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 Life (Day 3)

Today while driving down Camp Road, I once again noticed what I've grown to call the "stairs to nowhere"  This set of well made stairs seem to lead to a platform that serves no purpose as far as I can tell from the outside.  I constantly wonder if they have a purpose, or if they are there as a memorial to some former purpose they once served.  I don't know what they are there for but it seems that those who own them want them there for some reason, and that's all I need to know.

Today it struck me that this is a lot like the idea of God's mysteries.  Paul tells us in Ephesians 1 that God has "made known to us the mystery of his will."  I have always wondered what that really meant because I certainly don't know God's will for my day to day life, much less the will of God in regards to some of the bigger questions we face in this world. Sometimes I think I have the answers only to find out that I'm still far from fully understanding things.

I do though think we can know God's love and know that sometime, somehow, someway it brings everything back into relationship with it's creator.  But the questions remain: How? When? Which way? We don't know any of this, that is the mystery, known only to the one who owns the mystery.  We are given a vision of what it's all about, but at most hints about the rest. 

Much like the stairs to nowhere, it's not important that I know all the answers.  I trust that the owner and creator of them had and has a purpose and reason for what he does.  Likewise I must trust that God who creates and is part of everything in this world has a purpose and a reason for what happens here that will lead where God wants it to go.