The Journey of Just One Soul...

I suspect that you are very much like me.  And I am very much like you.  That is, I suspect that most of us spend most of our time in the company of others.
Spouses, or significant others.
Family.
Friends.
School.
Work.
Day in...day out.

In the normal course of any given day I spend more time in the company of others than I do by myself.  I suspect that is true for you, as well.

There are just over seven billion of we human beings on this earth right now, and its getting more and more crowded every day.  Statistically, about 100 people die worldwide every minute.  And, about 175 babies are born worldwide every minute.

Even though its a really large planet we live on, in the places we inhabit on this earth, it can tend to be rather crowded.  Its not unusual for us to be in the company of others.  In fact, it is hard not to be in the company of others.

And yet the journey of any one of us through this life is pretty much a solitary affair.  No one else can know the path we walk.  Really.  No one else can feel what we feel.  Actually.  No one else can think what we think, experience what we experience, or go where we go. 

Faith in a Creator...in a God...who journeys with us through this life becomes important exactly because no one else can make the journey with us.  Even in this crowded world, we are pretty much on our own.

And so, here are some encouraging words and thoughts for we solitary souls who pass this way but once:

~Real things are given and received in silence.

~To seek and find God is to do so in your heart.

~"Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation." -Rumi.

~"When we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey." -Wendell Berry.

~"A knowledge of the path cannot be substituted for putting one foot in front of the other." -M.C. Richards.

~"Live for the present moment, which is where life is to be lived and God's presence is to be known.  The future - if indeed we are given a future - will come out of today.  And we will need every moment of today to prepare us for the possibility of tomorrow." -Br. Curtis Almquist.

~Grace trumps Karma.  Every single time.

Calm Waters...

I know next to nothing about sailing a boat.

My childhood friend, Harold Leffel, and I built a sail boat many, many years ago.  It sank on its maiden voyage.

I have some friends, Greg and Dave, who sail quite regularly.  One of my college professors is an accomplished sailor.

Greg took me out on Eagle Creek reservoir in his boat one day several years ago.  I was impressed with how calm it was out on the water.  I was also impressed with how much work Greg had to put into making sure that boat went were he wanted it to go.

(BTW.  Mentioning "reservoir" reminds me that one of my favorite movies is "Reservoir Dogs."  That has nothing to do with the topic of this blog entry.)

My guess is, based on my sailing experience with Greg, that while the picture above looks pleasant enough...serene, even...someone is working harder than you might suspect keeping that sailboat on course.

And, I would like to suggest that just out of range of this picture there are millions of other sailors working hard in their boats...doing the best they can to steer a course toward some near or distant goal...trying not to find themselves at the mercy of the wind, or lack thereof...working hard to not fall victim to a storm-out-on-the-sea.

My guess is, all of us are doing the best we can, and even though we pass as ships in the night, we would do well to recognize the hard work that each of us is doing just to keep our ships afloat.

I am...You are.

I probably invest more time in FaceBook that I should...often discovering there some very strange interpretations of what is supposed to be a Loving Creator and a Graceful God.  And I confess to reading some really frightening fundamentalist Christian material every now and then.  And I sneak a peek at some of the trashy stuff that passes as religious television, and sneak a listen to some of the trashy stuff that passes as religious radio, more often than is prudent.

I am sorry that folks are subjected to that stuff.  I am even more sorry that some folks believe that stuff.

Here is a t-shirt with a scary message:

In my faith tradition, God (in the person of Jesus) did say "I am" in a variety of ways...but never once said anything like the message on the t-shirt above.  Never once said anything close to "I am God and you are beneath me."

"I am Love."  Said that.
"I am Life."  Said that.
"I am With You Always."  Said that.
"I am One with Creator, and You are One with Me."  Said that.
"I am Here to Announce a Kingdom Which is Already in You."  Said that.
"I am Peace."  Said that.
"I am Hope."  Said that.
"I am Never Going to Leave You."  Said that.

Well, that's the end of this blog-rant.  I just wanted to reaffirm that trash is trash even when its religious trash.

Here's a closing thought:  I am sure you will like it...You are welcome.

Once Upon A Time...

"Once upon a time," said Jesus, to a religion scholar, who was looking for loopholes in Jesus’ message about being good neighbors. "There was a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite, a religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.


"A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. And the Samaritan took good care of the man.

"What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?" Jesus asked him.

"Why, the one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded.

And Jesus said, in so many words: "As you travel the road of life, do the same."

And I can imagine the fellow, if he was anything like me, stammering around with something like: "But, but you mean down every road I travel, every time I travel; and when is this radical behavior supposed to begin?"

"Right now," Jesus might have said. "Right now. There’s no time like the present, there’s no time to waste, don’t wait til later, do it now!"

Maybe to someone like me, in the time and place where I live, Jesus might have made it sound more like this:

"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
Don’t wait! Because there is no better time than right now. Because, dude, your once-upon-a-time could be right now."

~ Celine Dion sang these words:


"What do you say to takin' chances?
What do you say to jumpin' off the edge?
Never knowin' if there's solid ground below
Or a hand to hold or hell to pay
What do you say? What do you say?"

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


(We) alone measure time.
(We) alone chime the hour.
And because of this, (we) alone suffer a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures.
A fear of time running out.

Consider the word time.
We use so many phrases with it. Pass time. Waste time. Kill time. Lose time.
In good time. About time. Take your time. Save time.
A long time. Right on time. Out of time. Mind the time. Be on time. Spare time. Keep time. Stall for time.

And along comes Jesus to remind us that NOW time does count.
That because we are connected, HOW we treat each other as we travel the road of life, for whatever amount of time we are given to travel it, is important.

Its important to be ready for any once-upon-a-time that comes our way.

And the beauty of once-upon-a-time is that you cannot waste it in advance.

Just One Thing...

You know, yes you do, too much of religion is wrapped up in trying to tell each one of us how to behave.  How to be acceptable...to God, and to the particular religion offering the moral guidance.  What we ought to do and what we ought not to do.

Don't get me wrong here, I ain't against ethics and morality and doing the right thing.  But doing the right thing shouldn't oughta be that dang complicated.

In my faith-tradition (Christianity), it would seem that even Jesus got a bit taxed over all the rules and regulations and protocols that had somehow taken on "sacred" status in his day.  When asked which of the rules and regs were the most important...and how one might go about not breaking any of the "Thou shalt nots," he offered that what was needed was to simply love God and love neighbor. 

Now "simply" is a slippery and difficult word in the above sentence...and its my word, there is no record of Jesus having used it in his pronouncement.  But "loving God and loving neighbor" is pretty simple compared to all the other moral observances some of his critics were wanting him to agree to.

This line from Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater comes as part of a baptismal speech the protagonist says he's planning for his neighbors' twins: "Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind."

I am not trying to one-up anything Jesus said, but I am trying to suggest, without religious trappings, what One Thing might be necessary for we human folk to practice in order to make this time and place in which we live a better time and place than it otherwise might be.

 

This might be another "One Thing" that would serve as well as Vonnegut's "Be Kind."

 

Or maybe this would work: "Be Good."  That's just a slight variation on either "Be Kind" or "Take Care."

Of course, Jesus' two rules are really just one, when you get right down to it: "Love."

Now there's a mantra we would all do well to engage in every now and then:
"Be Kind.  Take Care.  Be Good.  Love."

Its not a simple One Thing, but we all know it when we see it, huh?

 

I Don't...

I used to run.

I did not keep track of and certainly cannot remember the number of 5K and 10K races I ran.  Certainly, most of them were run in central and southern Indiana, but a couple or three were run in Kentucky, and I even traveled to Window Rock, Arizona to run in (what was then called) the Washington Pass Classic.  I was in the "Run with the Bats" 10K once...a portion of the race course led through Marengo Cave...that was pretty cool. I wasn't an overly good runner, I just enjoyed the experience...the crowds of fellow-runners...the friends who ran most of those races with me.

I ran about twenty half-marathons...mostly the Mini-Marathon held in conjunction with the Indy 500 auto race in May.  For a few years, maybe three or four, I would run the Kentucky Derby Half-Marathon early in May and then the Indy Mini-Marathon in late May (it was originally run on the same weekend as the auto race, but in recent years has been moved to very early in May).  In 2011 I ran my last Mini-Marathon.  The best time I posted in a half-marathon was just a few seconds over 97 minutes.  Not great, but not bad for me.  The worst time I ever posted was...well, there were some bad times I posted.

I used to run.

It is not unusual these days to see stickers on the rear-windows of vehicles that read either 26.2 or 13.1.  Those stickers suggest someone in the vehicle runs either Marathons (26.2 miles) or Half-Marathons (13.1 miles).

I saw this rear-window sticker on a car in Bloomington about two weeks ago:

That's my sticker!  I used to run.  I don't run anymore.

I don't.  I don't because my knees ache too much after even a few yards of running.

BTW, here are some more things that I don't:
~I don't wear socks unless I really have to.
~I don't eat green beans.
~I don't pay attention at all to total nutsos trying to defend the unregulated access to guns in this country...folks like Wayne LaPierre and Ted Nugent.
~I don't look when I am given a shot or have blood drawn...too big a chance that I will pass out.
~I don't read romance novels.
~I don't like being sick.
~I don't play Bridge.
~I don't know why on earth some folks are so against gay and lesbian couples being allowed to marry.
~I don't understand why so much really silly religious stuff is written and spoken; and believed.
~I don't want to face the morning without several cups of coffee.
~I don't enjoy snow near as much as I once did.
~I don't like birds crapping on my car.

And, did I mention, I don't run anymore. 

And the Winner Is: Grace!

My NCAA basketball brackets were shot the minute that Harvard won in the opening round!

And it didn't get any better when Florida Gulf-Coast University made a run deep into the tournament.

And why the heck is it that Notre Dame is always the Non-Fightin' Irish when we get to the post-season?  (And what was with those awful uniforms that Nike designed for ND?)

Well, at any rate, there is a winner to declare...even ahead of this next weekend's Final Four games.  And the winner is: Grace!  Hands down.  Every time.

Yup, this is gonna be a religious-type post.  About grace.  About how the unmerited favor and forgiveness of our Creater trumps anything else that will ever happen to us.  (And just to lay my cards and my argument on the table, no substitutionary sacrifice is needed to satisfy the honor or perfection of the Creator in my view of Grace.  The Creator acts gracefully because the Creator is graceful.  That's all.)

I read this somewhere, and I like the image it creates: "God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads peanut butter.  All over the place."

Of course, what we want to hear is that everything will be OK.  That we just need to have faith.  And it will all work out for the best.  Except everything will not be OK.  And whatever faith you hold to, not everything is going to work out for the best.

Of course, what we want to hear is that everything will get better.  But the truth is that everything will not get better.  Some things will get bad.  Very bad.

Perhaps instead of what we want to hear, we should hear something like this...something that comes closer to the real lives we live than the fairy-tale lives some platitudes want us to believe we will live:
~When life is good...and when it is not, God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads peanut butter.  All over the place.
~When things go our way...and when they do not, God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads peanut butter.  All over the place.
~When we are hemmed in by troubles...and when we are not, God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads grace.  All over the place.
~When sin is involved...and when it is not, God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads peanut butter.  All over the place.

Does that still sound too much un-like the kind of life you experience?

Let me try one more thing.  Here is a quote from author Brennan Manning:

"My life is a witness to vulgar grace — a grace that amazes as it offends. A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same wage as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five. A grace that hikes up the robe and runs breakneck toward the prodigal reeking of sin and wraps him up and decides to throw a party, no ifs, ands, or buts. A grace that raises bloodshot eyes to a dying thief’s request — 'Please, remember me' — and assures him, 'You bet!'


"This vulgar grace…works without asking anything of us. It’s not cheap. It’s free…Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try and find something or someone that it cannot cover. Grace is enough…Yes, all is grace. It is enough. And it’s beautiful."

So yeah, why not go with "Grace Trumps Karma," and "God spreads grace like a four-year old spreads peanut butter.  All over the place!"