Hope

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”  I Peter 1:3

 

            There have been times over the last 7 weeks when I have said to myself, “I just have to hang in there until... until the Covid-19 curve flattens... until things are normal again... until we can all get back to church... until the weather gets nicer.”   I realized in these thoughts I was putting my energy into hoping for something in the future rather than living fully in the present moment with hope.  There’s a difference.  

            When I was a hospice chaplain, I often found myself helping people to redefine hope.  Hope meant cure, meant getting back to normal, meant holding on for the good days again.  With a prognosis of 6 months or less to live, some people needed to shift their understanding of hope - to find hope in the midst of circumstances they never would have imagined.

            It can be challenging to experience hope when it isn’t tied to an outcome, a positive feeling or the sense that it will all get better in the future.  Hope, however, is also a way of being. It is something that weaves its way into daily life, helping us to accept what is and live without despair.   One author refers to this as the distinction between “ordinary hope” and “mystical hope” and makes the following observations:

•   Mystical hope is not tied to a good outcome, to the future. It lives a life of its own, seemingly without reference to external circumstances and conditions.

•   It has something to do with presence—not a future good outcome, but the immediate experience of being met, held in communion, by something intimately at hand.

•   It bears fruit within us at the psychological level in the sensations of strength, joy, and satisfaction: an “unbearable lightness of being.” But mysteriously, rather than deriving these gifts from outward expectations being met, it seems to produce them from within. *

            As much as I would like to, I can’t conjure up that kind of hope.  We ourselves are not the source of that hope, but the source dwells deeply within us and flows to us with an abundance, so much so that in fact it might be more accurate to say we dwell within it.  Today, you and I can dwell in hope, regardless of our situation, as we journey toward the center, to the innermost ground of our being where we meet and are met by God. 

*Adapted from Cynthia Bourgeault, Mystical Hope: Trusting in the Mercy of God

Personal Mantras

I vividly remember the day.  It was July 1990.  I was in the pristine parsonage kitchen with white tile floors and white wallpaper in Quincy, Massachusetts.  Kirk and I were co-pastoring but he was gone in order to be “pastor of the week” at our church Bible camp.  This meant that I was the solo pastor at church and at home with our 20 month old and 4 month old sons.  It was supper time and both were crying to be fed, one in his high chair throwing everything on the white tile floor and the other in his baby seat, hysterical by my lack of attention.  It was then that it came to me - a mantra that has kept me sane from then and until now.   “I am a sea of calm in a world of chaos.”   I remember saying it.  I remember shouting it.  I remember singing it - on that day when I picked up food off the floor and got some favorite finger food on the highchair tray,  while I tried to calm myself in order to feed the other son,  and on many other occasions since then.   “I am a sea of calm in a world of chaos.”   After a few years of saying this to myself, I could even visualize stormy waves turning in to still waters -the waters receding and gentle ripples just lapping at the shores of my life.

I believe in the power of personal mantras.  They are a way to guide us - to give us focus when the world seems to be out of control.   There have been many times in my last 30 years that my perspective has been turned around by this particular phrase. “I am a sea of calm in a world of chaos.” I have said it over and over again to myself until it became true.   At some point, I would suggest that everyone create their own personal mantra that fits for them and they can claim for a lifetime of situations.

This, however,  is a new season in my life.   I no longer have children in high chairs or baby seats screaming for attention.  I still want to abide in peace and calm but I am beginning to have a new mantra.  It is less familiar and I’m not sure if I even like it but I’m trying it out.  “It is good to learn new things.”   Like the old one, I have to say it over and over again to myself.  I’ve shouted it a few times.  I’m trying to learn to sing it, often with a bit of disbelief and skepticism.  When I’m visiting people at windows with a white board for conversation, I say to myself, “It is good to learn new things.”  When I’m uncertain about how all this social media thing works, I say to myself, “It is good to learn new things.”   When I’m setting up my new laptop computer because my old one is too archaic to run all the programs I currently need at home, I say to myself. “It is good to learn new things.”  When I consider what the future might mean, I say to myself, “It is good to learn new things.”

Yes, there are days - days when I say to God, “What are you doing?  I thought I had 5 to10 more years before all these changes would be happening in ministry?”   Days when I say to God, “Why is this happening now and what am I supposed to be doing with my limited talents and resources?”  And in those days and others I am learning to say, “It is good to learn new things!”  God is always stretching us and we are always growing.  That is the nature of the Christian life.  Whether you need to be a sea of calm in a world of chaos or need to learn to new things in a changing world, God is with us.   Speak your personal mantra into the situation and above all else say, “Thanks be to God!!”