I have been thinking about my own attitudes about life. I have decided that I can be a very selfish individual. We keep a few animals on our property and I will sometimes feel resentful on the inside when their feeding schedule or such interferes with what I would like to do. I think - what an inconvenience to have to stop my activity or change my plans to meet this responsibility (sounds silly just to write it?!)

You see where I am going?

I have come to realize that just as the liturgical year, the liturgy of the hours and other symbols, traditions and ceremonies interfered or interrupted the schedules of those who have gone before us - that God has placed animals and seasons and weather into my life to remind me that I need to submit my wishes, desires, and my schedule to the real Author of the Story. I would love to script my own life - but as a follower of God it is a daily duty and privilege to surrender my will to live within God’s unraveling epic. It is so much easier to think of Christianity as a religion of destination - really concerned more about eternity than the here and now. A convenience that we take care of now to ensure a life in eternity with God (and than go on living our lives).

Clearly this is distortion. While we hear much about eternity in the pages of the Old and New Testament - it is clearly not the intention of the Gospel to merely take care of eternity while we are here on the Earth. I think instead Christianity and the Gospel that Jesus came proclaiming was a message of transformation and restoration which is an intrusion into our lives. A message that screws up and destroys or plans that we might be transformed into people who are fully human as we cooperate with God’s will, in the here and now.

How are we approaching our lives? Or better asked, what am I laying down that I might pick up the cross, surrendering to the Author of the Story?

Gotta run - a dog is needing to go out.