Translating a World on the Edge

Heaven on earth. What does that mean to us? Does it have to do with some sort of freedom?

Freedom is often confused with the license to do whatever a person wants to do. What many of us want to do is to serve ourselves. We want to get angry and hold grudges when we feel like it. We want to take the biggest piece of everything. We don’t won’t get off the couch when we need to. We think we’re so important that the world revolves around us, and only us. We want sex whenever, and wherever, and with whomever, we want to have it with. We lie about others, and put them down when they get in our way. We drink too much, eat too much, drug ourselves, or take medications without moderation.

And what does the above behavior encapsulate? The Seven Deadly Sins. Yes, sins: Wrath, Greed, Sloth, Pride, Lust, Envy, and Gluttony.

And none of that behavior brings us freedom. Often, it brings us misery instead. In fact, each sin comes accessorized with a particular kind of prison.

But……

“Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
― John Paul II

We can catch Heaven on Earth, and do–every time we make moral choices and not immoral ones. Probably all of us remember when someone we respected or loved said to us, “Do the right thing.”

An awful lot is contained in those words.

They may be hard to live up to. We may not want to hear them. But when we “do the right thing” we are, ourselves, bringing a little of Heaven to Earth.

How many of us call ourselves Christians? Probably most who read this blog.

But what does it mean to be a Christian, a follower of Christ?  Does it mean we’ll be crucified, too?

It may. At the least, we will surely suffer. Life sees to that.

At times, we cause our own suffering by the bad choices we make.  Other times, another person, or circumstance, out of our control may cause it. We may even be betrayed, as Jesus was for thirty pieces of silver.

But one thing I know. God does not cause our suffering. God is loving, always and forever. He never changes in his love for each of us. And he showed us that on the Cross.

Every suffering we encounter is difficult. We don’t want to go through it.  We pray for a way to get out of it, just as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane when he asked His Father to take it from Him, but assenting that if He would not, then the will of His Father be done. That is the covenant between Son and Father.

Just as with His own son, sometimes the suffering does not leave us. Even when we pray for it to disappear, God allows it to happen for some purpose we may never know in our earthly life.

As my grandmother consistently told me, “Offer up your suffering.” In other words, we may be suffering for others.”

This is what Jesus did. He gave himself away, for each and every one of us, leaving His Holy Spirit within us, leaving us as Temples of Himself, leaving us to use Him by showing His loving way to others. This is the covenant God offers us. The same covenant He offered His Son. But we have to accept it. Do we?

If we really believe that He is within us and that we are to be messengers of His Holy Spirit, wouldn’t we give ourselves to others much more than we do?

We pass down many things to our children. Not only the shape of our eyes, the color of our hair, our dispositions.  Not all of what we pass down is good, but much of it is very good.

We pass down memories that we cherish, and most of the time our children love hearing those memories. We pass our love and respect for God, and most of the time, our children take it to heart. We pass down our ways of dealing with problems,  hopefully they are thoughtful ways that work for our children as well. And we pass down celebration–children love celebration!

One thing that was passed to me is a song my grandfather sang, on the side porch of his house while I sat on his lap.  I can still hear his deep voice and feel the vibrations of his chest as he sang, “and what will the wedding supper be? Two butterbeans and a black-eyed pea.”

The song was “Froggie Went A Courtin’ ” and I’ve passed it down, too.  I’m on the grandchildren now.

I love this video, not only because of the song; but  because it is beautiful, and because it is of family, of love, and of celebration–even if your idea of a feast is not two butterbeans and a black-eyed pea.!

Appalachian dulcimer

I love the sound of the dulcimer. It pricks at my Appalachian roots. I can almost see and hear my back country Carolina ancestors playing it and singing bluegrass music.

A few years ago, at Christmas, I gave my oldest daughter, who now lives in New Orleans,  a very old handmade dulcimer. It was beautiful. I gave it to her because she is gifted in music– so is her husband, and they’ve passed their gifts to their sons.  When Katrina hit in 2005, her family came home for a while. Not knowing what would happen to their house in New Orleans, my daughter brought a few precious things with her. One of them was the dulcimer I’d given her.

The following video is of Huddie Ledbetter, known as Leadbelly. He was a master of the twelve string dulcimer. And he spent some long years in Louisiana, too–in prison at Angola.

But talent cannot be imprisoned, and Leadbelly did not keep his talent under-wraps. In fact, it was because of his talent that he was finally freed. He had a volatile past, but he’s probably one of the only men in prison who made an album for children, explaining what he knew best—the music of his time.

I’ve known a few people in life who’ve given up hope. Desperate people who blame themselves, or worse blame others for the demolished state they’re in.

They don’t believe they can be fixed.

Not true.

God can fix anything or anyone.

What is required for that kind of fixing?

Surrender is required.

Acceptance is required.

An emptying of self is required.

EXCUSE: Those are words, and the accomplishing of them isn’t easy.

ANSWER: Strength will be given.

Unconditional love will be given.

A replenishing of self will take place.

God can fix us.

Try Him.

We are all hurt as we travel through life.  We often hold on to those hurts. The betrayal of a friend, the infidelity of a spouse, the abuse of a parent, and on and on–things that stay with us for years after they occurred.

Some of us go through life aching and sweating, beneath a heavy backpack of grievances that weigh us down. Oddly, we keep adding to the weight of that backpack with fistful after fistful of “what he/she did to me,” and thoughts like, “I’ll never forget it. In fact, I won’t let them get away with it. I will pay them back!”

When we’re hauling around a backpack like that, we’re usually grumpy, or at the very least, difficult to be around. We’re certainly not smiling, or happy, because grudges make us inherently anxious.

How can we get over our grudges?  How can we empty our backpack of all that disturbs us, and re-fill it with things that are worthwhile, things that do make us happy? (more…)

When we trust in God, He will surprise us. When we let go, like the small child standing on the pool’s edge, and jump into our Father’s arms; he will not only catch us, he will teach us to swim.

God’s surprises come in a myriad of ways, and at unexpected times. Sometimes He surprises us through people—especially after, in our narrow-mindedness, we judge a person to be only what we think they are, what they appear to be on the outside.

We have our own ways of judging someone—our first impressions: how they’re dressed, how attractive they are, how they speak, smell, or walk.  We don’t see a child of God, made in His image. We see someone who is different from our own image of what a person should be. And sometimes, we pompously see someone who’s ‘in our way.’ And so, we circumvent them, and never get to know what they may have had to offer–maybe the surprises God has in mind.

Jesus, Himself, tells us that there’s not much sense in this sort of response by people stuck in their own ideas. In Luke 7:31-35, He asks: “To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like?  They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other:  “‘We played the pipe for you,   and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.  For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’  The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’  But wisdom is proved right by all her children.”

True  wisdom is to TRUST in God. Trust is always the answer.

If Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, turned five loaves and two fishes into enough to feed five thousand, with leftovers; then we can trust him to surprise us again? Trust Him to surprise us personally? Trust Him to do much more than we can imagine?

Because we can only imagine the ways God will surprise us with His love. So, love Him. Trust Him. Let Him do His work in you.

Are you a fun-seeker? What is “Fun” to you?
Of course, it’s different for each of us. But sometimes the “Fun” we chase can bring us heartache—-or a headache at the very least.

Maybe we ought to take a second look at the things we call “Fun.” Are they constructive to us as an individual? Do they forward us along in relaxation, helping us to smile? Or do they hinder us, inhibit us, and ultimately put a frown on our faces?
The media will be glad to show you what fun is—-buy a romantic trip, buy a car or even a motorcycle, have a bottle of whiskey or beer, eat your fill at one of thousands of restaurants, and so on. Buy. Buy. Buy Fun.

Are we being sold a bill of goods that fun is the same thing as happiness? Are these things really ‘fun’ or just what our ever-greedy culture says we need to enjoy ourselves. We often fall for whatever ‘they’ think. We should think for ourselves.

Each of us absolutely needs fun in our lives. We need the release of enjoyment. We don’t need the stress that’s often produced by the manipulators of our culture. Fun ought to be very personal, something we do for ourselves, and not for the wallets of others.

My Publisher at Tuscany Press asked that I blog my remarks from the Tuscany/ Spring Hill College panel discussion on The Catholic Imagination and Fiction, September 10, at Spring Hill. The panel included Peter Mongeau, publisher, Tuscany Press; Joseph O’Brien, Editor, Tuscany Press; Fr. Chris Viscardi, Chair of the Theology Dept at Spring Hill; Dr. Matthew Bagot, Theology Dept.; Fr. Michael Williams, English Dept.; Dr. Ron O’Gorman, cardiac surgeon in Mobile and author at Tuscany Press, and myself.

Of course, I’ll do as my publisher asks because I love my publisher, I love my alma mater, I love the Jesuits—and hey, I want to get another book out! So here goes:

“I’ve been asked to talk about The Catholic Imagination—the spark that ignites Catholic Fiction.

But first I want to talk a little about my Spring Hill experience–my JESUIT experience. And then–maybe because I was an Art Major here–I’d like to talk about the color GRAY. (more…)

Remember this fable by Aesop?

ONE day a countryman going to the nest of his Goose found there an egg all yellow and glittering. When he took it up it was as heavy as lead and he was going to throw it away, because he thought a trick had been played upon him. But he took it home on second thoughts, and soon found to his delight that it was an egg of pure gold. Every morning the same thing occurred, and he soon became rich by selling his eggs. As he grew rich he grew greedy; and thinking to get at once all the gold the Goose could give, he killed it and opened it only to find,—nothing.

“To kill the Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs” is often used to express the idea of an unprofitable action motivated by greed.

So why do we want more and more of everything when we don’t really need it? (more…)