Weekly Meditation
Remember Safety Is Everyone’s Responsibility — Computerized message that follows after we are warned to be on the lookout for unattended baggage and suspicious packages in airports, metros, and buses.
In true Orwellian fashion, we hear this message @ every 20 minutes when we travel or take public transportation. This first time we hear it we look around for unattended backpacks or sacks of dynamite. I have now heard it so often I tune it out. I ignore the message and go about my life’s pattern oblivious to a message I hear several times a day.
We all have patterns in our life. Do you put on your clothes the same way every morning? Try changing the location of a trash can or the utensils in your house and then see how often you go to the old location even though you know the location has changed. Ever try entering church and going to the left rather than the right or, vice-versa. Do you fidget during the entire service and the next week return to where you are comfortable? Our patterns are hard to break, after all, we spent a life time nurturing them. No wonder they’re so hard to break. But what a world of possibilities might open up if we could.
I love a good sermon. We may have read a particular scripture many times but like the computerized message above we think we know what it says and stop listening for a different message. A good sermon opens our eyes to a different way of looking at a particular passage or the world. It opens up our lives to a new world of possibilities.
The Gospels describe Jesus’s miracles, but he did not call them so. He used words like “faith can move mountains” and “your faith has made you well.” Christ called us to be open to the possible. We develop patterns so ingrained that we are paralyzed into believing that we cannot change. We are bombarded with subtle and not so subtle messages that our lot in life and our world is impossible to change. So we retreat into patterns of convenience. Christ tells us to be and do something different. Be open to the possible.
...but for God all things are possible. -- Matthew 19:26
In true Orwellian fashion, we hear this message @ every 20 minutes when we travel or take public transportation. This first time we hear it we look around for unattended backpacks or sacks of dynamite. I have now heard it so often I tune it out. I ignore the message and go about my life’s pattern oblivious to a message I hear several times a day.
We all have patterns in our life. Do you put on your clothes the same way every morning? Try changing the location of a trash can or the utensils in your house and then see how often you go to the old location even though you know the location has changed. Ever try entering church and going to the left rather than the right or, vice-versa. Do you fidget during the entire service and the next week return to where you are comfortable? Our patterns are hard to break, after all, we spent a life time nurturing them. No wonder they’re so hard to break. But what a world of possibilities might open up if we could.
I love a good sermon. We may have read a particular scripture many times but like the computerized message above we think we know what it says and stop listening for a different message. A good sermon opens our eyes to a different way of looking at a particular passage or the world. It opens up our lives to a new world of possibilities.
The Gospels describe Jesus’s miracles, but he did not call them so. He used words like “faith can move mountains” and “your faith has made you well.” Christ called us to be open to the possible. We develop patterns so ingrained that we are paralyzed into believing that we cannot change. We are bombarded with subtle and not so subtle messages that our lot in life and our world is impossible to change. So we retreat into patterns of convenience. Christ tells us to be and do something different. Be open to the possible.
...but for God all things are possible. -- Matthew 19:26
posted by Webb Hubbell | 8:30 AM
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