I admit I appreciate the various holidays throughout the year when I take a break from writing these inspirational pieces. Since I am still teaching, my breaks are the predictable holidays that come with university teaching. The longest of these breaks is the Christmas-New Year’s period. Sometimes that amounts to a couple weeks.
I enjoy a few days when I am not thinking about anything in particular. Normally speaking, I don’t feel any stress each day to come up with something about which I can write. In fact, one of the things I like about writing these things is how it asks for me to be a little more aware during my day. Awareness is what makes me alert to issues that arise in life which beg to be reflected on and about which to think.
It is often surprising to me to come up with some things that I am sure otherwise I would give no attention. It might be someone’s passing comment. It might happen innocently in a grocery store or the coffee shop. I find where people are gathered, there are always spiritual possibilities ready to actualize in my brain. Words do it, as I said. Sometimes it is a mere glance. If you think about it, the face has so many ways of “speaking.” Some faces almost literally beg for attention. Sometimes eyes are furtive---trying to avoid something, perhaps?
I am fascinated with how expressive the mouth is. I am intrigued to watch folks talk. Sometimes people talk with such a flat tone, I wondered if they are not half-dead. Other folks become so excited, their lips dance all sorts of ways. The nose is so close to the mouth, sometimes one affects the other. People can scrunch their noses in disgust. Or the hilarity of a situation makes the nose, cheeks and the whole face distort in cool ways. With a little thought, much can be written about antics like these.
For example, I am confident God wants a little humor in life---our lives and that of the world. I am willing to speculate that we know how God might react to things when we watch those who are sensitive to God react. Maybe that is the real job of saints on this earth. They are God’s stand-ins---or theologically, saints are God’s embodiment---for all the divine emotions the Holy One feels and wants expressed.
It is easy for me to imagine God gets exasperated with too many of us. God hopes for better and we come short. And then, there are a whole multitude of folks who have no antennae up for the divine work to be done in the world. Surely, God has a difficult time working with folks who are inattentive and insensitive. If I am attentive, I can pick up on some of this stuff. This is what I try to do in my daily walk through life. I want to be attentive and sensitive. I am certain life---even my life---is about more than just me. I don’t want to be egotistical, egocentric and all that. One cannot be spiritual and be egotistical and egocentric.
So this is all the stuff I don’t think about when I am on sabbatical from writing. We all know holidays interrupt life as normal. I find especially Christmas and New Year’s period does it big time. In our culture the run-up time to Christmas gets longer and longer. I swear we hear Christmas music in October! The hoopla ramps up until people’s frenzy can get out of hand. Probably it is good for me to have a significant Sabbath from writing during the height of this season. I admit I am not tempted with the commercialism and everything, of which others can be critical. My temptation is to become cynical. And I preach that cynicism never serves a good purpose!
And so I take a Sabbath from writing. I obviously don’t take a Sabbath from living. Life goes on, albeit in an altered form. But at least I don’t have to think about it in any deliberate, reflective way. I am sure there is spiritual in the midst of my holiday living, but I am not particularly looking for it. Gratefully, I have grandkids, so I am sure I would find it there. They are cool in ways I am not---nor will ever be. I am freed up to appreciate them and to appreciate the gift of potentiality, joy and gleeful abandon I see in their lives.
And there you have it. Now that I am finished with my Sabbath from writing, I begin to reflect and I immediately find some spiritual cues in life. I see in grandkids potentiality and joy and glee. Of course, the world is not all like that. And they are not always like that. But it is easy to draw the analogy. We are all children of God. And we bring the same stuff to the global table as my grandkids and all the kids of the world.
Life is meant to appreciate. I suppose that even means the hard stuff that comes, which we probably don’t even want. That is when the reflecting and learning come very hard. As I write this, I realize I am glad I just take a Sabbath from writing. I want to be back with the discipline in order to be aware, to pay attention, to reflect and to write. Writing is like discipleship for me.
There is a routine and a discipline to it. There is caring and sharing. It is a journey of engagement with the Spirit.
I enjoy a few days when I am not thinking about anything in particular. Normally speaking, I don’t feel any stress each day to come up with something about which I can write. In fact, one of the things I like about writing these things is how it asks for me to be a little more aware during my day. Awareness is what makes me alert to issues that arise in life which beg to be reflected on and about which to think.
It is often surprising to me to come up with some things that I am sure otherwise I would give no attention. It might be someone’s passing comment. It might happen innocently in a grocery store or the coffee shop. I find where people are gathered, there are always spiritual possibilities ready to actualize in my brain. Words do it, as I said. Sometimes it is a mere glance. If you think about it, the face has so many ways of “speaking.” Some faces almost literally beg for attention. Sometimes eyes are furtive---trying to avoid something, perhaps?
I am fascinated with how expressive the mouth is. I am intrigued to watch folks talk. Sometimes people talk with such a flat tone, I wondered if they are not half-dead. Other folks become so excited, their lips dance all sorts of ways. The nose is so close to the mouth, sometimes one affects the other. People can scrunch their noses in disgust. Or the hilarity of a situation makes the nose, cheeks and the whole face distort in cool ways. With a little thought, much can be written about antics like these.
For example, I am confident God wants a little humor in life---our lives and that of the world. I am willing to speculate that we know how God might react to things when we watch those who are sensitive to God react. Maybe that is the real job of saints on this earth. They are God’s stand-ins---or theologically, saints are God’s embodiment---for all the divine emotions the Holy One feels and wants expressed.
It is easy for me to imagine God gets exasperated with too many of us. God hopes for better and we come short. And then, there are a whole multitude of folks who have no antennae up for the divine work to be done in the world. Surely, God has a difficult time working with folks who are inattentive and insensitive. If I am attentive, I can pick up on some of this stuff. This is what I try to do in my daily walk through life. I want to be attentive and sensitive. I am certain life---even my life---is about more than just me. I don’t want to be egotistical, egocentric and all that. One cannot be spiritual and be egotistical and egocentric.
So this is all the stuff I don’t think about when I am on sabbatical from writing. We all know holidays interrupt life as normal. I find especially Christmas and New Year’s period does it big time. In our culture the run-up time to Christmas gets longer and longer. I swear we hear Christmas music in October! The hoopla ramps up until people’s frenzy can get out of hand. Probably it is good for me to have a significant Sabbath from writing during the height of this season. I admit I am not tempted with the commercialism and everything, of which others can be critical. My temptation is to become cynical. And I preach that cynicism never serves a good purpose!
And so I take a Sabbath from writing. I obviously don’t take a Sabbath from living. Life goes on, albeit in an altered form. But at least I don’t have to think about it in any deliberate, reflective way. I am sure there is spiritual in the midst of my holiday living, but I am not particularly looking for it. Gratefully, I have grandkids, so I am sure I would find it there. They are cool in ways I am not---nor will ever be. I am freed up to appreciate them and to appreciate the gift of potentiality, joy and gleeful abandon I see in their lives.
And there you have it. Now that I am finished with my Sabbath from writing, I begin to reflect and I immediately find some spiritual cues in life. I see in grandkids potentiality and joy and glee. Of course, the world is not all like that. And they are not always like that. But it is easy to draw the analogy. We are all children of God. And we bring the same stuff to the global table as my grandkids and all the kids of the world.
Life is meant to appreciate. I suppose that even means the hard stuff that comes, which we probably don’t even want. That is when the reflecting and learning come very hard. As I write this, I realize I am glad I just take a Sabbath from writing. I want to be back with the discipline in order to be aware, to pay attention, to reflect and to write. Writing is like discipleship for me.
There is a routine and a discipline to it. There is caring and sharing. It is a journey of engagement with the Spirit.
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