Sunday, July 15, 2018

Spirituality of Non-Hurrying


“Nothing can be more useful to a man than a determination not to be hurried.” Thoreau wrote that and it's not meant as something trivial.
We hurry too much, pure and simple. As Henri Nouwen describes it:
One of the most obvious characteristics of our daily lives is that we are busy. We experience our days as filled with things to do, people to meet, projects to finish, letters to write, calls to make, and appointments to keep. Our lives often seem like over-packed suitcases bursting at the seams. It fact, we are almost always aware of being behind schedule. There is a nagging sense that there are unfinished tasks, unfulfilled promises, unrealized proposals. There is always something else that we should have remembered, done, or said. There are always people we did not speak to, write to, or visit. Thus, although we are very busy, we also have a lingering feeling of never really fulfilling our obligation.
We are always hurrying.
What's wrong with hurrying? Any doctor, police officer, spiritual director, or over-worked mother, can answer that: Hurrying causes tension, high blood-pressure, accidents, and robs us of the simple capacity to be in the moment.
But spiritual writers take this further. They see hurry as an obstacle to spiritual growth. Donald Nicholl, for example, says “hurry is a form of violence exercised upon time” an attempt, as it were, to make time God's time our own, our private property. What he and others suggest is that, in hurrying, we exercise a form of greed and gluttony? How so
The gospels tell us that even Jesus was so busy at times that he didn't have time to eat.
Too often we have a rather simplistic notion of greed and gluttony. We imagine greed, for example, as hoarding money and possessions, as being selfish, hard-hearted, like Scrooge in the Dickens' Christmas tale. For most of us, greed takes a different, more subtle form. More than money, we hoard experience. We try to drink in the world, all of it. We would like to travel to every place, see everything, feel every sensation, not miss out on anything. We constantly hurry what we're doing so as to be available to do more. We try to juggle too many things at the same time precisely because we want too many things. The possessions we really want are experience, knowledge, sensation, achievement, status. We're greedy in a way Scrooge never was. Gluttony works essentially the same. For most of us, the urge to consume is not so much about food or drink, but about experience. We are always in a hurry because we are forever restless to taste more of life.
But there are other kinds of hurry that come from simple circumstance and duty. Almost everyone of us, at least during our working years, have too many things to do: Daily, we struggle to juggle the demands of relationships, family, work, school, church, child-care, shopping, attention to health, concern for appearance, house-work, preparing meals, rent and mortgage payments, car payments, commuting to and from work, bus schedules, unwanted accidents, unforeseen interruptions, illnesses, and countless other things that eat up more time than is seemingly available.
The gospels tell us that even Jesus was so busy at times that he didn't have time to eat. God didn't make a mistake in creating time, God made enough of it, and when we can't find enough time and, as the Psalmist says, find ourselves getting up ever earlier and going to bed ever later because we have too much to do, we need to see this as a sign that sooner or later we had better make some changes. When we hurry too much and for too long we end up doing violence to ourselves, and to our blood pressure.
Lord, I pray for Sonshine Friends that they learn to stop and smell the flowers. Help us Lord, to walk more slowly, eat more slowly, talk more slowly so that we can enjoy and savor the beauty of Your gift of time.

Monday, July 09, 2018

We Are More Than People Think



My best friend who I had the privilege of serving as his best man 20 years ago invited Sue and I to stay as his guests in Nashua. His beloved spouse made gourmet meals every day and we spent our time watching World Cup Soccer, some PBS detective shows and enjoyed the Boston Pops at Tanglewood. He recently retired after 40 plus years service as a geriatric physician.

His vocation was to get his elderly patients off their pills and make them as independent as possible so they could enjoy their golden years. His other talent was to teach the next generation of young docs how to care for seniors with respect and dignity.

My best friend is now 75, and he was showing off the features of his new 2018 Subaru with all its bells and whistles. His family comes from Detroit and he has an extensive appreciation for all makes of cars. Yes, his toy has google maps, back up screens and bells that sound when you cross the lines. This is a good thing because when seated as a passenger he made me crazy. We are on the highway and you need to change lanes to make a turn but he’s still going straight until someone points out “not here go there.” “I’m sorry” he says. Now we are on cruise control and he shares when you come up too close to the car in front of you, the car’s brakes back you away. Good thing because I didn’t want to be part of that guy’s bumper.

Bless his dear wife and Susan who are in the back of the car and his wife says to “quit it” you’re making us dizzy. I’m sorry, he says again. Mind you, he’s more then it seems. He’s not trying to be malicious or rattle us, just a tad careless at times.

I wonder, when you retire does something happen to your brain that says you can get a little flaky and people around you will look the other way. Maybe, he just wants our attention. You may think that he’s just another doctor who has enjoyed the power and prestige of his position and expects people to bow to all his whims. You would be dead wrong with my friend for he is not what it seems with this true story.

Our spouses called to make reservations for dinner after the concert, but every restaurant was booked except one known as the Church Grille that took no reservations. After my friend parked the car, we are walking to the restaurant and he says let’s go here. I’m thinking that’s silly since the ladies had called the Church Grille. However, when we got to the door, the place was dark inside and a sign on the door read the place was closed that night due to a plumbing problem.

I turned and there’s my friend running back to the other restaurant. We walked only halfway not sure what he was up to. Then he’s frantically waving his arms to come back. He’s more than people think because we learned that this restaurant had no reservations available, but there were 5 free seats at the bar where we could eat. No problem, we appreciated my friend’s quick response and to our surprise enjoyed a wonderful gourmet meal. When I wanted to pick up the bill, he said to me “please let me take care of this.” So, I got off my bar stool, walked over to the end of the bar and took him by the shoulder and said “Thanks.” You see we are always more than people think.

People are always more than we think. You may never know that my best friend worked with veterans who struggled with their PTSD and drug addictions. You may never know that he has an auto-immune disease that requires a powerful medication that lays him up for a day or two before he feels better. You may never know that his generosity extends to all his adult kids and grandkids whom he visits often around the country. His grand-kids love their grand-dad.  He gives quietly to all his family and I can say: “We never knew he had it in him.”

The point is that we are indeed more than people think and sometimes you know, it breaks out. Sometimes our crazy side drives other insane, then again our generous and heroic deeds pop out to challenge others’ assessment and in surprise they say: “We never knew you had it in you.”

This happened often to Jesus and his disciples as they began their ministry to the folks in surrounding villages. The truth is people are always more than we think and therefore we must never lock them in the box, nor should they lock us in.

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who have been misunderstood by family and friends. You know our silly side and our heroic deeds. Help us to see the good that you see in all of us and be a grateful people.