Reality Check

After being on leave for one final week of the year I was lamenting and bemoaning on Facebook and through e-mails that I was not prepared to return to reality. I know well enough to be grateful for steady work at any time, but especially at a time when layoffs are as common as Cheerios for breakfast - I know to be thankful. As a nearing mid-centuryette – I know to be thankful. As one who likes to eat, buy a few toys, and live in a house – I know to be thankful. And I am. I am actually pretty content at work and when I work on a steady, routine pace, Monday through Friday, I don’t think too much about what it is like to be away from work. It’s like putting one foot in front of the other and before you know it you’ve walked your way to the end of the work week. But being off a week? First the alarm clock gets turned off, then an impromptu plan gets hatched, and suddenly I’ve forgotten all about that building 20 miles away. So no, I was not looking forward to returning to the real life of alarm clocks, schedules, deadlines, dark when you leave and dark when you return, bills, and my prized time belonging to someone else. Tough it up, that’s reality. So imagine my surprise when I read Richard Rohr’s version of reality in his daily meditation: “…Contemplation is loosening our attachment to ourselves so the Reality can get to us, especially the Absolute Reality we call God. William McNamara rightly calls contemplation “a long loving look at the Real.”

My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, You are the alpha and omega, the very God of very God. All of our days begin and end with you. Our vain attempts to build a world around ourselves, is not in accord with your world. We are bland and vacant left to imagine a world on our own. Let us break down the walls of our reality to see what is waiting. Let us loosen attachments to our possessions, our time, our voice, our thoughts, and our judgments to allow more of your righteousness to fill that void. Let us be observant for the assurances of your reality that surround us and wind through communities and histories. Our greatest dreams are no match for your smallest truths. Let us live in the truth of God's reality. Amen