Previous Reflections
REFLECTIONS
April 26th, 2015Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Colossians 3:1-2
Shopping List
“Listen to your life,” Frederick Buechner encouraged in his book of devotionals by that same name. It makes me wonder why we don’t think to do just that. We learn a lot from the lives of other people; but there is something to learn from our own if we look deeply enough.
We read books about the valor of heroes, admire photographs of glamorous stars, and watch in awe of the performance of world-class athletes. From them we seek some kind of inspiration that will make our lives more like we want them to be. And certainly there are many things we can learn from the lives of other people. But just as each of us hunger for our lives to be better, so do all of our heroes.
They may have achieved status we strive for, have beauty we dream of, or gained riches by playing games we enjoy for no reward at all. But each of us has something those hero types would like to have too. Everyone is in search of something. And from time to time all of us encounter those moments of awakening that give us a glimpse of what it is.
The death of a dear friend or loved one, the invasion of a serious illness, or the suddenness of a life changing event awaken a glimpse into the things we really care about—the things we truly hunger for. And hunger is the operative word.
Yet daily life seldom places the things we most hunger for at the top of our daily shopping list. In our western culture, we strive for the security we expect from wealth. We strive for pleasure to escape from life’s painful realities; and we strive to leave our own marks on the world. But in those moments of awakening, we discover our hunger is really for none of those things.
We hunger to be understood. We hunger for forgiveness. And we hunger to be loved. But hunger is not completely satisfied even by those important things. While we hunger to be understood, we also hunger to understand. While we hunger for forgiveness, we also hunger to forgive. And while we hunger to be loved, we also hunger to love.
“Listen to your life,” Buechner encouraged. Listen to it closely. Listen to it deeply. Discover what you hunger for. Add them to your shopping list. Then share the feast.
It’s the feast your heroes hunger for.
You are the light of the world,
Richard +
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