Waiting...

It's almost here. Norad is tracking. People are traveling. Families are gathering.

My Christmas wish for all of us is that we can awaken tomorrow morning and unwrap a different gift. A gift of eyes to see and ears to listen. May we all step away from our presents and the food, and consider the true meaning of the day. We were given a gift approximately two thousand years ago. We were given the gift of forgiveness. We were given an opportunity to live into a new kingdom. A place where scarcity, fear, injustice and oppression are no longer. We are all capable of living into that dream, but it will take all of us to get there. And it will make that pie taste that much sweeter.

My wish for each of us is that we can pass that gift on to another - pay it forward - and perhaps we can begin to live into the promise of God's kingdom that is meant for every one of us.

Merry Christmas.

Chief Mudflap

Control

As we move into full-speed on the holiday juggernaut, it seems like things are a little out of step. Instead of looking forward to the big day, many of us are looking over our shoulder, wondering if the furlough or layoff is coming. For those who have jobs, they are doing the work of three, picking up the slack for those co-workers already gone. I see the stress of all of this coming out in those around me, as shorter tempers or fatigue or just plain withdrawal.

All of this makes me wonder about the concept of control. Did we ever have it? Were we fooling ourselves by thinking we could really affect the outcome of this life?

For me, I've simply come to the conclusion that control is relative. I can choose to get out of bed, and to put on a happy face and to try to brighten my little corner of the world. After that, it's only God's guess as to what the future holds.

I can live with that.

Listening

It seems lately like life is running at full speed. Between dealing with family, work and other commitments, we are running from one fire to the next, desperately trying to put out this fire before we are called to the next one. In the midst of all the chaos, it becomes harder and harder to listen for the messages that we are meant to hear. And maybe that is the message itself.

I am currently in a class called EFM – Education for Ministry. The focus of the program is biblical, but it teaches through exercises called theological reflections. Each reflection attempts to take an otherwise ordinary incident in our lives, and through a process of progressive abstraction, attempts to deduce a larger and more potent meaning. One of the larger lessons that I’ve gleaned from the process is that everything in our lives has meaning. Whether we choose to pay attention or not to this meaning has implication for our ability to acquire wisdom and ultimately grow as humans.

And so this frantic pace may be an incident of its own. Instead of being consumed by those who demand of our time, instead of being preoccupied with deadlines, take a moment to listen for the greater message. After all, if we are distracted by other tasks as we attempt to complete the project before us, the product of that labor is diminished. It is simply not our best work. While that may be reality (multi-tasking anyone?) who can argue that our highest and best effort is not realized?

Take a moment periodically to empty your mind and focus on nothing. Listen for the message that comes. Some might call this meditation, some might call it prayer, but for the sake of argument, call it personal time. You might just find that the message that comes is an epiphany that you’ve been waiting for all along.

Peace,
Chief Mudflap

Keep Hope Alive

One of the “new realities” of the current economic climate is an almost certain sense of uncertainty about everything. Institutions of seemingly infinite duration are suddenly in peril. From the automakers, to Wall Street institutions, to charitable megaliths, there is no shortage of stories about hard times. Heck – I even saw Kyra Sedgwick doing a commercial the other day, and I had to wonder to myself if this was due to her husband’s (Kevin Bacon) losses in the Madoff scandal.

In the midst of all this chaos, I have to wonder what has happened to hope. I know that people have hope in the next life – that is the basis of our collective faith. What I’m wondering is if there is hope in this life. Do people have hope that we will be able to pull ourselves out of this mess?

In my opinion (and this is a blog so I’m entitled thank you very much) I believe there is a delicate balance between hope in this world and hope / faith in the next. When the balance tips in favor of the next, that’s where suicide bombers come from. That’s where workplace violence comes from. When a person has no hope in this life, where there is no expectation of things getting better or a brighter tomorrow, that’s when things can get dangerous.

And so I wonder with great trepidation on the state of our world and the capacity of our elected (and otherwise) leaders to preserve hope in this world. While I pray that someday I might see heaven in my next life, I also pray that I won’t see hell in this one.

Peace,
Chief Mudflap

WWJD

I’ll start this off right away by saying I am a Christian, so I’m coming at this wisdom thing with some baggage. But that’s not to say I’m closed-minded about sources and ideas on the topic. The phrase that I constantly return to is “enlightenment ultimately prevails.” What we ‘knew’ 50 years ago, seems pretty silly compared to what we know today. Imagine what we will ‘know’ in another 50 years. It makes the mind humble when you consider how ‘wrong’ we might be then.

So I’m always amazed when people try to invoke God, Jesus or some other religious entity as supportive of their cause, especially when that cause is denigrating to another group or class. I’m reminded of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, who attributed Katrina as payback for a lifestyle in New Orleans that was less than holy. To quote Ronald Reagan (in a twisted way): “There you go again.”

In these instances, I always think of that phrase “What would Jesus do?” WWJD? I find it more than ironic that WWJD originated from the same evangelical base that can at times be so hurtful towards others. So what did Jesus actually do? Did he overturn tables in a brothel? No, he chased the moneychangers out of the temple. Did he rub elbows with the powerful? No, he gave comfort and healed the least of us. His message was about giving access to everyone who wanted to have a relationship with God no matter their status. He even chastised the pious and encouraged his followers to pray in secret. The powerful at that time was consumed with controlling access to God. Jesus invited everyone to the table.

The next time you hear a message from some group claiming to have God’s ear, and seeking to separate one group from another, remember that phrase: enlightenment ultimately prevails. Today’s wisdom might be tomorrow’s tragic mistake.

Peace,
Chief Mudflap

Welcome Back...

So you may notice that older posts are now gone. Finito.... Relegated to the dustbin of history. Like so much of our recent past, the last eight years seems like a distant memory, except for the mess they left behind.

So I have decided to clear out the past and start the blog fresh, and ponder some new ideas. As the name of the blog hints, this blog is about wisdom. So look for a fresh perspective on wisdom, or the lack thereof, and what we all might learn if we have "eyes to see and ears to hear."

Peace,
Chief Mudflap