Have you ever been to a psychic? Palm reader? Intuitive? Come on… ‘fess up. Okay, a little less threatening… have you ever wanted to go to one of these? Why would anyone want to go to someone like this? One word: Answers! Clarity. Certainty. Okay, three words. You get (whether illusion or actual help) clarity and certainty about your life, your work, love, the future, God even.
Sometimes for clarity and certainty’s sake, we make deals with God (whether consciously or not): “If you do this for me (whatever “this” might be)… then I’ll do that for you.” Or more common… “Okay God- here’s the deal… if I do ‘this’ for you… then you do ‘that’ for me!” And keep in mind, this usually happens in the sub-sub- sub conscious. It usually comes up in the more common, “Why did this happen to me!?” phrase. I think part of the idea behind this phrase might be: “I did all the right things…!” Or more succinctly, “This isn’t fair”. Meaning… in our minds we believe we’ve done all the right things, things that preclude the events happening to us, things that we subconsciously believe are supposed to protect us from the events happening to us.
In church this looks something like this: If I say prayers, go to church, live a good life, etc., then God will protect me, spare me, etc. from “bad” things in life. Basically we’ve made an unconscious deal to seek certainty and clarity… and ultimately a deal that cannot be honored! And we know this deep down – life is uncertain in that sense! And we can’t have that kind of certainty!
And yet… and yet… we still believe! ----- We still believe! ----- We still gather together… in faith… here… on Sunday or whatever day we come here together… and we still believe God is active in the world! AND… we still believe God is active in the world… through US! This is partly what we mean by “Call” – being open to the idea that God invites us into ministry. Sacred work in that way!
So, we do stuff in the world: we feed the poor, we help others, we offer prayers, we volunteer in various ways. We give our time and energy and money. Or, in some eyes this may take on a more noble bent… we become missionaries and off to
But what about “Call” as a way of life? As a way of being rather than doing? Have you ever thought about your life as a “call”… your life? Let’s way it were a “call”, how would you live it? Would you change anything?
We don’t usually think this way about our lives. Maybe a part of it might be sacred, but the whole thing?! It’s hard for us to see our lives so unified now-a-days.
Remember the old commercial from one of the fast food places back about 20 years ago – about how bad the ”other” chicken fast-food places are because the other guys' chicken items are made from chicken “parts” compressed together under tremendous pressure, presumably held together by some form of edible adhesive, all coming together to form… your # 6 chicken meal! Mmmmm, yummy!
You know what? Sometimes our lives are like that; a little bit if this, a little bit of that… all compressed together under pressure, held together with the metaphoric duct-tape, bailing wire, and prayer… and voila la – our life! And the “call” is where? And God is where? Usually in the cracks – between the “parts”.
It is harder and harder, it seems, to live a unified, whole, life… a life of integrity.
I was talking to someone this week about something – and in the conversation, we talked about ghosts. He mentioned that he’d heard someone say there was a difference between ghosts and something else (spirits or something else- I can’t remember what ghosts were compared to). But they shared that the other person said to them that maybe there are in fact no ghosts at all. They posited the possibility that maybe what we have come to call ghosts are really the reflecting back of “energy” from the living who happened to be in that place at the time. It’s as if the living invest their energy in the places they inhabit.
Actually that’s not the first time I’d heard of this. But I’d heard people theorized about this effect about places where there was a lot of energy put out; negatively. Such places as old prisons, or torture locations, or places where people suffered… these places have been known to have “ghosts” like that. But the same can be said for places where there were a lot of “positive” energy… places where emotions of compassion and love are, peace and joy, etc.
I wondered what kind of imprint we’re leaving on places we spend our time at?
Maybe this is not so much a question of “doing” (as in- “doing ministry”) but more a question of how we want to live our lives? Compassion, centeredness, importance, power, meaning… whatever it might be that is actually motivating us.
You’ve probably heard of that exercise where you write your own obituary. The idea here is what will you want to be remembered by. Well, I’m not really talking about this, as much as the deeper meaning or purpose of your life. What’s motivating you, what’s empowering you?
I’m at the place in my life that some call a mid life crisis. I’m more realizing it’s not so much a crisis as a mid-life assessment. In becoming more and more aware I only have a certain amount of time left, I find myself looking back on my life, and asking what my life has “said” so far. And I look down the road at what will remain of my life asking what I can make of it. What motivates me is not the memorial for the succeeding generations to look at, but what I have imbued the effort of living with.
I guess what I’m saying is, the actions in our lives have a deeper meaning. The question is – what is that deeper meaning? If the deeper meaning is connected to the Sacred/ the Divine, then your life is sacred too! And thus, how you live it IS important… who you ARE is important…
And all this is related to “Call”
Peace,
Pr. C-
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