I've gone a long stretch--since before Christmas, really--of missing weekend time off. When I say "time off," I, the classic introvert, mean "time when I don't have to be with people or go to any appointments or events." I enjoy the holidays in spite of their lack of solitude because my family is easy to be with and I can almost completely relax on those visits. Just almost.
The holidays fill all spare time with preparation for the cooking and the eating and the shopping and gifting, and I have learned to do so much but no more. I expect those lost weekends and evenings.
But someone close to us was in the hospital over the holiday, and I will write more about this at another time. But after the New Year, matters worsened. During the last weekend of January, she died, and the first weekend of February we buried her. Of course I would not have been any place else in the world than at the hospital and the church and the cemetery.
Then freelance projects ran late; if you are a freelance writer or freelance anything, perhaps you understand that it is impossible to relax completely when deadlines are looming and especially when they are past due.
Then speaking engagements, it seems they came every other weekend. I enjoy those events and hope to keep helping others do their writing workshops or their prayer retreats. But to fly to another state and be on task and surrounded by people for one or two days, and then have to deal with flights and connecting flights to arrive home Sunday afternoon or evening . . .
Suddenly it is spring, and this past weekend was the first that felt like a weekend in a long time. I allowed myself to sleep a bit longer. The pets and I went outdoors for awhile because the sun was out and the temperature not warm but getting warmer.
Still I face lists of undone tasks and at least half of them should have been accomplished but aren't. The weekend zipped by and left me feeling pitiful and a bit resentful.
Then I remembered that so many people never have weekends. They work two or three jobs or they live in a country or situation that never lets up on its demands. They don't get weekends, and their weekdays are a lot longer than mine. They go months without feeling rested; some of them probably go years without feeling rested and relaxed.
When I consider how cranky I become when I miss a weekend, when I think of how, lacking that rest, I go into the workday without my best energy and go into my problems and trials with depleted resources, when I consider how the absence of rest and true relaxation compromise me on so many levels, it helps me understand a little bit better why there is so much rage in the world.
When people are weary and see no end in sight, they find it easy to despair, to resent those who have what they do not, to drag through their days half-heartedly and anxiously. When people are weary, the whole world changes for them, and not in a good way.
God, please help us give to one another the means to sit down, be quiet, take some deep breaths, feel relief, sleep an hour longer, do less, and hope more.
Monday, March 23, 2015
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Faith's Shadow Side
I read a long article in the Atlantic recently, about what ISIS really is about. If you're interested, here's the link: http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/
It took awhile to read, and probably I will read it again because, as a Christian, it's important for me to struggle at understanding this. The writer makes a good case for saying that ISIS is in fact rooted in Islam, and its motives are not just political but quite religious. This organization does not represent most practicing Muslims, but its philosophy--and yes, there is a philosophy here--relies on a certain interpretation of certain passages of the Quran.
Does this sound familiar, Christians? Members of ISIS believe that the time has come for the world to return to a state in which the caliph rules, and this rule includes vanquishing the enemies of the Prophet. This rule would take the world back to an earlier time and a system of law as it was in the days of Muhammad.
Again, I ask, does this sound familiar? How often do I hear certain Christians who speak as if what they really want is for the whole world to revert to Old Testament law? In their loyalty to, say, the demands found in the book of Leviticus, they support capital punishment and oppress homosexuals. They try to keep women in their proper place. For some reason, they don't try to go out and buy slaves. And, unlike ISIS followers who are trying to fulfill a very similar kind of system, they don't seem to condone cutting off the hands of thieves. Selective reading, I guess.
It gets even scarier. Christians who are rooting for a "back to the O. T. basics" sort of faith are generally the same people who pledge their support to Israel regardless of how its government behaves. They are waiting for a literal fulfillment of history as found in the book of Revelation. In fact, they long for the Apocalypse because it will bring Jesus back in triumphant glory. It's quite interesting when we try to shape the world--and foreign policy--to fulfill to the letter not only ancient law but also a highly symbolic mystical vision.
ISIS longs for the Apocalypse because it will bring back the rule of the Prophet once for all. In fact, Jesus will help the prophet in this final, horrible cleansing and reaping of the world.
This is a shadow side of religion, and it's dangerous no matter whose religion we're talking about. When believers focus on a few sacred texts and ignore the rest, when they refuse to listen to the counsel of those who disagree with their interpretation, when they decide that God is on their side and only their side, and when they believe that the real answer is to kill off all their opponents--well, what should we expect?
We Christians should read our Bibles thoroughly on a regular basis. We should know what passages we are choosing to follow--and acknowledge the ones we conveniently ignore. We need to wrestle with the difficult words until we understand how they express the heart of our faith. Ignorance and denial will not help us. And digging in our heels will only make things worse.
As a follower of Jesus, I understand that he said some very weird things, and he made some statements I may never understand. But the heart of his message is that we are to love God and our neighbor. Everything else must be measured against that standard. Otherwise, I might swerve off into some shadowy place in which my faith warps into something else and I end up hurting others. When belief is not tempered by love, anything can happen.
It took awhile to read, and probably I will read it again because, as a Christian, it's important for me to struggle at understanding this. The writer makes a good case for saying that ISIS is in fact rooted in Islam, and its motives are not just political but quite religious. This organization does not represent most practicing Muslims, but its philosophy--and yes, there is a philosophy here--relies on a certain interpretation of certain passages of the Quran.
Does this sound familiar, Christians? Members of ISIS believe that the time has come for the world to return to a state in which the caliph rules, and this rule includes vanquishing the enemies of the Prophet. This rule would take the world back to an earlier time and a system of law as it was in the days of Muhammad.
Again, I ask, does this sound familiar? How often do I hear certain Christians who speak as if what they really want is for the whole world to revert to Old Testament law? In their loyalty to, say, the demands found in the book of Leviticus, they support capital punishment and oppress homosexuals. They try to keep women in their proper place. For some reason, they don't try to go out and buy slaves. And, unlike ISIS followers who are trying to fulfill a very similar kind of system, they don't seem to condone cutting off the hands of thieves. Selective reading, I guess.
It gets even scarier. Christians who are rooting for a "back to the O. T. basics" sort of faith are generally the same people who pledge their support to Israel regardless of how its government behaves. They are waiting for a literal fulfillment of history as found in the book of Revelation. In fact, they long for the Apocalypse because it will bring Jesus back in triumphant glory. It's quite interesting when we try to shape the world--and foreign policy--to fulfill to the letter not only ancient law but also a highly symbolic mystical vision.
ISIS longs for the Apocalypse because it will bring back the rule of the Prophet once for all. In fact, Jesus will help the prophet in this final, horrible cleansing and reaping of the world.
This is a shadow side of religion, and it's dangerous no matter whose religion we're talking about. When believers focus on a few sacred texts and ignore the rest, when they refuse to listen to the counsel of those who disagree with their interpretation, when they decide that God is on their side and only their side, and when they believe that the real answer is to kill off all their opponents--well, what should we expect?
We Christians should read our Bibles thoroughly on a regular basis. We should know what passages we are choosing to follow--and acknowledge the ones we conveniently ignore. We need to wrestle with the difficult words until we understand how they express the heart of our faith. Ignorance and denial will not help us. And digging in our heels will only make things worse.
As a follower of Jesus, I understand that he said some very weird things, and he made some statements I may never understand. But the heart of his message is that we are to love God and our neighbor. Everything else must be measured against that standard. Otherwise, I might swerve off into some shadowy place in which my faith warps into something else and I end up hurting others. When belief is not tempered by love, anything can happen.
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