HELLO!

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest." Matthew 11:28 (The Message) As a minister, one of my primary concerns is to care for those who God has placed in my life, to see to the long-term wellbeing of these precious people. My calling is not to change them, but to create an environment reminding them of their value, their freedom, how much they are loved. In such an environment, we are free to explore within ourselves, and if we choose, with God, areas of transformation we deem desirable. Should we see areas of transformation we will celebrate. Should they or we choose to delay addressing issues or decide not to at all, love remains and is not diminished. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not demand its own way. Love is life-giving. Love is attractive and inviting. Love means choices, but none of us are perfect or without flaws. Humility and self-awareness are necessary means of listening, ministry and communal transformation.

God entices us through love. Most of us were taught that God would love us if, and when we change. In fact, God loves us so we can change. What empowers change, what makes us desirous of change, is the experience of love. It is that inherent experience of love that becomes the engine of change. Whatever life is inviting you into, you have this sense that it is okay and, even better, and that you can do it! Now you don’t have to do it by the world’s criteria of success or performance. As Mother Teresa loved to say, “The only real success is faithfulness.” To be faithful to this inner love is in itself the greatest success. It is of itself the major possibility. No outer successes are necessary to be happy.

Richard Rohr says, as we keep receiving the love and trusting the love, we are giving ourselves permission to be who we really are, being made in our own way the image and likeness of God. In our daily life, interacting with various people, situations and circumstances may cause us to feel disconnected with our true self, causing us to be conscious of our own limitations or differences, as people tend to treat us based on who we are based on worldly standards, not on being children of a living God.

As I often say at funerals, when the circumstances and the dynamics of relationships are challenging, even broken, “what this is all about is…love”. That does not negate caring for ourselves when others are so broken they are inflicting pain. We are not responsible to fix everyone’s challenges, to mend all brokenness. God will provide other healers for other people, those we cannot reach. But there are some whom we can walk with, in solidarity, in community, with humility and truth telling. And they for us. It is a mutual relationship. That is why I cringe when I hear people say, “THEY require difficult conversations” as if it is always THEM that need transformation, not us. Just once I would love to hear someone admit they needed such “hard” conversations, truth telling.

We are all in this together. As one-year ends, another begins. We try.

Peace, Kevin

PS I am attaching a picture Barry Zwicker took yesterday getting as he rose in the morning in Rossland, BC facing east to the rising sun. It’s a reminder how love and beauty surround us, follow us, wherever we go.