Author: lakewooducc

Faith is measured by what you give not what you get. Jesus teaches that to save your life, you must loose it. And we remember the adage, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” We think about how we are giving ourselves to God by helping to fulfill God’s hopes and dreams for a peaceful, flourishing creation.

Sometimes what is needed by people going through difficult times, by people in challenging situations, is not a hand out, but a listening ear. A compassionate soul who cares. There are times when love is expressed simply by embracing the pain of another through listening to her/his story. By giving of our time and our attention, we can receive the pain, the frustration, the sorrow, the regret, the despair, of another.

In this way, we give by receiving. We offer compassion and solidarity by receiving the stories of pain and suffering and challenge of another. By receiving their experience, we give empathy and caring. A bond is formed. A connection is made. Isolation dissolves.

So, sometimes our giving takes place in the form of receiving.

Prayer: Jesus gave himself fully to others. Sometimes he offered healing. Sometimes food. Sometimes forgiveness. Sometimes simply a listening ear and solidarity. Help us to remember that we, too, can give of ourselves for the healing of the world simply by listening. By offering an attentive ear and a willing spirit, we give by receiving the pain of another sharing healing comfort and compassion. May we never be too busy to give by receiving the stories of others. Amen.

Caregiving can be extremely stressful. Ask any new parent or someone who takes care of an ill parent or a spouse. The demands coupled with the desire to perform then out of love can still leave a person drained and frayed. I can remember when we first moved to Florida and I was a stay at home parent for the first year. The caregiving was not even that challenging but it was one of the hardest years of my life. I remember a friend asking how things were going. I told her about the kids, their friends, their pediatrician, their schools. Then she said to me, “What about your friends? Are you making new friends?” I realized that I really hadn’t even thought about taking care of myself, only my children. No wonder I was not happy.

I recently read a book that examines the idea of using robots as caregivers for children and the elderly. Apparently this is already in the experimentation stage and heading toward wider implementation. My first reaction was that this would never work. How could a robot possibly do the caregiving needed for a child like change a diaper or hold a crying baby and comfort her? And how could a robot take care of an older person and calm him down when upset? I just can’t see it.

Even if the robots can be developed to do the tasks, I still do not think this is a good use of technology. While caregiving by humans may be difficult and stressful, that does not mean it is to be avoided or done away with. By caring for others, we express our humanity. By serving others, we find our wholeness. In caregiving, we build character and form intimate bonds with others. We learn about balance and limits. We test ourselves emotionally and physically which helps us to grow and develop as mature human beings. Caregiving can help teach us to rely on God to sustain us.

Whatever using robots as caregivers may mean to those being cared for, I think it would deprive the caregivers (all of us at some point, in some capacity) of our need to take care of others for our own spiritual, psychological, and moral maturation. Take away caregiving and that seems to me like a recipe for cultivating self-absorbed people who expect to get their way and don’t want to be bothered with consideration for others.

Oh, and if you haven’t already guessed, this developing robots as caregivers stems from a lack of people to fill those jobs. Don’t we have a high unemployment rate? Aren’t people begging for jobs? Well, if caregiving jobs were higher paying, there would probably be many more people ready to do them. So how much do we really value children and older adults and people in various situations who need to be cared for?

Prayer: It can be very difficult to deal with the challenges of caregiving. The needs can be so great. And sometimes we don’t have the support that we need. But help us to remember that we find our truest selves, our highest good, and our fullest well-being in service to others. We are created to love. May we accept the lessons and insights that caregiving brings. And may we be truly supportive and compassionate to those who are caregivers and in need of care. Amen.

I am a great one for reading, especially fiction. I am almost always immersed in a good novel. I just finished Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. Recently I faced an interesting challenge in my personal life. It was something that I had not dealt with before. I was considering what approach to take to the unfamiliar situation. Suddenly, I knew exactly what to do. The course of action was perfectly clear. AND I knew that this solution came from a novel I had read recently. The character was in a certain situation and responded. That response was perfect for what I was facing.

It is seldom that I see such a direct connection between fiction and my choices in life. However, I have always maintained that good fiction is good for us. If I were an English teacher, I could give you an articulate explanation about why that is so. Since I am not an English teacher, I just trust what I know from my experience. Fiction helps you live your life, it helps you understand yourself and teaches you about the world. So, give me a good novel any time!

As I contemplated the wonderful solution that I appropriated from the novel, I thought about the importance of fiction. And that led me to think about the Bible. As scripture, the Bible is important to our faith and tradition. The Bible contains many different kinds of literature. The Bible tells us much about ancient times. The Bible helps us understand one people’s experience of God in its various manifestations. But when it comes down to it, we really don’t know and can’t know about the factuality of most of the Bible. If there were security cameras in Galilee and Jerusalem over 2000 years ago, we might be able to factually verify some things. But that is not a possibility. So when it comes to the factuality of the Bible, for the most part, we don’t know.

Does the lack of empirical verification of the stories and writings of the Bible mean that they are of no value? That they are of no worth? That they don’t matter? That they can’t be trusted? Of course not. In fact, maybe the most important things we need to know and understand can’t be contained in nonfiction writing, but have to conveyed in fiction. [Does Salman Rushdie think this?] In any case, I love, value, and appreciate literature and specifically fictional literature. In light of that, I can say that whether or not the Bible is fact, I love, value and appreciate it. The Bible has many truths to tell. It enhances our understanding of ourselves, humanity, and life. It is filled with timeless insight and wisdom. It shows us the best and the worst of human behavior and how to navigate the waters between the two. The Bible gives me hope.

For me, to think of the Bible as fiction in no way devalues or demeans this sacred text. In fact, it adds to my trust and reverence for the Bible.

Prayer: God’s word comes to us in many ways. From the lips of a loved one. In the song of a stranger. In the cry of a baby. In the chirping of birds and in the beauty of the natural world. We can also hear God speaking in literature. In fiction. And in non-fiction. May we be open to the God’s word; hungry for wisdom, self understanding, and peace. Amen.

In the last devotion we talked about the “terminal malaise of abundance,” a phrase from the book Generosity: An Enhancement by Richard Powers. In that reflection, we mentioned all the activities and commitments that can drain life away, rather than enhancing it.

Today as we think about the “terminal malaise of abundance” we consider another kind of abundance. This time, not material possessions or time commitments, but “baggage.” Emotional and psychic baggage.

Our baggage can come from past experiences. Something didn’t go well once and we have steered clear ever since. Maybe our baggage consists of abuse – emotional, physical, or sexual – memories of which are always with us. Maybe our baggage involves attitudes inherited from our family or upbringing which no longer have a place in today’s world. Maybe our baggage includes messages that we got in childhood or at other times in life, negative, critical messages from which we have never recovered. Maybe our baggage is related to body image, or education level, or income status. Maybe our baggage comes from a relationship that ended badly. Maybe we are carrying around an abundance of messages, images, attitudes, and perspectives that we no longer need. Or which are having a detrimental effect on our lives. Maybe we are being drained by the effort that it takes to maintain this baggage. Perhaps we suffer from another version of the “terminal malaise of abundance.”

Whatever is draining us, stultifying our lives, preventing our freedom, weighing us down, holding us back, God is seeking to remove it. God desires to lighten our load. God wants us to flourish and thrive. Be careful of abundance. It could kill you.

Prayer: We pray that we are released from the damaging baggage that prevents us from being whole. We seek to lay our baggage down and be relieved of the burden. Turning aside from our baggage, may we live, truly live, with passion. Amen.