So, Who is In Control?

A week ago, I had a reminder that any belief that I am in ultimate control of my life is an illusion.  Saturday of that weekend we experienced the beginning of the ice storm from a Colorado Low which had been predicted.  This prediction was unfortunately worthy of a Biblical Prophet being right on target.  The ice storm on Saturday was followed by a power failure on Sunday morning which lasted until Monday evening for us in Parkhill. 

All the plans for the weekend were cancelled, at least for us, including a 90^th birthday party in Grand Bend, church Sunday morning at St. James. Parkhill, and a tea and vintage fashion show at the Carnegie Library in Parkhill where I was supposed to provide mood music on guitar.  We were without the amenities and necessities provided by electrical power.  It is amazing how you don’t realize how much we depend on electricity until we don’t have it.  As it says in the song from the 1960ties, “Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.”

This experience is a reminder or perhaps it is a realization that we are not in control.  It is very easy for us to succumb to the illusion that we are in control of our lives. I went on retreat in he week after Easter to Apple Farm, a contemplative community in Three Rivers, Michigan.  I believed in my heart of hearts why I was doing this, hopefully for all the best reasons, and that I knew what I was getting into.  I knew in my head what I would be experiencing.  It is always more challenging in reality than in theory, I still had a fairly clear idea and knew it was my decision to do it.  In effect I believed I was ultimately in control of my destiny, even on a retreat.

However, the power failure made me face the reality that when you get down to the nitty gritty of life. Any idea that you are ultimately in control is just an illusion.  We have a need to believe that we can control what will happen to us.  We try as hard as we can to maintain that control.  And to a limited extent we are.  However, we consciously or unconsciously try to ignore the reality that our lives are actually ultimately out of our control. 

We try to do all we can to ensure that our lives will turn out as we desire; we will have good health if we eat right and exercise or at least not abuse our bodies.  We do the right things and we will be rewarded with the life we believe we want.  However, a relatively small thing like a power failure for 36 hours show us that we are at the mercy of forces that we cannot control. 

The only true constant in our lives is the voice of the Divine calling us to our true home with God our heavenly Father.  This might be the voice of the Holy Spirit or the voice of the Good Shepherd―yesterday was Good Shepherd Sunday.  We desire control because we are fearful of what will happen if we do not have control. 

Who knows what curve life will throw at us.  And that is reality.  The illusion is that we can control our lives and keep ourselves safe from those things.  However, our true security is in God.  It is in the voice of the Good Shepherd calling us to our true home, our spiritual home.  That is the home which is always there for us.  That is where we are loved unconditionally for who we are and not what we accomplish.  That is where there is a room that is truly our and where we are always welcome.

Blessings on you journey.

Actually, What is Contemplation?

I was away at a retreat last week from Wednesday to Sunday.  I usually go once a year to Apple Farm Community in Three Rivers Michigan―or I try to.  I didn’t make it last year so it was good to be back an connect with the place and the community members. 

Now you may be asking why I go there for a retreat rather than some place in Canada―which is what the customs official at the U. S. border asked me (I still don’t know why I feel guilty when being questioned by a border guard even though I don’t have anything to hide).  The answer I gave him was that I have had a relationship with that community for about 10 years.  That is the short answer which he accepted.  The not quite so short answer is that the community was founded over fifty years ago by someone who is probably my favourite spiritual writer, Helen Luke.  She was a very wise woman who wrote inciteful, meaningful explorations of the human soul using the bible and many classics of literature such as the Divine Comedy by Dante.  I highly recommend her books and essays to anyone who wants to explore the soul and the human condition.

Apple Farm Community was founded as a contemplative community.  I had not previously considered   what a contemplative community is until is read an essay based on the thoughts of the founder during my most recent retreat.  It is described in the essay as first of all what it is not i.e. it is not an intentional community.   I take that to mean it does not set out to intentionally create a community of and for people.  It provides opportunity and space for people to be themselves in reflection and introspection.

More specifically, to quote from the article, “The ultimate way of contemplation lies not in increase in knowledge or even understanding, importance, or in refusal of life or love, and not in the quest for spiritual experience but just simply in an ever-deepening sense of wonder.” 

 I think it is that sense of wonder, which I find so hard to recognize in my day -to-day life, that is what is truly meaningful for me.  It is the sense of wonder at the wonders of God’s creation which I am able to recognize and experience there more than most other places.  I do find it in other places such as the wonderful architecture of an ancient cathedral or a natural cathedral such as a majestic sunset.  However, my time at Apple Farm enables me to see and experience it in the small things which I otherwise would miss. 

The key is to turn to wonder especially when you find you don’t have the answer to your questions or are not sure why life is happening to you the way it is; or just because. 

As Paul Simon said, “These are the days of miracles and wonders”. 

Blessings on you journey.