LENTEN MESSAGE

I think we all know what stress can do to us.  In the short term, stress…

·    Tightens our muscles

·    Our circulatory system focuses on feeding the internal organs,

·    The nervous system prepares for either attack or a quick exit,

·    Our bodies release stress hormones (cortisol) to help us in the short term to basically either fight or flight. 

·    Our awareness is heightened possibly.

And in the short-term, this actually helps!  

But there’s a problem if this happens in the long term.  In the long-term, we can feel tired, or even exhausted.  Ironically, we may not be able to sleep well.  We can get all hunched over long periods of time, with tight muscles in shoulders neck, or back.  Our appetites are affected.  And all those stress hormones in our bodies -which were mostly meant to deal with a single-incident (in the acute sense), where we have to decide if we’re going to fight the threat or flee from it… and once decided – and acted upon – go back to “normal” levels… those same chemicals are now are sent through our bodies on a pretty regular basis.   

All this can really do a number on our bodies… and minds… and souls too I think.   Put simply, we weren’t meant to live as we are now.  Too much!  But that’s not news to most of us – we all carry a lot of stress, and we already know this!  The burden of our culture, I suppose.

And it is a burden!  But what about the other burdens we carry?

When I was a kid, around 8 I think, I was preparing for my first communion.  Then, in the Roman Catholic tradition -maybe still the case- one did not receive first communion until coming to the “age of reason”, around 8-ish (although kids that age can indeed distinguish wrong from right better than younger kids, the “reason” part of our brains aren’t even fully developed for another 14 years!).  And this was the time one also made one’s first official confession. 

So I confessed to the priest- a relatively young and very friendly and kind guy- that I had accidentally broken a window in a neighbors house when I was about four.  I suppose I was like my son – getting into things, seeing how this or that worked, and what would happen if I did this or that, etc.  My mother described me at that age as a nice “Dennis the Menace”… whatta ya gonna do!?!?!

Anyway, back to the story… so on this, my first official confession in the church, I confessed breaking the window.  It was an accident, I didn’t try to hide it, we all dealt with it, and moved on.   So why would I confess something I wasn’t “hiding”? 

Because it “weighed” on me!  I was maybe four or 5 when it happened, but it still had an impact on me.   So I told the priest.  I don’t remember what I said, or what he said afterwards… but I do remember one thing more than anything else… I remember literally feeling lighter!  I remember feeling as if a literal weight had been lifted from me.  And I remember that to this day! 

That was my first experience of a burden being lifted. 

So here I am, over 40 years later, weighed down by more than just “accidental broken windows”.  I have taken advantage of this private confession thing since then.  Even as a Lutheran!  (You know… we Lutherans have this rite too… for this very same reason!)  And every time, I’ve left as if a weight had been lifted.  Whatever it was that burdened me prior, has never had the same weight on me afterwards.

Imagine the effect that one burden had on a little boy of eight… and the effect of that burden being lifted; emotionally, and physically.  If a kid felt weighed down by one event… imagine how much more we all feel burdened by the collected actions, words, and events that the years bring as we grow older.   The older we get, the more there is weighing us down! 

We all carry too much; physiologically, emotionally, psychologically, perhaps even spiritually!  This isn’t so much a plug for “Confession” as much as a plug for something that helps each of us “unburden”.  We need to find a way to lighten the loads brought on by life-choices, events, accidents even.  Counseling, talking with a friend, the rite of private confession, making things right with those whom we’ve offended, or whatever… find something to help you “unburden”. 

Six months ago, we passed the highest holiday of the Jewish year… Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement… the day all observant Jews are called to basically do the hard work of the 12 steps (not exactly, but you get the idea) (the meat of the 12 steps are steps 4 through 11). 

Just by living with others – through our choices, our words, our deeds, or those heaped on us – we collect burdens that can weigh us down, beat us down. 

When you’ve been weighed down, burdened by life-stuff… and then seen the light… when you’ve felt what it was like to have a weight lifted off you… you know what “come to me all who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” means. 

Some events in life can be very hard, heavy!  We can make it more burdensome!  But with help, with love, with the center of faith in a life-giving God, we can enjoy being free once again!  We were meant to live life well… to live life standing straight, not hunched and bunched… to live life looking forward to tomorrow, not in dread or fear of what is to come (often based on what’s happened before)… to come to the end of our lives, and be able to say, it wasn’t perfect, but with God’s help, and the help of the people I love and who love me, I worked on it.        

Here’s to believing in a new day!  Here’s to life in the healthiest sense!