Stardust of Experiences and Encounters Part 3

 

Too often, in the hustle and bustle of to-do items to be crossed off, projects completed, and calendar spaces to be filled, I can miss the Holy humming quietly in my life.  For the last week and a half, I have invited you to listen to your life for the holy mystery/symphony/unfolding and unfinished story it is.  As Karl Rahner wrote, "In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable, we come to realize that, in this life, all symphonies must remain unfinished."  Pause with me.  Re-read that quote, both its rough edges and beautiful invitations.  Rahner reminds us that life has a quality of feeling like not enough or that there is more to life that we are not tasting, seeing, or experiencing.  The insufficiency Rahner writes about is the constant desiring of more, and this can leave us with the frustrating incompleteness of what is.  You buy a pair of shoes you love, only to find another pair you love more on sale the next time you are at the store.  You go on a retreat, there in that place, you have what you think is a life-changing experience, only four months later, to fall back into the ruts and routines of life before you went.  The not-enough-ness of our lives is what marketing and social media and streaming platforms bank on.  We are continually shown new products being rolled out, and we are being rolled over by the steady stream of more/more/more every day.  The market is flooded not only politically, but also in our consumeristic culture.

 

Okay, philosophical soapbox sermon over.  (I hear your sigh of relief).  My point is that your holy summer homework project of listening to your shy soul sing might feel like one more thing to do.  I pray it isn’t.  Today, I encourage you to breathe in the beauty of God, who is still authoring your story.  The beauty of stars that shine in the deepest ink-spilled night skies.  The beauty of places where the dust beneath the soles of your feet has sunk into your soul.  The beauty of people who linger in your imagination, even if their presence is to remind you what you don’t want to be.  Look at what you have on the paper before you.  Rectangles drawn with places named.  Circles of people who included you, embraced and enfolded you, and perhaps people who have heartbreakingly excluded you.  You’ve added stars of moments and memories that left dust in your life.  Your masterpiece of life doesn’t need to be finished and handed in for a grade, although I would love to talk to you about what you are discovering or discerning in listening to your life.  Today, sit quietly with the incompleteness of what you’ve done so far, especially if you have had to cross things out or scribble over names or add one more star to an already cramped and crowded space.  Your life doesn’t need to be a Picasso-winning art; rather, your life is the beautiful unfinished symphony of God.  Amen.