Celebrating LIfe

Today we are off to Stonehenge. This site has been visited for thousands of years and continues to be one of the most visited sites to this day. Our reflection for the day is on seeing the divine in and around us. They say that the veil between heaven and earth is very thin at this site. They say that looking upon the ancient monument sends shivers down your spine and makes the hair on your arms stand up. What is incredible is that the veil between heaven and earth is also thin when we gaze upon each other. If we are created in the image and likeness of God then divine can be seen in each other. God has allowed us to see himself in all of us, but do we treat each other as if that were true.

We are told by Jesus that we are to love God and love others as we love ourselves. We are to treat other how we want to be treated. When Jesus walked this earth as some of us believe, according to the accounts of his life he went around healing and encouraging almost everyone he came in contact with. He talked about forgiveness, he spoke about acceptance, he preached about not judging others and to remove the log from our own eye before we removed the splinter from our brothers. I often ask myself if I am living that way. Am I living as if the person right next to me had the imprint of God himself. Am I treating others as Jesus treated others. Am I celebrating the very existence of life in other and in myself.

Yesterday I wrote about forgiveness, today I write about the acceptance of forgiveness and the celebration that follows when I have accepted that forgiveness. Joy comes to the heart when the reality of my freedom and forgiveness permeates my inner soul, my inner heart of understanding. I should be celebrating the fact that the person next to me shares in that same forgiveness and joy. Am I letting others know about that reality? Shouldn't I be standing from the mountaintop exclaiming to the world that they are forgiven, and all that we need to do is acknowledge that forgiveness to feel the joy and freedom that follows?

Today this is what I will do. I am, right now, letting anyone that reads this know that they are forgiven, that they are free, and that God has imprinted himself in them and Christ has taught all to live with the attitude of humility and acceptance.

Life is Fragile

I wake this morning with the gruesome images of the fatal accident Teresa and I witnessed flashing through my mind. Yesterday started as a gloriously beautiful day filled with fun and relaxation. We walked around the our town and took in the sun and sights of a bustling little city near the sea. We had a wonderful healthful lunch poolside as our dogs enjoyed the water and the rawhide meat sticks. We planned on attending a movie at The Palace Theatre in Boca Raton, we even splurged and bought balcony extra large seat seating. All day we talked of our decision to move to South Florida and how thankful we were for things falling into place after our daring decision to up and move 1200 miles away from home. It was such a pleasant day and we looked forward to a wonderful evening at the movies.

At around 5:46 pm we were on our way to the theatre and stopped at a red light heading west towards the movie theatre. Off to the left of us three people were riding their bikes east towards the ocean. In a flash a car traveling at a high speed south flew through the intersection and all of a sudden we heard screeching tires, saw white smoke, and heard a large crash as if two cars collided. We saw something fly into the air and hit the ground. I looked over at Teresa and she said, "that was a person." I jumped out of the car and pulled out my cell phone and started running towards the body that lay lifeless in the middle of the road. I am connected with the local police and they start asking questions, "Is the person breathing? Who is screaming in the background? Can you tell me the license plate number of the car? Chris I am going to need you to take control of the situation until the police arrive!" During the questioning by the police officer I was running back and forth, checking the body, getting the license plate number, telling cars to pull off the road and staring at my wife as we stand next to a seemingly dead body and hearing the screams of a young woman "my husbands dead! He's my whole world! What am I going to do now? Oh my God, Oh my God, no no please don't die!" At that moment a man on bicycle rides up and he is an ER doctor and he is checking his pulse and from the looks of the doctor he could not find one. At that moment the police arrive and a few moments later the paramedics. The police ask all of us to move to the side since we are witnesses, they are going to need our statements. The rest of the night was filled with retelling the story to different investigators and signing witness statements.

Unfortunately this is not the first time I was the first on scene during a fatal accident. During one of my drives to Florida with a friend of mine and my father, we witnessed a car flipping in the middle of the air heading north on I-95. We immediately pulled to the middle of the median and ran to the scene as I called 911 from my cell phone. As I reached the vehicle explaining to the dispatcher where the accident happened I saw one woman in the passenger seat moaning in agony from the pain she said she was having. As I focused my eyes to the driver I realized that this woman driving had lost her life as her body lay limp and her eyes open but nothing was present. Two other people were ejected from the car and as I explain again to the dispatcher the scene of the accident he explains that the two ejected need to be held down so they do not hurt themselves more by moving. Holding the phone to my ear with my shoulder I hold the man down by pressing on his chest and softly saying, "sir please don't move, help is on the way." After the paramedics showed up I went back over to the car and the lady who was moaning in pain asked if I could call her son who was graduating college that day and let him know that she was in a car accident. This was not something that I really wanted to do but I felt that it would only be right if I did. I called this young man and let him know, I informed him of the location and he thanked me and I hung up. Moments later we got back in our car and continued to drive south towards our destination. I can still see the whole accident in my mind as if it just happened.

Last nights traumatic event leaves me with many existential questions. It also leaves me realizing how fragile life is. In just an instant so many people were affected by a single incident. A wife is now a widow, a driver is now a killer, 8 other people, including Teresa and I, are witnesses of a gruesome death that will forever stay with us. Why? All the little events that brought together a group of people to that location at that time is certainly unexplainable. I could sit for hours and try to find an answer for my question of why but in reality I am sure I will never know. What I can do is look at what the incident has taught me or showed me or enlightened me about life.

As I think about that young woman who lost her husband in an instant, I realize how it is so necessary to cherish every moment with my wife. Unfortunately tomorrow isn't promised to us and so for today I will cherish her love, her smile, her laughter, her compassion, her passion. I will take advantage of the moments that we have together and give her all my love at each moment.

As the image above says, Life is Fragile Handle with Prayer, I have made a decision even before last night to spend more time in prayer. I pray for the safety of my family but I also pray for me to love my wife to the fullest. This morning I pray for the family of the young man who left his body last night and entered into eternity. I pray for the witnesses who will forever have the horrid pictures tattooed into their memories, I pray for the driver who will have the guilt of killing an innocent man.

The Genesis of Practice

In this chapter of the Finding Our Way Again Mclaren points to the fact that the ancient practices of the three major religions can be seen to begin with Abraham. In fact Judaism, Islam, and Christianity look at Abraham as the father of their particular religion. The ancient practices that are going to be discussed over the next year are pilgrimage, fasting, sacred meal, common prayer, giving, Sabbath, and liturgical year. Each practice has a book dedicated to it in this series of books. Again my plan is to read through each one of them and interact not only in written word but also in action.

I want to put my thoughts into action. In many ways I have, for some, I am proud, for others, not so proud. But that is the journey of life. Journey is an interesting concept. Are you journeying through life? Do you recognize that life is a journey? I see life as a journey, or as used above, a pilgrimage. In life we set goals for ourselves and then we do our best to achieve those goals. These goals are pretty typical, house, family, retirement package, travel, etc. These are great goals. I have some of those myself. But, what about the goals that you can not see i.e. happiness, joy, peace, love, and gratitude. These goals are too often linked to the previous goals. Often what I have found and read when men and women look back on their lives the things that meant most to them were the latter goals. The houses and money and retirement packages were nice but they didn't bring what they really wanted.

For me, my journey and goals are going to consist of desiring both, but most important the things that cannot be seen. My thought is if I can not find those things that make the soul feel alive how will I ever really enjoy the things that make the body feel alive. If I am dead on the inside, how can I be alive on the outside.

It reminds me of Dorian Gray, in the story by Oscar Wilde, Gray's physical appearance never changes. Dorian recognizes that his beauty and his charm can get him anything he wants, so lives a scintillating life filled with serving the physical desires. One day he notices this painting on the wall and recognizes the face although it is old and decrepit. It was himself he saw in the painting only thing was the painting took all the results of his lifestyle. Hating himself and ignoring the priests suggestion he stabs the painting with his knife, and this in fact kills him because although he looked pleasant and pleased on the outside his true decaying portrait was his real self.

I wonder what my true self looks like? I wonder how much damage I have done over the years of gratifying selfish pleasures and focusing on what is seen rather putting my focus and attention on what is most important? I think for me this should be a daily question. As I think through ancient practices and apply them to my life, I should be asking the simple question of what is my goal? what do I want out of this? Who and What am I seeking?

Why even care about spiritual practices

Brian McLaren wrote, “You can’t take an epidural shot to ease the pain of giving birth to character. In a sense, every day of your life is labor: the rhythmic agony of producing the person who will wake up in the your body tomorrow, creating your reputation, continuing your legacy, and influencing your family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, and countless strangers, for better or worse. It is questionable whether you can ever be exactly the same person for two consecutive days: what today throws at you will force you to become better or bitter for tomorrow; it will push you toward breakdown or breakthrough, nudge you a step closer to courage, nobility, charity, integrity, and honor... or otherwise.

It seems to me that working on my character is not top priority. Growing up some of the most important things in life consisted of being tough, being cool, having money, having clothes, and fresh pair of kicks. None of those things actually prepare you for the real world. In my estimation the real world is not the world filled with meaningless jobs, meaningless conversations, and meaningless relationships. The world is much bigger and deeper. We tread mostly on the top soil of the world. We focus on the exterior rather reaching the depths where real sustenance begins. We must get to the root.

I believe that spiritual practices will bring us to that place. “Spiritual practices are actions within our power that help us narrow the gap. They help us become someone weighty, someone worthy of a name and reputation, someone who makes survival worthwhile by turning life’s manure into fertilizer.”

In my life I have had to deal with some manure. Some has stayed manure and others I have turned into fertilizer. The recognition that I have manure is the first step towards changing it. I feel so often that I have allowed my pride and my insecurities to prevent me from changing and morphing some of that manure. If you are walking down the road or in some field and you are watching the ground you can notice if someone has not picked up after their dog and you can avoid it. The problem is for me so often I am looking in the wrong direction and I step right in it (its probably one of my dogs anyway). I am not aware enough. I am not willing to look hard enough probably because of fear, fear of what I might find.

I need to alter my vision. I need to focus on what is important in life. There is a deep longing to be connected to something bigger than myself. Many people in history have felt that longing and have used spiritual practices to satisfy that longing, to find that connection, to identify what is most important in life.

Prayer: God I ask that you will open my eyes and allow me to see, I ask that you will open my ears and allow me to hear. As I practice these principles and and allow your spirit to guide and direct me, open my heart to your beauty, open my heart to what is important in this life.