What is the difference between beliefs and values?  Some say that beliefs are ideas taken on trust, often when we are very young.  In fact some researchers say that our basic beliefs are formed by the time we are five years old.  If this is true then much of what we believe comes from those closest to us-family and friends.  And it comes at a time when we have very little in the way of life experience with which to test these ideas. We just accept and assimilate them.

Values, on the other hand, are those ideas that are shaped by our life experience.  Sometimes our beliefs and values are in harmony, and sometimes they are so disharmonious that we have to work really hard to reconcile them or we have to change them.  I certainly do not have the same beliefs now that I did in my twenties.  Things were far more black and white for me then, because I had less life experience to create all the shades of gray.   As I have gotten older many of the absolutes I held have given way to the reality that life is not so simple and neither is the human heart.
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Hope Lives On and Love Remains

While I studied clinical psychology, I spent most of my career in an administrative capacity. When I visit, when I talk with my friends who are counselors I sometimes miss those days when I was privileged to do the kind of work they do. And when I play Walter Mitty and think about being a clinician I think I would want to specialize. I think I would want to work with those who are struggling with losses.

It’s not hard to understand why. Because many of the most powerful experiences of my life have involved loss. I loss two loves as well as other family members. I loss a lot of my physical capacity and ability as my ankle deteriorated. I loss many of my illusions about life.

In these times of financial crisis and uncertainty loss is very much in the picture. People are loosing jobs, loosing homes, loosing savings.

Over these last couple of weeks I’ve talked with several friends who have experienced financial losses akin to those experienced by my parents in the great depression. People who have had their life savings wiped out, people who are moving out of their homes as they are being foreclosed on, people loosing their jobs, people who are loosing the sense of knowing where life is taking them.

If we pay attention to it loss is always in the air. It’s always right around us touching our lives and the lives of people we know and love. And now with all of this financial upheaval the reality of loss is hitting home with greater visibility.
Because you are here you already know something about the importance of the spiritual dimension of life. You already know that the spiritual dimension is just as important as every other dimension of life. It’s just as important as the physical dimension of life. And you know that no one can do well in life without spiritual strength.
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Reflection:
This summer I experienced another “sitting on the edge of my seat” moment. In fact, I’m sure many of you were experiencing the same thing, night after night for several weeks, as we watched the Summer Olympics in Beijing. How could you not want to watch Michael Phelps attempt to win 8 gold medals? Wasn’t he amazing? Each night I was captivated by these athletes and astounded at what they were able to accomplish.

Aside from the medal winning moments, however, it was the personal stories of the athletes themselves that really captured my attention and inspired today’s service. After listening to several of their stories, it was clear to me that these athletes were not just on a physical journey, they were and are, just like all of us, on spiritual journeys. And it’s these spiritual journeys I want to speak about this morning, because although we may not be Olympic athletes, their journeys are, at their heart, no different from yours and mine. We all share in the same human experience and so by telling their stories, I hope that you can recognize a part of your own story.
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