Deer Park United Methodist Church Blog

Our experience of God is one of relationship.  This spiritual connection defines our relationship with Life, and as a result, who and how we are with each little piece of it: the people we meet, the grass and dirt we walk over, the other creatures we make eye contact with as we pass by.

Considering this relationship we share with God, we see to it just as we do with each little piece (romantic relationships, friendships, environmental upkeep, care for those in need)—moment by moment, action by action, word by word.

In short, it takes maintenance. Without repeated contact and care, there is no relationship, only the memory of one. Our relationship with God (with Life) asks our constant connection and focus. It requires the care of our heart, and when we care deep down about something, it’s always in our thoughts. It’s the shadow of all of our movements.  It goes with us to all places, even when we’re away from closest contact.

This week after Pentecost, we’ll be discussing the ways we tend to our relationship with God (with Life), and how that tending is so much like the heat we continuously work to sustain/maintain in a fire.  The ways we can’t just walk away from what’s been built… or it will either die, or spread irresponsibly out of hand. The ways we must always maintain the shape of it, rotating the burning sides in and out, to keep the flame and heat in balance and in a continual burn. The ways we need to add new substance to the heat, so what started it all doesn’t eventually just smolder into cold ash.

We tend to our relationship with God by rendering loving reverence to the Life in all things—in all of those tiny bits that make up the Whole; and this weekend, we’ll explore some of the ways we do this together, as we keep the fire of Pentecost alive in the church, and continue on in our friendship and love with the Spirit of Life in all.

There’s always powerful dialogue to share between spiritual seekers and the spiritually dejected. Have no fear! We’re all just people talking to people, and the more we share with each other, the more opportunity we create between opposite views for mutual understanding. Here’s an interesting thread I found, shared on the topic of sexual discrimination.

Just to give you a little background, it’s become a popular Facebook fad, through the use of Pinterest, to post a lot of anti-God messages in bold font, from Atheist organizations.  A pic was recently posted (in light of recent Supreme Court activity), depicting “God” (of course shown with a white hand pointing a stern finger out from a white robe) sending a lightening bolt down to the earth. The text read along the lines that there are better things to believe in than an “invisible God,” because “God” discriminates against open marriage and true love. Below, is the full exchange of thoughts shared between the Christian and the Atheist on this pic and the subject of “biblically-based” sexual discrimination. (All exchange has been approved for sharing on the basis of anonymity.)

[In response to the lightening bolt pic]:

Christian: I’d say the ridiculousness of that thoughtless judgment has more to do with visible people, than with “God,” wouldn’t you?

Atheist: In the name of?

Christian: That doesn’t make a direct tie to God, just a sad and mistaken association. I could go around doing crappy things your name every day, and that doesn’t make you a jerk. It makes me a fool. 

Atheist: But I do say crappy things… Proudly… And I’m putting them in a book soon… That’ll be proof that I said them.

Christian: Biblical literalists are funny. I agree. That’s a group of regrettably vocal fundamentalists, who tend to yell louder over the larger crowd. Strangely enough, biblical literalists most often don’t know the actual origin or context of the scriptural texts they’re reading, and are largely unaware of the hundreds of violations against Jewish law they commit every day, while they pick only one of the hundreds of Jewish codes for ‘healthy living’ to squint over (codes which applied very specifically to very specific social and environmental circumstances). There are laws listed in the biblical texts about things like the size of the hole you’re supposed to dig to bury your neighbor’s livestock if it dies on your property. Issues that existed for nomadic peoples living in the desert, thousands of years before industrialization. People pick and choose what they want to highlight most often as a result of their already-held personal philosophies about life (which, depending on how close to objective they’ve tried to become, are either guided by reasonable thought and general goodness, or thoughts clouded by and drawn toward unjust social philosophies of hate). That’s kind of the way it goes in religion. No matter which one you’re talking about.

[6 likes, end of conversation]

As an afterthought, these conversations aren’t presented as a way of proving the “Christian” right and the “Atheist” wrong. This is simply an example of the ways we share, the thoughts behind different viewpoints, and the ways those thoughts can be exchanged in healthier, more life-giving ways. Conversation is destroyed when we anchor spiritual/religious dialogue in a “me” vs. “them,” mentality. Let yourself be informed, let yourself be sure enough of your thoughts and beliefs to exchange them with others without the fear of losing them in the process, and without a need to push them as some kind of conversion tactic. Engage your beliefs with those who don’t have them, not for the sake of preaching, but for the sake of connecting, hoping that in this connection, a more balanced, and non-fundamentalist view can be known and understood quietly and rationally, between all of the fanatical clatter.

Take care, have fun, enjoy the life and minds of others, and let yourself be.

A  Day in the Life of a Desk Dweller …

 

Alright…*cracks knuckles*  Let’s get some work done.

Freshly plucked and preened, she sits down at her desk, ready to face a brand new day of tapping her fingers, staring into a screen, and hitting send and enter for all of the tasks swirling in her head like a cheesy graphic from a Twilight Zone episode, since last night.

Hmmm… But first…

She minimizes her work file and clicks on the big blue “e” sitting just to the left of Matt Bomer’s handsome smile.

“I’ve gotta get my head into this day, before I start,” she whispers to the quiet, clicking into the social network. “Gotta get centered.”

Glancing into the blue and white framing her facebook page, her routine begins, just as it did yesterday, the day before, and the day before that—and just as it will continue tomorrow, the next day, and each of the days she’ll be glad to wake into after those.

And here’s how it goes (posts may vary):

9:00AM Facebook

Share your thoughts…

“Welp, here comes another work day. Think I’ll start dressing like Batwoman when I come in. Spice up the scene at the office with a nice, billowing cape. …What? Think I’ll get fired? …What do ya think?”

Four likes. One “LOL!”

Nice.

9:12AM Work

10:11AM Facebook

“Man—I’m feeling tired *already*! How’s this even possible?? Think I’m a little burned out. If you wanna come help me with a mocha frappuccino, feel free to stop by! ”

10:12AM Work

11:59AM Facebook

No comments on that one? Not even a like??…Hope they know I was just joking about the coffee, and nobody got all weird, thinking I was asking too much.

12:00PM Lunch

1:00PM Facebook

She glances at the comment box.

Share your thoughts…

Still frustrated by the lack of response before, she clams up and clicks out.

1:04PM Work

2:06PM Facebook

“*Grrrr* People are SO frustrating!!! Why’s this world so screwed up? Here’s an idea… if each one of us, one at a time, decides every morning they can only be a jerk ONCE a day… what do you think the odds are that the world will be at least a *slightly* better place by next year? I’m down to try. You wanna help me out on this one? ;D”

2:07PM Work

3:30PM Facebook

Seven likes! Sweet. If I was at a party, that would’ve been a laughing crowd! Should I type more in the comment box? …Nah. Seems to have done the trick.  Leave it.

3:31PM Work

4:04PM Facebook

No one’s posting? BOR-innnngg…Why do I even get on this stupid thing? Waste of time.

4:57PM Hits send, enter, save. DONE. ALL WORK FILES CLOSED. Ready to go.

Hmmm… But first…

“Gotta unwind,” she whispers to the quiet, clicking into the social network. “Re-center and settle into the night.”

4:58PM Facebook

“Oof. DONE. Finally! Productive day…aside from all the messing around on FB! lolz Ready to go lie down on the couch with Dexter and the huz! Thanks for not de-friending me after all this lame rambling. ”

5:00PM SHUT DOWN. Laptop screen flat. Shoes back on feet. She stretches up from her desk and walks out the door.

It’s not a bad schedule. She likes her life. Likes her work. But a lot of the time, in one of the quieter corners of her mind, she feels there’s something missing….though she can’t quite figure out what.

So there it is. A day in the life of a Desk Dweller. Not a bad, or insulting, term. It’s just the way we are, now—a lot of us, anyway. We sit. We type. We click. We stare. We think. We close up, and we go back home.

Does any part of this day feel familiar to minutes of your own?

It’s kind of a rhetorical question, because I think this schedule maps out the minutes of most, these days. A lot of us spend a crazy amount of time on facebook! Just a fact. Nothing wrong with it, really (aside from all of the piled fragments of time it tends to take away from our work!…But we all need that kind of release, so it’s good. It’s healthy).

Our words might change each time, but these themes in our posting stay the same:

-thoughts of happiness for a good turn

-words of sadness, frustration, or surprise at something awful

-Requests for support regarding an idea or action

-Connecting during a moment that riles up our passions (by setting up a link to special songs, or movie scenes, or whatever image we want to share our thanks in feeling)

Each time, each of these posts sent with a hope for a response—feeling joy and validation when we receive it, and frustration, doubt, and sometimes even anger, when we don’t. Either reaction from the outside driving us to reach out either more or less.

We wake up in the morning with a need to sit down and tap into surrounding life, this way; and after a day spent randomly clicking back in and out, we close up our night by connecting this way, too.

All of this communication going out to a faceless Someone, when you think about it (a little ironic, given the name of the network!) because our words generally speak to a collective whole—to anyone willing to notice our thoughts and respond with some kind of interest or sign that we’ve been heard.

We center ourselves in doing this, because we self-express. We connect. We remember we’re with the life around us, even when we feel distant; and we understand that in doing this, we are known and remembered through all of the slowly passing moments.

So let’s give ourselves a space in spirit to dig in for a minute, and think about what it is, inside, driving us to so often tap into life this way.

Any parallels—any similar actions—coming to mind?

There’s another word for what we do when we log in to facebook.

It’s an old, overused word that’s lost its luster in a lot of modern minds because of the ways people have misused the spiritual practice.

And there’s a different spread of blue and white people sometimes stare into, while doing it.

Yes.

…Prayer.

Maybe a better way of saying it: the time we spend talking to God. Talking to Life. Sharing ourselves—our experiences—with The All.

Another question to meditate on the next time we log in to facebook (which I’ll be doing in a just minute, myself—because it’s about that time!):

Who is the “You” we’re addressing, when we type?

Another:

As often as we sign in, does this say something about the depth of our spirituality? In our yearning to connect with that Greater Life around us, does it say something about the level of relationship we seek with The Universe/God/Life/(or whichever name you’d feel okay giving The Whole)?

Another:

When you sign in to facebook, how much satisfaction comes to your soul? Is it the satisfaction you seek?

The last:

Could it possibly be Life/God/The Whole we seek more deeply than anything we could ever feel through all of this more surface-sharing?

Just something to think about. Something for your soul. God bless, take care, and talk to ya soon on this thing.

 

Your Fellow Desk Dweller,

Rev. Laura H.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, my husband Ky took vacation the first week of November, and decided at that time to go nuts decorating all of the borders of the walls with garland and lights while he had the time and passion. He took down all of our typical knick-knacks and replaced them with Christmas themed objects of religious and secular varieties; and covered all of the large paintings and pictures in our home with wrapping paper and bows.

 

All the while, of course, I had to stand in the corner covering my eyes.  I come from a family of highly neurotic people (my older brother being the worst—shhh. Please don’t tell him I said that in a reading which is actually being printed on paper and posted online!); and in a psycho-light version of what would have been my brother’s total nervous breakdown, all I could think about the entire time Ky was decorating, was that I would have to try my best not to look at the lights or walls for the next three weeks!  For me, hanging Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving is like a groom sneaking into a bride’s closet the night before the wedding to have a look at the dress. It just shouldn’t be done!

 

The days passed, and just as I feared, it was impossible not to see the decorations over the last three weeks, no matter how hard I tried to keep my eyes toward the floor; and I eventually grew numb to them. I resigned myself to having a senseless Christmas, until the day Ky returned home with our Christmas tree (several days after Thanksgiving), and we spent the night decorating its branches, and listening to Christmas carols with Chevy Chase on mute in the background.

 

As Ralphie said, “All was right with the world.”

 

I could finally look at the Christmas lights my husband hung early, and allow my mind to not only accept their place in our home, but to embrace it, and stare long and deep into their warm colors bouncing from glass, and splashing over walls.

 

As I wove the Christmas lights through the branches of the tree, I realized my situation with the Christmas decorations in many ways reflects our experience of our spiritual beliefs throughout the year. We’re surrounded always by our Christian beliefs, and our love and passion toward the life of Christ; but over the course of the year, our minds sometimes grow numb to these things. We take these feelings for granted—as a given. We’re used to seeing them—to being around them.  The season of Advent—Christmas time—is a set of days and weeks in the year when we can allow ourselves to finally let ourselves take a look around at the beauty of the love and life of Christ and let our eyes bathe in the light, and our hearts warm at the thought.  It’s a time we can let our minds delve deep into why and how we came to feels so connected to this person, and the things he said, and meditate on our thankfulness for receiving such a wonderful gift from God.

 

Throughout Advent, each service at Deer Park UMC will be a meditation on what we received when we were given the gift of Christ’s company in the world, as we let our eyes settle on the beauty of his life, and finally open our minds to the celebration and joy at the sight of it.

 

I hope you all have a wonderful, and soul-warming Christmas season shared with friends and the people you love.

 

Take care, and God Bless!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Late Night Ramble

 

This past weekend I went on a two day camping trip into the Byers Peak Wilderness with some friends who I didn’t realize until just now are actually some “long-time” companions of mine.  These people I’ve been sitting and talking and walking to different places with for almost a decade now, stayed up late under the stars, sharing their experiences in life by the fire with me; they walked up and down dirt trails in search of new places with me; and they strolled along rushing waters with me, laughing at my jokes, and showing me how to catch fish.

 

As I type these words, I realize I won’t have the company of these faces forever. As long as I’ve been a part of each of the lives I just spoke of, there will come a day when they’re only referenced with a smile, as something from the past, now gone. We all know as we grow older, that these things happen not necessarily by will, but by the natural way of things. Some people pass away before your paths would have later parted; some move to new places to make new friendships with new people; some start families, and start lives separate from the things and people they knew before; and some just sort of quietly fade off into the distance, before you realize far later that they’ve gone.

 

Life is always changing, and it does strange things to your mind to think of that terrible and beautiful fact of existing.  Feelings of depression, and gratitude, and love, and loss flood you all at once, and you don’t really know what to do with it.

 

Personally, my first reaction is to clutch.  My first thought is to hold tighter, and try to stop life from moving those things which are close to my mind and heart, away from me—concocting some plan to do all I can not to allow those faces and things and places to go.  But doing that, I realize in clearer moments, is like trying to grip water with your hand. It’s impossible. Life moves outside of our ability control, and trying to fight against that, and manipulate that reality to work in our favor is probably one of the more purposeless and wasteful ways we can spend the short and blessed moments of our lives. Of course, that still doesn’t stop us, right?

 

I’ve found lately that I’ve been adamantly staying awake late into the night, despite my boredom and exhaustion. I’m doing it even now as I write this blog. Tonight was the first time I allowed myself to wonder why, and one of the initial thoughts which popped to my mind was the possibility that I might be subconsciously fearing the progression of time.

 

Life has been strangely wonderful in recent days, and knowing life changes sooner than we’re usually given warning, or any kind of notice, I’ve been somehow plagued with a fear of losing this new found happiness to the unknown moments waiting ahead. Moments which hold the potential to alter this beautiful bliss I accidentally stumbled upon not too long ago.

 

But as I think of this, I can’t help but feel embarrassed by the blatant ridiculousness of it all. I recently found happiness, and I’ve somehow managed to turn even that into misery by dwelling in fear of losing the good thing which is (for the moment) still my blessing to enjoy.

 

In fearing losing the happiness I now have, I cease to enjoy the beautiful moment for what it is. By dwelling in my fear of not having it longer, I’ve already lost that thing I’m so afraid of losing.

 

Being human is a real pain in the glutes, isn’t it?

 

This is a problem our species has been dealing with for a while. Ancient Buddhist and Hindu religious philosophies are almost entirely based on this concern, actually. Christian spirituality as well speaks to these things. In all, is the idea that we need to let life be what it is, when it is. To accept the nature of our days, and to stop ourselves from grasping, and clutching, and worrying, because in doing this we only bring our fears to reality unnaturally sooner than they would have come on their own, and we isolate ourselves from truly experiencing the moments of our lives as they occur, dwelling constantly outside of reality, in the fictional realms of the past and future. This is paraphrasing and generalizing these three very unique belief systems, but it expresses basic truths found in each of them.

 

As a minister, I can’t help but think about the nature of God, compared to ours. There is nothing in the universe which remains constant except for the totality of eternity.* That Totality I believe is what we use the word “God” to describe. Then I start to wonder, if God is in all things, and all things are smaller parts comprising this totality—this eternity—does anything ever really die? Does anything ever really end? Or do we just stop seeing it?

 

Do we just become somehow isolated from our experience of it, in this time, and in this space? And do we expedite this experiential isolation, by premature mourning our loss of the sense of it?

 

Alright. That’s it. I’m going to bed.

 

 

 

 

*For the specifically minded, in saying this, of course, I’m speaking of particular manifestations of objects and events and excluding basic principles of calculation we can apply to these manifestations, (i.e. the speed of light).