Your One Wild and Precious Life

From the Bible:  John 10:10

[Jesus said to them]
The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. 
I came that [you] might have life, and have it abundantly.

Sermon :

I stumbled across the writings of Thomas Merton when I was in college. 
From his autobiography, The Seven Story Mountain, to his journal, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, his writing captured a way of looking at and thinking about and expressing one’s faith that I had never encountered before.  I don’t think it is too much of an exaggeration to say that I would not be who I am today and where I am today if I had not picked up and read his books back then.  For those of you who do not recognize his name, Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk.  A Roman Catholic brother in a cloistered order whose members took vows of silence and celibacy and simplicity.  Yet, for living the life he did where he did, in the rural mountains of Kentucky, he wrote with an insight and awareness that changed my life transforming the way I thought about God and faith and how I might live my life.

So, that is a somewhat long introduction to this…
For nearly 40 years, a small book of Merton’s quotes has occupied a place on my bookshelf never far from my reach.  Here is one of the quotes from that book that I have lived with and thought about for that same length of time.
Merton wrote:
“Do not look for rest in any pleasure, because you were not created for pleasure: you were created from JOY.  And if you do not know the difference between pleasure and joy you have not yet begun to live.”
And, I think that has something to do with what Jesus meant when he said,  
“I came that you might have life and have it abundantly.” 

I have found myself thinking about both Merton and Jesus because of something a friend and colleague wrote on our BPC Parents blog several weeks ago.  Maybe you have seen a flyer or noticed a line about BPC Parents in the bulletin.  Maybe you have even seen us on Facebook.  BPC Parents is a weekly online resource for parents with reflections written by Kathy DiBiasi and myself and five other friends and colleagues who work in some capacity children and youth and families. 

Anyway…
This particular contribution was about what fosters or supports happiness in our children.
All of us who have children want to them to be happy.
And, the truth is, all of us want to be happy, as well.
But, the more I thought about it and thought about happiness as the primary goal or one of the primary goals we have for our children or ourselves, the more unsettled I became because I think if we aim for happiness we miss the point.

And because I first begin with questions, I found myself asking:
Is happiness what I really long for for my children?
Or, for myself?
Happiness which is often defined by the things we have or desire;
Or, by security and ease and problem free, stress free life?
Or, do I wish for something more?
Something that Merton names as joy and Jesus names as abundant life? 

I have spent 40 years living with and pondering what Merton meant. 
And, about that long pondering what Jesus means.
I wish I were wise enough to tell you that after all that time I had arrived at some enlightened insight that I could pass on to you.  And, then I could write a book and go on the talk show circuit and maybe even then, increase my pledge!
But, I am not that wise.
I am still living the question towards that distant day when I may discover something more of an answer.  But, along the way, here is what I do think I have learned and what I think I know.

Joy and abundant life has…
Something to do with compassion and kindness;
Something to do with embracing life with its celebrations and its sorrows; its successes and failures, its highs and its lows and its everyday responsibilities and routines, and yet never letting go of gratitude and always keeping a look out for the grace that brushes up against our lives.
It has something to do…
With losing your life in the hope of finding it.
With giving your life away in the hope of discovering it.
And, with building community;
And loving boldly. 

So, today I wonder…
What are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?
How will you spend it today?
And, what about tomorrow and the day after that?
What is the goal towards which your orient your life?
Happiness?
Pleasure?
Joy?
Abundant life?
What?
Once again today, each of us gets to decide.