Showing Up for Class

Perhaps you, like me, see the bare branches of trees seemingly shivering in the winter wind and imagine that they long for springtime. That would be a misuse of our imagination. One reason trees are great spiritual masters is that they accept what is. As Brad Stulberg notes,

"Trees don’t resist changes in the weather, or pretend they don’t exist, or try to power through them. They are acutely aware of them, accept them, and adapt by controlling what they can control. This all starts with paying close attention."

We tend to spend a lot of energy wishing that things were different than they are. We wish it were warmer. We wish it was time to go on vacation. We wish we didn’t have to deal with the difficult aspects of our jobs. We wish our family/community members were more considerate. What if, instead of resisting the parts of life we don’t like, we paid close attention to them, accepted them, and adapted to them? If God’s creative spirit is present in all things, then all things can foster new life in us.

In her book Kitchen Table Wisdom, Rachel Naomi Remen offers the following meditation on accepting what is:

We are all here for a single purpose: to grow in wisdom and to learn to love better. We can do this through losing as well as winning, by having and by not having, by succeeding or by failing. All we need to do is show up openhearted for class. So fulfilling life’s purpose may depend more on how we play than what we are dealt.

Whether the day is frigid (as it is today) or downright balmy (as is predicted for the weekend), let’s accept what is and show up for class!

Surrendering to the Wind of the Spirit

Today in Kansas we are being buffetted by 30-mile-per-hour winds. Although these gusts cannot penetrate the thick walls of the monastery, we cannot escape the constant low, rushing sound they generate. Through our many large windows, we observe with alarm the ferocity with which tree branches are being tossed about. High winds generate a sense of unease for many of us. Isn’t it interesting, then, that the Holy Spirit is often linked with wind?

Although we pray for the inspiration and gifts of the Holy Spirit, I wonder if we are ready to accept the wildness and unpredictability that accompany them. When we pray to the Spirit, we often unconsciously have ideas in mind about what gifts we want and how inspiration should appear. However, God who is manifest in the Spirit cannot be controlled or contained. We are called to let go of our own concepts and desires and go along for the ride, which will take us to unexpected places.

At times in our lives, we need the brisk wind of the Spirit to sweep away the fustiness or mustiness that can settle into the corners of our soul. Can we let ourselves be cleaned out, trusting that despite its unpredictability, the winds of the Spirit unfailingly will lead us to new life?

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

I’ve noticed that humans tend to experience awe most frequently in the presence of grandeur, such as mountains, a sunset, towering trees, or the ocean. Such sources of inspirations aren’t always available, however. At such times, we forget that we can look within to experience awe. I mean…literally. For example, did you know that it takes 17 muscles to control the movement of our eyeballs and that humans on average blink 16,800 times per day? Or that the surface area of the human lungs is approximately equal to the area of a tennis court? Or that 100,000 chemical reactions occur in the human brain every second?

The mechanisms that allow our bodies to breathe, sleep, drink, talk, and ambulate are incredibly intricate, yet we perform them every day without giving them a second thought (until we experience illness, injury, or the consequences of aging, that is). Everything scientists are learning about the complexity of our bodies confirms the insight of the writer of Psalm 139:

I praise you because I am fearfully

and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

If we truly know that God’s works are wonderful, we don’t have to look further than our own bodies to find reason to experience awe and give thanks. As Chief Tecumseh said, “When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.”

How to Live When We Know We Will Die

In the novel I am currently reading, Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson, several characters who are home on leave during World War II know the odds are very high that they will die when they return to the front lines. Although most of us won’t be going to a war zone any time soon, we actually have much in common with these men. Because we are human, we know that we are going to die. How does that knowledge change the way we choose to live?

If we are faithfully living out our vocation as disciples of Jesus, we are in a continual process of reordering our lives differently in response to the one “whose love allows us to bring Love to life each day,” as Sr. Colleen Gibson puts it. If we are faithful in bringing Love to life each day, there is no need to change anything about the way we are living, and we can be at peace with death whenever it arrives.

The Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore noted that “The one who plants trees, knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life.” The one who plants trees understands the meaning of death as well. Although death is the end of this life in the flesh, it cannot contain the love and life we share in Christ, which will bear fruit everywhere and for all time

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Love's Tipping Point

In the second letter to the Corinthians, Paul says, “The love of Christ impels us,” which is true, but it leaves out a step. First the love of Christ frees us from the burden of believing we have to earn love or prove we are worthy of love. When we are able to accept Christ’s love and thus are freed from the perceived need to secure what is already ours, we no longer need to “live for ourselves.” Suddenly the energy we had been directing toward earning love or proving our worth is available to extend Christ’s love to others, and we feel impelled to do so.

 The inspirational people throughout history who laid down their lives for others did so out of the security of knowing God’s love for them. Such security is true power, because there is no stronger force than love, which seeks to free the prisoner and lift up the oppressed. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” The messengers of love—like Jesus, like Martin Luther King Jr.—are sometimes killed by those who fear their power, but Christ’s love cannot be quenched. It rises up again and again in all of us who are freed and impelled by love. Eventually we will reach a tipping point when enough people “harness for God the energies of love” (as Teilhard de Chardin expressed it), and we will discover that the kingdom of God was within us and in our grasp all along.

Standing on Holy Ground

Recently my attention was arrested by this line from Deuteronomy 29:9: “You are standing today, all of you, in the presence of the Lord, your God….” Because God created all things and thus is present in all things, we are always standing on holy ground, which should lead us to a state of profound reverence and gratitude. How is it that we are we not aware that we are always standing in the presence of God? Perhaps it is because, as suggested by Emily Mitchell in her essay “On Becoming a Cat,” we don’t take the time to be present to the life around us:

Human beings look with just their eyes: the shapes and motions graze the optic nerve, but all the while they’re thinking about something else…only a small part of their attention is focused on their surroundings at any given time. Cats, in contrast, are able to watch with their entire body. Whatever they turn their attention to becomes at once the most fascinating object in the world. Practice staring until you, too, experience the magnificence of dust motes or sunlight slanting down a wall…you will find out how much you have been missing all these years. Time will slow and stretch, and each day will seem like several days, the way it used to when you were a child. You’ll wonder how you could ever have been bored for an instant in a world where there’s so much to see—and hear, and smell—in just a single room.

Multitasking is a great impediment to living a whole and holy life. Let us give God the honor of our full attention when we are standing on holy ground—that is to say, always (all ways). Then our lives will truly become a prayer, which is what we are all called to from the moment we came into being.

The Nature of God's Love

Given the worldwide political climate these days, it’s easy to believe that humanity’s foundation is crumbling—that honesty, dignity, and compassion are being subsumed by a tidal wave of greed, fear, and the desire for power. How comforting, then, are the words of Psalm 119: “Forever is your word, O Lord; from age to age is your truth.”

It feels like God’s truth—which is that love will prevail—is being blocked on all fronts right now. However, as Cynthia Bourgeault observes, “We flow into God, and God into us, because it is the nature of love to flow.” It is not possible to stop the flow of love for long. A stream of water that is blocked by a boulder will stream around the boulder and eventually wear it down because that is the inviolable nature of water. It is the same with God’s truth.

At various times in human history, it has appeared as though evil would prevail. Again, Psalm 119 contradicts that possibility, saying of God, “All things are your servants”—which means that even acts stemming from fear, ignorance, greed, and love of power will somehow ultimately serve God’s truth and lead to a clearer channel of love. Jesus’ death and resurrection clearly illustrate this principle. As Bourgeault further notes, “…‘laying down one’s life for another’ is not a loss of one’s self but a vast expansion of it—because the indivisible reality of love is the only True Self.”

To despair is a waste of time, because despair cannot prevail. Instead, we should focus on doing what God asks of us, according to the prophet Micah: “To act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God.” Whether we stumble, walk, or flow is our choice, but the path is always one of love.