Don't Look Back...

Do you remember the movie, "Duel?"

Released in 1971 as a TV Movie, and then later as a full-length theatrical film, it starred Dennis Weaver (of "Gunsmoke" fame).  Weaver drove his Plymouth Valiant while being stalked on a lonely dessert road by the mysterious driver of a large tanker truck.

It was a great flick.  If you haven't seen it...or haven't seen it in some time...you should check it out.  It holds up well as a quite terrifying movie-long chase scene.

Warning:  After watching it you may find yourself glancing more often than usual in your car's rear-view mirror...to see if something scary is gaining on you.

Famous Negro Leagues pitcher, Satchel Paige, among his many humorous and insightful quotes, has this one: "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."

When you look back, what's gaining on you?
Guilt?
Shame?
Lost and/or unresolved relationships?
Fear...of sickness, death, loss, being found out, losing control?

Yeah, me too. We all got that "stuff" called baggage that we drag around behind us...and every now and then it seems like some or all of it is gaining on us.  Damn!  It makes a tanker truck look pretty tame, by comparison.

Now, beyond owning up to the fact that I have baggage just like I suppose everybody does, I sadly have no magic cure for how to deal with the "stuff" that appears in our rear-view mirrors from time to time.  I ignore it sometimes...maybe you do too.  I try to soften it a bit with all kinds of mind-tricks sometimes...maybe you do too.  I swear at it out loud (or under my breath when I am with others) sometimes...maybe you do too.

So, I went to a couple of big-shots in the world-of-living-decently...perhaps their wisdom will help us keep from dragging around any more "stuff" than we have to...and perhaps their wisdom will make it possible for us to not add to the "stuff" we are already dealing with.

First, from Pope Francis' "10 Tips for a Happier Life."
-Live and Let Live.
-Proceed Calmly In Life.
-Be Giving of Yourself to Others.
-Respect and Take Care of Nature.
-Stop Being Negative.
-Work for Peace.

And, from the Dalai Lama's "21 Rules for Living."
-When You Lose, Don't Lose the Lesson.
-Follow the Three Rs: Respect for Self; Respect for Others; Responsibility for All Your Actions.
-Learn the Rules So You Know How to Break Them Properly.
-Open Your Arms to Change, But Don't Let Go of Your Values.
-Live a Good, Honorable Life. Then When You Get Older and Think Back, You'll Be Able to Enjoy It a Second Time.
-Be Gentle with The Earth.
-Judge Your Success by What You Had to Give Up in Order to Get It.

Lastly, some more from the great pitcher, Satchel Paige.
-I never rush myself. See, they can start the game without me.
-Ain't no man can avoid being born average, but there ain't no man got to be common.
-How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?
-You win a few, you lose a few. Some get rained out. But you got to dress for all of them.

Somewhere in the wisdom and wit of these three outstanding gentlemen you may find some tid-bit (or two, or three) that will help you deal with the "stuff" you are dragging around; maybe you will find something to help with not adding to that "stuff."

Hope so.

Its What Comes After Advent That Really Matters...

I serve a church that has in place a Worship Design Team.  This group of people sits with myself and the other pastor of the church about once a month or so, to think out-loud about upcoming worship experiences, offer suggestions and direction, and assist with pulling the whole thing off.  What a gift!

This Advent Season the WDT and the pastors have set off on a course that includes The Announcement (of Jesus' impending arrival), The Journey (by Mary to Elizabeth's home, and by Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem), The Birth...you get the idea.

And thru it all we are reminding ourselves that Advent provides a Hopeful way of looking at our world...and our life together.

The time leading up to That Birth way back when and half a world away from where I sit today, had Mary and Joseph running the gauntlet of census takers, tax collectors, beggars at the city gate, not to mention bedding down in an animal barn...where That Baby arrived.  Not much Hope involved in that scene...obviously, the Hopeful way of looking at our world...and our life together...comes after Advent. 

The Grinch is most likely the character most of us run into during each year's Advent (run-up to Christmas). 

Too little joy...you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.

Too little money to purchase the required number and type of presents...you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.

Broken family ties...thanks, Grinch.

Etc.

This year the Grinch has one helluva gauntlet for us to run in our run-up to Christmas:

Ferguson, Missouri.

A chokehold death in New York City.

ISIS.

Guantanamo remaining open for "business."

Global poverty and hunger.

Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, Xenophobia...and a whole lot more -isms and -phobias.

Etc.

Like I said earlier, the Hope comes after Advent.  A Hopeful way of looking at our world...and our life together...comes on the way back home after paying respects to That Baby born in a barn.

It comes when we finally realize that That Baby was born into existence for all of us:
Believers and Non-Believers.
Kings and Shepherds.
Do-Gooders and Sinners.
Women and Men.
The Perfect and the Imperfect.
Those who Succeed and Those who Fail.
Those who hold on to a Grudge for dear-life and Those who Freely Forgive.
Those who are Myopic and Those who see the Big Picture.
You, and Me, and Everyone Else.

A Hopeful way of looking at our world...and our life together...comes when it dawns on us that
God loves us universally!
God loves us unconditionally! And,
God loves us constantly!

Time Is Running...

24 hours in a day.
365 1/4 days in a year.
And how many years in a life?

For me, so far, 69 years...actually almost 70.  If I make it to March 12, 2015.

For others...not as much; or maybe even more.  Its a crap-shoot.

I recently took one of those incredibly scientific tests on Face Book and was told that I still have 33 years and 9 months left to live on the face of this earth!  That would put me at 103 when I kick the bucket...breathe my last...take a dirt nap...assume room temperature.  You get the point.

Back in 2009, when I was moved by the Bishop and Cabinet to my current (and final) local church appointment, I said this to a congregation that had just turned 55...I had just turned 64:

-Let’s say that the average life-span of a white male born in the United States in 1945 is 70 years.
-That means that I once had at my disposal 25,550 days (give or take some Leap Years).
-I have used up 23,360 of those days.
-And that means I only have 2,190 days left!

I am just about to run out of those final 2,190 days.

I also said, back in 2009, that part of maturing gracefully and (perhaps) living long, involved these things:

-Taking into account who others are, and what it is that others think, and do, and believe. 
-Taking risks.
-Remembering who we are.
-And, taking some time to be healed a little each day. 

Truth is, I suppose, that time is always running just ahead of us...until the day we catch up to it.

And while we are still in the race (with time), maybe a good three-part mantra would be this:

-Learn to be on the way to getting better instead of worse.
-Learn to dream...and thereby have a million thoughts and ideas.
-Learn to have an enthusiasm about the life yet ahead.

 

Do It Youself...

DIY...Do It Yourself.  That's big these days.  Check out TV and print ads from Big Box Hardware Stores and you'll see what I mean.

Got some free time this Saturday before the big game comes on ESPN? Get the materials for a new deck...and DIY.  You can take the flat-screen out on the completed deck and watch the game in the cool of the evening.

The shelving that the wife wants installed in the family room.  Take the specs to the friendly people at your local DIY store and before you know it, the whole project will be completed...by you.  Probably before lunch.

Got a whole crowd coming over for dinner?  Pull the DIY cookbook down from that new shelving the husband put up, and in no-time-flat you will be serving up a meal good enough to make it to the final round of "Chopped."

Do It Yourself. 

Here is a list of "Six Personality Traits to Admire and Acquire;" they come from an article by Brett Blumenthal, back in January of 2010.  They are all...every one of them...DIY projects:
#6...Humility
#5...Integrity
#4...Sensitivity
#3...Genuinness
#2...Tolerance
#1...Selflessness

Have at it.  Do It Yourself, and you will be an even better person than you already are.

Do It Yourself.

Here is how friend, Stan Abell (back in his BlueVine Collective days) said it:

Humans are on a life-long journey toward perfection, but not the A+ kind of perfection. Rather, the wholeness and fulfillment kind of perfection. Not the kind of perfection purchased by claiming and clinging to dusty creeds…but instead, participating in life-giving wholeness that comes from claiming, following, and perpetuating a message of hope, compassion, and unconditional love.

Have at it.  Do It Yourself, and you will be an even better person than you already are.  You've got plenty of time...it is, after all, a life-long DIY journey.

Do It Yourself.

Leonardo da Vinci (yeah, That Guy) wrote this:

Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works...Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.  

Have at it.  Do It Yourself!

Really Bad Ideas

I have had some really bad ideas in my time.  We will not recount them here.  Many of them no doubt began with something like, "Hey, wanna see somethin'?"

You have had some really bad ideas in your time, too.  Don't be all smug and feeling superior to the rest of us...we've all...all...all had some really bad ideas.

Radium and phosphorus toothpaste was a really bad idea.  No kidding, it was a real thing.

Infusing toilet paper with lotion was a really bad idea.

New Coke was a really bad idea.

You want more proof of really bad ideas?  Ok...but remember, you asked for it:
-Billy The Big Mouth Bass
-Mood Rings
-The Flowbee
So, you see what I'm saying here, right?

That going-over-the-falls-in-a-kayak thing is a really bad idea.

And, sadly, some folks have posited some really bad ideas about God.

"There but for the grace of God, go I," is a really bad idea about God.

"God said it, that settles it," is a really bad idea about God.

"God loves me more than God loves you," is a really bad idea about God.

"Christianity is the only way to God," is a really bad idea about God.

Believing that God had anything to do with the murder and genocide accounts in the Old Testament, is a really bad idea about God.

"God never gives you more than you can handle," is a really bad idea about God.

Accepting the notion that God will eternally damn any part of creation as a result of temporal sins, is a really bad idea about God.

And so, wanting to avoid really bad ideas about God, let me suggest this (paraphrasing a New Testament writer):

If its noble,
If its pure,
If its lovely,
If its just,
If its admirable,
If its excellent,
If its praiseworthy,
Well then, if its any-or-all of those things, then its a really good idea about God.

And really good ideas beat the heck outta really bad ideas every time!

Oh, BTW, Motorola's Razr cell phone was a really bad idea.  Not joking, it was known as the MotoRazr.

Time...Revisited.

I have blogged about time before.  At least three times, that I can recall.  Evidently I did not say all that I need to say about the subject in those previous postings...because here I go again.

Time.

It flies.  It crawls.

We mark it, waste it, bide it, and race against it.

We all have the same amount of it each day, each week, each month, each year; but none of us ever think we have enough of it.

We all use it differently…and what we do with it helps define and direct our lives.

In Thorton Wilder’s play “Our Town,” Emily dies and is given the opportunity to relive one day of her life.

Against the advice of those already buried in the cemetery, she chooses to go back to her 12^th birthday.  She sees the hustle and bustle, the baking of the birthday cake, the wrapping of presents, and family members living in the same house but hardly noticing one another.  Finally, she cries out, “Oh Mama, just look at me one minute as though you really saw me…Just for a moment now we’re all together.  Mama, just for a moment we’re happy.  Let’s look at one another.”*

Saddened by this experience, Emily returns to the cemetery with a new understanding of time.  She says goodbye to clocks and all the things we do that are governed by clocks.  She says, “Oh earth, you’re just too wonderful for anyone to realize you!”  And she asks the play’s narrator, the Stage Manager, “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it...every, every minute?”  And the Stage Manager says, “No…Saints and poets maybe…they do some.”

My advice about time in this blog-post?  Try to be a saint or a poet...and realize this time in your life while you are living it.
 

Don't wait...

Don’t wait until you finish school, Until you go back to school…

Until you lose ten pounds, Until you gain ten pounds…

Until you have kids, Until the kids leave the house…

Until you start work, Until you retire…

Until you get married, Until you get divorced…

Until Friday night, Until Sunday morning…

Until you get a new car or home, Until your car or home is paid off…

Until spring, until summer, until fall, until winter…

Until you are off welfare…

Until the first-of-the-month, or the fifteenth-of-the-month…

Until your song comes on the radio, or your iPod…

Until you’ve had a drink, Until you sober up…

Until you die, Until you are born again…

Try to be a saint or a poet...and realize this time in your life while you are living it.

 

 

Here are some words about time from Mitch Albom’s book, The Time Keeper:

-The hands of a clock will find their way home.

-This was true the moment (Father Time) marked his first sun shadow…

-(And) every generation after…was determined to sharpen (the) concept, counting ever more precisely the measure of their lives.

Sundials were placed in doorways.  Giant water clocks were constructed in city squares.  The move to mechanical designs – weight-driven – led to tower clocks and grandfather clocks and eventually clocks that fit on a shelf.

-Then a French mathematician tied a string to a timepiece, put it around his wrist, and (we) began to wear time on (our bodies).

-Accuracy improved at a startling rate.  Although it took until the sixteenth century for the minute-hand to be invented, by the seventeenth century, the pendulum clock was accurate to within a minute a day.  Less than one hundred years later, it was within a second.

-Time became an industry.  (We) divided the world into zones so that transportation could be accurately scheduled.  Trains pulled away at precise moments; ships pushed their engines to ensure on-time arrivals.

People awoke to clanging alarms.  Businesses adhered to “hours of operation.”  Every factory had a whistle.  Every classroom had a clock.

“What time is it?” became one of the world’s most common questions…

What time is it?  Its NOW, that's what time it is.

Try to be a saint or a poet...and realize this time in your life while you are living it.

  

The Jesuit tradition of "Examen" offers some wonderful contemplative questions that can help us examine how we are using our time:

        In a place of solitude and silence consider these questions:

1)   For what moment today am I most grateful?

2)   For what moment today am I least grateful?

3)   In what moments did I sense God’s presence around me and in me?

4)   In what moments did I fail to love?

Try to be a saint or a poet.  Maybe its time.