Who are we really?

“Your religion is what's important to you.”

Last summer I saw a play by J.M.Barrie for the first time. Up until then, I only thought of him as the author of “Peter Pan” and had never realized that he also was a playwright. [It constantly amazes me how little I actually know. ..but that is a theme for another day!] The short play we saw, called ‘The Twelve Pound Look’ is a satire, revolving around the conflicting tensions in the suffragette movement. But what stayed with me after the play and has stayed with me ever since, was not any of the witticisms, but rather this line that came near the end. This echoes what Thomas Aquinas said in an earlier age, “The things that we love tell us what we are.”

These men are essentially saying the same thing, one as a secular playwright and the other as a Doctor of the Church. For me, it is something not only to consider once and then to put aside but something that it is important to keep continually in the forefront of my thoughts.

So what is important to me and what do I love? [other Maslow’s more basic needs of "physiological", "safety", "belongingness" and “love”] In no particular order, my digital ‘toys’, some disposable income to use for others, being challenged mentally, and having opportunities to use my abilities for others are important to me. I might say that I ‘love’ technology, ‘love’ theological reflection, ‘love’ quiet times spent with friends and family, that I ‘love’ to read. Are these two list mutually exclusive? I don’t really think so. They seem to me to be like two sides of the same coin as I suspect they should be for anyone. But are they actually that way?

Religion for most of us is mainly concerned with how we spend our Sundays. What denomination we grew up as part of? How often we attend services? And where? I don’t know of anyone who would respond to the question ‘What is your religion?’ with the answer ‘getting a promotion at work’. Nor do I know anyone who during the other seven days would respond to the question ‘What’s important to you?’ with the answer ‘Going to church’. We tend to separate our behaviours on Sunday from our behaviours on the other six days of the week with this kind of dualistic thinking. But if you really think about it, your true values influence everything you do and your religion is that which gives you your values.

So your ‘religion’ is not actually Anglican or Methodist, not Protestant or Roman Catholic, not Buddhist or Islam, but rather is all those behaviours you exhibit every day that show others what is important to you. Is it the balance in your bank account or is it what you do with the money? Are you happy to spend long hours of overtime at work, or do you refuse that overtime to be with family and friends?

And for me, why do I ‘love’ my iPhone [which is the one thing that I would desperately want to survive a disaster]? I ‘love’ it because it provides a link to the other people in my life, to my personal library, to my financial resources, in short because it contains in a very real way, complete my life! My ‘Google’ history shows what is important to me, as does the content of my inbox, my library and my bank records.

If you were asked what you would find the hardest to live without, what would you answer? And more importantly what does that tell you both about your ‘religion’, and what you ‘love’?

Comments

This, too ...

‘By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.’ -Hebrews 11:8 Dr. Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, says this, too, will pass . Dr. Eileen de Villa, Medical Official of Health for Toronto, says this, too, will pass . Justin Trudeau , Prime Minister of Canada, says this, too, will pass . But will it really??? Some days this feels like an unending struggle with just one tiny step forward and not just two, but more like a dozen steps back. Of course I’m talking about COVID-19 with all its associated variants. We might even be forgiven for rewriting that well known quote from Ecclesiastes to read…. For everything there is a season,…but just not for this ! Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French priest, might well have been talking about COVID when he penned the lines below: We should like to skip The ...

A Stitch in Time

Over the years, I have done my share of knitting, crocheting, cross stitch, and sewing. However as the years have passed the arthritis in my hands and the slowly but surely progressing macular degeneration in my eyes have made handwork of any kind well nigh impossible. In this time of a global pandemic when we are told to stay home to stay safe, it seems that everyone around me is either knitting up a storm for the grandchildren, for the homeless, for the housebound, painting pictures or cupboards, or even making quilts for posterity. To put it mildly, I was feeling left out of the activity and just a little sorry for myself. Then this poem came across the screen of my iPad..... I cannot sew, I cannot knit, yet still I stitch, yet still I stitch these remnants from another time. I stitch, I stitch with words instead to lay across my feathered bed... this patchwork quilt". (Written by Judy Imrie) And...

Challenging Faith

“All giving constitutes a challenge to faith because there is no guarantee of a return.” When I heard this statement as part of a sermon on Rogation Sunday, my ears pricked up and my mind started to spin. The rest of the sermon had things to say as well, but this sentence is still the one that has stuck with me. It made, and is still making me think! For those of us who identify ourselves with the church, whenever we hear the word ‘givings’ our minds go immediately to what we put on the offering plate each Sunday and for that we expect, but are not guaranteed, that the church will be there for us when we need it; for weddings, baptisms, funerals and other rites of passage. However what intrigues me about this quotation is that first word. “ ALL giving constitutes a challenge …” And how true it is! Each time we ‘give’ something away and it doesn’t have the expected return, it is upsetting and we have all had that experience. I remember many years ago s...

A Mist that Appears

July 24th this year marked 2 years since Clarke had cancer surgery. It seems like it happened in another lifetime. Mid-August, that same year, granddaughter left to teach in England. She came home for Christmas that same year but then we didn’t see her again until then end of July this year. Our long-time cleaning lady has just returned after 17 months. All of these seem to have happened much longer ago then they actually did. I was reminded of a programme on Time featuring Stephen Hawking that I saw on the television a few years back. He made the comment that time doesn’t exist except when we use it to mark ages, hours, years or distances, heat or cold, etc. Time is in fact something that we humans have invented to serve our own needs. When nothing new is happening, time slows down for us. Remember those summers when you were a kid that lasted forever? But when new things are happening, time speeds up and you hear p...

'Slow but steady wins the race' ~ Aesop

“Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steady gains in strength, At first it may be but as a spider's web, easily broken through, but if not resisted it soon binds us with chains of steel.” Tryon Edwards [from Wikiedia: Tryon Edwards (1809 - 1894, Detroit,) was an American theologian, best known for compiling A Dictionary of Thoughts, a book of quotations. He published the works of Jonathan Edwards (the younger) in 1842. He also compiled and published the sixteen sermons of his great grandfather, Jonathan Edwards, on 1 Corinthians 13 ] Just lately I have become aware of changes that have happened unbeknown to me. One I can explain and it links into the title quote for Aesop, ‘Slow and steady wins the race’. A year ago this January when my husband was hospitalized it was a long, long way each day from the parking lot to his room. This January, when the same thing occurred, the distance to the room seemed much shorter even though the rooms ...

Reaching Out

“ Thanks for reaching out ” were the words coming through the telephone receiver into my ear. I had just remembered the stoma nurse’s words to us to call her when we were scheduled to see the surgeon for the post-op visit, I hadn't really felt I should bother her. But a couple of days before that event, I did pick up the phone and place the call, leaving a voice mail. It was answered by another voice mail, to which I responded with my original message again. And finally a real person was on the other end of the line. Arrangements were made for the day of the consultation with her final words to me being ‘Thanks for reaching out.’ Initially that surprised me, but on further reflection I began to see that only by my reaching out to her was she able to finish doing the job she was trained to do. Sometimes in this culture we see ‘reaching out’ or ‘asking for help’ or ‘admitting that we don’t know what to do’ to be a sign of weakness.We should be able to cope, we tell ourse...

Faces

“Poor and afflicted and oppressed people have faces, and we are required to look squarely into them. We can’t love what we won’t experience.” ~Nancy Mairs Years ago the women’s group at the church that I was attending was talking about the arrival in the neighbourhood of a home for abused women. As various ideas were put forward as to how we might react to this, a couple of the ladies were very forthright in their disagreement. After all, they said, these women had asked for it! Despite this, the evening ended with a decision being made to start a clothing centre for these women who would arrive at the shelter with little besides the clothes on their backs. Being good Christian woman, both of these ladies signed up to take a shift or two a month. Imaging my surprise when a few months later one of them came up to me after church to tell me the ‘those’ women were just like everybody else! Now a story from a little closer to home. We spent three weeks in Cape Town, Sou...

“In sod we trust” . . . .

I noticed this slogan “i n sod we trust” on a truck from a nearby sod farm recently as I was driving through our town. It made me think . . .Yes, in this part of Canada, with our short growing season, we do trust in sod to have those perfect green lawns, THIS year. These lawns do not appear magically however. We feel they are worth the investment of our hard-earned dollars, followed by hours of watering as we encourage them to grow in the normally hot dry summers . . . to say nothing of using more of our hard-earned cash, to pay the ensuing water bill. Oh, yes, and we erect little fences around them to protect the sod from being trampled on by feet, both big and little. So, yes, we trust ‘in sod’ to give the lawns we desire, but it is not without the investment of both our time and money. This slogan, of course, is a play on the slogan we are all familiar with from USA coins: “In God we trust” – a slogan which seems like a mantra to many today....

Hope springs eternal....

The season of Advent starts this coming Sunday, the beginning of the church year. I have decided to do something a little different and so for the next 4 weeks, I will be reflecting about a different verse in a well-known Advent hymn. Each Sunday in Advent, a candle in the advent wreath is lit in our homes and during our worship services. The lighting of the candle is usually accompanied by readings and/or singing. Here is the first verse of " A Candle is Burning ", with words by Sandra Dean and sung to the familiar tune of "Away in a Manger" . " A candle is burning, a flame warm and bright, A candle of HOPE in November's dark night While angels sing blessings from heaven's starry sky, Our hearts we prepare now for Jesus is nigh " Or as Desmond Tutu said, "Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness." As the days in the northern hemisphere grow darker with the shortest day of the year o...

The Reason for the Season

We are now in Advent, the church's season of waiting and preparation for the birth of Jesus and Christmas is approaching. Each year at this time my inbox gathers various & sundry emails about those terrible people who don't say Merry Christmas, who want to call it a holiday tree and not a Christmas tree, who want to take the Christ out of Christmas! Instead of worrying about what the other thinks and does, it behooves us to look at just what each of us is celebrating, personally. If we are honest with ourselves, I think we just might be surprised! As I listen to the Christmas/seasonal songs on the media and in the malls, I find myself asking myself the question: Just how many different things are we celebrating on December 25? Because I do think there is more than one celebration, probably more than two or three for most of us. Oh yes, we may say we are celebrating Christmas, because it is the birth of Jesus but is that really all….. or is it even one of th...

NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

Search This Blog