A Christmas Card

Many of us receive and send out Christmas cards. They are a great and simple way of keeping in touch with our friends and family. Many times these days, with the advent of digital photography and printing, we can even send out pictures of our friends and family.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that oftentimes, the cards come in, stack up, and I really don’t pay a ton of attention as to whom they are from.

I received a card from a friend of mine the other day, however, that really made me pause.

You see, this friend of mine owns a small country store in an area that is in many ways depressed economically. He has struggled to make it with this store ever since he opened the doors, as there has never really been a high enough volume of business to really make it profitable. Add to this that my friend is not originally from this country, and doesn’t speak fluent English, and well, you’re probably getting the picture that its been an uphill battle for him.

Most days, since he really cannot afford to pay for any real hired help, he has to work the store himself, open to close. The hours are so very long, and I’m sure that most days he arrives home completely exhausted, and spent from another day of toiling seemingly for not much.

And, yet, this man who doesn’t have much in the way of material wealth and who has even less in the way of time, found the time to send me a Christmas card this year. The card didn’t say much, just a heartfelt appreciation of my friendship, and his signature. And yet, this relatively simple card meant probably as much or more than any Christmas card I’ve ever received.

It meant a lot because I know this man has very little to give, except his appreciation for his friends. And, I know that pains him, because he’d love to be in a position where he can give more. But, no gift, no matter what the price tag or how fantastic it might be, would ever really top the gift of this simple Christmas card he mailed to me.

He took the time to do it, because it was really all he could give: His time. And, it meant so much to me, because in spite of the fact that he can’t afford to give much at all, he gave what is most important, and most limited to him…namely, his time to remember me.

How often do we agonize over finding the perfect give during Christmas for a loved one or friend? Plenty. And yet, its often the simplest of gifts, at least on the surface, that make the most impact.

It’s a smile to someone who is down, when we don’t really feel like smiling. It’s our time, when we feel like we have none to give. It’s a friendly word to a friend who is down on their luck, when we ourselves need a friendly word. It’s listening to your spouse or loved one talk about their troubles, when what you really need is a shrink to hear yours.

These are all truly gifts, and gifts we can all give one another. They’re free insomuch as there isn’t any real monetary value associated with them. But, they do cost sometimes, because we may not feel all that giving when we are called upon to do so.

When we give of our time, love, and energy, what we are really demonstrating is God’s love for us all. God wants us to love one another; perhaps above all else he wants that for us. When we take the time to do this, I know He’s smiling somewhere.

So, think you have nothing to give this Christmas season? Go buy your friend a Christmas card, and send it. You have no idea the impact it will make.

I sure was surprised.

-The Minister

The Meaning of Christmas

Christmas time is indeed upon us. And, with the arrival of this festive season comes the deluge of the holiday movies. Many of us are suckers for these each and every year.

Oh sure, there are the timeless classics like “It’s a Wonderful Life”, but there are also the ones featuring stars we’ve never heard of in formula-driven romantic comedies. All of these movies, sappy and schmaltz-filled though they may be, do tend to at least dance near the real meaning of Christmas, whether its stated or not.

All my life, I’ve been taught, and then repeatedly told, what the real meaning of the season is. Which, for Christians, is the birth of the savior of mankind, Jesus Christ.

But for me, certainly lately, its taken on an entirely different meaning.

For me, the concept of God taking human form, and then humbling Himself to be placed in a lowly manger, surrounded not by kings, but by animals, is a very powerful notion. I can’t imagine a more loving Creator than one who decides He’s going to live as a human being, as one of us, to experience our pains, our challenges, so that He may know fully what it is to be human.

What it says, and thus means, to me these days is simply this: We are not alone. No my friends, we have a Creator who loved us…and still loves us…so much, that He lived among us. He walked as we walk, saw as we saw, and ultimately, felt enormous pain as we feel, only ten times worse in His case. Finally, He died as we all will die. Only, His death was a new beginning for mankind.

His spirit lives among us now. We see it in a friend’s smile, feel it in a loved one’s touch, hear it in laughter, and know it in quiet moments in nature.

We are never alone, in this sometimes bleak world. When I wrote that the holiday movies at least dance near this fact, well, they do. Most of them involve people finding each other and becoming more whole because of it. That’s indeed what God does, finds us, walks with us, and heals us, helping us become more whole. That, to me, is what Christmas is all about: An end to being alone.

I’ve heard it said, and I’m paraphrasing here, that “…if only we knew who walked beside us…” we would never fear or feel loneliness again.

Truer words have never been spoken.

-The Minister

Funerals

I attended the funeral for the father of a good friend of mine last week. This friend’s dad had shown me a great amount of kindness at a time when I needed it, and I never forgot that. He was a good man, who unfortunately had to suffer the ravages of cancer before he passed on to greener pastures.

I’ve often been struck at funerals by a sense of peace. Oh, to be sure, there is also a sense of great grief and of sadness as well. But, in most cases, I feel a sense of peace, that the departed is going home to be with the One who created him.

I got that same feeling again, during a remarkably calm and peaceful service, and I knew that my friend’s father was indeed well on his way home.
What struck me most about this particular service, however, was what happened after the service. My friend didn’t know that I was attending the service, as it had been a whirlwind after his father’s death, and we just hadn’t really touched base about it. As I went up to him to offer my condolences after the funeral, I touched him on the shoulder from behind, and he spun around in surprise at seeing me there.

Then, a wonderful thing happened. Instead of the usual shaking of hands that most guys do, we just hugged one another in a very spontaneous display of both grief, and joy that the long battle with cancer was all over. Nothing much was said between us, and honestly, nothing much needed to be said. There was an understanding between us that everything was going to be all right, and that as long as a person has friends, he is never truly alone.

The moment lasted but a handful of seconds, but it is a moment I will never truly forget.

For you see, in that moment alone, I believe the two of us transferred to each other God’s entire hopes and dreams for our species, namely, to love one another, and by so doing, love God. That’s truly all God wants. We tend to complicate it, by building hierarchies and bureaucracies around this message, so that it gets harder and harder to hear sometimes.

For my friend and me, for that moment, we heard the message loud and clear.

Love one another friends. I truly believe its all He really wants out of us.

-The Minister

Thanksgiving?

So another Thanksgiving has passed, and as usual this time of year, I try and take stock of all that I have to be grateful for in my life.

Only, this year, that list is a bit clouded, at least at the moment. Oh, to be sure, having spent the Thanksgiving holiday with my wonderful family, I saw many reasons for which to be thankful. Both mine and my wife’s family are doing pretty well overall.

And yet, this morning, as I write this, I’ve learned that a dear friend of mine’s father has just passed away, having lost his long battle with cancer. And yesterday, one of my nephews fell and broke his arm, leaving his poor mother to deal with both him, and her newborn child. Other family members and friends are facing their own particular battles as well.

Kind of gives one pause for a moment. I mean, I try and be grateful for all that I have in life. And yet, life pays me back for this with more suffering and problems. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t discouraging to be human at times.

Through these clouds I know that eventually, rays of sun will break back through. Today, however, I’ll have to admit I’m struggling to maintain an attitude of gratitude. I guess that comes with being a Minister of the Mundane. There are some days that are just worse than others, and really are mundane. The challenge is to hold on during these times, recognizing that they too will pass, and that God is still there, walking alongside of us all, especially during the gray days.

I have to lean pretty hard on God sometimes, when the clouds have covered up what is otherwise a pretty darn good life. When the “mundaneness” of life has really closed in, and I’m failing to see all that I do have for which to be thankful, I’m really left with no choice but to lean on God, my friend, and ask Him to see me through. As He has so many times, He will see me through the cloudy day, and back into the sunshine.

This is my message to you gentle reader, that there are just days when we need to remember that God is here for us to indeed lean upon. I’ve chosen to call myself a Minister of the Mundane because so often, that’s what life is…seemingly mundane days, with some doses sprinkled in of more than what we think is our fair share of suffering. It can be hard, when we are lost in the mundane details of our lives, to remember we are divine creatures, created by a loving and divine Father with the intention of overcoming the “mundaneness” of life, and letting our divine natures shine forth.

But that is exactly what we are…divine creatures. And, being divine, we can indeed overcome life’s circumstances, and be so much more than what we ever thought we could be. The trick is, on those cloudy days, to call upon God, our heavenly Father and our best friend, to hold us up, and to guide our vision back to where we can see the goodness of life.

I started this chapter with a question, namely that of was it really a Thanksgiving this past holiday? Despite the hard times, yes, I’d have to say it was a time of thanks. I’ve found that, even when I don’t feel like it, when the mundane life has swallowed me whole for a moment, if I can just look to the heavens and utter the simple phrase “thank you”, I’m so much the better for it.

Being thankful may be the hardest when tough times have descended, but its also these moments of gratitude when you don’t feel very grateful that build your soul.

And, that is work worth doing.

-The Minister

Creativity

When we exercise our wonderful ability to be creative, its my opinion that we draw pretty darn close to God.

After all, didn’t the Big Fella exercise the ultimate example of creativity when he created the universe? Yep, I think He knows a thing or two about creativity.

All kidding aside, it stands to reason at least in my feeble mind that if we are created in God’s image, then we have been given the gift of creativity with which to produce some remarkable things. As children, we seem to instinctively know this. Just watch your own children playing sometime; you’ll quickly notice that they are creating all the time.

As kids we used to create almost every day. Whether it was baseball fields out of tennis courts or dirt lots, or new worlds to conquer and explore out of a neighbor’s backyard, there seemingly was nothing that stood in our way in terms of using our imagination. We created a whole, whole lot out of seemingly nothing.

So, what happens to us as we age? Why does it seem that our ability to tap into our creativeness seems to diminish with time? Did we suddenly become shut off from our own internal fountain of imagination, just because we got older?

Well, yes, sometimes we do get shut off from our own ability to create. “Real life”, whatever that is, sometimes discourages us from utilizing our creative abilities. For a variety of reasons, oftentimes the temptation is to tend to shut down our imagination, and focus upon what is real and concrete. If we aren’t told outright, then it is often strongly implied that imagination is the province of children and daydreamers.

So, off we go to live in our inside-the-box lives, cutting ourselves off from a veritable fountain of youth: Our imagination.

I think this is a sad, sad way to live, yet I too at times have fallen victim to what others have perceived I should be doing, namely being “normal”, and keeping my “nose to the grindstone”, leaving that imagination stuff to kids.

What a load of bologna!

There’s nothing written in the great Handbook of Life that says as we get older, we must leave our imaginations behind. Nothing. Not a sentence. Heck, not a word. Imagination is the stuff of dreams, and dreams are the ingredients of creativity, and ultimately, creation. If someone hadn’t imagined as a grown-up how wonderful it would be for man to go the moon, then, well, we wouldn’t have ultimately made it.

I’ll bet that person was pretty much dismissed as a day-dreamer too.

Folks, God wants us to create. God wants us to use our imaginations, or else, why would he have seen to it that humans would ultimately possess this capacity? Our ability to dream, and then follow through on those dreams, is what makes us different from the animals, and all other living creatures. We can imagine possibilities. We can see these possibilities, and then if the desire is strong enough, make them real through creation.

What greater tribute can we give to God then to use our own abilities to create the future?

So go ahead and imagine. Heck, tonight, why not go outside, and just picture yourself standing at the plate with the bases loaded, down 3 runs, in the bottom of the ninth inning, in the last game of the World Series. See yourself in a little play of sorts, a recreation of a potential heroic moment that many warm-blooded American males dream about. Have some fun, and play…the neighbors might think you’re a bit daft, but who cares?

And then, swing for the fences. You just might connect.

-The Minister

Finding God at the Office

Do we see God at the office?

Does He walk in the halls of business, where it seems that all too often there is but one goal, and that goal doesn’t include God?

Good questions these, and they are ones I have wondered about for most of my career. I’m one of those seekers you see, an individual who always wonders just exactly what he is to be doing with his life. For the most part, I’ve always worked at least part of my time in an office environment, even though I have traveled a fair amount for work too. Most offices that I’ve seen are not the types of structures that inspire deep philosophical debate and thought. Oftentimes they seem quite cold and impersonal, devoid of much personality. One would think God really wouldn’t like being cooped up in an office. Heck, we humans struggle enough with it, think God really wants to spend His time in an office too?

Ever since the turn of this century, when Americans experienced both attacks from enemies outside of our borders, and attacks on our very moral fiber from enemies within the office from multiple corporate scandals, we humans have started to really question just exactly what we are doing with our time. For the vast majority of us, we need to work to put bread on our table. Work, however, at least in the modern sense of the word, isn’t exactly full of meaning and joy, especially when its conducted in a drab office environment. So, we, oftentimes joylessly, drive off to our offices each morning in the hopes of finding some small kernel of meaning as we try and earn our “daily bread”.

How then, do we make sense of our workaday lives? How do we find the meaning? How do we see God at the office?

The answers to these questions, like most of life actually, can be found in the fabric of our everyday, mundane lives.

When groups are gathered together working creatively on a project at work, well, seems that could be one great place we’d find God. I’m banking that God, the ultimate Creator, sure does love it when His children get together and create themselves.

When folks are sitting around the break room just having a good laugh at something, seems like God is probably there too. After all, He created laughter, so he darn well probably appreciates a good joke as much as the next guy!

And, when a co-worker takes time out of his or her busy schedule just to listen to a colleague’s problems and life challenges, sure seems like God’s there too, being as compassionate as always. To show love and respect to another human being is something that God has hard-wired into all of us. While sometimes we can forget this, we always get opportunities in life to remind us that life is all about love, and that’s truly it.

We find meaning at the office when we find God. And God it turns out, is in every nook and cranny of every office building. We just need to keep our eyes peeled, and more importantly our hearts open to His touch. While offices are cold and impersonal many times, the people that inhabit them are flesh and blood, people with emotions and feelings, and joy and pain. We don’t have to all be doctors to be healers. Every day, the office presents us all opportunities to help heal one another. When this occurs, work isn’t so bad, and has a lot of meaning after all.

I’m writing this on a Monday, and I’ll admit, getting up to drive to that cold and impersonal office was not high on my list of life’s most enjoyable moments. But, turns out I did manage to laugh a little bit, to exercise my creativity some, and to listen to a fellow co-worker as he needed someone upon which to unload his problems.

All in all, not a bad day.

-The Minister

Trying Not to Get Anywhere

If you’ve visited a bookstore lately, and strolled down the “Self-Help” section, you’ve probably noticed that the shelves are stocked full of every possible title imaginable, on every possible subject. Sometimes, I think I can hear the shelves actually moaning under the weight of all those books.

I mean, if you want to lose weight, find religion, lose religion, and find weight…it’s all there my friends. Every conceivable angle is covered, for a nation I’m guessing is obsessed with trying to get to some level of perfection.

As for me, well, guilty as charged. I too have from time to time gorged myself at the table of “Self Help”, only to find that while the quantity of “food” was staggering, the taste was a bit flat.

Just yesterday, I watched on television a couple being interviewed on finding one’s passion in life. The couple was certainly well-meaning; I do not mean to say I’m cynical about their claims of helping folks find their true calling in life. It is a noble pursuit.

But, lately, for me at least, I’m perhaps noticing for the first time that true happiness, true peace of mind really, can really only be obtained by purposely trying not to get anywhere. I have started my own little practice of meditation. It is through this daily practice that I am, for the first time in literally decades, seeing that by parking my butt in the present moment, and staying there for 45 minutes at a time (the length of time I generally meditate), that peace of mind is found now, right here, at this very moment.

I’ve always been one of those folks who believed that “someday”, peace of mind would be mine, when work was over, kids were out of the house, and all the bills had been paid. But, life continues to happen even after all of these events have transpired, at least that’s what I’ve heard. So when exactly was this peace of mind I aspired to possess going to happen?

Peace of mind, contentment, and happiness are qualities that have to happen sometimes almost in spite of everything else that is going on in one’s life. There will always be challenges. There will always be bills to pay, mouths to feed, and everyday trivial annoyances in one’s life. Peace of mind, if it is to ever happen, must happen by us choosing to have it, and choosing more importantly to practice living in the present moment.

I am far from an expert on meditation. For that, I recommend that you look elsewhere, as there are many great books on the subject that will get you started (here I am taking digs at self-help books, and I’m promoting another self-help book! But, trust me, this is different!). I’ve just started my own practice really. But, I can tell you that it does help to show you, and me, what living in the present moment really is like. For 45 minutes at a time, I sit and watch my thoughts go by, trying not to cling to any one of them, and just sit, immersing myself in the lovely and beautiful present. When I am finished, I find that I am much calmer, much more optimistic about things, and this feeling permeates a lot of the different aspects of my day as I move through it.

Meditation is quite literally a “non-striving”, a purposeful time-out from life, or perhaps I should say time-in to the present moment, where we just sit, and be. I really believe this is how God wants us to live our lives, just moment by blissful moment. We humans tend to believe that we will magically arrive some day, to a place where peace of mind and happiness reside. So, we continue to buy all the self-help we can get our hands on, to lead us to this blissful destination, as our everyday lives tend to not resemble utopia in any way, shape, or form.

Perhaps one of the great truths in life is that happiness is found right here, and right now, this very moment, despite what your particular circumstances are in your own life. God doesn’t truly want us to agonize over our mistakes in the past (yep, I’ve sure done a lot of that), or worry about all the possible calamities in our future (yep, check that one off for me too). He just wants us to enjoy this moment fully, this wonderful mostly untapped moment right in front of us, and then move naturally on to the next one.

So, it’s a bit of a paradox really. But its been my experience that God works through paradoxes a lot of times. Only, they really aren’t paradoxes to Him, just to us.

By trying not to get anywhere, you tend to arrive here.

And “here” is turning out to be a mighty fine place after all.

-The Minister

Postscript

Recently, I wrote about the experience of really understanding the crucifixion, and what it meant to mankind (see “For God So Loved The World”). It was a very powerful experience for me, one that perhaps will finally start to help me make more sense of that unbelievable sacrifice, and life in general.

Well, from the “So unbelievable it just couldn’t be a coincidence department”, I give you this postscript to that story.

I awoke from my sleep the other night, coming awake from some dream. As I stirred in bed, my eyes settled on the clock radio by the side of the bed. The time was “3:16”.

No, I most assuredly am not making this up.

I instantly went from a dazed slumber-like state, to one of alertness and absolute wonder. Here I was, just a day removed from perhaps finally realizing the gift God gave us through the death of his Earthly son, when emblazoned on my clock radio was the absolute specific chapter and verse of that beautiful Bible passage: Namely, 3:16.

Do you think Somebody’s trying to get my attention?

I’ve written before how God tries to get our attention through numerous “mundane” vehicles, such as songs, license plates, and the words of a kind stranger. He does try to communicate with us, through all manner of methods, and methodology.

I can now add clock radio to that list.

-The Minister

For God So Loved The World

He gave His only begotten son.

Yes, we all know that one. I’ll bet I’ve heard this most famous of Bible verses a million times over the course of my life. Yet, sometimes, it takes time to really understand the impact of these words.

In church this past weekend, we were witness to a baby receiving baptism, an always happy occasion full of hope and promise. The baby of course howled in protest at having water sprinkled on his bald little head, but the parents, godparents, family, and friends, as well as the congregation, just smiled and laughed warmly. Hey, we’ve all been there right? Besides, nobody wants cold water sprinkled on their head, now do they?

It really struck me how joyous this sacrament really is. It’s truly the welcoming if you will of another soul into God’s kingdom, done formally for family and friends. I wondered to myself about all the possibilities that were open to this little baby, the life he had all in front of him. What joy, what wondrous opportunities were in store for this little fellow. And the parents, well, they had equal amounts, if not more, joy just bursting out from inside of them, proud of this wee little lad they had brought into the world.

The gift of a child to parents, especially the first child in the family, must be an absolutely magnificent feeling.

As I was lying in bed on that Sunday evening, about to doze off to sleep, the familiar old Bible verse came into to my otherwise quiet mind. The words, “For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son, Jesus Christ …” very quietly, yet strongly, scrolled through my head, as if sent to me by, well, God. And then, it hit me, like it has never hit me before. God willingly let his own Son, God made flesh, be put to death to atone for our collective sins, and provide us with everlasting life.

I thought about that little baby, being baptized on that glorious day. I thought about the obvious love the baby’s parents, heck all children’s parents, had for him, how proud they were, all full of hopes and dreams. Given that, what parent in their right mind could willingly let their child die for the sake of others? Yet, this is precisely what God did for us, on that cross that somber day.

He died for us. He died for me. I was so moved at the realization of this, that I began to cry a bit. Tears came down, tears of joy perhaps, or maybe just gratitude, but tears nonetheless. I’ve never truly considered, until now, what this all means.

Look, I am by no means the greatest Christian in the world. I struggle with my faith on a daily basis, and I’m not here to proselytize to you, or even try to convert you over, far from it. But, what happened to me with the realization that a loving Father in heaven loved me so much, that He sacrificed everything for me, has never made such an impact on me in all of my life. I cannot imagine sacrificing my own child for millions of people I’ll never know, yet God loved me enough, and you enough, to do this very thing.

Today, I’m still awestruck by this realization. Yes, I’ve known this verse, and what the crucifixion means, for most of my life. But it never mattered like it mattered on a quiet Sunday evening, just before sleep. Given this knowledge, of what should we ever be afraid? Given this knowledge, why should we ever hate? Given this knowledge, why should we ever not be grateful for every minute we are alive?

Yes, I feel different today, I feel incredibly loved, and forgiven. I do hope this feeling lasts. I really can’t imagine my life now without this knowledge.

There’s a God in heaven folks who happens to care about what we do a great, great deal. I’ve let Him down numerous times in my life, and will do so I’m afraid numerous times more. But today, perhaps, I’m taking my first small steps towards home.

Or, perhaps I should say Home. After all, I think God is calling us Home from the moment we are born.

-The Minister

The Moon and the Stars

I’m an early riser, at least during the work week. I say early, because some folks certainly rise earlier than me, but if when I wake up, it’s still dark outside, that’s pretty darn early to me!

I’ve found that time, once I can successfully shake the cobwebs from my head and the sleep from my eyes, is a wonderfully peaceful time. It can be almost a holy time. Usually, it’s quiet in the house, and I’m alone with my thoughts and feelings. I tend to do a bit of gentle yoga stretching during this time. In the Fall and Spring, it’s especially nice, as the windows tend to be open, and I can hear the symphony of the crickets outside chirping away.

After I’m done stretching, I’ll usually wander over to a window and just gaze outside for a few moments. The sky is so beautiful at this time of morning, still dark, and full of stars as far as the eye can see. The moon is right up there too, and I’ve learned to really appreciate its beauty, whether it is full or just a crescent in the air.

There are times, certainly more often than not, when I feel incredibly loved while gazing out at the moon and the stars from my bedroom window. It’s almost as if God the artist is watching me admire His painting of the pre-dawn sky, and really appreciates me doing so. After all, He painted it for me and you to admire whenever we wanted.

There is so much beauty in the world, surrounding us all the time, if we but just stop for a moment and appreciate it. We humans tend to try and fill our lives with a lot of “doingness”, so much so that we don’t set aside nearly enough time for just “beingness”, if that makes sense. A lot of us complain about not being happy enough, or content enough, or having enough peace of mind, yet how can these things come about when every waking moment is occupied with activity? I’m learning that a lot of happiness and joy can come from just gazing out of a window at a moonlit sky, in the minutes before dawn, when all is quiet.

I’ve read and heard that people with terminal illnesses, from which there is no hope of recovery, finally “get” life. They understand that all the striving, all the material things, all the bustle and hustle of their lives really didn’t mean all the much. What matters is the touch of a loved one’s hand, the flowers in Springtime, the leaves changing in the Fall, gentle breezes, a slow and steady rain on the roof at night, and the moon and the stars. They finally see that happiness, and joy, were all around them every moment of their lives. And, for many, this knowledge alone is at least some small comfort.

It is my hope for you and I that it won’t take a terminal illness to show us that happiness and joy are indeed ours to be had, absolutely free, if we just open our eyes to the beauty that surrounds us on a daily basis. I know in my heart of hearts that God wants us to see the beauty He has provided for us. It must be frustrating when He sees us walking around in paradise, but with blinders on.

As for me, well, I’m just looking forward to tomorrow morning, when it’s just me and the moon and the stars.

-The Minister

Why Have Them?

Children that is. Many young adults ask themselves this question. It’s understandable why, when you consider it closely.

First of all, in an effort for full disclosure, I am writing this from the perspective of someone who doesn’t have children, but who wants them. That being said, I recognize the enormous responsibility it would entail if I did become a parent. Look at the risks involved. The child could turn out to be a special needs kid. The child could become a royal pain down the line, perhaps to the point of being one of those…you know… “bad” kids! There’s the matter of the amount of time one has to invest in order to be a good parent, and the sacrifices that necessarily entails. And, there are all the inherent risks of raising a child in a world that all too often seems to be a bit darker than the world in which I grew up.

I hear this (i.e., the world’s a darker place) a lot, especially from older parents, whose children are already grown. Many is the time an older (wiser?) parent has told me they would’ve never made the decision to have children if they had to raise them in the world in which we live today. I mean, look at all the ills we have in our society today. There are predators lurking seemingly in every corner, pedophiles on the playgrounds and in our increasingly wireless world, just waiting to pounce on our unsuspecting, innocent children. There are scary diseases that keep cropping up, just when it seems like we’ve made advances on old ones. Then, if that wasn’t enough, there’s the always-present threat of terrorism, a specter that looms over all of us.

It seems like when I was a kid the worst thing my parents had to worry about with me was whether or not I’d skin my knee if I fell off my bicycle. Yes, those were indeed the good old days.

I mean, they were, weren’t they?

As the referees in the NFL like to say, “Upon further review…”.

While I didn’t have Internet predators lurking behind my computer screen, I did grow up in a world that was one push of the button away from nuclear annihilation. While we didn’t have the threat so much of terrorism, we did have the threat of the Soviet Union on our doorstep. We hadn’t advanced in our treatments of diseases to the point that we have today either.

Nostalgia is just that…nostalgia. We tend to look back through rose-colored glasses, and look forwards sometimes through the lens of fear. Perhaps its important to remember this, or recognize this, as we ponder the question of whether or not to have children.

God had this same choice, you know. The one about whether or not to have children? Do you think He sat around and wondered about the same risks that would be involved for Him to bring his “children” into his newly created world? No one can honestly say for sure, although I have a hunch.

Recently, this hunch of mine was further reinforced through the words of a professor in a class I’m taking. It’s a class on religion, and this question actually came up, i.e., why did God create man? The professor asked the class (it’s a continuing education class, made up of mostly adults) why did those in the class with children make the same choice? Before the class could answer, the professor basically said that even with, or perhaps in spite of, all the inherent risks of bringing a child into the world, the rewards, the love that could potentially fill our lives, outweighs even the greatest risk imaginable.

It struck me that the professor was really on to something here. It was a real “Eureka!” type moment for me. Didn’t it stand to reason that God created mankind for the very same reasons that mankind decides to have children of its own? Wouldn’t God desire to have the love of others fill His life/existence, just like we humans desire it, and really need it, to sustain us?

I don’t know if this was the absolute definitive answer for which I’ve searched for years, but it started to really make sense to me at that moment. If we are created in His image, then it does stand to reason our (mankind’s) desire would be for creation of other(s) to share in our love, and our lives, in spite of all the risks each generation must face. That’s quite comforting, in its own way.

So, perhaps we decide to children simply because God decided to create us. Perhaps he instilled in us that longing for the love and sharing of others in our lives, because He knew that longing was part and parcel of living, and would only be satisfied through love. I’m just brainstorming here, but it does make a bit of sense to my feeble mind at least.

Sometimes I just scratch my head, and wonder at it all.

-The Minister

Sunset

Yes, Sunset. All too often, its brother “Sunrise” gets all the attention.

This day, however, Sunset’s getting all the attention.

When we built our home, I had no idea what a treat was in store for us. It certainly was none of my doing, but for a variety of reasons, our home is positioned in such a way as to capture perfectly the view at Sunset each evening. Countless are the times I’ve come up from the basement, and have been greeted with one of the more spectacular views I’ve ever had the joy of witnessing.

The lights and colors are usually brilliant, at least as viewed from our home. Sometimes it seems to me that the sky is quite literally on fire. And, no two Sunsets are alike, or at least it seems. One night, it will seem relatively subdued, with the sky having a more purplish-tint to it. The very next night, the sky is alive with bright reds and yellows, almost as if flames are coming down from the heavens.

I cannot help but be filled with a sense of not only wonder and appreciation whenever I view one of these Sunsets, but also of awe. Awe at the incredible power that created this universe in which we live, and allowed through His creation beauty such as the kind that is created when the sun sets in the evening. I feel an overwhelming sense that He is near at these times, that He cares so much about us, loves us so much. It’s almost as if He’s painting a new picture every night, one full of such brilliant color and passion, to let us know we are most definitely not alone.

An atheist may look at the same Sunset, and just say that I’m being sentimental, that I’m simply too lazy to explore what in the natural world actually causes Sunsets. I’ve heard these types of arguments before. For me, such a beautiful picture that I’m treated to each clear evening simply can’t be caused by pure happenstance of natural elements acting upon one another. Yes, that may be what actually does create a Sunset, but the question then becomes Who created the environment under which these conditions can occur?

I personally choose to believe that there is a force that created the natural world, and Who also lives with us in it. My feeble mind just cannot comprehend a world in which so much beauty exists without an intelligent design to it. Beauty in the natural world, while perhaps happenstance on some level, had to start from somewhere. Or more accurately, Someone. Someone who had a vision for a world/system He wanted to create.

Every time I see a beautiful sunset from my little home, my belief in God grows. He’s there. He did create it all, and He loves us so much that he wants to share His “paintings” on a daily basis. Sunsets are God’s signature at the end of each day, His promise to us that He is indeed there.

Enjoy them with all your heart and soul, and know that God is with us. Always.

-The Minister

Saturday Afternoon Baseball

We were visiting with family this past weekend, which is always a good thing to do. This particular visit was especially meaningful, as we had the entire family gathered together under one roof. That just doesn’t happen all too often.

On a glorious late Summer afternoon, that more closely resembled Fall, something wonderful happened. The next generation wanted to get out and enjoy the sunshine and cool breezes. And, lo and behold, they convinced us old timers to actually get up off the couch, tearing ourselves away from college football, and come out and play.

In the cul-de-sac in front of the house, the kids set up a makeshift baseball field. Well, it was derived from the very same dimensions used by the boys who grew up in that house, having played cul-de-sac baseball for years there. Soon, shouts of pure joy were heard throughout the “field”, as each person stepped up to the plate to take their knocks. There weren’t any real teams, but did it matter? Heck no. We all just fielded as each person stepped to the plate for their turn at bat.

Everyone involved had a big old ear-to-ear grin on their faces. It was just magic.

It struck me, admittedly not at that moment but later, that the game really represented all there is to life. There was family, which however you personally define that for you is incredibly important, as it gives you a foundation upon which to grow. There was simple joy. There were no video games, no incredible special effects such as those found in a movie, no high-tech anything. Just a ball, a bat, and a few folks forgetting about all those other “important” matters in life.

And, rest assured, there was God. Think for a minute that He wasn’t enjoying all of this? He was right there with us, enjoying every hit, every swing, every mighty cut at the ball, and every bit of love that was being displayed during this incredibly special moment in time. He loved it every bit as much as the rest of us.

You see, for a minute or two, we in that cul-de-sac really “got” it. By “it”, I mean life. We dropped all our seemingly important worries and concerns, and just dived in and had fun. Oh sure, there were a few bruises and bumps….kids fall down you know…but nothing we couldn’t handle as long as we were all supporting one another. Nothing we couldn’t handle as long as we recognized that love is the only thing that really matters.

That all God wants from us, I think. To love His people, and by so doing, love and honor Him. That’s the entire message of Christianity, in a nutshell.

No church on Earth could’ve shown that any better than a makeshift baseball diamond on a glorious late Summer day.

-The Minister

What if There's no Answer?

We’ve all made important phone calls, calls where we really needed to get in touch with the other person, only to receive no answer at the other end of the line. It just rings, and rings, and rings. Can be a bit frustrating, to say the least.

It is equally as frustrating when we pray for guidance during a tough time, only to not receive an answer. Or I should say, seemingly not receive an answer. Many’s the dark night, both figuratively and literally, when we are mired in one of life’s challenges and we pray (beg??) for some answer, some guidance to see us through the problems we encounter. None of us gets off scot-free in this world from experiencing tough times.

I don’t profess to have the solution to this question. I ask it a lot. Lately though, through the lens of hindsight, it seems like there may in fact have been answers to my “unanswered” prayers in the past. It just may have taken a different form than what I was expecting.

Ah…expectations. We always have them. We pray for an answer to a tough challenge, and then we expect that lightning bolts will come down from the sky, and a chorus of angels will descend with the solution. Or, we think the answer will hit us over the head with something obvious.

The answer that we seek may not be so obvious. Sometimes, the answer may just be the time and space we suddenly have to cry, and get out our frustration or sadness. Or, maybe it’s just allowing us to cry, after we’ve pent up all our woes for so long. Tears can be a source of relief for many of us.

Answers can take the form of an act of kindness from a friend. Or a stranger for that matter. They can take the form of a song, a poem, or in a line from a movie.

Answers to our prayers don’t have to be big dramatic gestures. Again, the answer may be subtle. Sometimes, the answer may come 6 months down the road, it may not happen immediately. But, I do believe that there is an answer, even when it seems there is no answer at all.

I think the key is to be aware, and in tune with all of the possible ways answers can come to us. Hey, its God folks. He can answer us with whatever method He deems most fit to convey His thoughts. It’s up to us to be receptive to that answer.

Most times, when we’ve just written off a “miraculous” event as a coincidence, it was really the answer we’d sought for so long, gift-wrapped from God. I’ve heard it said there are no real coincidences, just “God-incidences”.

I think there’s a lot of truth in that, actually.

-The Minister

Running and Being

I’m a long-time runner. Well, some would call what I do jogging, not running, but running sure does sound better! I’ve been doing this for years. The exercise is great, but I also love to see what folks are up to, what’s going on in the area, and just get some nice fresh air from time to time.

My journey the other day took me by a home for folks with disabilities and special needs. I’ve passed by this establishment many times, usually without incident or even pausing. The other day, however, was different.

A few of the home’s folks were out in the yard. It was a beautiful day, just one of those wonderful late-summer days where the world is gorgeous, there’s no humidity in the air, and the temperature was pleasant. This one lady was sitting in her wheelchair basking in the sunlight of the morning. Just sitting, seemingly content with the world.

Now, on the surface, if I was to compare myself with the lady in the yard, it would seem I had all the advantages of the world, and the lady whom I was viewing, did not. She was bound to her wheelchair, and appeared to be severely disabled from a physical standpoint at least. Yet, here she was, on a beautiful late-summer day, happy. She was happy. She was happy despite all of her “disabilities” from the world’s point of view.

I, on the other hand, was worrying and fretting over what I had to get done over the next few weeks. It seemed my life was filled with such important tasks to get accomplished, and I had to really buckle down to get things done.

After I saw my new found friend, none of those tasks seemed all that important any longer.

Here was someone who didn’t have the numerous advantages I had, yet seemed much more at peace at the moment, much more content just to be. Just to be in that moment alone. At some level, she realized that NOW is all there is, and that we might as well be happy with NOW. Here I was, filled with self-importance at all the responsibilities I had, living nowhere near NOW, worrying instead about some tomorrow that probably would never happen.

I saw God in that woman. I saw God once again reminding me that there really is nothing to worry about, nothing to fear. I saw God, demonstrating to me that one could have all the physical advantages in the world, but if one failed to be happy in the here and now, what good did it do them?

I’ve spent the better part of a lifetime searching for happiness, when in fact, the key to happiness is just to BE happy. Happiness isn’t a doing, it’s a BEING. One IS happy, one doesn’t DO happy. And one can BE happy, in spite of one’s physical limitations or whatever else is going wrong with the world.

God got through to me through the presence of that wonderful woman, just sitting in the sun, enjoying a wonderful summer day.

I smiled to myself, and kept on running without a care in the world.

-The Minister

Turn Up the Radio

Music is truly one of God’s gifts to mankind. It has been such a big part of my life for the better part of it, that I don’t know what I would do without it.

All of us know the joy of driving down the highway, windows open on a cool day, when that favorite song of ours just comes on the radio out of the blue. Of course, the radio gets turned up just a bit, our spirits lift even more, and if we don’t pay attention, usually our car ends up going just a wee bit faster with the advent of that favorite tune! Last, but certainly not least, we lift our voices to the heavens and sing loud enough to make dogs howl.

I was struck by this just this morning, driving to work on an otherwise quite normal Monday morning. I was a bit tired (happens to you on a Monday morning you know?), and wasn’t paying too much attention to anything in particular, when all of a sudden this great song came on over the airwaves. Immediately, my spirits were lifted, and yep, I sang loud enough to make the dogs howl.

Music can do this for us. It can lift our spirits; it can move us to unimaginable heights, and yes, unimaginable depths at times. But, at all times, it has an impact, and at the very least lets us know we’re alive. It is one human being sharing his thoughts and beliefs to another in words and song, and it never fails to at least make us think, even if it’s a silly little ditty.

How boring the world would be without music, I say. Can you imagine just listening to others talk in spoken language all the time, without tunes to accompany the words? After a while, that would get awful routine. Music gives color to what we say, to what we express. It is the tapestry upon which many of the great truths in life are expressed.

It’s a gift to us from God, honestly. And, many times I’ve personally felt that He has communicated to me through a song, at exactly the right time I’ve needed to hear it (I’ve written on this in another part of the “Ministry of the Mundane”). What a wonderful thing He invented. Well, we humans technically invented music, but you won’t convince me that it wasn’t divinely inspired!

Turn up your radios my friends. It’s a wonderful thing to have music in our lives, and a wonderful day and age where we have so many ways to experience it (through radio, computer downloads, CD’s, etc.). And, as always, when you hear that message that seems like its directly targeted to you, don’t discount it as just a coincidence. Somebody’s probably trying to get your attention!

-The Minister

Peace & Quiet

Where are we all going in such a hurry?

Is it me, or did the pace of life reach, as Mel Brooks would say, “ludicrous speed” in the last decade or so? Goodness gracious, it does seem like everyone I know has so much going on, and has to get it done in so little time, it allows for no time left to themselves.

What, with e-mail, cell phones, pagers, laptops, PDA’s…am I missing anything?...we are absolutely bombarded with information everywhere we turn. And I do mean bombarded. Have you noticed your e-mail Inbox if you leave for vacation, just for one week? Chances are, you’ll have heard from hundreds of your closest friends when you return!

All this new technology, with all of its benefits to mankind, has a major flaw. Namely, if we do not control the technology, it will control us. Simply because it is now so easy to communicate with one another by various and sundry methods, we all do so. But, we are drowning in this communication, little by little. Everything’s so darn fast…instant messaging, instant this, instant that…we feel after a while like a hamster on a wheel, running full tilt to get, well, somewhere, only we never really go anywhere.

If we look at Nature (that is, if we can put down the cell phone for just one minute to observe the natural world around us), we’ll notice an altogether different pace. There is no rush to nature, there is no hectic frenzy. Oh sure, there is an ebb and flow, but mostly, the frenzied pace we humans have chosen doesn’t exist. I think there’s a message there, right in front of our eyes, about the pace we should all be living.

I see God’s pace of life, the one He’d love us all to have, in the natural world. Animals know when to rest; they know when to be active. And, they do rest, often, during the course of a day. We human beings tend to drive ourselves to distraction, cram caffeine in our bodies so that we can continue the hectic pace, and then, if we’re lucky, get a few hours of blissful sleep each night just so we can get up and do it all over again!

And they say the animals are primitive.

My point my friends, and this goes double for me as I all too often can get stuck on the treadmill of life, is we’ll never hear, much less see, God if we don’t slow down and listen. I know its trite, the “stop and smell the roses” philosophy, we’ve all heard it a million times. But, are we listening? Judging by the pace of life, apparently not.

I believe that God is everywhere, and in everything. But, we can really get to know Him, and know Him best, in the silence. It is in those moments of nothingness, where we get off the treadmill of life and just listen, that we often hear that small voice within us gently calling us home. I have started my own little practice of meditation, and while I’m certainly no master, I can tell you that during these moments of daily silence I can feel God’s presence. When I force myself to slow down and literally “do” nothing, I know He’s there, I sense Him, and all is right with the world.

God is everything, but I personally believe that what God is most is peace. If we do not slow down for just a minute or two each day, we miss this. For far too long, I’ve gone way too fast, and I just don’t want to do it any longer.

So, turn off that cell phone for an hour. Go ahead; the world’s not going to end. Disappear for an afternoon, and go sit in your favorite park. Just sit. And listen. God will be there. He’s been waiting for you there for quite some time.

He’s a pretty good friend to talk to and get to know, if we just take the time to slow down and listen.

-The Minister

Getting a Hair Cut

I simply marvel at the person that cuts my hair. She’s a tiny little lady, and yet, has more energy in that little body than I have in my considerably larger one.

When she cuts my hair, its not so much as simply taking my hair length from long to short (or in my case really bald looking to less noticeably bald looking!), as it is creating a work of art. A snip here, a moment to study it there, and then another snip, all working towards the final end of creating a work of sculpture if you will of which she can be proud.

And, when she’s actually doing the cutting of my hair, or anyone else’s for that matter, time stands still for her. It’s just she and my little old head, trying to mold and sculpt my hair, getting lost in the moments of doing so. When my barber cuts my hair, it’s almost a spiritual experience for her, I think.

I was struck by the amount of love for her craft she obviously has, and it hit me that for her at least, her craft was not so much a “job” as it was an act of creation. She obviously is in touch with that fire within her, that “holy spirit” of creativity that was breathed into her at creation. God has instilled that same love of creation into all of us as well.

Call it imagination, call it creativity, call it what you will, our ability to create things or stuff out of whole cloth is what separates us from all other beings. I’m not here to discuss the divinity of man versus the animals (I actually happen to believe that animals are quite divine, thank you very much!), but mankind’s ability to imagine possibilities, and then manifest these imaginings into material results is our unique gift. “Real life”…whatever that is…doesn’t necessarily encourage us, however, to express this creativity.

Oh sure, at the beginning of our formal education we are encouraged to paint the world the way we see it. But, sadly, at least it was my experience, the world imposes its own sense of normalcy upon us all too quickly, and tells us what’s acceptable, and what’s not. It’s as if our imagination starts to be progressively penned in, until we reach the point of adulthood, and we are left with no real spark of creativity. Lemmings indeed.

I hope I never become like this. My wonderful mother has always told me I have such a wonderful sense of imagination, and I happen to agree with her on that point. There have been times in my life, however, where I have stifled that creative flow for fear of seeming “different”. During those times in my life, a sense of loss would fill my days. Loss, because I wasn’t doing that which we are all created to do…namely, “create” ourselves. We are all given this wonderful gift of imagination. It has long been said that which we can believe in, we can eventually conceive. That’s a not happenstance folk. That’s the spark of the divine within all of us.

So, you ask, “You got all this wisdom out of a simple haircut?” My friends, that’s why I call my ramblings the Ministry of the Mundane!

It’s been my experience that from the mundane springs the profound.

Have a great day.

-The Minister

On Failure

Do we see God when we fail?

It’s an interesting question, one I’ve wrestled with from time to time in my life. First of all, I think we’ve got to get our minds around this concept of “failure”.

There are many who will state there is no such thing as failure, that failure is just getting one step closer to finding the ultimate answer. I didn’t used to agree with that notion, but then again, I spent a lot of years mired in pretty negative thinking. So, it’s no surprise that failure to me was just that…failure.

When I would try and fail, well, that was it for me, no more trying. I’d go on to something else, even if…especially if…what I was working to accomplish was a dream of mine. Failure to achieve that dream just meant to me it wasn’t to be. Hey, I told you I was a negative thinker years ago.

But, if we open our eyes and stare into the failure, especially those big old times when we’ve really blown it, really struck out, I think we’ll see something on the other side. Call it the “light of experience”, call it what you will, what you see on the other side, once the dust settles, is God giving us the insight we need to eventually overcome the odds.

Once we know this, once we recognize that God is always there, in every way possible, we begin to no longer fear failure. We recognize that if we ever wish to achieve our dreams, then we must fail from time to time, and that is in no way, shape, or form a bad thing. You see, God will always be there when we fail to pick us up, and point to the path that will work. If we look hard enough, we’ll see Him after the disappointment at our failure begins to fade (when I say “see” Him, well, I personally believe that that how you will see him depends on how you best receive messages from the Big Fella, but that’s a topic for another day!).

So go ahead and try, and fail some, and then fail some more. Go ahead, don’t be afraid. He’s there my friends, He’s always there, and if we open our eyes, and more importantly our hearts, He will soothe our wounds and point us to a better path. Fear not fellow travelers. Failure looses its sting when we know in our hearts that our best Friend is always by our side.

-The Minister

Let Me Read You a Story

…might just contain the secret to life!

This past weekend I, like millions of others around the globe, read “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”. The entire series has, in my opinion, been outstanding, and let’s just say this last book really gave it a rousing conclusion.

I was struck often, during the reading of this particular tale, at how much wonderful philosophy comes out of the pages. Yes, it’s a work of fiction, a book to be purely enjoyed and with which to have fun. But, many times, to me at least, it was more than that.

There were more than a couple of times a sentence seemed to leap off the page at me, containing some kernel of real truth (the book’s only been out a little while, so I won’t include anything specific as to not give away any spoilers). This surprised me, as honestly, I was just reading it for fun. I really didn’t expect to have revealed to me so much about living one’s life well.

Yet, it was all there, including some passages where, quite literally, it seemed as if the author had been reading my mind all along. This has happened to me in the past too, where I’m reading a book solely for pleasure, and yet I’ll discover some nugget of wisdom I hadn’t anticipated uncovering, certainly not in a work of fiction.
And, many times it will seem as if this sentence, or this thought, was aimed directly at me, for my benefit alone. Yes, the words are of a specific author. But perhaps the fact that I read them at specifically the time I needed to hear them, that may in fact be the work of life’s Author.

I tend to believe, in my advancing age, that God speaks to us at precisely the right moment and with precisely the right vehicle. Sometimes we need to be hit over the head, as we may be in a dense fog or be unaware of what is truly happening in our lives. Other times, we may be really dialed in to life, and He gives us just a subtle message, a pat on the back or gentle encouragement along the way. For me, this past weekend, the words I needed to hear were in a work of fiction. Other times in my life, they’ve come from many other sources.

For a lot of my life, as I’ve already mentioned in my other messages, I wasn’t really paying attention. I did (pay attention) this past weekend, and because I did, I was blessed with a message from the best friend any of us could have. If nothing else, it reminded me to be constantly awake and alive, looking for the words of wisdom or messages that I need to hear.

And, if I pay attention, even good old Harry Potter might have something to teach me.

-The Minister

License Plates

I don’t know about you, but I’m over Vanity license plates. Or at least until yesterday I was.

When they first came out, hey, I thought they were kind of cool. They were just another way of distinguishing yourself. In a sometimes grey world, a little color isn’t altogether a bad thing.

When I bought my first car, I seriously considered getting one.

But soon, it seemed that every car I passed…or passed me (I’m not that fast you see)…had a Vanity plate. So, my initial fascination with them passed. They just got too common.

Yesterday, however, I was reawakened to the potential of vanity plates for conveying important messages. I was well into a two-hour drive back from a meeting. My head was swimming with all kinds of concerns and thoughts, and I must admit I was starting to worry a bit over some potential outcomes.

I glanced to my left at a car that was passing me at that moment, and I noticed, clearly and distinctly, the license plate on that car. It was “DNTFRET”, or in other words, “don’t fret”. Don’t fret. Don’t worry your silly little head over things, things that 99 times out of 100 don’t even come true.

The words hit me like a hammer to my head, and interrupted the thought storm that I was experiencing. It was as if something, or namely somebody, was trying to get through to me. Sometimes in life we need to be hit over the head with a hammer, to wake us from mindless living. At that precise moment, I needed to be reminded of how useless worry is. And, at that precise moment, I was (reminded).

Coincidence? Again, years ago I would’ve thought so. But now, not so sure about that. For me at times, I’ve been consumed by worry. I’m working very hard to change that, and am pleased to report some progress. But, I need some support some times, a message to break through the clutter of “thought storms” as I call them, and yesterday, I got that support from a Vanity license plate of all things.

Was that God talking to me? Was that Him reaching out to me, at the precise moment I needed to hear Him? I believe so, but draw your own conclusions. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be the grandest of actions to get our attention. Sometimes He uses the most unglamorous vehicles to get His message across.

Like a license plate.

Hey, maybe I’ll just have to change my opinion of those suckers after all!

-The Minister

The Great Outdoors

Have you ever been moved emotionally by Nature?

As a youth, don’t think I ever really grasped how beautiful Nature really is. I was a Boy Scout, like many of my friends. As such, I spent a considerable amount of time outdoors camping, fishing, and hiking.

And yet, it was lost on me then. For whatever reason, call it the foolishness of youth I suppose, I never stopped to appreciate my surroundings. My head was always into sports, it was what I really loved, and I just didn’t take in all the natural beauty that surrounded me on all those camping trips.

Now, fast forward to yesterday. I travel some for work, usually day trips. These trips can take me into major metropolitan areas, or, like yesterday, to towns that time has seemingly forgotten. I’d often ventured to the small little town I visited yesterday, and certainly knew of its natural beauty, being surrounded by the mountains. Only, when I drove into the town, with its one major street, and of course, no traffic lights (!), I noticed things a bit more.

As you pull in to this particular town, you are greeted with one of the more spectacular views you’ll ever hope to see. The little town is nestled against the Blue Ridge Mountains, and one cannot help but notice the beauty. I drove up Main Street, and for a minute or two, everything else ceased to exist. Nothing was left save for the beauty of those old wooden houses against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I turned off the radio in my vehicle. It just seemed wholly inappropriate to have any other noise except the “sounds” of that town, and those majestic mountains. A voice inside my head kept telling me to “listen to the land”.

The world was just perfect for that one moment in time. And I knew, once again, that there most certainly is a God in Heaven.

How many times do we all take for granted the natural beauty that is all around us? It costs us nothing to view it, to take it all in. Yet, in the hustle and bustle of our lives, it can be forgotten. One of God’s greatest gifts to us is the canvas he’s given us as the backdrop of our life here on Earth. The canvas is Nature, in all its glory, and if we but stop and look and listen awhile, we’ll be enriched beyond measure each time.

I laugh sometimes at the memory of that boy who had his head in baseball statistics, while camping in the midst of absolute splendor. Whoever said, and I paraphrase, “…youth is wasted on the young” was right. Oh well, better late than never I suppose to develop a true appreciation of the natural world. I encourage each of you this week, wherever you may be, to stop and notice the natural surroundings. Even in a city park, in the middle of millions of people, you can find areas of enormous beauty, and peace.

You’ll find God there too. I’ve often thought I see God a lot more clearly in a beautiful sunset, or on top of a mountain peak, than in a church building. I tend to believe its in the outdoors that He does his best work!

-The Minister

Spoken Words

Do you ever think that the next message you hear from a friend, a co-worker, or even a stranger might be a message sent directly to you from the Big Guy?

I didn’t use to believe that myself. It’s only after I started opening my eyes, and noticing how many times it seemed coincidental that the exact word of encouragement or the right words of praise always seemed to come my way from someone at exactly the right time I needed to hear them. It happened even today, in just a routine business meeting, that the gentleman sitting across the desk from me shared a bit of his philosophy of life, and in so doing, inspired me to look at things a bit differently.

He was lamenting that children, specifically his own, don’t continue to believe in magic when they grow up. And yet, he knew the world is filled with magic, the magic that comes from seeing a certain destiny or world one wants created in his or her own imagination, and then manifesting that in reality. To my colleague, that is the real magic of life, a magic he wants his own children to continue to believe in, long after the real world has imposed its non-magical beliefs upon them.
I was having a rather routine day, one in which I needed to be reminded that there is indeed magic in the world. A magic that exists when you believe in your ability to manifest your own dreams in reality. I needed this message, on this particular day, at that particular moment. Do you think that was just a coincidence?

Years ago, I would’ve believed it was just good timing, nothing more than coincidental. Events in my life, however, have led me to believe that was no mere coincidence. Just God, talking to me through the voice of another. Just God, once again, telling me a great truth of life.

He does this a lot, you know. For years, I was deaf to it. But I’ve come to believe this is one way He communicates with us, letting us know the truth about life, gently giving us comforting words at the right time, or just nudging us further along the right path. I’ve learned to stop ignoring these messages.

Take it from someone who for years used to ignore great pearls of wisdom when given to him. It may be the voice of a friend telling you them, but the words are straight from The Man Upstairs.

-The Minister

Welcome

Welcome to my world.

This blog will be an attempt to, through my own experience, give back to others, and help them become just a wee bit happier and live life with more meaning. You see, I am on a quest for meaning, and I suspect others are too. I’ve always been on a quest it turns out, I just didn’t know where that quest was heading.

I’m a deeply spiritual person, always have been. Yet, at the various times I’ve explored formally beginning training for the ministry, something has always pulled me back. Whether it was the knowledge that I couldn’t handle or didn’t agree with all of the dogma that I would have to learn, or simply the daunting task of being a man of the cloth and all that entails, I couldn’t make the leap.

But, I continued to search. I’m also a searcher by nature you see. I’ve been searching for the answers to life’s most complex questions for the better part of my time here on Earth. And, no, I don’t have the answers currently, but nevertheless, I remain undeterred in my quest for higher knowledge. But, I digress.

I’ve made the discovery that if there isn’t a ministry that I feel completely called to study on a formal basis, then I’ll just have to move forward with my own. Now I know my quest is to begin my own ministry, my own special brand of insight into life’s most complex issues.

So, I now knight myself a minister, the head minister of my own ministry. This my friends is The Ministry of the Mundane.

Mundane you say? Who the heck wants to read about the mundane in our world, you ask? Why, when my entire day is filled with nothing but the mundane would I ever wish to read about more of it?

Good questions all gentle reader. My answer, while not immediately satisfying to you, is that God and the real essence of spirituality is actually found in the everyday mundane circumstances and events of our lives, and not outside of it. It is in the mundane that we find meaning, that we find substance, that we find, well, God.

If you will follow along with me my friend(s), I promise to explore ways that will help us all see God in the mundane. Hopefully, by so seeing Him there, and the beauty that He weaves into our lives on a daily basis, our lives can start to take on more meaning.

And He is most definitely there. This morning, for example, I was having a major dose of the Monday-blahs. I was pretty darn low, failing to see the meaning of my job and the endless hours of routine tasks that I faced. As I pulled into town, however, almost as if somebody was listening to my innermost dialogue, a song came on the radio that seemed as if it was timed for me at precisely that moment. It was a song about keeping on in the face of adversity, never quitting, always trying to find that elusive dream. The song, I’m reasonably sure wasn’t written from God’s point of view, at least intentionally, but doggone it, it was no coincidence that I heard it at that precise time. It was a beautiful moment, and I wept at the sheer joy of it. 4 minutes prior to that, I felt alone. After that song, I felt loved.

It’s these moments, these day to day joys that on the surface seem to be nothing more than coincidences or random occurings, that provide the meaning in our lives if we just listen to them, if we just see and hear the messages being sent to us. He’s everywhere folks, every single place we could possibly imagine, He’s there. And, He wants to dialogue with us, He’s longing for us to hear Him.

Now, no worries my friends if you are reading this, while this is indeed my Ministry, I guess making me the head Minister, I am not here to preach to you. Oh, certainly, I’ll get passionate at times, trying to get a point across. But, I’m not here to tell you, and never will, how to live your life. For that, there’s plenty of material, and not all of it good. I’m simply here to share with you where and how I see God, what I think He’s saying to me, perhaps to all of us, and by so doing, maybe cause you to see your life differently, and with more meaning.

So, once again, welcome to The Ministry of the Mundane. I promise you, it will be a worthwhile trip. We’ll laugh together, cry a bit, and share some new memories and stories. All the while, we’ll explore this great big beautiful world, and find out together the meaning that is all around us, in the mundane, everyday details of our lives.

Thanks so much for reading.

-The Minister