Waiting for the day to begin. Enjoying the peace and the quiet, a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee.
Life is good.
This Sunday is Father’s Day. Another holiday that signifies a spike in shopping - if retailers have their wishes. A day for us to stop and think about our fathers, visit them if we can - if fathers have their wishes. This Sunday give your father the best thing any of us have; our selves, our time, and our attention.
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People say the best way to make your self feel better about yourself is to do something for someone else. Helping others, serving, caring for those who need us can be very therapeutic. This like so many things, is easier said then done. If you are in a deep dark hole it’s not possible to help others – in fact people, who “reach out” to others, who are not themselves in some sense - stable, satisfied, strong, and loving; can do more harm than good.
I italicized in some sense because as humans we are all in some other sense – unstable, dissatisfied, weak and unloving. The great thing about being here by grace and saved because of our faith is that it isn’t what we do, it isn’t who we are, it isn’t us pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps – it’s about being open to what God wants, having faith that our lives have a higher purpose than what we can know. Having faith that God is love, God loves every one of us and we are all worthy of being loved. Faith that there is something, beyond what we can know, that guides this earthly plane.
We are here but a short while, pilgrims, travelers on a path, ending up where we came from. We came from that plane when we are born and return to that plane when our spirits leave our bodies. Nothing changes, everything changes, we never leave, but we are always leaving. It’s a paradox, and a mystery that we can’t penetrate, so we have a couple of choices – we can say there is no mystery (we know it all…it’s all understandable) or we can back off on our egos a bit and admit there are some things we don’t know (and probably can’t know). So we rely on faith. We take a leap….to something a little scary, maybe very scary, the idea that we are here by grace and saved by faith and (here’s the important part) THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT.
So relax – it’ll be okay. We can’t cheat on this. We can’t escape no matter how hard we try, a new car, better job, bigger house, ironclad retirement plan…none of it means anything. If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. There are very very few important things in life. I can guarantee you that one of them is not that you accumulated 2 tons of trinkets (even gold trinkets).
We are saved, we are lovable and can give others love. We can act out of the kindness of our hearts. We can put aside worldly things and forget about the things our consumer oriented, politically polarized, hyperactive, society says we should find important – to think about and more importantly – do – other things, that bring some beauty into this world. We can use our weaknesses and our strengths to make this world just a little better place for a time. We have no idea how far a small act of loving kindness will travel. We can take a leap of faith and believe it will go all the away around the world...
And come back to you.
