Getting off the Hamster Wheel

Last week, one of the Daily Meditations from Richard Rohr really resonated with me:

We are not hamsters on a wheel, waiting to fall into the cedar shavings at the bottom of the cage. We are seekers of light and life, bearers of shadows and burdens. We are struggling to journey together toward moral fulfillment. We are learning to embrace the unfathomable darkness where God dwells with enthusiasm that equals our love of light. 

Actually, it was the first sentence in that paragraph that particularly resonated with me, “We are not hamsters on a wheel, waiting to fall into the cedar shavings at the bottom of the cage.”  Unfortunately, we are to a greater or lesser extent, just that.  We often go through life without reflection or contemplation and without even recognizing that we are on a hamster wheel.  We accept where we are in life without much consideration or question of where we are or where we are going; are we seekers of light and life as Richard Rohr proposes or do we just try to make it through the day to day routine and challenges that often fills our days?

Speaking from experience, it is very easy to get into a routine and follow that routine without necessarily questioning if that is what I could or should be doing.  Routines are good in that they allow you to get through you days and weeks and more without having to expend energy to think or reflect on what you are doing.  The Corona Pandemic, to a great extent, forced us get off our regular hamster wheels and decide how we were going to approach life in the corona pandemic world.  In many cases this amounted to finding a new wheel to mount and begin to ride again.  In other case, unfortunately, it meant life-changing decisions that had to be made – sometimes with tragic consequences. 

I do believe that assertion by Richard Rohr; we are created to be seekers of light and life, bearers of shadows and burdens.  We can only do that by trying, as best we can, to live a life that is conscious of who we are and why we do the things we do and being the people God created us to be.  This is what makes us human.  We are called to reflect on what we are doing and why we are doing it.  That is no easy task and can require that we get off the hamster wheel or at least stop the spinning from time to time and step outside our routine existence. 

This is what Jesus’s parables attempt to do.  The reality of God’s world is opened up in new ways.  The hamster wheels of the people he was talking to was brought into focus and questioned.  Is that the way I should be treating others; who is my neighbour; do I walk by the person who has been mugged and is lying at the side of the road even if he or she is not worthy of my attention, what is truly important in my life?

How do we see “the other” as a fellow human being and act and react as a human being?  I want to close by applying this to an issue that is currently trending on social media – the Black lives Matter movement that has been reinvigorated during the corona pandemic.   The response by some is that all lives matter and of course as Christians we all called to believe that all lives matter.  But what does it mean to stop the wheel spinning in this issue?  For me, the cry of Black lives Matter has never been a statement that only black lives matter or that other lives don’t matter.  It is a cry that black lives and lives of indigenous people - indeed lives of those who are “the other” also matter.  However, in many ways and in many situations that they have meant less than lives of white people or perhaps people of wealth and influence.

Let us be seekers of light and life and bearers of shadows and burdens on our journey.  

Blessings to you on that journey.

The Marshmallow Test for Christians

Last week I read an article in the New York Times which spoke about the “marshmallow test”.  The article was entitled “America Fails the Marshmallow Test” by Paul Krugman.  Now, I had forgotten about the marshmallow test which I had heard about some years ago.  It is an experiment conducted by psychologists that tests a child’s ability to delay gratification.  In the test, a child is given a marshmallow and told that if the child can delay eating it for fifteen minutes, they will be given a second one.  The hypothesis behind the test is that a child with the willpower to delay gratification and gain the second marshmallow will be more successful in life. 

The article notes that this hypothesis has not held up well outside the lab.  However, as the article states, it is a useful metaphor for the dynamic of how individuals or groups operate in the world.  Krugman was using the metaphor for a yardstick to measure how the United States is performing in the COVID-19 pandemic and concluded that the country is failing this ‘marshmallow test’ and many people do not have the willpower to maintain the steps such as social distancing to defeat the pandemic.  This conclusion seems to have been confirmed by the rally held by U.S. President Donald Trump over the weekend in which a relatively large crowd, which was planned to be much larger. gathered in an indoor facility without social distancing and generally not wearing masks.  While they may not have been singing, there was a lot a cheering and shouting.  A perfect formula for spreading the Corona virus.

That being said, I have to wonder about a marshmallow test for Christian.  Can the principle of delayed gratification be applied to the people of God?  Pondering this, I am reminded of another concept which I heard some years ago; God the Butler.  This speaks to the idea that people want to think of God as someone or something that we can call upon to come up from the servant’s quarters when we believe that God can give us something which we want or need.  We want God to answer prayers on our terms and on our schedule.  Needless to say, we are often disappointed when God does not live up to our expectation and does not deliver on demand.  I am reminded of the song by Janice Joplin, O Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz.  In effect, we fail the marshmallow test in our relationship with God.

When we do this, we are letting our egos run the show.  The ego wants to be in charge – indeed it believes much of the time that it is in charge and wants to maintain control.  And when we have to face that our egos i.e., we, are not in control we rebel and want to find a scapegoat for our disappointment.  We are not God or even gods despite what it says in Psalm 82,” I say, ‘You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you.”   As Christians, we are certainly children of God but not gods in that sense. 

As hard as we try, we can never come close to understanding the fullness of God and as it says in Isaiah:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
   nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
   so are my ways higher than your ways
   and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55: 8-9)

We can still turn to God in our times of trouble and we have the assurance through Jesus Chris that he is with us and knows what we are going through always and especially in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.   Let us consider as Christians how we fair in light of the marshmallow test. 

Blessing on your journey. 

A Time for Contemplation

 “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”

That wonderful passage from Ecclesiastes seems to be speaking to us in new way during the pandemic.  This is truly a season which none of us alive today have ever experienced before.  It would be tempting to yell at God that there can’t be any purpose in all that we have been going through – indeed all that the whole world has been going through and continues to go through in this time of COVID-19.

We could rewrite the words of Ecclesiastes and lament that it is a time to self isolate, a time to be anxious, a time to suffer from illness, a time of economic challenges beyond belief and yes even  a time to die – Ecclesiastes was correct on that one as more than eight thousand people have died from the pandemic in Canada and over 400 thousand worldwide at last count.  So, what in heavens name could be purpose under heaven in this time?

One possibility is that it is a time of turning inward.  Not inward in the sense that we are all just looking after ourselves and turning our backs on others in this time of so much need.  Rather, it is a time for contemplation; a time of seeking God in the silence that is all around us.  You could argue that there are still many distractions that can capture our attention – from endless news stories of tragedies brought about by the pandemic to the most recent cases of systemic racism in our country and our neighbour to the south with the uprising of protests that have followed.  Certainly justified and over due but there is little silence in this.

However, as we are self-isolating in our homes there an opportunity to turn inward in a way which is often neglected in our society.  It can be a time of contemplation in which we turn inward to find a deeper connection to the source of all we are and have.  We can seek and find the inner voice of God speaking to us – that so often still, small, quiet voice that is so easy to miss in the usual hustle and bustle and distractions and noise of what was the normal part of our life in the Western World until three months ago.  Richard Rohr addressed the need for contemplation in this time:

The word contemplation must press beyond the constraints of religious expectations to reach the potential for spiritual centering in the midst of danger. Centering moments accessed in safety are an expected luxury in our era. During slavery, however, crisis contemplation became a refuge, a wellspring of discernment in a suddenly disordered life space, and a geo-spiritual anvil for forging a new identity. This definition of contemplation is dynamic and situational. . . . Richard Rohr Daily Meditation June 11, 2020

There are many ways in which to practice contemplation from reading and reflecting on scripture, to prayer and meditation to being in the great outdoors of the world that God has created, keeping the social distance of course.  I will leave you with another passage from the psalms as a possible candidate for contemplation which seems to be speaking to this time. See which words or phrases resonate with you and spend a few minutes contemplating them.

A Song of Ascents.

130:1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
2 O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.

5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.

7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.

Blessings on your journey in this time of COVID-19.

It’s Turtles All the Way Down

Last week my son Matthew recommended a recent episode of the CBC radio program, Ideas.  It is actually a rebroadcast of the 2005 Massey Lecture by Thomas King, a writer and, for this incarnation, a master storyteller. The episode can be found here; Stories can be both wondrous and dangerous, according to writer Thomas King https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/stories-can-be-both-wondrous-and-dangerous-according-to-writer-thomas-king-1.5593496

I am and have been interested in stories and particularly the genre of myths, legends and fairy tales.   This edition of the program certainly was of interest as it dealt in great part to a comparison of the myths of two creation stories; one which, although not identified as such, was a story, I assume to be of first-nation origin – but perhaps that is only my interpretation.  This story involved the Great Mother named Charm who gave birth to twins.  The twins being the same but opposite – one right-handed and one left-handed, created the pairs of opposites in the world including the first man and the first woman. 

The second was easier to identify, the story of creation from the Judeo-Christian bible involving those rather famous, or perhaps infamous first couple, Adam and Eve and, oh yes, that most crafty of God’s creatures, the serpent - let’s not forget the serpent.  I should note here that I don’t use ‘myth’ in the sense that it is just a story and not true.  But in the sense that it is a story that deals with the relationship between God or the gods and humankind and contains a capital T-Truth.

King begins his ‘lecture’, which is more a lesson on story-telling, with a story which has become apocryphal about someone who talks about the scientific structure of the world and is challenged by someone who knows that the world sits on the back of a gigantic turtle.  When asked about what the turtle sits on, he is told, it is ‘turtles all the way down’.  I am giving the abridged version for the sake of brevity.  Now, I had first heard a version of the story in Stephen Hawking’s 1988 book A Brief History of Time:

A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

As King notes, this story has been told in many versions at many different times and places.  However, some features of the story never change, the turtle never changes and never swims away.  We could ask where the capital T truth is in this story/myth.  Well I would say that the world/universe was not created by humans and we desire to understand who created it and how it was created and more to the point, why?

Turning to the two creation stories, the same question arises.  These are both myths – in the good sense that they contain Truth.   In the first-nation story there are many aspects to recommend it – I would recommend that you listen to it.  It is one in which all creatures cooperate and there is no moral judgement about good and evil – I imagine that comes later in the myths of those people – but perhaps not.  The creation story of Adam and Eve and the serpent do not come out very well in comparison.  It is a story, apparently about the naivety and disobedience of the first parents and the duplicity of the craftiest of God’s creatures.   It even was the basis for the doctrine of original sin by Augustine which, in my view has done a great deal of damage in the history of the Christian church and the world. 

I propose that this is not the Truth in the Christian creation story.  I am aware that I am treading on dangerous territory here so instead of declaring a different Truth, I will end with asking a few questions.  What would human beings, who are created in God’s image be, if out first parents had not tasted of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?  What if humans had continued to live in that pre-conscious state of paradise in the Garden of Eden in that state of perpetual innocence?  Would there have been any Cain and Able to have a conflict over who’s offering was better and commit the first act of fratricide?  Would a perpetual state of bliss enable humans to live as God actually intended his greatest creation to live?  Perhaps God had something else in mind when God placed the serpent in the Garden. 

Things to consider on your journey – blessings.

ZOOMing With God

Last week, I was attending the Summer Dream and Spirituality Conference presented by the Haden Institute.  I am not sure if ‘attending’ is the correct word – perhaps ‘participating in’ is better because I was participating via ZOOM.  I have attended the Conference many times since my first time in 2005, but those have always been attendance that was on site at the Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville N.C. 

This was my first experience of any such endeavor by electronic means and I was very aware of both he positive and negative aspects of using a such a means of coming together.  Many of us are now getting very familiar with ZOOM (is Zooming or ZOOMing the verb) and similar ways of being in community in the time of COVID 19 with many worship services being so offered and meetings utilizing the internet for meetings.  It is something which will become to a lesser or greater extent the “new normal” in the post COVID 19 shut down.  As the Rev. Sherry DeJonge noted yesterday when four of us gathered at St. James Anglican Church, Parkhill in the traditional way yesterday to worship (keeping social distancing) while Donna Lamb-Gunness recorded the service for Facebook, we will need to continue providing worship services electronically after the shut down is eased as many people will be reluctant to attend church physically  - at least initially.

In addition, it was announced at the end of the Conference that next year, the Conference could be attended either in person or electronically for the first time.  This option, which has been used in a limited way in many instances I past years will, I believe, become the new normal way meeting in the years to come.

That being said and turning to the Conference itself, it is a wonderful exploration of ways that we can enhance our connection with God or the Divine - however you personally define it.  One of the primary ways which is offered at the Conference, is through dreams which we consider to be God’s forgotten language.  In addition, there are many ways included such as prayer, meditation, art and poetry to name a few.   

On reflection, it struck me that ZOOMing (or Zooming) is a great metaphor for how God communicated with us.  I believe that God is continually trying to connect with us – to ZOOM - in many different ways.  Unfortunately, we are not willing or able to be open to many of those ways.  Sometimes we will be open to a few familiar ways in which God speaks to us such as in scripture or music or prayer.  However, we can both deepen those ways though those ways through practice, participation and reflection, as well as exploring other ways in which we are naturally not as attuned to.  I believe we can do both, that is, deepen the ways which we have been accustomed to in our lives as well as explore new ways which we haven’t considered as possibilities for God speaking to us.  I have found the Conference to be a wonderful way of exploring both possibilities. 

I will close with a short poem which was offered to me - possibly from a divine source in one the workshops during the Conference which explored this avenue for communication with the Divine.  It explores the idea of our names being formative to who we are and the reality of my life that I almost was named after my father rather than someone else.

In the Name of the Father

What if my father,

Who was the one who baptized me,

Had honoured his agreement

With my mother

And had named me Milton

After my father,

Instead of Gregory after

His philosophy prof.

Would I be the same person

I am now,

Or would I be someone else?

Blessings on you journey.