“Was Blind But Now I See…”

Hi, friends,

Carl Jung said that he knew of only two ways to overcome the power of evil: 1) If the soul is filled with a greater power than the evil; 2) If the person is part of a warm, supportive, related community.

In two days Ash Wednesday will mark the beginning of the season of Lent. Surprised? So soon? In my community (80% Roman Catholic) I don’t notice nearly so many displaying the sign of ashes on their foreheads. (And I suspect that the vast majority of those in our Protestant churches have never been to an Ash Wednesday service.) Are we too busy for ritual? Or repentance in general? Can we afford to be?

Jung’s words are worthy of our deep reflection. People in relational isolation can’t possibly stand up to the power of evil. That’s part of the reason we gather in churches. Not just to enjoy each other’s company, as important as that is—but to gain strength to resist when the test comes, and it always does. The community empowers us to walk this Lenten walk, to explore the shadows, and to seek and find light there, of all places.

While being tempted, Jesus challenged his Challenger with scripture and his faith in God. (Jung, #1) And then he began immediately to recruit his support/learning group—his disciples. (Jung #2)

Moping during Lent isn’t really the point from my perspective. These practices are intended to be life-giving. Don’t pretend there isn’t any darkness in your life. Enter it, learn from it—and know you aren’t alone. And then watch your capacity to see and embody the light expand.

Your fellow traveler,
Jeff

“You Go, Girl!”

Hi, friends,

Ron Heifetz tells us about his three-year-old daughter Kaitlin. An adult sat next to her and asked her a question, and then stuck around for the answer. Kaitlin took him at his word, and began to respond in some detail. This wasn’t what the gentleman had expected, and soon his eyes glazed over and he lost interest. Reading his face, she reached over, indignant, and knocked on his forehead three times and said, “Hello! Anyone in there?”

How precious in a child. But not recommended behavior for an adult. We have all zoned out on others and had it done to us. But it’s not polite to unmask the ruse so boldly; it can simply be a way of returning the insult with interest. We can disentangle without rapping someone on the forehead.

But neither should Kaitlin be taken lightly—she has important lessons to teach about…God:

–My time is just as precious as yours.
–Don’t act like you are interested in me if you’re not.
–Don’t insult me with a mask. (Your masks don’t fool people as often as you think.)
–Really listening is one of the most loving things we can do.
–If I’m Real with you and you are Real with me and it doesn’t click, no harm, no foul. Be polite and move on.
–But if we ARE real with each other, and we connect, life is enhanced. (It often surprises us when it happens, because it’s relatively rare.)
–Final conclusion: Risk being Real. It’s the only way to Live.

Jesus was always Real. And some flocked after him, wanting more, while others couldn’t run away fast enough. Thank you, Kaitlin. Keep it up. You may be more of a sign of God’s presence than you realize.

Your fellow traveler,
Jeff

“Weird Experiences of God”

Hi, friends,

A young boy is asked what he learned in Sunday School. “Moses led his people out of slavery in Egypt—Pharaoh chased them to the edge of the Red Sea. Then a flying saucer came out of the sky, burned a pathway through the sea, the people crossed on dry land, and when the Egyptians followed, the space ship let the waters flood back over them.” “They taught you THAT in Sunday School?” “No, not really…but you wouldn’t believe what they really said…”

I’m working with our Confirmation Class, and we have explored some of the weird stories in the Bible. (“What did Noah’s neighbors say when they saw him building a huge ark in the driveway?”—Bill Cosby) They are not so willing to just accept the stories on face value. Part of me seeks to help them to make sense out of all of this, but I don’t think that’s possible—and I’ve concluded that this is a good thing.

Moses(a murderer in hiding) “sees” a burning bush that is not consumed and hears the voice of God calling him to change history. (Would you tell your friends at work about this?)

Jacob, the sleazy manipulator, flees his homeland for his life, but has a dream in which God tells him that he will eventually come home and be the leader of a great nation. (God can’t do better than this guy?)

Mary, a very young woman, goes home to her parents and tells them that she is with child, but Joseph couldn’t be the father because she has never been intimate with him or anyone else. It was the Holy Spirit—the angel said so. (“Surre! Don’t insult our intelligence!”)

And yet, Moses, Jacob, and Mary are three of the most important figures in the history of our faith, despite(or because of?) their challenges to the common-sense side of us. In our attempts to make God “reasonable”, it’s too easy to filter out the “weird” in our own lives. But, strangely, God seems to thrive on it, bringing Grace out of the seemingly impossible. These young people open my eyes to things I cannot control or explain—which is often the place where God shows up. A good place for all of us to be.

Your fellow traveler,

Jeff

“Lord, Could You Make it Easier?”

Dear friends,

We all have someone like Walt in our lives, I suspect. He’s a wounded guy who has struggled to make it in life. As you get to know him better, you can understand why: he has a short fuse, is impatient and quick to jump to conclusions (usually the worst ones), has a very difficult time really hearing others, and won’t let up until you have done something to relieve his deep well of anxiety(which always seems to be ready to overflow). I often try to do things to help him when a crisis arises, and I often succeed in alleviating or even solving the problem. But he doesn’t know how to say “Thanks.” He seems to have moved on to the next problem in his mind. And sometimes I find myself muttering under my breath: “Next time he treats me like this, I’m just going to tell him to go find someone else… I’ve got more important things to do than to get involved in his problems.”

Do I? Getting flustered with him is to be expected–but when I let it fester to the point that I am filled with thoughts of distancing myself from him, we all lose. Lucky for me, by the time he comes to me again with an urgent problem to solve RIGHT NOW, I’m out of my funk, and I do it all over again!

You know what the problem is here. It isn’t Walt–it’s me. He’s been wounded by life so often that he expects it. I can’t change him. I can only change me, and how I respond. Am I helping him because I really love him? Or because I want him to go away…for a while? Or am I seeking to be warmly thanked and appreciated? All of the above are involved.

I realize that Walt is often one of the most important teachers in my life. It’s a lot easier to preach about you, Lord, than it is to follow in your footsteps. I am grateful for your patience with me. Please give me more with Walt.

Your fellow traveler,

Jeff

“Teaching Without Words”

Dear friends,

Linda died in July when I was away on vacation. I met her 15 years ago when she moved into the Boston Home in Dorchester. We were the same age—but she had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis(MS) back in ‘74 when she was only 25, the year before I got married. Our lives had unfolded very differently. The disease limited many of her options in life, but it never corralled her spirit. She was one intense lady.

Her mind was sharp and active, a true explorer, always probing and pushing us into new territory. As her MS progressed, she reluctantly had to graduate from a manual to a power wheelchair. She loved to paint, and learned to use a brush with her teeth.

I visited her in the hospital several times—she had frequent bouts with pneumonia, and there were times when I left her room convinced that I would never see her again. But she kept coming back…except for this time.

I find it uplifting and humbling to ponder the lives of those like Linda whose struggles dwarf mine, and yet who are triumphant and engaged right up to the end. She embodied her statement of faith.

Your fellow traveler,

Jeff

“The Dark Side of the Game”

Hi, friends,

I enjoy writing my blogs—probing, reflecting, seeking. But I confess that some subjects are very difficult to contemplate. Human trafficking(the global slave trade) is one of them. Some are child soldiers; others, child laborers; the majority are sex slaves. From Siddarth Kara, antislavery activist: “I experienced no emotion more devastating than peering into the eyes of an enslaved human child. Where one expects to see the spark of innocence, one discovers instead the abyss of humankind’s most savage cruelty.” ** “More girls have been killed(by violence or neglect) in the past 50 years precisely because they were girls than men were killed in all of the battles of the 20th century.” –Half the Sky, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. (I had to read this three times before it began to sink in. War dead tend to be documented, but these victims are often nameless and faceless, disposed of without a trace, the weak and vulnerable used to satiate the despicable.) But it’s not just a problem in faraway places.

From Abayea Pelt, a social worker in training in Washington, DC: “I am teaching barely adolescent girls and boys about the type of trafficking that most endangers (young people their age)…Human trafficking is often portrayed as an international problem, not something that happens in the US.” (Estimates are that 100,000 girls are trafficked as sex slaves within the US–truck stops are the most lucrative 21st century brothels.) “The heart-wrenching fact is that the average age of entry into prostitution and pornography (here) is between 12 and 14 years old…**

But it’s closer still. Some people are getting organized to fight back. Where? Indianapolis. Why? The Super Bowl. A large gathering, complete with lots of visitors and revelers, attracts traffickers peddling their victims. The activists and their strategy?

“Over the last few weeks, 11 orders of Catholic sisters, joined by students, compiled a list of the managers at 220 hotels in the Indianapolis area. They then began calling, asking …the managers (if they) they wanted materials to help educate their staffs. The information included how to recognize the signs of trafficking, and whom to contact if it is suspected.”** (They also sought to educate taxi drivers, a first line of defense.)

A brilliant grassroots campaign! Leave it to the Sisters. But it’s just a drop in the bucket.

I’m looking forward to watching the Super Bowl, especially because the Patriots are in it. But now that I’m more aware of the “darker side of the game,” I’ll also be thinking about those nuns, hotel managers, taxi drivers, and other everyday citizens, and how it requires a concerted and intentional effort to expose this deep abyss to the light. I knew about this kind of ugly stuff—but not really. Nothing can really happen until we see it and then commit ourselves to change it.
(**quotes taken from Sojourners, Feb. ’12)

Your fellow traveler,
Jeff

Listen to the ‘Nones’

The rhetoric about religion, faith, politics and atheism has been hot for a while now, and shows no signs of abating. That’s a good thing—people are interested, especially in experiencing the Sacred and serving others. That’s where we can help.

Eric Weiner, in a 12/10/11 Op Ed piece in the NY Times, reflects on those whom we may not have considered as seeking what we have to offer: “We are the ‘Nones’, the roughly 12 percent of (Americans) who say they have no religious affiliation at all. We drift spiritually and dabble in everything from Sufism to Kabbalah to, yes, Catholicism and Judaism.”

Listen to the not-so-hidden longing in his words: “We ‘Nones’ may not believe in God, but we hope to one day. We have a dog in this hunt…” And rather than focus on what turns them off about organized religion(how much time do you have?), pay close attention to what attracts them: “‘Nones’ don’t get hung up on whether a religion is ‘true’ or not, and instead subscribe to William James’s maxim that ‘truth is what works.’ If a certain spiritual practice makes us better people — more loving, less angry — then it is necessarily good, and by extension ‘true.’ (Italics mine.) ‘Nones’ aren’t interested in fluff or role-playing. I wonder what they would tell us if we were to actually ask them what they really seek and how we could help provide it? It’s time to ask!
People seldom get argued out of a particular religious point of view. But we can all be loved into a new one.
Your fellow traveler,
Jeff