Translating a World on the Edge

Every day we have the capability to be different—fresh opportunities to improve ourselves, and maybe, even become holy. Alternately, we also have the opportunity not to better ourselves by sinking into the bleakest parts of human life.

God’s Grace is ever-present, always here for us to take. It’s around us like the air we breathe. But, there are times when our own bodies obstruct our breathing. For example, when we are sick with some ailment, some disease, respiratory problems often occur. That’s what happens with sin. Sin is the disease that keeps us from taking advantage of Grace, and breathing in the daily presence of God.

If we want to better ourselves, God will show us the way to do it. Be still and listen. Be observant and watch. He will give us the car, the vehicle to use that will take us to a better place in our lives. He will provide the gas. He will show us a map for the trip.   But……
From then on, it’s up to us. We must be courageous.

Because unless we get into the driver’s seat and behind the wheel. Unless we turn on the ignition and step on the accelerator, we will go nowhere.

Sadly, many of us never turn on the ignition, never step on the gas.
We may hesitate out of laziness, or fear, or an intense desire to keep hold to something we know isn’t in our best interest.

How can we find our way out of those shadowy situations?

Luckily, every day also signifies a new beginning for us–no matter the shadows of the day before.

When the dawn comes and the sun begins to rise, let’s be courageous enough to look at our new day in a new way. Let’s honestly try to see in the slant of fresh sunlight, the possibility something different, something better. Let’s take notice of the highlights in its colors, the intensity of its brightness, and then put ourselves within it and let its light–the light of God’s grace–shine upon us.

Grace needs only our acceptance, and our courage.

Remember the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz?

Cowardly Lion: Courage! What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the “ape” in apricot? What have they got that I ain’t got?

Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman: Courage!

As human beings, we are drawn to beauty. Sometimes we yearn for it.

But what is beauty, really? What makes something beautiful?

Often, what is beautiful, and what is not beautiful, is defined for us through advertising: Beautiful people. Beautiful homes. Beautiful cars, etc.

Yet isn’t there something within us that realizes a deeper idea of what beauty is? And don’t we want that deeper idea as much, or more, than the beauty of superficial things?

Works of art–paintings, sculpture, literature and music–can be exceedingly beautiful. But before the art comes the artist’s desire to create a thing of beauty.  And along with that is the artist’s desire to share it.

In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.–Michelangelo

The greatest beauty in our human nature is our ability to love, and we share it by loving other people.

Except, maybe we’re living a difficult life with difficult people. It’s hard to find beauty then. So how do we do it? Can we create beauty for ourselves in our own lives, despite the circumstances?

We have that capability, and it comes directly from God. It comes as grace, and is present even in the ugliest aspects of life. A fire destroys the wood it is made of, yet the heat of the fire warms a room.

If we let go of our bitterness and look objectively at events in our lives–those tragic, or unfair, or hideously ugly events—we have the ability to see something changed within us because of the suffering we have endured, even if it has come close to destroying us. We may be stronger because of it. We may even reach out to help others going through similar situations because of what has happened to us. This is love. This is beauty that is not superficial. This is why a God who loves us permits suffering–and why He allowed His own son to suffer and die on a cross.

At times, life is a story of the Crucifixion—the ugly.
But life is also a story of the Resurrection–the beautiful.

Many prayers today for those on The March for Life in Washington, D.C.  You are beautiful!

The following video is a bit long, but worth every minute of your time.

I’ve talked about this before. But it bears repeating because the question is so important:

When is the last time we asked ourselves,  “What is the purpose of my life?”

Maybe we’ve never asked it—-although we wouldn’t begin a task or a trip, consider a movie or read a book, without asking what those things were about.

Our life is the most personal and important thing we possess. Shouldn’t we wonder about why we have it? Why are we, each one of us individually, here on Earth? There has to be some reason for our being here, some meaning to our existence.

Maybe you’ll say it just happened that I’m here; some fluke of nature that caused a very particular ME.

Except, in itself, nature is orderly. Things that happen in nature are purposeful. A bee flies to a flower to pollinate it and to make honey. Trees produce oxygen so that animals can breathe. The Earth has an ozone layer to protect it from UV light. Even hurricanes have a purpose, the same purpose as winter storms, they vent off heat from the lower levels of the atmosphere. Each segment of nature is programed to accomplish a purpose.

As human beings, we have a purpose, too. I would suggest that our purpose is to love, in the fullest sense of the word.

Matthew 22:36-40: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The wrinkle is, though our purpose is ‘intended,’ we do have a choice in whether we carry it out. We can choose to love, or not.

Those of you who’ve read my novel, A Hunger in the Heart, know it’s about a hunger for love. Each main character strives for love. Often, they don’t put a label on it, but nonetheless the urge to have it is within them, pricking at their hearts.

It doesn’t matter if you haven’t read the novel. You know the characters. Maybe you even live, or have lived, with people like them.

You may have been the child of an alcoholic mother whose attention you desperately needed, but didn’t get. Or you may be that mother, a woman who at her core, wants to love, but uses an addiction to get through great sorrow and disappointment in her life.  If so, can the child love the mother? Can the mother love the child?

You may know a father, a soldier,  who  fights in a war that forever changes him and the lives of those around him. Or a family patriarch, an aging old man,  who uses his position to manipulate the ones in his care.  Which of these does not deserve love?

You may have been unfortunate enough to see and experience evil in a person so shallow that he would defame goodness itself just to satisfy his own desires. Is this person worth loving?

Or you may know the personification of integrity in a man who has suffered by the hands of others—for others. Could we suffer for others if that’s what it takes?

Yes, our purpose in life is to love. And love can be prickly as a cactus. It can hurt. It is painful to be vulnerable, to allow ourselves to suffer for another. After all, we might be crucified for it.

But the bee on a flower might be swatted to death. The tree producing oxygen might be cut down. The ozone layer and the hurricane might be impeded by climate conditions. No matter, their purpose remains; it is not changed.

So even if we live in a world that is often unloving, even if we must go through some fire in order to love another; our purpose as human beings is not changed. It remains. The reason we are here, the reason we exist, is to love. To be a signpost for others. To be there for others.

Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends. –John 15:13

When another  needs our help, can we overlook our own  fear that involvement might hurt us?

Can we set aside our pettiness, especially if that same person has hurt us in the past?

Can we  call out to someone who needs us and say, “I’m coming. Here I am–for you.”

Can we do it—forgive what we consider indefensible, or deplorable? Do you know anyone who has done that?

What about a child, a young adult or teen, who tells you point blank that he hates you? What if he or she stole from you, did everything possible to make your life miserable? How would you react? Remember, this is your child, after all.

What if your spouse cheats on you, right under your nose. You’ve trusted him or her. You don’t suspect—until you discover it, maybe by chance. How do you react?

What if a friend whom you considered loyal, maybe your best friend—turns on you, talks behind your back, spreads lies or maybe some truth you’ve trusted to him or her and no one else? What would you do about it?

The fact is these things can easily happen to us, and often do–and most of the time, the situation is out of our control, not even our fault, and deeply hurtful—because these are people that we love. Can you forgive them?

Well, let’s turn it around. What if you are the perpetrator, not the victim, in one of those same situations? Each of us are capable of wrongdoing. Can you admit it? Can you ask for forgiveness?

What does it take to forgive someone who’s hurt you? What does it take to ask for forgiveness when you’ve hurt someone else?

I would posture that we cannot forgive–or ask for forgiveness–without help. And the assistance we need comes from our relationship with the God who created us. If we don’t have a dedicated relationship with God, these two very difficult tasks are impossible. If we do, they are not only possible, they are a certainty.

Forgiveness, and asking to be forgiven are not tangible things. They are not things we can touch. They are possibilities. We can chose them, but we don’t have to. It’s our decision. A decision that we come to because of the beliefs we hold.

If we believe in God, if we say we follow God. If we say we are Christians, we must forgive. And if need be, we must ask for forgiveness. It’s not a request. It’s a commandment.

If you’re a parent and see this picture of an opened wallet, you know where the money is going—to one of your children.

The wallet, of course, is opened many times, and those times multiply according to the number of children you have. My husband and I have five, so our wallet was very busy, and very tired!

“Thanks Mom and Dad,” was/is always the response. “I love you more than anything in the world!” Sweet words from a grateful child–a child with dreams.

Who can refuse a child with dreams? No matter how outrageous their dream may seem to us. Dreams are the spurs of life, though in a young person, dreams can change–monthly, if not daily.

Still, we want to do whatever we can to see our baby happy. So we open our wallets, hoping we’ll find a few dollars still in it. Then we wait for the response, the words, the hugs, the smiles. And we love it!

We love it that we can give gifts to our children–because they are truly God’s gift to us.

Number One Happiest Job–Clergy

How many people do you think are truly happy in their jobs? And what makes them happy?

The money, you say?

Or is it pride that what they are doing has some larger meaning?

Apparently, it isn’t always money.

ACCORDING TO FORBES MAGAZINE,  people in these ten jobs are happiest:

1.  Clergy:  The least worldly are reported to be the happiest of all

2. Firefighters: Eighty percent of firefighters are “very satisfied” with their jobs, which involve helping people.

3. Physical therapists: Social interaction and helping people apparently make this job one of the happiest.

4. Authors: For most authors, the pay is ridiculously low or non-existent, but the autonomy of writing down the contents of your own mind apparently leads to happiness.

5.  Special education teachers: If you don’t care about money, a job as special education teacher might be a happy profession.

6. Teachers: Teachers in general report being happy with their jobs, despite the current issues with education funding and classroom conditions. The profession continues to attract young idealists, although fifty percent of new teachers are gone within five years.

7. Artists: Sculptors and painters report high job satisfaction, despite the great difficulty in making a living from it.

8. Psychologists: Psychologists may or may not be able to solve other people’s problems, but it seems that they have managed to solve their own.

9. Financial services sales agents: Sixty-five percent of financial services sales agents are reported to be happy with their jobs. That could be because some of them are clearing more than $90,000 dollars a year on average for a 40-hour work week in a comfortable office environment.

10. Operating engineers: Playing with giant toys like bulldozers, front-end loaders, backhoes, scrapers, motor graders, shovels, derricks, large pumps, and air compressors can be fun.  With more jobs for operating engineers than qualified applicants, operating engineers report being happy.

 SO………

To be able to work is a blessing.  To have a job that you like is happiness. To do your very best in your work, whatever it might be, is a virtue.  We’d all like high-paying,  fun jobs, but what’s more important is that we try to excel  in whatever job we have.

AND TAKE NOTE:

Not only will that please our employer, but we will please ourselves. There’s no higher satisfaction than knowing we’ve consciously set out to do a good job, and succeeded.  And what a booster in   self-confidence it is when we’re able to smile from ear to ear and say about the job we’ve accomplished: YOU CAN’T TOUCH THIS!

There are a lot of unreliable ‘tech things’ that we’ve come to rely on. And it often seems that when we’re really anxious to use them, they fail us. Of course, I know that no ‘thing’ is reliable all of the time. But hey–in the middle of the Auburn game?

Monday night, at the beginning of the third quarter of Auburn vs. Florida State for the National Championship, our cable went down. Since we have the ‘package deal,’ our phone and computer connections were also off. We tried everything we knew (not much because we’re not what you’d call ‘tech savvy’) and then determined it wasn’t us, but the cable company.

So my husband got out his cell phone–the smart one–and found a play-by -play description of the game, but no video. For an hour, he played the football commentator–and then in the last few minutes of the game, the cable came on again. Sadly, we were able to see Auburn lose.

And I cannot tell you how many times in the past couple of months I’ve lost material I’d written in the Word program I use on my computer. Or how one of the new windows we had put in our house suddenly wouldn’t close tightly on the coldest night we’ve had in years.

Man-made things are often unreliable, but what about people? Are there people you can’t rely on? Don’t we all know at least one or two people we may like, but wouldn’t trust with anything important?

We live in a beautiful, but very imperfect world, a world that is never quite as in synq as we’d like it to be. So we have to make allowances.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be discriminating. No one wants a product that doesn’t work. And no one wants to give up too much of themselves to a person who can’t be trusted.

This is not unkind. This is using the sense God gave you–because some things and people tie us to places we don’t want to be, and shouldn’t be. There are times to let those unreliable things and people go Bye-Bye. Or else have only yourself to blame for the troubles they will cause.

We’ve often heard that we are the hands and feet of Christ on Earth. But are we really? Do we truly serve others as God intends us to do? Or are we mostly concerned about “Just Me?”

Today, I present a guest post, from the journal of Debbie Dearing Leal, that will cause each of us to consider the question: Am I a Servant to Others?

ABOUT LAST NIGHT

By Debbie Dearing Leal

Yesterday was Noah’s 18th birthday. As always it’s pretty hard to make a good celebration for him at this time of year right in the middle of Christmas and New Years Day. It started out pretty well with uncle, aunt and Nana dropping off gifts before they left town, then a French neighbor dropped by to play the flute and guitar while singing Happy Birthday.
I made reservations at a fancy restaurant in town for 8:15 pm.

Noah took his friend Thomas to a couple of urgent care clinics trying to get an X-ray and an opinion on his hand that we thought was fractured from an earlier accident. They walked back into the house and stated that they had no luck finding anything open. I took charge because this had gone on for two days now and called around a few places without any luck either. So, we piled into my car and headed to the hospital ER.

We checked him in and and took seats in the waiting area along with an almost full house of others in need of care. The hours slipped by as Thomas was called back several times for different care givers to inspect his hand and then sent him back to wait some more.

As I sat there I was overcome with heartache for those around me. There were old ones in wheelchairs, young ones with terrible coughs; there were expectant mothers with fear in their eyes.

Several caught up my heart and I moved closer to learn the reason for their suffering and try to help. One young couple who asked to use my phone to make a call to check on their two children left in the care of their grandfather. They had no minutes left on their phones. Have I ever even thought about not having the use of a phone? I am so out of touch with the suffering.

She was doubled over with waves of excruciating pain and had been patiently waiting for a long time so I went to the “check in” desk and waited in line again. When it was finally my turn, I asked if they knew about the young woman’s terrible pain and how badly she was suffering. The pretty and well dressed blond told me she was aware but there wasn’t a room available yet. Then she just stared at me without any compassion. I took my seat again by the couple and began to pray for her. I asked her name and told her I was asking our Blessed Mother to pray for her. She thanked me between her waves of pain.

Another young couple walked in covered in tattoos, carrying a large, black trash back filled with clothes. She threw the bag in a chair and sat down beside me and collapsed onto the bag in sleep. They guy with her took a seat beside her and collapsed onto her in sleep. After awhile his cell phone rang and as he talked I realized he was speaking with his mother somewhere working a twelve hour shift in the hospital. I couldn’t get the whole story but they were homeless and waiting for his mother to get off working a twelve hour shift somewhere in the hospital to help them somehow. At least it was warm here. He hung up the phone and dug out a sandwich with white bread from some shelter. He offered to share it with Noah and me and apologized for bothering us. They were very sweet and kind. We assured him that he wasn’t a bother. The girl hardly moved except to use the restroom once. It was 13 degrees outside. We could all judge why a homeless person has a cellphone, but he is someone’s son and a mother always loves their child. No matter what.

As I sat there I was overcome with heartache for the suffering around me. I continued to pray the rosary for all of them and asking for some relief of their sufferings. I thought that if we want to help somehow, we could pick any day of the week and just sit in the waiting room of any hospital ER and pray. We could let them use our phones, talk to them and just be present to them. Be little “Christs” to them.

After several hours Noah and I looked at the time and it was 7 PM. We decided that tonight’s dinner reservations were not going to happen so I opened the app on my phone and cancelled our table. Noah didn’t complain one bit.

I went to warm up the car because Thomas had texted us that he was almost done. He and Noah came out with smiles and told me he has to see an orthopedic surgeon to see if he needs surgery. Did I mention that Thomas is from Europe and knows no one here in the US except a few other students at the college they attend and Noah is his best friend? He can’t go home for Christmas because the fare is too steep to fly.

I am so proud of our son for always thinking of others before himself. I am proud of his caring heart. I am overwhelmed with all of the pain I witnessed last night.

Lord help us to see the needs of others and respond to them as you would respond. This is what Christ asks of us.

You know what I’m going to say. Everyone has heard it.

“Love is the greatest gift.”

We’ve heard it so much it’s become a platitude. We don’t really think about what the words mean–by now, they just sound good.

But those words hold a message for human kind. Those words hold the reason why we are here in the first place. We were created out of love. And we were created to reflect that love to others.

That our lovingness is a reflection of God, our creator, is a very personal thing. The way one person loves may be different from the way another is called to love. That’s because we are each unique, with uniquely positive capabilities and also uniquely negative flaws.

To swell our capabilities rather than pander to our flaws is hard. But we want to do this at Christmas, which is meant to be a holy time of year–a time to show our goodness.

But let’s not confine our goodness only to this beautiful season. Can we carry the true spirit of Christmas throughout the year to encourage all those people we love?

The word ‘Love’ has many connotations today.

“Oh, I love that dress!”

“I love the way he sings!’

“I love to dance, or eat pizza, or go shopping!’

On a more serious level, we say we love our spouse, our children, our parents, our friends.

But even deeper than that— what does it mean to love?

Love is an action. It is a choice we make. When we truly love , we do something beyond what we think we’re able to do, or maybe even beyond what we want to do.  Yet we do it anyway.

Many times you’ve heard, “Love can change the world.”  But we’re not in charge of the larger world, only the world in which we live and that may be a very small world for us—-the world of our family,  the place in which we work, or the interaction with the same people we see on a daily basis. So how do we love them?

As Mother Teresa said, “Never let anyone come  to you without coming away better and happier.”

There are indeed  people in our lives who always seem to make us feel better or happier, and we want to be around them because they are showing us love–a love similar to the love of God.

Some of us who try to develop our relationship with God,  find that we are happier, more secure, and even more loving after prayer, remembering that He gave us his son, Jesus, as the ultimate example of how to love.

In this season celebrating  Jesus’ birth,  we are busy, busy, busy. But let’s take a few minutes to thank God that we have something to be ‘busy’ with—that we have people we care for and people who care for us.

And then, let’s take the further step of also trying to become for those people, an example of how to love when–quite frankly–they are not being very lovable themselves. We may be surprised what that kind of unselfish love can do in our small and personal world.