What Would You Protest?

I don't think I've ever waved a picket sign. I see the protesters on television and wonder why they

don't get a life. Some things are not worth protesting.

Right now I'm reading Richard Rohr's book, Simplicity: The Art of Letting Go. He speaks of his work organizing peace protests years ago. Shortly afterward, the Soviet Union began shaking up.

I had no idea that he was one of them.

Here's what I want to say to protesters: Why don't you stop complaining and do something? Live your life following the rules, work hard to make a living, and everything will work out fine. The world is what it is, and you just have to quit complaining and adapt. Yes, it's unfair. Get over it.

Here's what I need to hear from protesters: You don't see the problems, because it all works for you. There is a problem with the way society is structured. If you were not so privileged, you would see it. There is hunger, disease, poverty, abuse of power, injustice. The power brokers of the world ignore the situation and often make it worse. The truth needs to be told.

I'm so busy living my life that I can't take time to notice injustice. I wonder what matters to me enough to make me carry a picket sign. Surely there's something. I need to wake up.

What about you?

Happy Lent

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent.  It marks 40 days before Easter, if you don't count the Sundays.  During this time, Christians in liturgical traditions often set aside certain practices, so that they can focus on their relationships with God.

As I read the writings of

Richard Rohr, I find that he often mentions his hermitages during the Lenten season.  I'm gathering that this is an annual practice for him, a time of withdrawal from ordinary life to focus on the Lord.  I don't really know what a hermitage is, so I'm inferring from context what it must mean.  A hermit is someone who lives alone, with little contact with others.  A hermitage must be a season in which one lives like a hermit, for the purpose of extended time in prayer and reflection.

I don't plan to be a hermit for 40 days, but I do want to make the Lenten season special.  I just read a link on Facebook that suggested writing a note to someone--an actual pen and paper note--every day during the season.  I like that idea.

I may also bring greater focus to my prayer for others, and my listening to the voice of God.  I've got the rest of the day to decide exactly what I will do during the season.  I certainly want to connect with Jesus.

Love and Suffering

I just finished Richard Rohr's book, The Naked Now.  Every time I read one of his books, I think, "This must be his magnum opus."  Again, I am blown away. 

I have discovered that my pattern of thinking, my perspective, the lenses through which I look at life are flawed.  Like everyone, I have inherited a mind tainted by the Fall in the Garden of Eden.  It takes, Rohr says, a lot to break through this flawed pattern thinking and feeling.  Normally we rock along in life, taking our cues from the world around us.

Generally only two kinds of life experiences can get people to step back and evaluate their lenses of life.  Those two experiences are deep love and great suffering.  Virtually anyone after a near-death experience gains a new, deeper appreciation for life.  Similarly, anyone deeply in love sees all of life differently.

If I want to see life more deeply, I need to suffer or love deeply.  Now it is foolish to court suffering.  Life naturally brings suffering anyway.  But I can choose to love.  I can love with abandon.  I can love with creativity.  I can love unconditionally.  I can love on purpose.

That's how I want to take my heart and mind to a new level.  The suffering will come too.  And that as well will take me deeper.