Thank you for wandering these highlands with me over the past many days. It has been a pleasure to walk with you.
You will still find me here, maybe a little less frequently, but here.
I am going to turn and go north for a bit. See where Spirit leads me.
I look forward to more journeys together.
Peace.
Happy and joyous Easter! Our Lenten journey has ended, and we find ourselves in the light of Easter morning.
This journey began in the middle of the desert with a different kind of Ash Wednesday. As the sun breaks this Easter Day, new lessons of Resurrection shine through.
Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you...As the Father has sent me, so I send you." ~John 20:20–21
Blessings and peace to you and your families! Enjoy this day!
The tomb is sealed. The waiting begins.
These hours are necessary. But necessary and easy are two very different things. Yet another time in our lives requiring patience. A virtue in thinning supply.
So often in life we plant seeds...of ideas, efforts, and good intentions. With the dirt barely covering, we begin searching for an immediate and predictable harvest.
So like the disciples are we. They followed a teacher and friend, but did not anticipate a Cross, a Death, and a burial.
Teach us Lord, as you did them, the lesson of the tomb. Help us to see that while we tend our seeds, we cannot control when or how the fruit of our efforts will grow. Show us again that patiently and lovingly tending the garden will make it, and us, ready for the Resurrection.
adapted from The Stations of the Cross, Station 14, by Denise Hemrich-Skomer and Fr. Joachim Tyrtania
These words begin John's telling of the Last Supper. In full knowledge of his impending death, Jesus loved. He loved his own.
Jesus' disciples were a band of average people with faults and doubts, needs and egos. The Gospel stories tell of their fears, misunderstandings, mistakes, and in the end, betrayals and denial. Yet still, he loved them to the end.
This speaks to me in two ways.
How do we love our own? Do we focus on the things that bother us? Do we allow judgment and expectation to cloud our interactions?
We don't know when our hour will come. If the past year has taught us anything, it's that life is precious and fleeting. Perhaps these words serve as a gentle reminder to view our own in this world through the lens of love.
I'd also like to think that we are part of this intention. Jesus loves us, his own, to the end. Not in spite of our faults, but because of them. We, like the disciples, are flawed. At times we struggle, we fail, we deny, we betray, but we keep trying. With faith, in hope, we start over each day with new opportunities to be our best in this world.
So on this Holy Thursday, take a moment to center yourself in love.
Love your own and know you are loved...to the end.
I often wonder why this story about Simon is included in three of the four Gospels. It's an oddly specific yet brief mention about a guy who just happened by. Why mention his name? What is the lesson that he brings?
While Jesus' crucifixion was the most famous in history, thousands upon thousands of people were crucified in ancient times. It was considered the most brutal and shameful way to die. For that reason, I imagine that crowds often gathered in a macabre kind of way. While they may have watched and jeered from the safety of a group, it is unlikely anyone wanted to be singled out or called by name. Being identified might make you vulnerable, or considered sympathetic to the accused.
But to be taken hold of and named would make you a witness. And this might be where our lesson lies.
Bearing witness means to acknowledge that something exists or is true. In psychology, it involves the sharing of traumatic experiences in an effort to provide healing.
More simply, bearing witness is to see and be seen.
It takes courage to be a witness. When we watch another person struggle we take on a share of the pain ourselves. This is felt even more strongly when we know and love the one who suffers. But there is also great honor in being a witness. To walk with someone and bear their cross for awhile is a gift of trust both given and received.
Simon may or may not have known Christ. But he forever carried the privilege of being witness to Jesus' final moments in this world.
There are so many hurting right now. The times in which we live make being present for one another harder and harder. Yet there has likely never been a point when the need to be seen has been greater.
"The ultimate touchstone [of friendship] is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone." ~ David Whyte
Being still does not come naturally to me. I'm trying out my third meditation app. Perhaps it's me, not them.
The biggest hurdle is quieting my mind. I think that's a pretty common issue. My experience is not that unique. Many of the guided meditations I've used invite me to focus on my breath. This gets in my head and leads me to think about breathing.
What I've discovered is the more I think about breathing, the harder it is to breathe. I've almost hyperventilated by trying to breathe. Then today I heard a really profound but simple statement.
The body breathes.
You may be confused by my amazement at such an obvious and simple fact. But what a miracle! The body breathes whether you think about it or (and even more effectively) whether you don't.
Struggle is a by-product of overthinking. Ask any athlete who suddenly decides to focus on a swing or a pitch, a kick or a release. We end up with paralysis by analysis.
I think the same can be true in our faith life. We start the Lenten season with a list of ways we will transform our prayer life. We make intentions to change our habits and behaviors. We put a lot of focus on our own actions. Inevitably life happens and we get sidetracked. We lose steam and feel defeated.
The lesson here is we can't think our way into a better relationship with God. We can't fight our way into holiness. Habits and intentions are tools, and those practices certainly offer opportunities for growth. But in the end, the more we think about God, the harder it can be to feel and truly know God. In stillness, comes a profound insight.
Spirit breathes.
In us, through us, all the time...Spirit breathes. We have only to keep still.
