Am I enlightened?

This is my long answer to a high school friend who asked if I "was always enlightened or was it a product of adulthood?" He's an airline pilot now, which is one career I could never fathom.

I always went to church, and always had lots of questions about creation, science, God, etc, but in Maryville, it's easy to hide who you are behind what is expected. In high school, everyone is trying to feel accepted, and very few folks are true to themselves so that they can fit in with some crowd or clique. It's group think. Our college age years are when we really find our footing as individuals. When I left Maryville, I left. I never expected to be back in East Tennessee. I studied Church Music in Illinois, got married, lived in Europe, came back to DC, went to seminary, and eventually came back "home" to serve as a United Methodist pastor.

Folks at my home church, (1st UMC - Maryville) never seem surprised by my vocation, because they saw that side of me. The band geeks/ chess club crowd never did, because it wasn't part of that group's mindset. I wanted to fit in, so I hid that part of who I am. Nobody in Maryville knew how much I enjoyed D&D, Magic: The Gathering, and LOTRs. Come to think of it, most of my church members don't know that either!

I think what happens as we grow is we become more comfortable in blending together our different personality aspects - our likes, dislikes, proclivities, and gifts - into a unique image of our true self. Most of us have tried a couple of different phases, and now we are ready to just be ourselves.

I don't think of myself as "enlightened," but I deal with spiritual issues every day. My life centers around helping people understand life, death, our world, our connection to each other, and, from my perspective, our connection to the Divine. I just came in the door from burying a 89-year-old man who was a huge piece of welcoming me and my family into the local community. Life and death and suffering and joy and the meaning of it all is just part of what I do, as surely as flying several tons of metal 5 miles in the air is part of your life. I'm very blessed to do something I love and that I'm pretty good at as a living. It seems that we have a good amount in common in that aspect of our lives.

So in a longer answer to a long question... I don't know. I don't think I've changed that much, but it's been a twenty year journey. Lots of little steps over two decades moves you a long way in life. I guess I'm like Bilbo Baggins, and my feet got away from me!

Sometimes, I hear about our friends from school and think the same thing: Wow! Look at that: Two members of Disciple were in the Jazz band with me; the owner of the largest Chevy dealers in the South was in my youth group; my ex-girlfriend (and yours) has her own freakin' lab full of biophysicists! What is biophysics!?!

If you think I've changed, look up Shane Claiborne! Shane was part of the Young Republicans, and now is a national leading voice in advocacy for the poor. He found out who he really was, and has lived into that person. Some of us are lucky enough to figure that out in High School, some in college, and some folks wrestle with it for most of their lives. I'm just feeling a lot more comfortable with that now than I ever did in school.

Oh, and thanks. Calling as pastor "enlightened" is probably equivalent to calling a pilot "level-headed." It's makes my ego feel good! But I'm not really. I'm just plugging along on my journey, and making notes along the way to anyone who might be interested. I'm always surprised when someone actually is!

Rapturous?

Just a thought for today: Eschatological escapism allows you to dodge the obligation to love your neighbor, avoid your created purpose to care for creation, and deny your fear of dying into new life.

Saint Nicholas versus Santa Claus

Discover the difference between a imprisoned saint and a commercial juggernaut.

Go to the Saint Nicholas Center page of between now and December 25th.

As a teaser, find out why he was thrown into jail for slapping someone at the Council of Nicaea.

Keeping the X in Christmas

Just for reference for hypersensitive Christians: the "X" in Xmas is actually the Greek letter "chi." It's the first letter of Christ in Greek, and has been used as an monogram for Jesus for well over a millennium.

If you check out a Chrismon tree, you'll probably see several on there, as well as on paraments, vestments, stone carvings, chancel furniture, ancient cathedrals, and some 6th century tombstones.