Our spiritual theme for May is “Blessings”. We are afforded blessings every day. Most of what we call life is a struggle punctuated by moments of brilliant blessing. The secret is to hear the blessings for what they are and welcome them into our lives. Blessings are rendered unto us all the time.
The angels of my better nature remind me of what is good about living, even though I struggle. My beloved, my family, my work, you my people and the better calling to change the world. I have a hunch we are all being blessed but it’s not so easy to feel those blessings. We drown them out with worry, fears and the adult cares of the world. Why can’t we live in the here and the now? Isn’t this enough?
What would our world look like if we simply accepted the blessings rendered unto us; to sustain us as we grow into the world. But to accept the blessings of the sustainable, we need to consider what really matters most to us. Is it the new car or is it being here? In order to achieve sustainability on our planet and in our lives, we will need to use less, yes, but we will also have to love more, work for peace, stand for justice, and teach our children to do the same. Sustainability is so much more than the plight of the planet; it is a spiritual endeavor, a way to look at ourselves as living on and on. In times like these, we might think the world is coming to an end, but that is not the reality. “There is a rabbinical teaching that says that if the world is ending and the Messiah is coming you first plant a tree to see if the story is true….Inspiration is not garnered from a recitation of what is flawed but in humanity’s willingness to restore….recover….re-imagine. What is wrong is an addictive story, what is right is where the movement is going.” (From Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken)
My point here is not that we should be overwhelmed by the enormity of our struggles but buoyed by the fact that there are millions of people in a million organizations around the world who are quietly and effectively working to sustain life. You probably all belong to three or four of them each. We can’t always see their work but they are there.
So this month, look for the signs that we are more blessed in this life than we might first imagine. We are doing this work for reasons far beyond our own needs… indeed as the Native generations taught, we are here to cultivate our planet for Seven Generations. Ours is Blessed Work.
Yours with Grace and Grit, Rev. John