a signpost?

Life can be charted through transitions.

Today I witnessed the baptism of a newborn baby named Lily. Tiny and perfect, with a pink glow of birth, Lily only arrived on this earth 5 days ago. And there she was with her eyes still closed, dressed in a beautiful lace gown which look liked an heirloom from her family, comfortably held with love by her new mother. Her Dad, celebrating his very first Father's Day was close to their right. He couldn't take his eyes off his wife and his child. This newly formed family, surrounded by loving new grandparents sat in the front pew of the church. And all around them sat the congregation feeding off their joy, happy to be a part of welcoming Lily to a life of faith. It is a faith which is carried right now by the people in her life, and by the community she is a member of until she is older to understand what faith means. Or at least until she's old enough to learn the stories from the Scriptures and to begin to ask the questions we all wrestle with.

Every member of this extended family is experiencing a transition or two. Babies do that. They alter and rock your world like not much else. The types of transitions we as individuals encounter may be different than welcoming a baby into our families, but I think we are all forging through our lives stepping in and out of transitions. And every time we do so, we are faced with learning and possibly relearning our own lessons of faith. It's not a linear process....far from it. Rather, it is an up and down twisting path where we can sometimes prepare for the transition and sometimes it jumps out from behind a big oak tree and stops us in our tracks. No matter how it manifests, our reaction and actions to them will alter how we see our lives and how we live our lives because transitions encourage growth.

How much easier it is when we have a family and community around us just like this new family. We can question, lean, discuss, demand, reach out, share, emote if we have others who are unconditionally available....as we are for them.

When the Minister held this miraculous innocent trusting new being, you could see him swell with a sense of spiritual love. In a burst of spontaneity, he suggested a hymn not found in the service this morning, but one which obviously jumped into his thinking....one that captured the feeling of the congregation..........the feeling of a community unconditionally welcoming a new member. Perhaps he just wanted to savour the moment a little longer too. Who could blame him? Can you think of anything more life affirming that cradling a newborn? And so the congregation sang a hymn for Lily. There was a sense of oneness felt by all. Lily was a part of us.

Religion is life......life is being able to show and receive love

Today, I listened to a oratorically gifted man share his thoughts and beliefs with a congregation on how the transitions in our lives are gifts to us which help us do spiritual work. Whether it's a time in our lives when we are questioning our career path, or whether it's a time when life has offered up an abundance of emotional trials connected to a marriage break-up or a death of a family member, or an illness. Whether its the beginning of a relationship, the start of a marriage, the graduation from university...........a move to another city or country.....a shift in one's thinking........a sad goodbye.........a new hello.........these are all part of life....all part of our journey to learning about our faith, about what we believe in. Through these events, some big and some minor we are growing upwardly, inward and outwardly. And if we want to, we can not only share our learning, we can encourage others through our actions, through our own growth. If we want to. We could also check out and remain closed minded and immobile.

We need to respect the process and respect others who are part of our process...a leap of faith that allows for personal growth to be recognized as spiritual work.

Not too long ago, I would've dismissed most of the sermon I heard today as balderdash. I had completely dismissed religion because I had boxed it in as a closed minded option for people willing to be spoon fed. Not only that, I had absolutely no interest in discussing it with anyone. Bible stories seemed so far fetched that they verged on the ridiculous.....how is it that anyone could believe such crazy stuff, I thought? Now that I have some perspective and have found my desire to dive into the vat of miraculous happenings as well as the guiding lessons found in the spirit of the parables and scripture, I see that perhaps my journey beyond the spiritual wildnerness was also spiritual work. Though it was a bloody long transition...........I seemed to have sat on the river bank without a paddle and without a desire to find a paddle for a good long time......I think it was necessary in order for me to reach a place where my heart opened again and where my ever present curiosity finally turned it's attention to God again.

Ah, that ever present Creator. Wouldn't it be grand if you could get a glimpse of Him? I mean, wouldn't it make believing so much easier? Believing happens through allowing for life's transitions to help us recognize that religion is living life and sharing it with others. You may never see God, but you may feel His spirit and His guidance by stepping in and out of transitions. He is often the One holding the flashlight.

Henri Nouwen writes:

To be a witness for God is to be a living sign of God's presence in the world. What we live is more important than what we say, because the right way of living leads to the right way of speaking. Whe we forgive our neighbours from our hearts, our hearts will speak forgiving words. When we are grateful, we will speak grateful words.

He also writes:

How does the Spirit of God manifest itself through us? Often we think that to witness means to speak up in defense of God. This idea can make us very self-conscious. We wonder where and how we can make God the topic of our conversations and how to convince others of God's presence in our lives. The way God's Spirit manifests itself most convincingly is through it's fruit: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control." These fruit speak for themselves. It is therefore always better to raise the question " How can I grow in the Spirit?" than ask the question, " How can I make others believe in the Spirit?"

Religion is life. Believing is found in the actions and reactions, in the questions and answers and in the desire and drive to take the leap towards faith. It's a lot of spiritual work, often made more manageable by surrounding ourselves with a diverse community who are respectfully open to discussing it all with you and you with them.

No doubt I drive many crazy with my questions. It's like I had forgotten all of the stories from my childhood and adolescent attendance at church. Friends and colleagues whom i know have been more consistently involved in religion are great receptive targets.....most of whom I had never had a conversation with about their faith until recently. They have been great. Interestingly, often when i do ask a question about a tradition or of a particular concept connected to their personal church or religion they often have to stop and think about it because they hadn't done so in a long time and it had just become second nature. The conversations lead to a longer conversation or another one later on when they have time to gather their thoughts, but they are always willing to share.

Baby Lily......her journey has just begun. Let us hope that this beautiful little being will always have the love and support to nurture her growth, to answer some of her questions and to allow her to find some of the answers through her personal transitions.

Today, I witnessed a newborn being baptised. It made me cry tears of gratitude that I am again at a place where I can witness, and where I can feel His presence. The fruits of the Spirit.........in one tiny bundle of innocence.

ps....Paul?, somewhere in this ramble is my comment to your own post........I think it may be a bit like that book "Where's Waldo"........I hope you can find it. :)

ps again.......if you are intrigued to read Paul's latest post, here is the link to his Harbour. it is always worth the trip.