4.12.2009
What are you Preparing for?
I need to apologize for not updating this blog as quickly as I would have liked to. This has been a challenging 6 weeks. But, with all challenges comes a sense of determination and persepective. I'm pleased to share my insights with you in this post.....
Finding our place in this life can make us feel as though we are training for the Olympics: we need to focus all our attention on our training, hire a couple of coaches, watch review tapes of our performance, check out our competition and continually ask ourselves, “is this worth it?”
When we work to live as, what Thomas Merton would call our “true self”, it does require a certain amount of attention and dedication; but, ultimately our efforts are less work than trying to live as someone we are not. Living authentically is not about living perfectly, but it is about living with purpose and in direct line with our deepest beliefs and joys.
So, to begin: what are your deepest beliefs and joys? When you define your beliefs, are they reflected in your daily living? If so, how will you maintain that path? If there is a conflict between what you believe and your daily words and actions, what is the first step to aligning these two things?
One of the stories from scripture that I sit with the most is the story of Moses. We know the general story of a baby in a basket, being rescued by a princess and ultimately being led back to his people, whom he was destined to lead out of slavery. But, at the heart of this sacred story is a message about living an authentic life.
For quite some time Moses was separated from his “true path”; it didn’t mean that he was miserable in his life. In fact, he had a pretty comfortable existence in that palace. But what we sense from his story is an underlining need to head down a path that, at his very core, felt like the place God wanted him to be.
Moses is called out of the place he is and is invited back to his true self; the person God created him to be. Now, you would think that an invitation from God like this would summon up great courage in Moses; instead, Moses gave five hearty excuses for staying where he was. However, the call of God was so strong in him that he could not help but follow the path that was placed before him.
What is interesting, I think, about this path that God has designed for us, is that it is ever-changing. When I was teaching high school students how to write and understand literature better, I felt very much in the place God had prepared for me. However, after I had my first child, I felt that a very different direction had revealed itself to me. I don’t think that these were, in fact, two different paths; I think they were steps leading me to another place. Our challenge is being open to the possibilities God places around us!
For Moses, his time within the walls of the Pharaoh’s palace are not unlike my time in teaching, or your time now: these are steps along our journeys of faith. They have purpose, and they are significant in the “waiting” we do along our journeys of faith. Interestingly enough, I don’t think that waiting is a passive experience. I think that as we wait along our paths of faith, we are actively embracing those moments.
As we do this, we are being prepared for the moments when we open up to the possibilities around us and, only then, can we be ready to enter into the fullness of our authentic life. It takes a lot of trust to “wait” in our faith journeys. But, in many ways we are like Moses whose time with the Pharaoh was a time of waiting… of preparing.
What are you preparing for? How do you wait?
Until next time, we take a sacred pause...
