Shopping

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consider, grace, options, Peace, rainbow, spring, symbol, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I’ve begun to think that everything can be a symbol from which I can learn if I am paying attention. Call me crazy but I’m convinced that there are lessons to be learned each day and life is more easily engaged in a positive manner if we pay attention. Let me explain.

Yesterday I finally accepted the fact that I needed to get a new phone. (Mine has been on a charger now for days with no sign of life.) Being one of the least technologically savvy persons I know, I resisted a trip to the Verizon store but finally gave in to the inevitability and went. Having been alerted to the fact that there is an alternative to the large store near the university where all the employees are like 15-year-old barracudas who meet you at the door and talk faster than anyone I have ever met, I was grateful for the information that led me to that small, quiet alternative where there were only two employees, one a middle-aged man and one a 22-year-old woman. She became my guardian angel within the first five minutes. The bad news was that my phone was irrevocably dead and because I had resisted adding “cloud space” for the last many months, she would not be able to transfer such things as contacts and photos. The good news was that I would be able to purchase a new phone for about 60% of the price that I was expecting.

I did not buy the phone. I needed time to consider the options. Grace got in my car with me for the trip home, however, because in that half-hour drive two things happened. First, in realizing that I would need to let go of much that was contained in the phone’s memory, I would be starting over. A new season would be born for me which suddenly seemed like a good thing – like when the first shoots of spring plants begin to appear. Of course it will demand some work to build a new set of contacts but those will be recent rather than long-ago entries that are no longer operative. And if my photos are gone, I still have the memories they contained. The recognition was swift and filled me with peace.

As I neared my exit from the highway the most vivid and spacious rainbow suddenly appeared, stretching from ground to sky in a blaze of seven colors that took my breath away. Because I had left the sun in the city and was driving into a dark gray backdrop of sky, conditions were perfect for such a show: no rain, just glorious color. It stayed with me for over five minutes of gratitude and glory.

Today I will buy and begin life with my new phone and call it Grace.

Starting Now

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covenant, Genesis, holy season, Lent, path, rainbow, spring, teach, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth

Two things occur to me as I read the lectionary texts for this First Sunday of Lent. Initially, as the sky clears after a night of snow here, Genesis announces God’s promise of the covenant that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood. I muse that I haven’t seen a rainbow – that amazing sign of God’s covenant – for a very long time. It’s not that I haven’t looked, nor do I think God has had a change of mind, but it does make one wonder – in light of all the devastating floods this past year – if we are paying enough attention. Happily we now know the vastness of the world as well as the cooperation that has been manifested after each tragedy, allowing the restoration of stricken areas through generosity and teamwork.

Secondly, and most likely due to the slow pace of life in my home for the past two weeks because of the nasty flu bug, it seems as if Valentine’s Day/Ash Wednesday was much longer ago than half a week. When I read “First Sunday of Lent” this morning, therefore, on the US Bishops website, I react with a surprised: “What!? So…all the “Lent-ing” so far was just practice…preamble, maybe?” and I wonder if the “Holy Season” will drag along seemingly forever. But that might not be a bad thing, given my lack of preparedness so far! Maybe I’m being given a second chance to wake up, to shake off the lethargy of inaction and make something of these next several weeks.

So in the hope that spring awaits at the end, I resolve to pay more attention beginning today, as I pray with the psalmist: Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God, my Savior!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open the Door

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answers, ask and receive, faith, friendshi[, Jesus, Judy Collins, Luke, open the door, perseverance, prayer, rainbow, seek and find, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, welcome

Judy Collins – who has one of the purest voices I have ever heard – sang a song on one of her albums years ago that (to my surprise) did not become one of her “greatest hits.” The chorus goes something like this: Open the door and come on in; I’m so glad to see you, my friend. You’re like a rainbow coming around the bend. And when I see you happy, well, it sets my heart free. I’d like to be the kind of friend to you that you are to me. After the last verse, she pluralizes the word “friend” and says, “you’re all like rainbows coming…” I’m reminded of that song this morning and of a famous image of Jesus knocking on a door that has no doorknob so the person on the inside must open it. The message is clear, we must invite Christ into our lives.

In this morning’s gospel (LK 11:5-13) Jesus begins by suggesting a scenario to his disciples of someone going to a friend’s house at midnight asking for three loaves of bread for out-of-town guests who have just arrived. The friend tells him to go away as his household is already locked up for the night. I know the truth of the next line. It says, I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his perseverance. Sometimes it’s easier to answer the door when you don’t want to, rather than continuing to hear the knocking. More than just giving in when frustrated, however, I think this is a call to welcome.

The more familiar part of this text follows as Jesus says, And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. This is a comforting thought but there is a catch for persons of faith. Prayer/faith cannot be tied to outcome. When we “storm the gates of heaven” for something – often when people ask us for prayer – we need to remember that God’s vision is clearer than ours and the answer to prayer comes from a heart wiser than ours. We need to pray and to believe that God will always answer. The difficult part is continuing to believe when the “answer” is not the one we would have chosen. This is a hard saying when we are emotionally involved in outcome for ourselves or those we love. It takes practice to acknowledge that God knows better than we do what should happen in a particular case. Opening the door of our hearts to God’s choices for us and our lives is one of the ways that we become like Jesus, who emptied himself to become free enough to do all that was asked of him, knowing that God’s ways are not our ways and that God is always at the door of our hearts, waiting to enter in with a presence that is the answer to all our needs.