PLACING ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF ANOTHER

We all have those days, days when we just don't want to get out of bed and don't really know why we don't. We just don't. But in spite of it all, we do. We dig ourselves out from under the all-so-comfortable covers, stand up on our feet, put one foot in front of the next and head off to the shower hoping that simple movement will get us moving for the day. It usually does, does it not?

Most of the time just taking that first step, as difficult as it sometimes is, and it truly is often difficult to do so, is enough. We simply need to get started on the day. But there are indeed days when even taking that first step, let alone simply crawling out from underneath the covers, almost seems to be an impossibility. All we want to do is drag the covers over our head and go back to sleep and then, when we re-awake, hope to find the energy and the desire to get out of bed and get going.

Yes, there are truly times in our lives when a good night's sleep just is not enough. We are still physically drained when the alarm clock goes off and we do need to get a little more shuteye.  The real issue, however, are those times when we truly have no desire to get out of bed. We're not tired from over work or over exertion. We had a good night's sleep. Tossing off the covers, getting out of bed and beginning the day is not the issue. The issue is the lack of desire to simply do so. If asked why we feel that way, we would have no answer other than, "That's just the way I feel. Period."

A kind and loving questioner would respond, "Welcome to the club. Been there, done that myself." That response may not be any consolation at that moment because logic does not trump how we feel. It does not matter at that moment that we know everyone feels as we do at times. We just don't like that feeling, can't understand why we feel the way we do, and no amount of sane advice or logical explanations will make us feel better. We feel the way we feel and that is that!

Feelings aside, knowing that countless others at that moment are feeling the way we do, are struggling like us to get out of their beds, nevertheless, we know we have to get out of bed. We and they really have no choice. Together we will begin our day by placing one foot in front of another, hoping, trusting, even praying that the effort will get easier as the day wears on and soon will almost seem effortless, or almost so.

This is a faith issue, is it not? We believe that God created us for a purpose and that purpose was not to hide under the covers when we do not feel like facing the day ahead. We believe that God will give us whatever grace, whatever strength we need to toss off the covers, even if it takes a ton of effort, sit up, place our feet on the floor, and then place one foot in front of another as we head off to start the day. And we believe God will continue supplying that same grace and strength throughout the day.

The only thing God will not do for us is take that first step. That step is up to us. After that God will walk with us every step of the way as God always does. Sometimes that is all we need to remember in order to take that first step.

THE KEY TO SUCCESS

Every one of us wants to be successful, whatever “success” means because it means different things to different people as we each have our own definition of that word. One of our daughters wants to climb the corporate ladder. If she continues to do so, will she consider herself successful when her career ends? My question to her would be “How far up the ladder do you have to go to consider yourself to be successful?”

She could ask the same question of me. Now that I am on the verge of fully retiring (which my wife says is an impossibility), do I think I have been successful in my vocation or have I failed because I did not become a bishop? That would be an honest question for her to ask?

To each his/her own because our goals in life have to be ours and not those of someone else even those who love us the most. My daughters’ goals have to be their goals. They are who they are and I cannot ask them to be what I might want them to be but can only ask of them to be what they truly want to be. Too many children are weighed down by the burdens their parents impose on them.

Thus, the question that lurks in the minds of each of us as we grow up is “What is the key to success?” We want to find that key that will open that door that will lead us to a successful life, however we personally define what that is. We believe that if we can find that key – a Harvard education, the job offer of our dreams, whatever – it will unlock that door and life will be wonderful.

What my daughters will discover and what I have learned is what my comic friend Frank learned. He says to Ernest, “I spent years looking for the key to success – and then found out it’s a combination lock.” It certainly is! There is no one key to success; there are many: the right education, the right job, being in the right place at the right time, and so forth. No one thing will make us successful. It is a combination of many things.

However, there is one essential ingredient, I think, that must be ours if we want to have any chance of living a successful and fulfilling life. That essential ingredient is our faith. Our faith in God is what allows us to put whatever happens to us into a proper perspective. It helps us make sense out of what at the moment seems nonsense.

It is our faith that grounds us in this life. It is or faith that keeps us humble when we achieve success beyond our wildest dreams. And it is our faith that holds us up, even picks us up, when our dreams do not materialize or come crashing down on us through no fault of our own or even and especially because of our foolishness, however we would define that foolishness.

Our faith reminds us that some doors are locked to us and we will never find the keys. What is behind those doors is not who we are and not who God created us to be and that is okay. Our faith also reminds us that the doors we found the keys to open were the same doors others wanted to enter but did not have the keys. To each his/her own.

LEISURE

Many years ago I had to write an essay for a college English class in “The Quintessence of America.” Before I could even begin to write, I had to open my dictionary to learn the meaning of quintessence. I had never heard that word before. It means the “purist and most perfect form, manifestation, type, or embodiment (of a quality, etc.)”. I have no memory of what I deemed to be the quintessence of America.

What I do remember is the class when my professor returned our essays and commented on each as he was wont to do. When he finished commenting, he, thankfully, told us what he believed to be the answer to the essay question. It was a one-word response: “Calvinism”. The longer version is called “The Protestant Work Ethic.” He even admitted that in a Rodman Catholic seminary where I happened to be studying at that time, that ethic ruled our lives. In many ways it still does, mainly for the better, but not always so.

One of the main reasons why our country as a country has been and still is so great is that our work force is unconsciously ruled by that ethic translated into “an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.” Yet it is more than that, and that is the downside of that ethic. We are also told that “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop”. Thus, we should keep our hands to the grind wheel, be busy all the time. The corollary is that pleasure of almost any kind, if not every kind, is somehow somewhat bad and, thus, sinful. That almost but not quite means that even any form of leisure is somehow sinful. We may not believe that but, we in this country, often act that way.

Think about it: most people in what are called “Western” nations take six- to eight-week vacations, find time in the afternoon to relax and rest (called “siestas”), arrive at work later than we do and leave earlier. We work overtime and on weekends, take our laptops on vacation, are always connected to our cell phones and often do not take the vacation days allotted to us. The Protest Work Ethic rules and we allow it to rule, and, again, not for the better much of the time.

Several years later in my seminary education, when I was studying theology over 45 years ago, several daring theologians began writing articles on the theology of leisure. Imagine that: there might be a theological justification for leisure, for pleasure, justification that God would not oppose but would actually sanction! An idle mind may be the devil’s workshop; but a mind and a life that never rests or relaxes is even worse. Is it any wonder so many are so stressed out and then wind up doing harm to themselves, to their loved ones and to those around them?

We are now into the traditional vacation season of the year, a time when we are to vacate our minds and bodies and rest. That time is given to us for our benefit, for our health and well-being. If we allow that ethic that seems to control our lives to continue to do so, we will not make time for rest and leisure and we will be the worse for it and, again, so will all those who are part of our lives, wherever they are a part. The Creation Story at the beginning of the Bible reminds us that God took a day off at the end of his work. God rested. Why should we be any different?

ORA ET LABORA

Ora et labora is a Latin expression used mostly among professed religious – the Benedictines, for example – that said (actually commanded) pray and work. The religious orders all had specific times during the day set aside for prayer. When the monks were not praying, they were working at jobs assigned to each. Yes, there were also times set aside for eating, resting and reflection. But their daily lives centered on prayer and work.

The truth is that prayer and work are really one entity. The monks took scheduled times to pray, usually eight different occasions. When the time came, they set down their tools, headed off to chapel and prayed part of the Daily Office: Morning Prayer, Noonday Prayer, Evening Prayer (called Vespers), Compline (see The Book of Common Prayer). Their minds and hearts, their total being, when at prayer was to be focused on prayer.

The same is true when the monks were engaged in their daily labors. They were to be focused on the task at hand, whatever that task, that job, was. They were to give it their full attention so as not to be distracted by thoughts of what might be served at their next meal. The command was “Pray when at prayer and work when at work” … and rest when at rest and enjoy the meal when in the dining hall.

Again, work and prayer are almost, if not, one and the same. Prayer is work and work is prayer. When we pray, when we truly pray, it is work, often hard work. Yes, perhaps more often than not, when we pray, we have a routine. We rattle off a set formula of prayers, often hardly thinking about what we are saying. Yes, we are praying, but – and this is the point about the command to the monks to pray when they were praying – it is work to truly focus our hearts and minds, our whole being on our prayer.

It takes work not to be distracted by what is around us, by who might be nearby, by what we have just finished doing before we came to pray, by what we have left undone and what we will be need to attend to when our prayer is concluded. Prayer, focused prayer, is indeed hard work. Perhaps that is why we do not pray as often and as fully as we could and as we should. It just takes too much effort, too much work.

In the same way work is prayer. We are praying when we are working. Prayer is not simply about laying our wants and needs before God. Prayer is that but it is much more. Prayer is about giving thanks for blessings received, about asking forgiveness for what we have done or left undone, and more. In fact, when we are at work, what we are doing is God’s work here on earth. God created us, gave us life, to be God’s partner in bringing in God’s Kingdom in this world. God promises us that if we will do our part, meaning if we fulfill the vocation, the job, in which we are engaged, God will do God’s part.

Pray and work. Work and pray. In so many ways they are one and the same. Perhaps if we were more aware of that truth, perhaps if we lived more fully each day, perhaps our lives would be more fulfilling. Perhaps if we would, we might be much closer to bringing into its fullness the Kingdom of God on earth. In truth, there is no “perhaps” about it. We would. We would indeed.

IT’S NOT DIRECTED TOWARD ME

Church attendance is down all over the world. That is obvious, the megachurches notwithstanding whose members exit the back door as quickly as they enter the front.  There are, no doubt, many reasons for this, much of it the fault of the church itself. Perhaps it is cyclical. Perhaps we are in one of those downturns in the outward observance of religious practices. Perhaps we are awaiting the next Great Awakening to revive church life. Perhaps. Only time will tell.

In the meantime it is always good to explore why less and less people are attending church, especially in the West, the “sophisticated and educated” part of the world. Are we in the West so wise not to be so foolish to think that organized religion is all that important in our daily lives? Have we not found meaning and fulfillment outside the church structure and found guidance for our lives outside of church dogma? Many seem to think so.

Many people these days, according to the poll-takers, claim that while they are not religious, meaning they do not belong to or attend a church, assert that they are indeed spiritual people: spiritual but not religious. Perhaps they are. They claim to get more out of sitting on a bank of a creek soaking in all of God’s creation than they do going to a worship service at some church. They assert that a quiet Sunday at home, reading the paper, drinking a latte they hurried down to the nearest Starbucks to purchase, conversing with their spouse is more fulfilling than formal worship. Besides, they say, “I don’t get anything out of worship.”

They are probably right. To get something out of worship we have to put something in to it. And what we have to put into worship is ourselves. Even more, and the main point of all this, is that worship is not directed toward the worshipper. It is directed to the one we gather to worship in the first place: God. We come to church to worship God, not to be entertained, not to be calmed by the rippling sounds of the creek or the soothing taste of that latte in our hands. Worship was never meant to be entertaining or even soothing.

We call our worship service liturgy. The root meaning of that word in Greek is “public service”. In other words, it means work. Liturgy is truly the work of the people. Worship is to be work, our work of worshipping our God. In fact, when we have concluded our worship, we should be tired, even exhausted because we have put so much of ourselves into that service. Worship is not so much about getting something out of what we are doing as it is about putting all of ourselves into what we are doing. It is indeed work.

It is easy to be spiritual. It is a walk in the park, literally and figuratively. Being spiritual is centering on the self and is all about oneself. It is directed inward. It is difficult, hard work, to be religious, to do what is necessary to be the person God created us to be. Why? Because being religious means being centered outside ourselves: on God and on others. That does not mean that one cannot be religious and spiritual at the same time. In fact, when we are living out our faith, when we are worshipping our God, it is indeed, in word and in deed, a deeply religious and spiritual experience.

BEING GRATEFUL

We all have so much for which we should be thankful, so very, very much. Perhaps so much so that we do not realize just have blessed we really are. One of the reasons, I suspect, that we fail to grasp our blessedness is that often we find ourselves comparing our blessings with those who we deem to be more blessed than we are instead of those who are obviously so much less blessed than we are.

Doing so may be human nature. It may also be the product of the world in which we now live and especially in this great country of ours. We are blessed to live in this country and because of that we are so much more blessed than those who live in other parts of this world, parts of the world sociologists call The Third World or the Three-Fourths World. We take our blessings for granted and only, rarely, if ever, it often seems, pause to give thanks for them.

Truly, because we have so much for which to be thankful, gratitude should be a way of life for us. The word itself, gratitude, comes from the Latin word gratus meaning “thankful”. Gratus is close to gratia which means “grace” – which gives us a clue as to why we should be thankful in the first place, which is why we should never, ever take our blessings for granted.

We are graced people, you and I. We have done nothing to deserve that grace, nothing at all. Why we are so graced and why so many others are not is something we can neither understand nor explain. All we can do, all we should do, is be thankful to God for so gracing us and not, not even once, compare our gifts, our blessings, to those of others or, worse yet, somehow begin to believe we deserve those blessings. We do not.

Gratitude should be like a fuel that gives power to our lives. It should propel us to be the person God created us to be, endowed with the gift’s God graced us with, so that we can become a source of grace and blessing to those who are not so blessed, while not judging them for their lack of blessings but, rather, being thankful that we are so abundantly and undeservedly blessed.

One can only wonder what this world would be like if we, each and every one of us, lived a life of gratitude. Instead of being envious of those we deem more blessed, we would share some of our blessings, some of our time and talents and financial resources, to help bless those who do not have what we have in abundance. Instead of hoarding our blessings, we should share them with those in need. To live more simply so that other may simply live is living a life of gratitude.

Good people that we are, and we are good people, we sometimes can find ourselves not doing what we know deep in our hearts we should be doing. It is so easy to get so caught up in our own little world that we forget about those who are not part of our world. Living a life of gratitude not only makes those with whom we share our blessing more blessed, it make our live even more so. We know that when we have done that. We just need to make gratitude a way of life and not simply an occasional part of it.

LEST WE FORGET

If the truth were told, we clergy would reluctantly admit that when the church is not full or as full as we would like it to be, we take it personally. There seems to be this defective gene in us that somehow believes that people come to church just to hear us preach and celebrate. Thus, when there is low attendance, we take it as a personal affront. It’s an ego thing, you see.

Now I will grant, as I have always maintained when Vestry conversations get around to talking about evangelism, as they do on a regular basis, and how we can get more people to join our church, that I point out that I cannot – no priest can – bring people to church. However, I can drive them away. Even more, and probably even worse, if some join a church because of the priest, the clergy person, they are joining for the wrong reason, a very wrong reason.

When attendance is low, especially on those occasions when it should not be because of the religious and liturgical significance of the service – Holy Week, for instance – there is always a feeling of discouragement on the part of the clergy. We know the religious and theological – and even and especially the personal – import of those days and occasions. We are thus somewhat at a loss as to why most of our parishioners do not, or at least do not take them as important as we do.

We clergy do have to keep in mind that we, as clergy, come to Holy Week, for example, from a different mindset than that of the people we serve. Were we to ask ourselves that if the shoe on the other foot, were we laypeople, parishioners, would our feet take us to church or take us somewhere else? We honestly do not know the answer to that question. “Church” is part of who we are and it is impossible for us to disconnect that part of us in order to understand those for whom it is not such a part, certainly not as much a part of their being as it is a part of ours. This is in no way a judgment. It is simply a fact.

That said, it is still discouraging when the services on Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil are so sparse that one wants to ask, “Why bother?” But, then, we must lest we forget. It is akin to asking why I have to tell my wife that I love her on a regular basis when she already knows that I do. I say it lest I forget even though I mean it in no less a way. I say it not out of obligation but simply because I must.

I think that is why we will never cease celebrating the days of Holy Week even were we clergy the only ones present. We would do so not out of any obligation but simply because we must. We would do so lest the people forget if we do not. We do so always with the hope that more and more of our parishioners would come to understand the meaning and personal importance of these days and not because it would make us feel better because the church is fuller, even as it certainly would.

Maybe next year’s Holy Week services will be better attended. Maybe not. But they will be observed lest we forget why they are so very important in our personal life of faith and in the life of the church as well.