Easter-ing Words...take two

So, how is Easter-ing and practicing resurrection going?

Some of you may say, "Great!  I am slowing down this week...trying to stay open and sense the sacred.  When the stress and strain sits like a cross on my shoulders and souls...I am trying to find ways to say, 'Okay God...help me out here and find a way out of this fine mess...grant me courage to take that next right step and where I might place my foot.'"

Maybe others are saying, "I still don't get it.  And now the car broke down and that relative...the one who I am sure proves the statistic that there is a 1 in 200 chance of being related to Genghis Khan...called last night to brag and boast about some trip or promotion or how amazingly awesome life is...and all I had to add was my car was broke down.  Why does that relative know all the combinations to set off a nuclear reaction in me?"

Maybe others are saying, "Wait...that was really an assignment...I totally thought you were going to move on to another word today."

Practicing resurrection for me is a continual invitation.  Easter-ing is a way to step into a flow that is beyond my ability to comprehend or control.  I need to keep circling around it. 

Maybe one of the best ways is to read Wendell Berry's poem again.  Read it as a prayer.  If you need the link again...here it is. 

What I love about Berry is that in the midst of the poetry...he is practical.  He says, "Do something every day that won't compute."  In other words, confuse people!!  Confuse them by saying you are going to church on the Sunday after Easter!  When there is no brass or pretty flowers and the sermon is well...let's not go there.  Go to church because community and connection to others matter.  Go to church because one Sunday is like dipping your toe into a pool and saying you are exhausted from swimming.  Church is the space and place where we get to practice resurrection every Sunday.  Each time we gather, we proclaim it to be Easter!

Or Berry says, "Ask questions that have no answers."  How many of us have stopped asking questions in our life?  When we cease to be curious...I think a part of our soul is dormant. 

What question would you want to ask right now that might not have an answer?

Maybe it is religious like - what difference would practicing resurrection really make?
Maybe the question is societal - do we really think we can get along and stop bickering?
Maybe the question is personal - when will I stop letting that relative have control over the radio station of my life??

Maybe it is something else. 

Write the question.
Live the question.
Go do something that doesn't make a lick of sense...and laugh while you are doing it.

Practicing resurrection...Easter-ing...letting poetry be our prayer. 

Poems...unlike reading a refrigerator manual...is meant to be twisted and turned...engaged in many different ways.  What if you read this Berry poem every day for the rest of the week?  How might the words start to be embodied in me?

By the way, what i just wrote above is actually, my unanswerable question.  And I am going to prayerfully and playfully go try to live some kind of response right now as I try to practice resurrection.

May there be a trace of God's grace guiding and grounding each of us.

Blessings