who
helped us flourish and find our fullest expression. After years of fanning the flames of fear
from 9/11 to political speechifying that vilifies the other to economic gaps
that keep us further apart than the Grand Canyon to church buildings that
confine us and tell us who is in our tribe.
Because of all this, we prayed this prayer yesterday, May my
limitations be doorways to partnership and relationship rather than reasons to
feel shame and isolation. And
after twenty-four hours, I think, “Boy that one is going to take some time.”
The neuro pathways in my brain have formed ruts that make this difficult. The invitation to let my vulnerability be a
way of connection to others is not something I practice. Perhaps today’s prayer sentence will help you
find a way to live our interconnectedness:
May I take joy in
bearing witness to great deeds and works without having to be the source of
them.
May you find one
moment today when someone else’s joy lets lose your joy. This could be because it is their birthday or
anniversary. It could be because they
just returned from a trip. It could be
because they share an insight or idea or new volunteer opportunity. May you and I find ways to taste the goodness
of life without always needing to be the cook in the kitchen creating the meal. Alleluia and Amen.
If, in moving
through your life, you find yourself lost, go back to the last place where you
knew who you were, and what you were doing, and start from there.
-Bernice Johnson Reagon
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