REAL PASSION

Christians generally understand the “passion of Christ” as a reference to the final days of his earthly life (Holy Week). This makes some sense since “passion” comes from the Latin “patior, passus sum,” meaning to “suffer, bear, or endure." 

But frankly, I think this definition misses the real point of Jesus’ passion. It’s like the tail wagging the dog. Not that it doesn’t have its place, it just shouldn’t lead the way in our thinking.

Jesus didn’t have a passion for suffering (“Abba, Father...remove this cup...”: Mk 14:36). Rather, he had passion for freedom from it because suffering--in all its myriad of forms--keeps us from loving and living out our God-given passion for life. He didn’t have a passion for self-aggrandizement (“Away with you, Satan…”: Mt 4:10), but neither did he have a passion for humility. Rather, he had a passion for the hidden beauty of what humility can do in our lives (“Take my yoke...:”: Mt 11:28-30). He didn’t have a passion for servanthood. Rather, he had a passion for the restoration and healing that servanthood can accomplish (Good Samaritan story: Lk 10:29-37). He didn’t have a passion for justice. He had a passion for the dignity and wellbeing of all people and a reverence for all creation that justice upholds (Sermon on the Mount: Mt 6: 25-34). He didn’t have a passion for forgiveness. Rather, he had passion for what forgiveness is capable of creating: authentic community (“Father, forgive them…”: Lk 23:34).  

All of these things (suffering, humility, servanthood, justice, forgiveness) that we think Jesus was so passionate about are really just the means to his real passion: freedom to live and love abundantly (“I came that they may have life...” Jn 10:10). It was this overarching God-given passion that gave him the resolve to do what he needed to do.

It can do the same in us--so we can do the same for the world--live and love abundantly.

TODAY.

LET’S GIVE THE WORLD & OURSELVES A GIFT.

LET’S TAKE TIME TO THINK ABOUT HOW WE THINK.

DAY

An utterly new, one-of-a-kind day dawns, 

its beauty both gives and takes my breath. 

But with its calm comes this question: 

Will I let it dawn within as well? 

This one on my outside,

I can neither slow nor stop from coming. 

Ready or not. Here. It comes. 

But the new day within, 

that I can hold back, 

for as long as I want. 

I can stay stuck in yester’s day,

I can curl my arrested spirit up into a ball,

and let it roll it back down my mountain,

avalanching until it destroys all in its path, 

even the green that’s been growing for years.

But why? Why would I do that? 

Does the sun for even an instant, 

hold back its ubiquitous radiance? 

Does the spring warmed chrysalis 

hold back its beating heart butterfly? 

Does the high mountain melt

hold back its rivulets of watery wealth? 

Of course not!

Then come, Day. Shine. Shape. Share. 

As you create without, I will do the same within.

To this rarified recreation of me, I say, “Yes!” 

Dawn! Dawn! Dawn!

“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118.24)

DEEPER

Love, real love, gets taken advantage of all the time. Unfortunately,  it’s in its very nature to be abused—never wanting it (that would be sick) but rather, willing to accept it—willing to absorb abuse in order to diminish or remove its power. This kind of love is different from egoic love that loves for the sake of gaining advantage--love that only gives for what it can get.

This love is deeper.

”Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” (I Peter 4:8) Whoever the ancient was who penned these wise words, they had a much deeper definition of love than the one we typically use.

We can stay right where we are, keep doing what we’re doing and love with this depth of love. We can love others with a love that covers whatever we don’t like about them—that even covers what they say or do that offends our ego.

Perhaps what’s most amazing about this love is this: When we live it, we make the delightful discovery that we can love ourselves with the same forgiving and freeing love.

Today life will bring us more than enough experiences in which to love with this kind of love. Let’s pick just one...and practice taking our love to the next level. Deeper.

 

TODAY.

LET’S GIVE THE WORLD & OURSELVES A GIFT.

LET’S TAKE TIME TO THINK ABOUT HOW WE THINK.

 

READY

My spirit is stuck in a thicket this morning.

Disparaging thoughts, disparate feelings,

like scrambles of brambles and branch-lacing vines,

they’re all racing rogue in my psyche,

scampering helter skelter across my brain’s terrain,

stumbling over each other in their rush to go where?

How can I settle down, settle in, settle up?

No way can I see a way through this maze.

Here there is no bright white of day,

only shadows of shadows,

and I woke up this way.

But the Spirit’s breath breathes into me deeply.

Calling. Connecting. Collecting. Clarifying.

Its eternal rhythm beguiles me softly, sweetly

until it holds all my dimensions, all my intentions.

Then it opens me wide to its world within me,

my high seas begin to subside,

my winds stop their howling,

my forests become sanctuaries of silence,

my meadows bask in the sun’s warming rays,

my pools become mirrors for the clouds,

my songbirds again sing ancient melodies,

my wildflowers spread their colorful wings,

my bees buzz in their casual way,

My spirit renews, my joy returns.

Now. Now, I’m ready,

ready for my day.

 

DOLPHIN DANCE

Sitting on a beach, we were looking out on the ocean just moments after the horizon had split the sun in half when suddenly two dolphins leapt completely out of the water, their sleek bodies and silvery spray creating a thousand mini-sunrises. We’d enjoyed their oceanic antics before but never had we seen them completely take to the air, do a 180, then curl back into the shimmery waters (sans SeaWorld!). It was so perfect it looked rehearsed, but it wasn’t. It was completely natural. They were just doing what dolphins do. 

Earlier, I’d been thinking about the people--family, friends, co-workers, and in some cases, even complete strangers--who’ve had a significant impact on the person I’ve become. Now I put these two ideas together. 

I’m talking about the people who said or did something that touched me in such a compelling way that they empowered me to rise above the surface of my usual self-centered motivations and modus operandi. In some cases, they taught me the fine art of doing a 180! These are people who offered a few words of kindness or some small act of compassion to me or someone around me--before the opportune moment slipped back beneath time’s surface. These are people who did something that, like the dancing dolphins, came so naturally to them that they probably had no idea that what they did felt so intensely and wonderfully loving to me that it actually changed my life. Forever. 

I know now, these precious people had made learning the dance of love such a priority in their lives and they had practiced it for so long that what looked on the outside like something that just came naturally to them actually occurred only because they, like the dolphins, had very intentionally made it happen.

When I think of their words and actions now, in some cases years later, it softens and soothes me. It smoothes--and even woos me. It woos me into wanting to be exactly that kind of a person. It woos me into wanting to learn that same dance...to practice hard every day until the steps become so natural that from the outside it looks, well, natural--as if, with the dolphins, I was made for this dance. Because I am.

So are you. So...who are the people who’ve taught you the steps? Who are the ones who helped you rise above the slick surface of your slippery self? Who are the ones--who may not even know they did it but--who changed your life? Forever. 

Most importantly, who are the ones who--today--will get to enjoy the benefits of what you and I have learned? Family? Friends? Co-workers? Complete strangers? 

 Go get your best shoes. Let's go dancing.

TODAY.

LET’S GIVE THE WORLD & OURSELVES A GIFT.

LET’S TAKE TIME TO THINK ABOUT HOW WE THINK.

RIGHT UNDER MY "KNOWS"

Like the nose on my face,

these “knows” lead my way,

though tucked ‘neath my surface,

never see light of day.

I like to see

what I like see,

so there’s no need to bother

with things as they be.

But you’re saying my “knows”

are less truth, more fiction?

Well that, my friend,

is just your opiction.

My mind’s made up

so don’t try to change it.

Don’t try to persuade me,

I might rearrange it.

Besides, who says

I can’t have my own facts?

What does it matter

if my dam’s got some cracks?

And, haven’t you noticed?

They suit me just fine.

Never mind yours

if they’re different from mine.

‘Cause the way I see things

facts aren’t as effective

if, even for a minute,

I think they’re elective.

There’s just one thing though,

I don’t understand,

and if you don’t mind,

well, give me a hand.

I notice in the mirror

oh, every now and then,

something unflattering.

Damn! It’s happening again!

Seems the more I trust

and tout my “knows”

the more, oh my god!

my nose grows.

THRESHOLDS

Today, just like any other day, is a threshold--and a fresh one at that. 

It didn’t exist yesterday. It'll be gone tomorrow. Unlike most or all of the physical thresholds at the base of doorways (some centuries old) we will cross over in the course of this day, the kind of threshold I’m talking about is incredibly short-lived. Twenty four hours. Unlike a physical threshold, this one is invisible. Yet it is every bit as real--and chances are, it may actually be more relevant than its physical counterpart.

To put a finer point on it, this moment is an even fresher threshold. What might it be inviting me to cross over, to leave behind, to step forward into? These are great questions and questions, especially good ones, are themselves thresholds. I know how we all love answers, but answers encourage us to stay where we are. Questions, beg us to keep moving. 

To state the obvious, every opportunity is a threshold. But so, too, is every doubt. Every fear. Every feeling. Every intuition. Every idea. Every choice. Every decision...just as surely as every breath is a threshold into yet another moment of physical life. In short, life isn’t just an endless landscape of thresholds. It is itself a threshold....one day at a time.  

What does it take to cross over a threshold? Three things: trust, action, and consciousness. TRUST--that making this crossing, be it huge or humblingly insignificant, is something we can and must do to be true to ourselves--and in doing so, true to God and true to the world.  ACTION--to act upon that trust--and to do so by making a real-time decision to stay where we are or to go through it. And so, CONSCIOUSNESS--that is, the intentional awareness of the threshold and at least some of its import. After all, not every threshold is worthy or wise to cross.

One of life’s true wisdoms is learning to discern the thresholds that lie in front of us in any given moment. If we have any difficulty recognizing them, we can focus on the specific issues or struggles we’re experiencing and put them to the test, asking ourselves, “In what sense does this situation or crisis identify a threshold about which I must trust, make a conscious decision and then take action? (Ironically, we often hesitate crossing over the thresholds that our personal crises call for--and our refusal to cross over them is, at least in part, causing our crisis!) 

Finally, once we cross over a threshold we can’t ever go back. The doorway we came through no longer exists. What was once a doorway is now a wall. We can’t go back because now we know something new and that something new changes things, changes us, changes our options and opportunities. So, changed, we can’t find the old door. Oh, there are other doorways we can pass back through but none of them will take us to the same old place as before. Besides, there are good reasons we shouldn’t go back even if we could--and would! Going forward may be confusing, even frightening, but very likely, the biggest reason you and I are still here is because we are most alive, creative and determined under these confusing, if frightening, circumstances.

Today. Let’s take note of the physical thresholds we cross and use them as thresholds into thinking of all the other thresholds in our lives. 

TODAY.

LET'S GIVE THE WORLD & OURSELVES A GIFT.

LET’S TAKE TIME TO THINK ABOUT HOW WE THINK.

WHO ME?

You’re talking to me, Lord?

Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention. Again.

I was distracted. Off in my own little world. 

You say you’re always trying to get through to me--

that no matter who or what I’m dealing with--

you can teach me something about life, about love--

something good, something grand, something giving?

(That assumes, of course, that I will press my pause button

long enough to let you back into my world--but then, 

that’s the point you’re trying to make here, right?)

You’re saying, every time I notice something that inspires me,

that’s you trying to get my attention,

every time I see someone do something kind 

or compassionate, that’s you again,

every time my heart swells with joy or thankfulness, that’s you.

I'm beginning to see things a little more clearly now.

Beginning to get you. Beginning to let you. Again.

Beginning to see the price of my cluelessness,

and just how meager I make your magnificent world,

and just how blind I am to what I don’t want to see.

(I’m so into myself, my own warp and woof--but then, 

that’s the other point you’re trying to make here, right?)

Thank you for these moments, painful though they be, 

for breaking through my thick-as-a-brick ego;

for helping me see that I take far more for granted

than I receive with gratefulness;

for helping me get how I limit your word, your wisdom, your will,

just by not listening to, not looking for, not expecting you 

to be right here, in the very place I’m at,

right now, in the very situation I'm in.

This poem is based on a story in Genesis 28 about a moment in the life of Jacob, one of the Old Testament patriarchs, where he comes to the transformative conclusion that, “Surely the Lord is in place and I did not know it.”

SWEET

One time I wanted to read prayers written by famous religious people like Mother Teresa, Meister Eckhart, Katherine of Siena, Martin Luther King, Jr., etc. I expected beautiful, if long-winded, invocations filigreed with esoteric language that soared to the heights of heaven. Instead, what I found shocked me. They were short, simple.

And one more thing: they were intimate.

Surprisingly, they were tender,appeals much more like I'd expect from a young child confiding in a loving parent than from a spiritual giant addressing the Creator of the universe. Then I remembered that Jesus said something of a similar vein in his Gethsemane prayer: “Abba, father...” (‘Abba’ is Greek for “Daddy.”)

Now that’s intimate!

What does such sweet and endearing language reveal? Many things: loyalty, respect, obedience, vulnerability, and willingness. Most of all? Trust...deep...complete...utter...abiding trust. Further, Jesus' words that followed reinforce this. “Abba, father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

It makes me stop and think about my own prayers. It models for me the kind of intimate relationship that brings the spiritual greats of every age to their knees in loving adoration, openness and humility. And most of all, it moves me to thankfulness, knowing that this One to whom we pray is worthy of even Jesus’ deepest trust--much less our own.

What about you?

 

TODAY.

LET’S GIVE THE WORLD & OURSELVES A GIFT

LET’S TAKE TIME TO THINK ABOUT HOW WE THINK.