The Barefoot Cellist

My Photo
Name:
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

After taking a few years off, I'm back in seminary here in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, at United Theological Seminary. What a wonderful place to be! Surrounded by friends old and new, I'm exploring my call to Unitarian Universalist ministry with friends, classmates, and the world around me. I am watching for the spring and feeling it unfold within myself.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Living with Reverence

This is a short reflection piece that I preached yesterday:

"I believe that all of us have had ‘spiritual’ experiences. Through whatever means, that 'something more' has entered into our lives, filling us with joy and wonder and awe and – life.

I have felt this way during thunderstorms, taking long walks along wooded paths, watching the rays of the sun bless the earth. The divine has been part of me as I have sat singing with thousands of people at a worship service, dancing before the moon, sitting in silent meditation, through the gentle, comforting touch of a friend. Such moments have rejuvenated me, filled me in places that I had not even known were empty. They have helped me see the path when it has seemed to have disappeared.

We long to feel part of something greater, connected to each other, the world around us, to that which is holy. Such experiences stay with us and shape us and give us hope.

Somehow, however, in our daily lives, the divine seems distant and unattainable. We are constantly distracted from everything but the most imminent tasks and chores. We complain about being busy, about having no time, about feeling as though something important is missing from our lives. When we are disconnected from each other and from the divine, we do not feel whole and lack a sense of purpose.

Imagine, however, how it would feel to be filled with the spirit every day. To take the sense of calm that we may feel when beside a wooded stream with us to work. The sense of community we gained at a retreat with us while we drive from place to place. Instead of merely taking time out of our busy lives every now and then to seek the divine, I want to be connected to it each day.

Where there is emptiness, let it be filled with the divine. When we are lonely, let us invite the holy to sit beside us and listen. As we struggle through chaotic lives, let us reach out to that which is more than ourselves for strength and peace."