The Way-less Way Part 3

 

We are following the thread of the way-less way this week.  We are opening ourselves to our own story, God who calls each human heart/soul/life, “home”.  Let’s be clear that in many of the rooms of our souls there is a lot of clutter and cobwebs and cleaning that could help.  I know I tend to be a bit of a pack-rat when it comes to slights and someone wounding me.  I tend to replay the hurtful words someone said or read all kinds of things into a glance someone gives me.  A few weeks ago, we focused on Hebrews 12, the great cloud of witnesses.  We talked about how we are a stew of people who added to the recipe of our life.  This can be family, friends, teachers, colleagues, bosses, neighbors, fellow church members, etc.  Some of the people who add to the stew of your life bring sweet and savory spices to the kitchen of your soul.  Some showed up in your life and all they have to offer was a bitter herb or that wanted to toss kale into your stew ~ I really am not a fan of kale!  I get spinach, but kale is a hard pass for me. 

Is there anything you have been carrying around in the luggage of life that maybe you need to let go of?  These could be comments made by someone you will never see again.  This could be the wounds of family that keep getting bumped every summer at the reunion or Thanksgiving.  This could be your deep desire to save the world or others or yourself, and all the plotting and planning you still feel like Wiley Coyote chasing the Road Runner. 

Where do you keep running into brick walls because God created you to do more than bang your head against that barrier.  May this truth sink and settle and sing to your soul every minute of this day.  May you find ways to unpack what you are carrying around ~ the good, the bad, and the ugly.  May you find ways to let go of pain that causes ache within you and God so that you might open space for the sacred to stir in life giving ways.  Let your light shine brightly for you are God’s beloved.  This is the way-less way.  Amen.

The Way-less Way Part 2

 

In the beginning, when God began creating, one of the deepest prayers was for relationship.  But how do you craft, cultivate, curate a relationship?  When the great cloud of witnesses puzzled over this, they suggest God hide on Mount Everest, or travel to the moon, or even dive deep into the earth.  But none of those seemed quite right to the Sacred. After a very long silence, there was an idea whispered in God’s ear.  ‘That’s it!’ God shouted with a smile.  ‘I’ll hide inside each human; they will never find me there!”

I love the playfulness of this story.  We love to go looking for God all around us, rather than within us ~ as close as our next breath in this very moment.  Pause for a moment, where have you looked for God?  This could be church, retreats, creation, small groups, meditation, working for justice, volunteering, just to name a few places.  When and where have you caught glimpses of God; traces of grace; holy love lingering in the air?  I know sometimes I have found God in unusual places…then when I try to go back to that place…it isn’t quite the same ~ or I am not the same ~ or some combination of both.  When, where, and how you search for God are some good questions to hold lightly on tis ‘way-less way’.  When, where, and how you search for God will all be part of the way-less way.

To be sure, looking for God in us can certainly seem narcissistic or self-involved or just odd to our ears who grew up thinking of God as an old man with a white beard throwing lightning bolts smiting people.  I sometimes wonder how preaching this God ever kept anyone coming to church!  Yet, the foundational, fundamental truth is that you are created, crafted, loved into being in God’s truth.  Genesis 1 and 2 are all about original blessing and goodness.  The church made the mistake of skipping over that and went straight to Genesis 3 and original sin (which isn’t even used in the passage by the way).  I do think we need to be careful not to get too wrapped up in our own interior, less we suffocate, we also need to realize that God shows up disguised in our lives.  And Genesis tells us, it is not good for humans to be alone.  We are made for relationship with God, others, and self ~ each an important piece of the trinity of life.  How, when, and where did God show up in your life yesterday?  Name and celebrate this as part of the way-less way God is guiding, informing, inspiring, equipping, and empowering you in these days.  Amen.

The Way-less Way Part 1

 

We live in a world that loves quick fixes, instant gratification, and wanting what we want when we want it.

Case in point: the line at the grocery store ~ why do I act like it is a major inconvenience ~ dare I say an injustice ~ when I must wait for the clerk to scan my soy milk and hummus?  Why do I start an online petition when the person in front of me has 15 items rather than the allotted 10 items in the express lane?  Why do I immediately pull out my phone to check emails, as if I might “waste” a few minutes anytime I need to wait?  Why do I get frustrated and flummoxed when the grocery story is out of my cereal, when there are hundreds of other boxes to choose from? 

The truth is we can carry this way with us into church, sometimes without even realizing it.  Usually this comes up at the inopportune time when you are frustrated or flummoxed with this very human-sized institution called, “the body of Christ”.  Usually, our deepest values pay a visit at the exact time when everything else is crashing and crumbling down.  For example, the gift of anger ~ it tells you what is not right according to the gospel of your life.  Yet, if we are not careful, we will go around yelling at everyone (passing along our pain) rather than asking ourselves the important question, what is really at the heart of my frustration?  We may want the church to conform to our way and transformation sounds great for everyone else!  After all, as Anne Lamott says, “Of course, we think our opinions are correct, otherwise we would get new opinions!” 

Right about now, would be the time, I would introduce some amazing, astonishing, change-your-life in six-easy step process to sell you all for the low, low price of $19.95.  I don’t have some great product you can apply to your life to solve all that is unresolved within you or around you.  If you still want to send me $19.95, feel free.  More and more, I am coming to believe that we make the road by walking.  Yes, others have traveled this path, we might see footprints or even evidence of other creatures God blessed to be fruitful and multiply.  Yes, we may get glimpses of God’s grace that offers direction.  But for me the turn-by-turn GPS of life is constantly recalculating as I live day-to-day.  Meister Eckhart often spoke about the “way-less way”.  He once said, “Ours is the task of learning to seek God ‘without a way’ and ‘without a why,’ meaning to open ourselves to the surprising and often unsettling adventure that constitutes the search.”  In other words, seeking God isn’t about perfectly polished words of a prayer or the right retreat to help you meditate so you levitate or even some pastor who could dazzle and delight you.  The way we travel is more about our orientation than our destination.  It is not just following directions; it is the direction itself.  I know this starts to sound frustratingly circular or contradictory.  You may be yelling right now, “Make it plain!”  The way-less way is less about the techniques and tips and tricks, than actually engaging this present moment.  The way-less way says you can pray in more ways than you will ever exhaust in one lifetime ~ gardening, walking, sitting silently, watching cat videos on YouTube, cups of coffee with friends ~ if your spirit is awakened and enlivened ~ that’s prayer.  Being faithful doesn’t conform or contort to some mold, it is about showing up authentically and living the values you hold.  This week, we will focus on this way-less way as an invitation to us all to get caught up in God’s grace and love that never lets us go.  Amen.   

In-spire with God

 

I pray the questions this week of what is your best; when are you at your best/what are the conditions of your best; describing a good day; and honoring the blessedness of a bad day have awoken joy this last week.  I pray you have approached these questions lightly…not as some assignment to turn in for a grade ~ because my intention for you was to explore the curriculum called, “Your life” with the curiosity of George ~ that wonderful monkey who got into all that mischief from my youth.  One final question to ponder, what is inspiring you right now?  Or you may want to reframe and rephrase the question, who is inspiring you right now?  Or what conditions inspire you.  I have shared that being in creation, which is God’s first testament of the holy hovering in our lives and our web of life, inspires me.  Talking with my wife and kids inspires me.  Sunday morning worship, weekly Bible Study groups, and conversations with members inspires me.  Watching Ted Lasso inspires me.  Reading poetry inspires me.  Remember that the root of “inspire” is to fill or to prompt or awaken or activate or energize.  When you are inspired, you are overflowing with a flow of the sacred.  Note that the word, “spire” is breath so when you are in-spired, you are overflowing with the breath of God.  What/who/when/how/under what conditions right now do you sense the breath of God filling you?  When and where does God’s love overflow your life ~ splashing over the sides and sloshing onto the tea saucer?   May that image awaken you to the goodness of God’s presence this day and in the days to come.  Amen. 

Bad Day (note NOT the worst day ever!)

 

Yesterday we focused the camera on our life to see the ingredients of what goes into the dish of a good day for you.  Today, we are going to flip the coin and I ask you to describe a bad day recently.  Again, I am not asking for the terrible, horrible, no good, awful, very bad day (Yes, that is the title of a children’s book, thank you for picking up the reference).  

Let’s be clear there are bad days…

then there are bad days…

then there are “Oh my word, make the rollercoaster of life stop because I am woozy, and the whirlwind is too much and just wanna it to stop.”!!  

Try not to go to the extreme here of returning to the most painful day you had in the last week.  Rather, I want you to direct the camera of your mind’s eye to a day when things were just “off” kilter slightly.  You were a bit grumpy.  You yelled at the coffee barista because he said, “Coffee ready for Lest…is there a Lest here?”  I mean seriously, I spelled my name for the cashier!  Remember there is motion to your emotions, there is an energy that is within you and that you set a destination toward and direction.  Sometimes, our emotions, for reasons that are not always logical or linear, set their sights on “Grumpy-ville,” population, “Me, Myself, and I…no one else is welcome right now.  Thank you very much!”  Just as yesterday it wasn’t about a “perfect” day, but a “good” day.  So, today, I want you to think about the day when the scale of life tilted slightly toward just off.  For me, a bad day can be when I start to run late in the morning ~ not that I have a time clock to punch, or I spill coffee on my shirt.  I start to focus on the heaviness of life or that things are not getting “better” according to my agenda and timeline ~ and I really need God to answer for the lack of progress.  Or I read an email, emphasizing a word that the other person did not intend.  Or I let lose my sarcastic side on some unsuspecting person.  This is not end of the world stuff, this is a reminder that I am human size.  This is a reminder that I am not Superman who can leap over buildings in a single bound, solve all the church’s challenges, and come home to make a five-course meal for my wife.  Nope.  Just a featherless biped trying to navigate this world.  When has there been a bad day recently for you ~ what were the ingredients that went into the stew of that day?  May you find yourself even chuckling at bit as you look in the rearview mirror of your life, because blessed is the one who is able to laugh at themselves trusting that grace and love can hold/enfold even the brokenness of a bad day when the coffee was spilled, the traffic was bad, the project took an unexpected turn, and you burnt dinner so you just ate right out of the ice cream container from the freezer ~ because after all dairy builds strong bones.  Blessed be those who can be open to God’s presence in the valley of a bad day.  Amen. 

Good Day

 

The last two days we have been playing with the questions, what and when is your best.  I have invited you to investigate playfully your one wild and precious life ~ which is the curriculum we are all studying.  Today, I invite you to describe a good day recently.  I pray this question awakens you to the beauty of your wonderfully messy life.    First, notice the word, “good”, and please do not substitute in the word, “perfect”.  I am not looking for you to describe the most absolutely extraordinary, outstanding, soul-soaring, awesomest day ever!!  Nope.  I want you to reflect on a good day.  A good day for me is often reading, connecting with people I love, laughing, learning a new idea, enjoying a bowl of ice cream, winding down with a novel before I go to bed.  I know that no Hollywood producer just read that sentence and thought, “Call Steven Spielberg!  I just read the plot line for the most inspiring movie ever, I smell an Oscar!!”  This is not about seeking approval or agreement on what a good day is.  As a matter of fact, I think the beauty is that I can honor your “good” day without ever having my description threatened.  To be sure, you might hear someone else describe a good day and think yours does not measure up or meet some imaginary scoreboard or table of judges.  I encourage you to live the wisdom ~ you do you!  You get to craft and create what a good day contains and no one else can offer a critique.  More than describing a good day, try to find ways to weave in elements of that every day.  For example, a good day for me is reading a mystery novel.  So, almost every night I read a mystery novel.  I know this is not revolutionary.  This is not going to get me a book deal or land me on the New York Times Bestsellers list.  But the point here is to enjoy life, not strive and struggle (and then complain about the stress).  To honor what kindles the spark of flame in your soul, then tend that fire with the wood that is beautifully unique to you.  May you have a good day in the wonderful expansiveness of that word.  Amen. 

Practices and preferences

 

Yesterday, we huddled and hovered around the questions, what is your best?  I pray you found some responses or even lived some replies to this question yesterday.  Today, we continue to ponder the questions of Mr. Bungay Stanier, adding onto yesterday, when are you at your best?  This could be a time of day.  I am at my best in the morning.  One of the first things I do each morning is write, because this is when I have my most energy. I am rested and just had breakfast.  I am a morning person.  From 8 am to 11 am is what Carey Nieuwhof would call my “Green Zone” – when I am in a state of flow.  However, my college-aged children are the exact opposite.  I am a morning lark; they are night owls.  My kids seem to hit their stride about 9 pm each night, just when I am winding down and ready to lay my head down to sleep and pray to the Lord my soul to keep.  When are you at your best?  You may need to take some time to pay attention to your own energy throughout the day for a few weeks to see if there is a trend.  You could be an afternoon person.  You may find that right after lunch you have energy and feel alive.  Or maybe while others hit the 4 pm slump, you are ready to dive into a project before dinner.  As you consider time of day, think also about what are your practices and preferences?  For me when I am writing, I turn off my devices and ignore my email.  I light a candle to remind myself I am in God’s presence.  I prefer quiet to write at my desk.  Other people love working and writing at coffee shops surrounded by a holy hum.  Others seek out others and go talk through an idea with someone.  Some like music playing in the background, like a soundtrack to their work, others not so much.  Some do breathing exercises and center their thoughts, others dive right into.  As you consider what is your best, describe and define the “weather” conditions that help support and sustain you ~ the rituals and routines that feed/fuel your best.  This could be what you eat, times of day, to a special place, and the more descriptive you can be ~ the better.  The more this question can help you explore the curriculum of your life where God is showing up.  May the questions, what is your best and under what conditions you are at your best continue to sing to your soul in these days.  Amen.