Running today
Along a dirt road
I sensed more than saw motion.
I looked up just in time to see the hawk
Soar silently over my head
And perch in a tree about twenty feet from where I stood.
Awesome.
Back at Me
What if that which we know and name as God asks us the same questions we often ask about or ask of God?
Where are you?
Why did you allow that to happen?
Why do you sometimes seem so far away?
Why don’t you answer me when I talk to you?
I don’t know about you, but considering these questions as God speaking to me rather than my speaking to God brings me up short.
Lately I have been purposefully taking some time each day to look around me or to look back on my day and ask, “Where did I see or sense something of the Holy?”
Where did I see beauty?
When and where did I experience kindness?
When did grace brush up against my life?
For what do I need to pause and say “Thank you?”
Those are all important questions that I need to continue to ask.
But maybe there are another set of questions I need to consider, as well.
What was God trying to say to me today that I ignored or was too busy to hear?
When was God waiting for me to step forward?
Who needed a word of hope or forgiveness that God was waiting for someone (for me?!) to speak?
I don’t know about you, but I think I need to do a better job.
No Easy Answer
Last Wednesday I had the privilege of attending a lecture given by Dr. Eboo Patel. A practicing Muslim known for his interfaith work, his lecture was on the wisdom of Abraham Joshua Heschel, a Hasidic Jew. In a day when all we seem to hear is the strident voices of religious intolerance, it was refreshing and inspiring to listen to Dr. Patel reflect on how Heschel’s insights and perspective deepens his own faith as a Muslim. Following the lecture there was a time for questions. The last question asked was the most important and the most provocative. It went something like this. ”In an age of religious pluralism and in your [Patel’s] own work on interfaith understanding and cooperation, if religious traditions can no longer claim to be the one true religion, what does any tradition have to offer that would cause people to become adherents?”
The question was and is an important one.
If it is not about where you will spend eternity or whether or not my tradition is the best or the only true one or the only right one, then what do we say to people who ask why they should be Muslim or Christian or Jew or Hindu?
Patel’s response was, “Beauty.”
The goal of any and all religious traditions is to help individuals discover and see the beauty in each other and in the world around us, and in our religious traditions and practices.
My response (at least today) is different.
My word would be gratitude.
In a culture that is so often protective and fearful and competitive, we need to be reminded to be grateful, to say Thank you, and out of our gratitude to practice generosity.
I realize that one word answers, whether his or mine, are not sufficient.
But, the question is real.
And, if progressive and inclusive religious voices are to be heard and to have a voice and to touch people’s lives and to make a difference, we need to begin to figure out our response.
I Saw A Fox
This morning was a perfect morning for a run.
The sun was shining.
The air was cool with an early fall crispness.
I dirt road on which I was running paralleled the lake which reflected the fall colors like a mirror in the early morning stillness.
It saw me at the same time I saw it.
A fox had stepped out of the woods and onto the road.
We both stopped and stared at each other for about 20 seconds before it turned and ran back into the woods.
Awesome.