I consider it an honor to help alcoholics and addicts on their spiritual journey of recovery--especially during the Holidays.
My friend Meridith who works for StoryCorps sent me this video about recovery for the New Year.
It's really good and only a few minutes long so I had to share.
The coicinding this year of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah immediately followed by the First Sunday of Advent initiates us into a marvelous Season of Lights.
For me, light is symbolic of increased understanding. I'm asking God to expel the misunderstanding, ignorance, and darkness in my life with the grace of understanding, insight, and light.
I'm also asking that I continue to be aligned daily to connect with those people, places, and things that are vital to my life's purpose.
I'm endeavoring to live from a spiritual place that transcends the arc of time and space yet one that still invades this time and space in the physical, natural realm.
I'm asking for the spiritual Kingdom of Light to touch my life's everyday activities--that I find the sacred in the seemingly mundane.
Let us pray:
O God of Understanding, guide me into greater Light. Expel the darkness of misunderstanding and ignorance from my life. Connect me to the places I must be. Give me grace to show up and be fully present. Holy Spirit, lead me toward those who are waiting for me, and draw to me those whom I am waiting for. May all my movements be guided by your Light and transfigured with your joy. So be it. Amen.
(partially adapted from the Prayer of St. Raphael)
Last week I attended The Reformation Project conference in Kansas City. It was a transformative time, and I was deeply impacted by the stories of courage and spiritual devotion.
My friend Lisa read part of a poem entitled "The Church-porch", by the 16th c. poet George Herbert:
It takes great courage to change one's life, to move out of the confines of convention into the new life that beckons. It is easier and much more comfortable for the soul to remain asleep in bed, one's wings quietly tucked away.
That is what fear does to us. It immobilizes, paralyzes, and keeps us from living the life we are called to live.
Taking courageous action unfurls the brave wings of the soul. Our wings are already there, waiting for us to fly. We just need to spread them wide.
I recently posted the following on Facebook:
Sometimes when I stop and recount all of the wonderful people in my life I am filled with so much gratitude I can hardly stand it.
At the risk of sounding cheesy, I really do mean it.
I purposed a few years ago to practice gratitude in most of my affairs.
I say "most" instead of "all" because I daily drive daily on I-95. I'm also a realist. South Florida traffic tends to pull out the dodgiest of emotions in me. Disciplining my emotion takes work.
So I began to counter those irregular moments with gratitude. When in the car and I feel myself going to a less-than-happy place, I start re-counting all the people and things and experiences I'm grateful for. I do it out-loud so I can hear it and really experience the moment.
I've recently gotten very good at it too. There's nothing to lighten the mood and give joy to the journey than practicing gratitude.
I've found this does not come natural, I must practice it. Like any other healthy discipline, the more I do it the easier it becomes.
I even loaded the screen saver on my flat screen tv with photos of the people, places, and events that bring great joy to me. When I'm down, I let those pictures scroll and my heart swells. That's what I was doing when I posted my gratitude update on Facebook.
I plan on keeping this up.
Truly grateful for the many blessings in my life and the opportunity to share them...such a better way to live.
I recently stirred controversy when I stated on a Facebook discussion page that we might carry our unresolved issues into the afterlife.
Now for the Buddhist or Hindu this is not too troubling of an idea. In fact, reincarnation provides the hope that unfinished business from this life can somehow be resolved in a future one.
But this proposition can be startling for many people of Judeo-Christian faith. The pervasive thinking is that when you die you enter into "heaven", "glory" or "eternal rest".
Popular, Christian theology would say that once you believe in Christ (or accept, trust in, are baptized, saved, etc.), your sins are forgiven and you don't need do too much more spiritual work on yourself in this life. You are good, and if there's anything you don't really want to face, it will all be erased when you get to heaven.
However, I do not see this escapist theology in the teachings of Jesus.
Most troubling for me is a quote in Matthew:
"But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."
Jesus seems to be saying that there is some spiritual dynamic at work when we choose to hold onto unforgiveness, bitterness, and resentments. Somehow, we carry this stuff with us now and perhaps even to the grave, especially if Jesus' assertion is true that God won't forgive us for that which we hold against another.
So much for dying with a sense of relief that my unfinished business will have no real consequence now or in the afterlife!
Consider Revelation 20 and what some Christians call the Final Judgment:
"I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books."
The Scriptures seem to indicate there is some kind of reckoning and what we do here on this earth has consequence when our spirits leave our body.
Now to be clear: this does not terrify me. On the contrary, as a person of faith it gives me great hope.
In Western culture, we have a penchant for avoiding pain and anything that causes us discomfort. I believe this avoidance of pain, conflict, and distress lies at the heart of many of our psycho-emotional-spiritual problems. Avoiding something does not make it go away, it just leaves it lying there under the surface, festering, and perhaps even growing like a cancer.
Pain is part-and-parcel of human experience. When we deal with the unresolved issues that cause us emotional distress (i.e. pain and suffering), we find that there is some degree of alleviation of that same distress. This promotes psycho-emotional-spiritual health.
The Gospel record shows us that even Jesus wanted to avoid the pain of the cross ("Let this cup pass from me"). Yet, he embraced it as a way toward spiritual liberation. He leaned into his painful experience and thereby was freed from it. It held less power over him, and thus transformation could result.
Part of spiritual maturing is what I call "leaning into the pain". When I do this, I acknowledge and feel the unresolved issues that create distress and also allow the opportunity for healing, resolution, or release to come. These issues might not resolve in the manner I'd like, but they don't govern my soul quite as much.
You see, when we run from the pain, we only create more room for it in our future.
It is only by feeling the complexity of our human condition that some level of psycho-emotional-spiritual resolve can come. Could not that pain actually be an invitation from God for spiritual growth and maturity? And if it is, what makes us think that we won't have that same opportunity of grace to spiritually grow and develop when in the afterlife? Could there not be even more room for grace, healing, and growth on the other side?
I believe that leaning into the pain caused by our unresolved issues actually brings transformation and grace to bear upon our lives. So the proposition that any unfinished psycho-emotional-spiritual business might be resolved on the other side gives me great hope!
The novelist, playwright, and poet James Baldwin wrote, "Your crown has been bought and paid for. All you have to do is put it on your head."
I think we need to start wearing our crowns now. Dealing with any unfinished business enables us wear them, thereby walking in spiritual health now--and perhaps in the life to come.
I absolutely love this video from Coca-Cola on bringing people together in India and Pakistan.
I undertand it's marketing, but if Coca-Cola gets it, why can't we? Furthermore, why won't we?
We need more creative reconciliation initiatives in the world like this one using Small World Machines.
As one of the voice overs says, "It is more about how similar we are as opposed to how different we are."
As for me, I've got my Coke Zero in hand and am reminding myself the importance of reaching out to those who might be very different than me.
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