Today I make my conscious decision to remain "young" - I realize that I have begun preparing to be a sagging, failing, penny-pinching, lonely, forgetful-unto-dementia, hag. I do not choose that. I choose the way of the Lord...loving and laughing within and without, whatever comes. I picture naught but me showering love and laughter...because I choose it. Thank you.
Then I read the following and whoa! That is the message...entirely. It is an extract from Barbara Brown Taylor, an author and Episcopal priest, who wrote of her spiritual journey in her book Leaving Church:
,,,finders will be losers while those who lose their lives for his sake will wind up finding them again. [Matthew 16:25]
In Greek the word is psyche, meaning not only “life” but also the conscious self, the personality, the soul. You do not have to die in order to discover the truth of this teaching, in other words. You only need to lose track of who you are, or who you thought you were supposed to be, so that you end up lying flat on the dirt floor basement of your heart. Do this, Jesus says, and you will live. [My emphasis.]
* * *
Committing myself to the task of becoming fully human is saving my life now. This is not the same as the job of being human, which came with my birth certificate. To become fully human is something extra, a conscious choice that not everyone makes. Based on my limited wisdom and experience, there is more than one way to do this. If I were a Buddhist, I might do it by taking the bodhisattva vow, and if I were a Jew, I might do it by following Torah. Because I am a Christian, I do it by imitating Christ. . . .
And that, great get-up-and-shout-morning, is exactly what I prayed my thank you for earlier...specifically: I choose the way of the Lord...loving and laughing within and without, whatever comes.
Ah, don't tell me God doesn't have my back.
Thank you.
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