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“Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love.”
~Reinhold Niebuhr~
The promise of absolutely everything you want is what this world full of 9 to 5 jobs, credit cards, and commercials offers us. So beautiful is it’s siren’s call we widen our eyes and get in line and then wait and wait and wait. Sometimes we figure out ways to push our way forward to get ahead, to get more. Never noticing that with each push forward we are only losing, never gaining, only the illusion of gain. How cheaply we sell ourselves…..our moments….our sunrises…..our passion…..our family…..our children….our breathe for paper clips and check stubs. The trick is not to get absolutely everything you want but to gratefully and grace-full-ly accept everything you absolutely need, even when it is painful –to see clearly that the things we need, the things that are life giving, light breathing are the very things that we toss aside (often gleefully encouraged to), ignore, run from, fear, and bury because they are not always easy. There is struggle involved. There is the facing and accepting of things we would rather not face nor accept so we sell – everything must go – passion, integrity, life, heat, light, the feeling of being alive all must go for the promise of getting EVERYTHing we think we want…..better car…better house….easier life. And when everything we wanted breaks down, as it most inevitably does, what are we left with? When the repo man comes and claims what is his are we not left with only the ashes of life that could have been? Do we only realize then, that we sold everything of value for nothing of substanance. Do we realize that we have been gorging ourselves on sand? It is time for us to turn our head and leave behind our pursuit of everything we absolultely want and begin the struggle towards accepting everything we absolutely need.
Something that rang true to my heart as I sat underneath the trees today reading.
If God is found in our hard times, then all of life, no matter how apparently insignificant or difficult, can open us to God’s work among us. To be grateful does not mean repressing our remembered hurts. But as we come to God with our hurts –honestly, not superficially– something life changing can begin slowly to happen. We discover how God is the One who invites us to healing. We realize that any dance of celebration must weave both the sorrows and the blessings into a joyful step. ~ Henri J.M. Nouwen