Sunday Celebrations

 I only talk to God when I need a favor,

And I only pray when I ain’t got a prayer.

The artist, Jelly Roll, opens his song with these words. 

Profound. Desolate. Desperate.

We hear the yearning in his plea. He acknowledges his own shortcomings and still there is an undercurrent of faith, humility…and faith. Have you ever felt that way? Why do your prayers or life circumstances deserve the honor of the Almighty in answering your prayers before you have even asked? 

Does the God of your understanding only answer when you are good? When you are desperate? When you are in need? When you have exhausted your mortal resources and now you turn your attention to the Divine? The last minute plea? The “hail Mary?”

“…for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” Matthew 5:45

What does this Bible passage say to you? It has always challenged me and then I look at the equanimity of the statement. There is no favoritism. There is no partiality. God is not swayed by our emotions, our desperation, our pleas. It matters not to this form of Abundant Energy if we do “good or evil.” We are already accepted into the fold, the Divine Plan, the Master Plan. We are already a part of this Creative Energy that we call Source, Substance, and God. There is no separation.

There are times we lose our way. We doubt. We fall. In this form of error consciousness or lack of consciousness, could this vulnerability be the right and perfect form for us to uncover the next part of our journey? From this pit of desperation, could that be the only way we would pause to see the next dimension? Is it necessary to be in the low to experience the high? Is night without day? Is Light truly understood without darkness? Does a deeper knowing and a deeper understanding come from these times in which we drop our guard? 

In the 14th century, legend has it that Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the ruling leader, broke his favorite tea bowl. It was unique and could not be replaced. The art of kintsugi developed. Kintsugi is making something new from something broken, and yet recognizing the brokenness as beautiful. It represents transformation from one way of being to a new way of being, a different sort of beauty. https://theconversation.com/how-the-philosophy-behind-the-japanese-art-form-of-kintsugi-can-help-us-navigate-failure-193487#:~:text=Kintsugi%20is%20the%20Japanese%20art,%2C%20instead%2C%20it%20is%20highlighted.

Kintsugi is based on the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi,a worldview centered on the acceptance of transience, of imperfection, and the beauty found within the simplicity of a single act or form. Wabi-sabi reminds us that nothing stays the same forever. Change is inevitable. We have an opportunity to see a newness created from the old and to appreciate what is happening in that moment. Kintsugi challenges expectations because what once was, is no longer. The technique used to repair what appeared to be broken is actually a process of transformation that is set with the intention of changing the original appearance. The idea is that the fragments of our expectations change form from disappointment to a new realization, and a deeper appreciation of the new result. Rather than focus on the flaw, we appreciate the new form. We actually appreciate the beauty in the imperfection. 

Our emotional scars and battle wounds do not have to be covered up as if they never existed. We walk through the acknowledgment of the circumstances. We peel back that onion in layers of forgiveness; forgiveness of the “other” so we do stay attached to the pain of our story, and we forgive ourselves for that attachment. We allow something new to come from that story. We let go of martyrdom. We no longer have the need to sacrifice our state of peace or grace with punishment for what we have done or what we feel was done to us. 

We go forth boldly and with great courage to come out of that pit, to crawl up to the next surface of what we do want to create in our lives. We surround ourselves with those who lift us up, not tear us down. We take gentle baby steps acknowledging our accomplishments. We steep in gratitude for the blessings that are already here and the ones yet to come! 

We are refreshed. We are replenished. We begin anew.   

Beholding the Sacred You,

Rev. Tracey