Connected (Romans 12)

   

 The highest form of spirituality that we can all practice is this: using our bodies to bless the world, and I'm not talking about dogmatic religion here. I'm talking using our hands to bless the poor around us, using our feet to run to those places that no one else wants to run to, using our eyes to notice the people who are hurting, and our ears to hear that still, small voice inside that's giving us glimpses of where this God's at work. Don't get caught up in the empty kind of religion that tells us all we need to do is believe the right things and go to church every Sunday, but work on letting this God renew our minds in a way that presents each day as a new adventure - a new way to bless the world. As our minds get straight, we find that we're getting more in tune with this God and we see the world through a clearer lens.

     And don't be like I used to be - placing myself at the top of the spiritual ranks. It's next to impossible to have a clear sense of what this God is doing in our lives and around us when we're constantly vying for religious ranks. And plus, we all have differing amounts of faith. Some of us are seasoned veterans, and some of us are newborns. Wherever we stand on the faith scale, we need to not compare ourselves with the people around us - it never turns out well.

    Our bodies have millions of functioning parts, and all those parts do something unique. In the same way, look at the human community. At this point, there are over 6 billion people in the world. Although I know this is hard to grasp, each person in this world has unique functions that contribute to the well-being of the whole community. We're all part of the same body, connected through this God who moves through us, and we need to start paying attention to how we can best accommodate the functions of the people around us. All of us have unique talents that can be used to bless the world, and we need to practice using them. If you like to write, write encouraging letters to your friends. If you like to play music, go put on a free concert for the homeless. If you like to cook, bake some cookies for that old woman you know who never gets out. If you like to teach, go teach some underprivileged kids how to do something they've never done before. And while you're doing that, bring out the best in the people you're blessing! That way, they'll see that they have just as much to contribute to the world as we do!

     Just as this God doesn't show favoritism, we shouldn't let the love we show to others have favoritism. Stay away from anything that doesn't have love written all over it. If there's an opportunity to bless someone or to be blessed, run to it! We need to practice accepting each other as if we're all part of the same bloodline. No more familial boundaries, but expand our concepts of who else we can invite into our families. Honor the commitments we make with other people. We're gonna find an extra burst of energy as our minds continually open up to these concepts, and we'll be eager to find what's behind the next bend. This God we once thought was up in the sky somewhere, we'll have this sense that we're walking hand in hand. We'll find hope where there wasn't hope before. We'll find that when life happens, we get to participate instead of ducking back and waiting for the trouble to go away. We'll find that the prayer life isn't just a bunch of religiosity after all, but simply paying attention to that still, small voice that's been there all along. We'll be more eager to bless the people around us, and to open our homes to whoever needs a safe place for a little bit. 

     We'll find that as we do these things, and as this God moves through us, people aren't going to like it. But we're not gonna care! We'll see that the people who want to harm us are just human beings like ourselves in need of blessing, and so we'll bless them. When our friends have good things going on in their lives, celebrate with them! When our friends are having a tough go at life, sit with them and listen. It gets real tempting to create a hierarchy in our minds of the people around us, but don't let that kind of thinking have any place in our lives. That's the way of religion, not the way Jesus showed us. So don't be afraid of being seen with the outcasts. They're equal, so treat them like we would our own flesh and blood. Practice new ways of opening our minds to the beauty of this God's world. We should never retaliate. All it does is end up killing our own hearts and minds. And here's a really important one: allow other people to experience their own journeys. We're all entitled to our own belief systems, so work with others with this frame of mind. If we disagree, it's okay! We're each on our own spiritual journeys! Make it a point everyday to be at peace with everyone we interact with, whether it's in traffic or at the dinner table. 

       We have to take the word revenge out of our vocabularies. It's a dead end road. When someone steps on our toes, we have to trust that this God is big enough to handle it without our plotting and reacting. One of our oral traditions tells us that any situations we run into where we want to pay someone back for their harms done, are God's. "This God will take care of the dirty work so we don't have to." The tradition goes on to say, "If you have any enemies, take them out to lunch and you'll find they're not your enemies once you finish eating. Take them out for a beer, and you'll find you have a new friend after the first pitcher. Doing this will empower both sides to use their energy to bless the world and not resent it." At the first hint of selfishness, think of who we can bless, and we'll find that love always drowns out our selfish tendencies. 

     So, go out and bless the world today! Grace and peace!