The Spirit of Everyday (Day 5)

I am rereading a book that I picked up overseas while on a trip about 12 yrs ago. The general idea behind the book is that it follows the first half of the life of Bluebear.  The book starts with baby Bluebear floating in a walnut shell in a storm on the sea alone.  This is a constant theme in the book as he comes across many different creatures but always seems to realize that he doesn't know exactly who he is.  As he goes through his adventures he can't find anyone quite like him, yet he realizes that just about everyone he meets has something to teach him, be it practical, artistic, or spiritual.  He forms life long friendships, discovers some people will hate him just because he's different, finds out more about how he is similar and different than others, and discovers the vast mysteries of the world he's part of.

Yet, it wasn't until this rereading that I really saw how Bluebear's story parallels ours as Christians.  We are in this world that doesn't always make sense to us, but we have to live day to day in it as things happen that affect us.  These things change us, help us discover who we are, and bring us into relationships with others who make us who we are.  Yet we know this world as we know it is not our home, we are seeking always to know more about what it means to be that which we have been created to be, and seeking to be with others who understand us in such a way to know what it is to be "us."  So we live in each moment, trying to do what is best, what we feel is right, true to ourselves and our beliefs, and move forward seeking meaning, seeking community, seeking God.  We, like Bluebear, know lots of truths from experience or from our studies, but there are also lots of things that are not quite as they seem and many experiences that will continue to shape us.  Our lives are not just a series of short stories, but the stories do make up our lives, they make and remake us moving us forward on life's road.

In the last life covered in the book, Bluebear discovers he's not alone, he finds different forms of community, but he also hints in his final narration that this is not the end of the stories. This is true of us as well even as we begin to feel at home with who we are and find those who love us as part of community.  It is not the end of the story, the stories continue, the seeking for a better understanding of what's true and real continues, the changes in us and the world continues, but we do not yet know the story we are writing here.

The Spirit of Everyday (Day 4)

"When you feel sad or under a curse" . . . whenever I hear those words it always picks me up a notch.  Yeah, I know that's odd, but Godspell's All for the Best is an odd song.  A song about how unfair life is to a catchy happy tune.  Not only is it about the unfairness of life, but also the seemingly ridiculous response Jesus gives to our realization of this. Who is it that is will be blessed in Matthew 5?

• The poor in spirit
• Those who mourn
• The meek
• Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
• The merciful
• The pure in heart
• The peacemakers
• Those who are persecuted

These are not those who normally feel blessed.  I know I rarely feel blessed when I'm struggling with either my own stuff or with seeing the world as something less than God wishes it to be.  Yet, these are according to Jesus times of blessing, times when we can see somewhere out there a world that is as God would have it.  That is the tension of our faith, we both realize the problem of sin that keeps this world from being what God would have it be, but also are blessed with the knowledge that God does not mean for it to be this way.  We long for that world everyday because that is the basis of Faith(fulness).  The dichotomy of a life in Christ is that we today live both in the "now" and the "is to come."  Our blessing is found in the second half of that, we are already able to live that life, striving to see it more clearly every day.  Yet on Edgar Allen Poe's birthday we'd be remiss if we thought that the tension is easily resolved.  Much of Poe's great, albeit somewhat dark, work came from his experiences where he felt broke, betrayed, alone, and desperate. Likewise we see the struggles of this world and this life, and our laments of "God where are you?" are real. Though based in the same thought, these laments beg for the voice of one who loves us, who brings us peace, who will bring a new day, who never leaves us, and who makes things new.  Yet it doesn't change the cold we feel, or the darkness we experience and in this time we can do nothing but cling to that hope, that promise that we are not alone. 

Be it in sadness, hope, anger, faith or a sense of peace we all live in this world "in between." We know the good, we know the bad, and we know the One, who creates, redeems, and sustains all things.  May we feel protected, loved, hopeful, and most importantly blessed. 

(This song also inspired this post.)