Get In Touch With IT...

There is an IT factor in life.
IT is the inner connection each of us at one time or another senses...a connection of self with others and with That-Which-Is-Greater-Than-All-Else.

And...that leaves every one of us to speculate on just how we might get in touch with IT.

A couple of quotes before I offer my thoughts...

“There is no ideal world for you to wait around for. The world is always just what it is now, and it's up to you know how you respond to it.”   
-Isaac Marion


"There is a voice inside of you
That whispers all day long.
'I feel that this is right for me.
I know that this is wrong.'
No teacher, preacher, parent, friend
Or wise man can decide
What’s right for you –just listen to
The voice that speaks inside."    -Shel Silverstein

There is an IT factor in life.
IT is the inner connection each of us at one time or another senses...a connection of self with others and with That-Which-Is-Greater-Than-All-Else.

And...that leaves every one of us to speculate on just how we might get in touch with IT.
Here are my speculations...

Perhaps you get in touch with IT when you dream great and good dreams.

Perhaps you get in touch with IT when you are open to imagining the best that life can become.

Perhaps you get in touch with IT when you accept that life-well-lived is beyond all measure of clocks and calendars.

Perhaps you get in touch with IT when you begin to sense that there really is something that holds all things in place…and holds all people in amazing grace.

Perhaps you get in touch with IT when you experience that there is just a hint of peace that surrounds you in stillness; a hint of peace that surrounds you…always.

Perhaps you get in touch with IT when you catch just the fleeting sound of the harmony in the universe; a sound so right-on-key…so pure…so true.

Perhaps you get in touch with IT when you are in touch with the love that is within you; love you have received from others; love that is the very essence of each and all of us.

Perhaps you get in touch with IT when you sense a yearning for a place you have not yet found; that calls you toward a destination you know is home.

Perhaps you get in touch with IT when you awaken to the truth that life is not about pie-in-the-sky-in-the-sweet-by-and-by, 
but is about the right-here-and-right-now

.

Perhaps you get in touch with IT when you decide to never be the one to cast the first stone…or any stone, really; 
instead you decide to be an agent of wholeness and wellness, help and healing

.



Perhaps you get in touch with IT when you begin to pursue of The Truth, the Whole Truth, The Truth that will set you free; 
free from all the lies and half-truths that have held you back 
and held you captive for too many years…and too many tears.



Perhaps you get in touch with IT when you come to believe that you can live life differently than you're living it now
.

IT is not on the way, IT is already here…
IT is not out there somewhere, IT is inside you somewhere…
Get in touch with IT.

If Prayer Would Do It, I'd Pray...

Today, May 4th, is the National Day of Prayer in the United States.
People are asked to "turn to God in prayer and meditation."
The President always signs an official Proclamation "...encouraging American to pray..."

I suspect the whole thing is not as much a celebration of prayer as it is a celebration of showing we are in favor of prayer...much like we are in favor of mom and apple pie.
Those are my thoughts on the importance of the day...they will not be the thoughts of everyone.
Everybody gets to think their own thoughts.

Here...on this National Day of Prayer...are thoughts (some of which I have previously put in print) about what prayer may or may not be.

What prayer is and is not is a mystery to me.
Does it involve words?
Is silence the real key?
Does prayer only "work" when its offered in some deity's name?
If 500 people pray for the same thing (like a sick friend, or world peace) is that more effective than if just 1 person prays?  Or, 50?  Or, 499?

Is contemplation the same as prayer?
What about reflection?

If I say "I will pray for you," is that dismissive of your problem/pain/illness, or does it show compassion and concern?  Maybe both?

Found a definition of prayer that describes it as "an invocation or an act that seeks to activate a rapport with a deity."  I wonder if that is really the best way to invoke or activate a relationship with a deity.  Any deity.  Don't know that it is, don't know if it isn't.  But I suspect there may be other and better ways to go about this thing.

I wonder what the proper place of prayer in real life is.
I think often of these words from Stephen Levine:
“If prayer would do it, I’d pray.”

At the advanced age of 72, and after over 41 years of serving as a pastor, I think very differently about prayer than I did earlier in my life. I think of prayer now as a way of quieting myself in an attempt to sense what can be known about the Creator's presence. I think of prayer now as a way of "dumping" some of the busyness...some of the crud...some of the trivia that resides in me, and taking in some calmness and grace that the Creator may want to send my way.

On those Sunday mornings when I led the prayers during worship at the final church I served, I offered these words: 

“In these moments of silence

Speak, and we will listen

Listen, and we will speak the words of our hearts.”


That’s where I am with prayer these days…and most likely where I will remain.

Getting From Here to There...

From Here-to-There just may be the longest, hardest, gnarliest trip we will ever take.

Before setting out on the trip, there are some things to keep in mind:
-You don’t need to know every detail to get from Here-to-There.
-You should set realistic expectations for the journey

.
-You need to be aware that you will change along the way.
-You should not settle for only the easy, the simple, and the convenient

-
the journey will be tough at times.
-Along the way you can make big changes-
but they most likely will not happen over-night.

Most likely, the trip from Here-to-There will be a solo-event.
You'll be going it alone.
It will involve negotiating unknown and uncharted territory.

You are Here…with your disappointments,
But you would like to be There…

You are Here…with your incredible burden of guilt,
But you would like to be There…

You are Here…with your dead-end job, or relationship, or future,
But you would like to be There…

You are Here…wandering, wondering, floundering, failing,
But you would like to be There…

Here is some wisdom on the trip from Here-to-There...just in case you are thinking about making that trip any time soon.

I remember reading an on-line article by Mike Foster about his months spent is SE Asia in the summer of 2010…He wrote:

Crossing the street in Hanoi, Vietnam is an experience.
Cars don’t stop. Taxis don’t stop. Buses don’t stop.
And the 5,000 mopeds coming at you don’t stop.
So you could stand on the side of the street and wait. 
And wait.  And wait. 
Hoping that there might be a good time to cross to the other side.
If that’s your strategy…you will be waiting a long time.
The key to crossing to the other side is:

1. STEP OUT INTO THE STREET

2. PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE OBSTACLES COMING AT YOU

3. DON’T LOOK BACK

4. CELEBRATE WHEN YOU GET TO THE OTHER SIDE


Good luck. 

A Bigger Deal Than Easter Itself...

The Weekend is upon us…

The Good Friday-Silent Saturday-Easter Sunday Weekend.

And its quite a big deal.
The Easter Story…

The Resurrection-of-Jesus story 

…does not begin with triumph, or hope, or shouts of joy. 

Instead, it begins with
…
fear, and disbelief, and silence.

A lot of silence.
The story…according to Mark’s Gospel…

the first book written about the life of Jesus…goes like this:
“…Early Sunday morning, a small group of women arrive at the tomb of Jesus,
to find it empty,
and to find a man dressed in white 
bearing a cryptic message that Jesus had been raised.
…
Their response isn't to raise their hands and weep with joy.

Nor is their response to cry out, 'Alleluia, Christ is risen indeed!' 

…Rather, they run as fast as they can, and don't dare breathe a word 
of what they’ve
seen or heard…so terrified are they.”

In the oldest version of the Gospel of Mark, the story ends there

…disarming in its abruptness, troubling in its lack of closure.

Even when later writers fill out the story with embellishments, 

the first responses are almost always Fear and Disbelief.
I like The Gospel of Mark’s Easter story…  

It refuses to tie up loose ends, and leaves the idea of resurrection

filled with conflicting emotions, and multiple possibilities.
It wonderfully absorbs both joy and fear… 

both triumph and disbelief. 

And it holds in tension all our contradictory raw emotions, 

and molds them into A Profound Existential Mystery.
A Mystery that invites the expectation 
that we might just run into this Alive-Again-Jesus… 
anywhere…any time!
A Mystery that invites the possibility that Jesus’ story

can be our story, too.
And that invitation is a bigger deal than Easter itself.

At least it can be that.

Every one of us has been where the Weekend begins.

We’ve been in that Friday Nowhere Place 
that feels like somewhere between
Life and Death…

Heaven and Hell. 


Everyone of us has been in that Scary Place

where what is left of life feels fragile
 and very, very temporary.

Where everything that is
 is overwhelming…

and hectic, and hellish, and out of control.

Where if life did have anything more to heap on us

we could not imagine what that more would be.
Everyone one of us has been in that place that is
 sucking the heart and soul right out of us.

Where who we are is folding back in on itself.


Everyone one of us knows exactly what the Friday
 of this Weekend feels like.

And equally, everyone of us knows what the Saturday 
of this Weekend feels like.
Silence.

It feels like silence.

Deafening, entombing silence.

And darkness.

And aloneness.

Abandonment even.

We are completely untouchable by any living being.

Friday.

Saturday.

And then…Sunday.

What makes this Profound…Existential…and Mysterious
 Weekend
a bigger deal than Easter itself
 is that everyone of us has…or yet hopes to have…

a Sunday that follows Friday and Saturday.

A Sunday when we realize…by experience…

That Love is stronger and longer than Death…

That Light will overcome the Darkness…any time and any place…

That Peace can come in spite of Circumstances…

That nothing but self can ever control the Human Spirit…

That Compassion will outlive Cruelty…

That Justice will ultimately prevail…

That the best of life is never ultimately lost…

That death will not have the last word…

That we are never ultimately forgotten, alone, despised, or worthless...

That any stone can be rolled away...
That there is always something bright and believable 

maybe even miraculous and possible for us in this life.

And when That Weekend of Life takes place for us…

I submit to you that it is a

Bigger Deal Than Easter Itself.

Because when That Weekend of Life takes place for us…

It won’t matter if we are religious or not…

It won’t matter if we subscribe to a literal or figurative resurrection…

Not much of anything like that will matter…

Because for us The Whole Event Will Be Real.


Old Age...

I am older now than I have ever been before!

So are you.

I am now...and have been for several years...the oldest living male in my family in three generations. (It could be even more generations, but since I don't do that genealogy thing, I am not certain about that fact.)

And so...when does "Old Age" begin?
And what are the symptoms of this malady?
And what comes next?

I found this:
Responses to the question, “When does old age begin?” vary by sex as well as age, with women taking the more generous view. On average, women say old age begins at age 70, according to the Pew study. Men, on average, say that old age begins at 66.

One definition of "Old Age" is that it is "the later part of normal life."

I discounted that one because by my own account...and that of others...I have not lived a normal life.

This doesn't help much either: You know you are old when you still got it, but don’t know what to do with it.

I never did have it.

When I was born:
The average new house in America sold for $4,600.
The average annual wage paid in this country was $2,400.
A portable typewriter sold for $68.37.

When I started high school:
That new house was going for $12,400.
Wages were at $5,010.
A gallon of gas sold for 25 cents.
A movie ticket cost $1.00.
A Kodak movie camera set you back $67.50.

When I moved from Indiana to California:
That house cost $13,050.
Wages came in at $6,000.
A first-class postage stamp was 5 cents.

When I moved from Los Angeles to Indianapolis:
The house was up to $14,950.
Wages had risen to $7,850.
The average new car sold here cost $2,822.
The Dow closed the year at 943.

When I began serving my first church as pastor:
That house was selling for $34,900.
Average annual wages were at $13,900.
A gallon of gas went for 55 cents.
A Samsonite business case sold for $62.00.
The inflation rate was 11.3%.

When my youngest child was born:
That house was now up to $129,300.
And wages were up to $38,100.
The average price of a new car was $17,200.
A pound of bacon was $2.53.

And when I retired:
That house...$188,900.
Those wages...$44,600.
Four years of college, on average, set you back $160,000.
A grande size latte at Starbucks cost $4.00.
A PC went for $650, and a MacBook went for $1,300.

Obviously, living to Old Age means living through incredible financial changes.

When does Old Age begin? And what are the symptoms?
For me, Old Age probably set in sometime in my late sixties.

My mental capacities weren't so much impaired as they were slowed down.
I began to have some difficulties recalling names, places, things.
Nouns...I had trouble recalling nouns. I could start a sentence with the noun in mind, but when I got to the noun, it was often gone...just gone.

Physical stuff that had been questionable for a few years, got real.
Sports that I used to enjoy participating in...softball, racquetball, basketball, distance running...weren't really fun anymore, They were more like work. And I'm certain my body no longer moved or responded in ways that it used to.
I ran my last half-marathon in 2012.
Wait, that's not true.
I ran my last half-marathon in 2011. In 2012 I finished...by jogging and walking and something akin to actual running...my last half-marathon.
Golf is still an option. And like all old golfers, I hope to shoot my age someday.
(That being the case, I have several more years to go...more than several, actually)

The hip replacement took place in 2016.

I used to think of myself as younger than I actually was.
It was a mental mirage, of course, but I thought it was mostly accurate.
Compared to many others my age, I imagined I acted younger.
Those others might have thought just the reverse.

I had said and done all I thought I could say and do in my 41-year profession.
I found that I was pretty much preaching just one or two or three sermons over and over again:
The Kingdom Is Within, Grace Trumps Everything, Times Change.
My work colleagues were gracious in allowing me to hang around at what was certainly a somewhat reduced capacity.
My long-term friends kept assuring me retirement was a good thing...and not to be feared, financially or otherwise.
When it was over, people were very kind and appreciative.
When it was over, though, it was time to go.
And I have.
Old Age will do that to ya.

What comes next? After Old Age, what is there?
Even Older Age comes next, I would think. Like I said at the beginning, I am older now than I have ever been before.
And that will be true every day hereafter...until there are no more days hereafter.
That's a "tautology."
In the discipline I studies in college...Philosophy...Logic being within that discipline...a tautology is a truth anyway you look at it.
In the profession I undertook, truth was a big deal.
And where Logic and Religion cross paths, you find this sign-post: The Truth will set you free...but first it will piss you off!
(That is also a tautology and big deal.)

I made quite a point in my final six years of sermonizing, saying (to quote Peter Putnam's poem, Detroit Jesus) that The Time on the Clock of the World is Now.

What comes next is Now, I think. And it comes until there is no more Now.

And while the transition from Old Age to The-Time-When-There-Is-No-More-Now takes place, one can enjoy each day as it comes.

Which is pretty much a good rule of thumb at any age.

More Things...13 Actually

In July of 2014, after having announced my plan to retire the coming June, and after having been asked by a small group of folks in the church I was serving to offer any "wisdom" I had gleaned over 41 years of ministry, I offered a blog-post listing the "18 Things I Learned in 41 Years."

I admitted then and I admit now, that there are hundreds (maybe thousands...maybe more) of lists available from all sorts of people and sources...lists of "Learnings" that point to ways one might live a good life, be a better person, feel more comfortable in one's own skin, achieve inner piece, etc. There may be little or nothing in either of my lists that is new or unique. My lists are just two new ways of packaging what is probably common knowledge, and hopefully good thinking.

These 13 More Things have come to my attention since retiring from gainful employment just over eighteen months ago. Since posting that first list of 18 Things, I have played more golf than I would have otherwise, I have had hip replacement surgery, my daughter has completed high school and moved out on her own, my wife and I have traveled more than we had in previous years, and we have been attending a Friends Meeting instead of a United Methodist Church. All of these changes probably did something to make me aware of these 13 More Things. Getting older (I am now 72) has contributed, too, no doubt.

First, here are the 18 Original Things...
1. You don't need to know every detail to succeed.
2. Don't live in the future.
3. Don't set unrealistic expectations.
4. There is more than one way to do just about anything.
5. Stop all-or-nothing thinking.
6. Its OK to be a lone wolf.
7. People change.
8. People never change. (I know 7 and 8 seem contradictory...but not really.)
9. Don't settle.
10. Never forget who you are.
11. People are capable of both great humility and great arrogance.
12. People can be incredible liars.
13. The universe is a tough place.
14. You will be betrayed.
15. Just about everything is political.
16. You can change the things you can change...but you may have to work at it, and it may not happen over-night.
17. Despite how we refer to the One God who has created all that is, it is that One God who loves us, is present with us, and redeems us.
18. For many of us the clearest revelation of God is the person of Jesus of Nazareth, but he is not the only revelation of God.

 

And now here are More Things...13 Actually...

1. To do something, you’ve got to start at the beginning.

   To build something you’ve got to start from the bottom up.
2. Being afraid serves an important purpose. 

   Being brave serves a more important purpose.

   There are lessons to be learned from both fear and bravery.
3. The big picture is nothing other than many smaller pictures brought together.

   Be sure to notice the smaller pictures.
4. If something makes you uncomfortable, try looking at it differently.
   If it still makes you uncomfortable, leave it alone.
5. The truth will sound the same no matter how you speak it.
6. If it doesn’t look like love, no amount of words can make it otherwise.
7. If you find yourself hemmed-in, boxed-in, or trapped, do whatever it takes to break free.
8. If someone demands your silence, leave.
9. To be on the mend first requires the admission that you are broken.
10. Listen to your inner voice.
    Learn from what hurts you.
    Learn from what heals you.
11. Read good books. Often.
12. Its only “Good Advice” if it points to the truth.
13. Learn to listen to and understand the Language of Silence.

The Most Important Time...

When is the most important time?, you ask.

Glad you asked.

The most important time is...NOW!

Whatever has happened to you in your past has no power over this present moment, because life is now.  -Oprah Winfrey


The most important time is NOW.
All the words you know you should, but have not yet spoken
…
you can speak NOW.
All the actions you know you should, but have not yet take
n…
you can take NOW.
All the feelings you will not let yourself feel
…
you can feel NOW.
All the requests you are aching to, but have not yet made
…
you can make NOW.
All the doubts you suffer with, but will not give voice to
…
you can give voice to NOW.
All the pain you live with, but have not confronted...
you can confront NOW.
All the fears that haunt you that must be stared down…
can be stared down NOW.
All the desires you feel so deeply, but have not taken ownership of
…
can be owned up to NOW.
All the risks you know are necessary, but have refused to take
…
can be taken NOW.
All the dreams you dream, but will not embrace
…
can be embraced NOW.
All the joy you won’t allow yourself to reveal...
can be revealed NOW.
and
…
All the possibilities you refuse to create...
can be created NOW.

Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.  -William James

The most important time is NOW.
Right NOW, you can transform your way of seeing…
Right NOW, you can stop using judgments to close your heart…
Right NOW, you can treat people more kindly…
Right NOW, you can stop fearing those who are different from you… 
Right NOW, you can come out from behind the walls of your own group…
Right NOW, you can respect the rules, but go beyond them…
Right NOW, you can stop wasting your time…

Right NOW, you can watch your step...
Right NOW, you can use your head... 

Right NOW, you can make the most of every chance you get...
Right NOW, you can stop worrying about what you will become, and concentrate on who you will become...
And...
Right NOW, you can mount the resistance needed in these days.

You can do all this...because
The Most Important Time Is NOW!