"You just can't make up this stuff!"

Following the course of current events these days is more and more like watching, and therefore participating, in a bizarre scripted production spread across various media. People and events, for the sake  of swift sensation, are too often presented and portrayed as one dimensional caricatures of a poorly written morality play.

More and more I say and hear the phrase, "You just can't make up this stuff!" when in actuality this is exactly what is happening. The players, our so called public servants and leaders, are assigned roles by various casting entities and producers using the power of access and money to cajole them into "playing their parts." As soon as a new person appears in the story they are assigned roles as well - the victim, the accuser, the cad, the villain, the wily attorney, the scrupulous judge, and so forth and so on. The masses are told who the characters are in  "playbill bios" on front pages and screens disguised as "news."

In so many ways the spectacle we see unfolding around us is but a projection of inner turmoil within countless individuals struggling with eternal human questions of identity and purpose: Who am I? Why am I here? Our challenge as individuals and responsibility to the human community, is to not defer these questions to the script writers, but rather grapple with them by living into them.

In reality the spectacle around us will continue. The "show must go on" - this is life. Some challenges, opportunities, and questions for each of us when we step on to the stage or into the screen each morning are: Will I take time to contemplate and discern my true self? Will I embrace my true self or accept false selves assigned to me? How will I participate, as spectator or actor? Will I allow others the same freedom that I seek? And above all, is it true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise - think about these things.  (Philippians 4:8)     


 

Lose the "lose!"

Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.  ~ Jesus

Sometimes I get the words "lose" and "loose" confused, not their meaning so much as their spelling. I'm forever wanting to ad or omit that extra "o" which of course changes the meaning of what I'm writing.  For example I may want to say "my dog is loose in the yard" but leaving out that "o" has him losing in some kind of competition. There are times when accidentally adding the "o" may even spark an imaginative twist as in "losing one's mind" or "loosing one's mind." Instead of going crazy you are freeing your mind.

Such is the case with the saying above by Jesus. What if losing our life is not so much dying as it is letting go of, i.e. loosing, our life? By loosening and letting go of our perceptions, prejudices, pride, and fear we discover new ways of experiencing life and old ways are lost. Seen this way, Jesus' teaching is not as foreboding as it is inviting.

Maybe Jesus is simply telling us to loosen up, relax, let go and open ourselves to the full possibilities and potentials of the wonderful thing we call life.  In other words, lose the "lose!"

Life Is Fra-gee-lay!

Dad: “Fra-gee-lay” …it must be Italian!
Mom: I think that says “fragile”, honey.
Dad: Oh, yeah.
~ A Christmas Story

Patient: "Am I going to die?"
Doc Martin: "Yes. But not today."
~ Doc Martin

There's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they do not know about it!
~ Kay, Men In Black

So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. 
~ Psalm 90

Life is fragile. This week many recall the shattering horror of a tragic Tuesday seventeen years ago, remember losing love ones in fiery crashes, and recount the the lost lives and years of senseless retaliation. Thousands of people in various places flee war torn communities seeking refuge. Many look at miles of scorched earth, smoldering homes, and lives gone in smoke.  Millions prepare and evacuate the oncoming devastation of wind and water wondering who and what will survive when the surges subside.

Life is fragile. We never know what a day, a week, or even a moment will bring. We never know if a "goodbye" really is goodbye or if a meal with someone is the "last supper." We never know, but sometimes we have warnings. Sometimes we get evacuation orders, or wake up calls. Sometimes we pay attention and avoid catastrophe.

Life is fragile. However, if we live on the edge of death all the time we never experience the wonder and fullness of life. One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 90 because it captures for me the tension of life's fragility, while offering the comfort and wonder of life itself. The Psalmist calls this comfort God's grace and steadfast love. For me it is the One Eternal Presence, Breath of Life, sheer amazement of being here at all. 

Yes, life is fragile, but the fear of breaking can keep us from living fully. So why not embrace life today with a little Italian flair - "Fra-gee-lay!"

On The Go

What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.

The end is where we start from...
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
~ T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets, Little Gidding, v.5

In the last six weeks I have traveled over 15,500 miles to and from destinations for family vacation and personal continuing education- time with family, friends, professional colleagues, and fellow faith pilgrims in places both familiar and new; via cars, trains, buses, boats, trains, and my own two feet, from sea level to 12,000 ft. above while on the ground, and 40,000 while sailing the clouds. I've gone, seen, and done more beyond my immediate home in six weeks than most people on earth do in a lifetime. All of this is even insignificant to thousands of travelers who do so regularly for business and pleasure.

Back in the place I now call home, sitting on a sofa reflecting, it all seems like and dream filled with other times, places, and people, yet people, places, and times that are now part of who I am - somehow different from and the same as who I was before the journeys began.

We human beings are a curious and seeking sort, always wondering what's over the ridge, or across the water, and even beyond life itself. We have always been and are still on the move, whether hunting and gathering food, exploring new lands, or traveling to distant planets and beyond. Our travels and explorations usually begin in the time and spaces of imagination, often leading to the tangible journeys and destinations of life.

But wherever we go, we are always home, because home is not only the place beneath our feet, at the ends of our fingers, and before our eyes, but that place deep inside each and every one of us. This place is always the same yet ever changing, a place that is ours alone, that we also share with all humanity, the One Eternal Presence.

We rest in this place even as we begin the next imagination, the next journey, the next pilgrimage, the next adventure in the time and space we call Life.