It's late at night, and I've stopped over in some small Oklahoma town where I recall that my great aunt told me she lived as a child many long years ago in the early parts of the last century.
It's been a long day and as I sit here in my motel room I muse over the events of the day. Even in the middle of rural America it's more than evident that the price of motel rooms, Chinese buffets, and convenience store goodies for the kids have followed the price of gasoline and become almost unaffordable. Therefore, I really didn't feel so bad about giving a panhandler some change earlier today. After all, it was only pocket change but for him I got the impression that it was significantly more.
Everything is a gift anyhow. God gives to us out of his goodness--we can always count on it. It's what in seminary they called providence. For me it's simply God's goodness toward us. It's something that we can count on, but the challenge is to think in terms other than the material categories that we're accustomed to.
As I begin to look at this weekend's readings--I have to be back in Austin Sunday for my homily, so I'm putting my thoughts together on the road--what stands out to me is Jesus' telling the disciples that "one's life does not consist of possessions." Truly life must be more than those nice things we like to surround ourselves with (even my panhandler today had a relatively nice bike).
We must aim at possessing something more meaningful than the things that perish. I've noticed almost daily that time is a tyrant, especially as I drive through places I haven't been in years. Whatever we think we have, it's sure to vanish at some point.
However, God gives us something more certain--he gives us a possession from heaven that lasts into eternity. This is what we are to aim for.
Everything we have is a gift from God. We are not necessarily helpless dependents--though there is spirituality that depends on surrender and even helplessness, such as recovery spirituality for example--rather God invites us to be active partners, perhaps more correctly participants, in the giftedness that he shares with us and that we in return share with others.
I'll be back soon with more, provided that I find a good hot spot sometime in the next 24 hours.
You have to look for hot spots?? Or is "hot spot" a term for Internet connection?
Yes, I agree. The Lord, I've long believed, is always actively waiting to gift us, but He is not going to pile it all atop our heads where we can't see it and won't use it, nor will He stuff it into our backpacks. His gifts are not for stowing. We have to drop what we're clinging to and put out both hands to receive. Even if we're not sure of what we ask, might ask, ought to ask --He is. We can trust that.
Posted by: JustMe | August 02, 2007 at 09:24 AM
Yes, Internet connection. I sort of thought twice about using the term "hot spot." I figured I might get teased a little about having to look for hot spots.
Posted by: Deacon DW | August 03, 2007 at 11:03 AM
Only a little :-) and only by non-techies. Hard to believe that in just half of one lifetime (I underexaggerate, too), we could go from 8-tracks to iPods (ow), and from keys smacking a ribbon against a paper, to computer skills being a normal part of first grade education. Heck, it's probably mandatory in zoo cages, now, too.
But always stay connected, here. Promise you'll never podcast. I'm trying to keep up, but it's all movin' so fast and indeed, these things one day own us if we're not careful. Well, you're a teacher.. maybe you'll have no option but to podcast. Alright.
Yes, what we think we have. So many rugs have been pulled out by the time one reaches, oh, say, 39, it comes more and more naturally to realize that God is all we really have.
Posted by: JustMe | August 03, 2007 at 10:44 PM
Everything we have is a blessing from God, and we have to use all the created things in our lives wisely, and with gratitude, and detachment. We have to do what we can to use them to glorify Him, even if in a roundabout way. Our pastor today said, in his homily, it is as if God has given these things to us "in trust", and I thought that was a good way of putting it.
Posted by: Gabrielle | August 05, 2007 at 12:44 AM
JustMe, apparently dd has no electricity whatsoever. Let's just chat amongst ourselves. :)
Posted by: Gabrielle | August 10, 2007 at 10:50 AM