?The grace of God is awful to us because the proper response to evil is to fear it and desire its destruction, not to love it and desire its redemption…
David Blower?
Availability is about being open to life: to God and to others. It is to be open to those who cross my path, believing that there is good reason to give of myself, and receive from others, just because God loves us and gives us each other, even if only for a time.
Vulnerability relates to being honest and having integrity and openness about who I am—the good, the bad, and the ugly—and how I deal with myself in the context of my faith, but without an agenda for others. It is willingness to share the pain of others and to live in co-suffering love beside another simply because they are. It is to be a beggar alongside, and sharing my bread, as well as my brokenness. It is about being teachable, in every situation embracing the learning experience: what will God teach me through this?
Lives are often messy and complicated and throughout we are taught to put on a brave face, to project an image. With community we must be real; proximity to people breeds a knowledge of them. As a group committed to letting God work in our lives, we need be open to God working with and through others: we can be open (available) to the encouragement and direction of others and show the real us (vulnerable). There will be heartache and pain, but we never give up on each other. Instead we show God’s grace. It also means that we receive others’ needs and consider their circumstances.
Renovare
In addition to Sunday being Mothers Day, I will be celebrating my 75 birthday. It’s sort of anticlimactic since Ann turned 75 this past February. I kind of wished she would have experienced some sort of miraculous transformation that would have given me some high expectations for my birthday. But, alas, she awoke to 75 the same beautiful and loving person she was when 74. My best hope is that I will wake up Monday morning. (Lol)
So, what is special about being 75 years old?
- First of all it means that I have exceeded my life expectancy of 68 at the time I was born in 1942.
- I learned today that US males that reach 75, on average, have a life expectancy of 86.8 years. Good news since I’ve always consider myself above average.
- It means there is a good possibly that I will live to see all our grandchildren into adulthood. (Neyland and Turner may need to accelerate the maturation process a bit.)
- 75 seems to hold some special significance as an age milestone, much like 65, 50 and 40. I am prepared to accept all the rights and privileges (?) accorded my standing as a Diamond Jubilee celebrant.
- Being 75 brings a tightened sense of mortality. This a good thing. When you view life and events through a lens sharpened by an awareness of your mortality, it brings a greater appreciation for experiences, relationships and the ordinary ebb and flow of daily life that might otherwise pass unnoticed.
- Because of a cultural expectation that aging brings profound wisdom and insight, I can speak and act as if I possess those qualities whether I do or not. It is, however, a bit of a challenge to assume a wise looking countenance and speak in a deep and measured voice.
- Having a 75 year old wife. Her life expectancy, not to mention her love, is a comfort.
- Children and grandchildren.
What is not so special about being 75?
- Knee replacement
- Myriads of medications
- Sleeping with a C-pap
- Strokes
- Type 2 Diabetes
- Hearing loss
- Unwelcome visits of Uncle Ed
- Cataracts
- For a more complete list, watch the medication ads on TV for one day.
So, what is the very best thing about being 75… that I am!
There’s a wonderful Zen story that illustrates this teaching. A young seeker, keen to become the student of a certain master, is invited to an interview at the master’s house.
The student rambles on about all his spiritual experience, his past teachers, his insights and skills, and his pet philosophies. The master listens silently and begins to pour a cup of tea. He pours and pours, and when the cup is overflowing he keeps right on pouring. Eventually the student notices what’s going on and interrupts his monologue to say, “Stop pouring! The cup is full.”
The teacher says, “Yes, and so are you. How can I possibly teach you?”
Jean Vanier:
Community is the place where our limitations, our fears and our egotism are revealed to us. We discover our poverty and our weaknesses, our inability to get on with some people, our mental and emotional blocks, our affective and sexual disturbances, our seemingly insatiable desires, our frustrations and jealousies, our hatred and our wish to destroy. While we are alone, we could believe we loved everyone. Now that we are with others, living with them all the time, we realise how incapable we are of loving, how much we deny to others, how closed in on ourselves we are.