SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

There’s nothing worse than being both lost and disoriented. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced that frightening duo but high on the list of things that simply do not go well together have to be the experience of both being lost and disoriented. And if you think about adding another dimension that just makes being lost and disoriented even worse it would be not knowing where the destination is. Not knowing where you are and not knowing where you are going and which direction takes you there, that’s big time lost.

In my view spirituality is all about dealing with this dimension of orientation. Where are we? Where are we going? And what’s the direction to get there?
I recently visited with a dear friend who like all those diagnosed with a terminal illness is living out notice of his last days, months, years. While he has always been a wise man, I find his wisdom bears an added measure of worth as he tacks into the wind of this ultimate challenge. More often now I find pearls in what he says.

We were talking about the mystery of life, this reality, this consciousness that we are caught up in. And he said, “Life, our circumstance, being caught up in life is so mysterious, so vast. Nobody can possibly say they have it figured out, that they have the answer. Nobody knows. So you shouldn’t adopt anyone’s views or what anyone says about the mystery of life. And that includes me and what I have just said.”
I found what my friend said a beautiful word picture, an almost poetic expression of the vastness of this mystery.
We are all caught up in this great mystery, coping with it as best we can. I suppose that one thing all of us have in common is that in our coping we tend to rely on what works for us. All of us have ways of coping with the mystery of life, those that tend to not only help us cope with this predicament of being caught up in this mystery, but those that also consistently help us find joy in being with life. And these are the ways of coping that we strive to rely on more of the time.

I have a special horse. My friends occasionally receive copies of emails between me and this horse. His name is Shadow. Shadow is a horse with issues. His emotional set would best be described as a combination of fear and pride. He is so bold and proud, holds his head up high and literally struts. At the same time he is basically fearful. As they say in the south, Shadow is constantly looking for buggers. And when he thinks he sees one, he jumps, usually right in place.

Shadow is a good soul. As someone once said of him, “He don’t mean no harm.”

So in an email to Shadow, I asked him why he was so hyper- vigilant, always looking for buggers. To which he responded, “Well, let me answer your question with a question. Has a bugger ever got me?” I answered, “Of course not.” “Well then,” Shadow said, “why mess with what’s working so well.”
Like Shadow, most of find what works for us in the face of finding ourselves with life and we tend to stick with it. We discover ways to find ourselves. And to the degree that these ways work, we avoid the dreaded feelings of being lost and disoriented with no destination in mind.
For me, the way I deal with what William Bendix in his role of Riley in the “Life of Riley”, called “this revolting development” the way I deal with this potentially revolting development; the way I try to make this mystery a wonderful development is through getting in touch with and nourishing my spirituality.
One of the things my spiritual journey has taught me is that while we have for sure been dropped squarely into an incredible mystery; while being with life lends itself big time to getting lost and disoriented; all around us in this strange and unfathomable reality that we share are signs, breadcrumbs, clues and hints, both subtle and not so subtle as to where we are, where we are going and how to get there.
Like probably some of you, I have recently discovered the word puzzles that are becoming the rage, sudoko, I think, they are called. I find the very simpliest of these puzzles mentally challenging and most I give up on. But I keep trying them. I think one of the reasons we are drawn to puzzles is that we are caught up in, our very existence is, a puzzle. Struggling with the suduko puzzles, I always wish that the author had included a few clues.
Well the Author of the big mystery, life, hasn’t left us here without clues, hasn’t left us here alone. The Giver of life is not a cosmic practical joker, toying with us. God, who authored this mystery and all of us, by design, joined us with the mystery, I believe, because the mystery is good and it’s Author wanted to share it with us.

And She shares it with us complete with all kinds of clues as to how to accept it and make a gift of it.
The clues are all around, in nature, in each other, in how we express ourselves with art and music. The clues, the road signs are everywhere. They tell us a great deal about where we are, about where we are going and about how to get there. They tell us we are in a good place and that its goodness is expressed in part by its vastness. It’s bigger than we are. Our best, our biggest capacities to see and understand can’t begin to embrace its vastness. But it is good and we need not fear that we find ourselves with this mysterious life.

The signs tell us where we are and suggest that where we are going is to a place of harmony with this vastness. Our destination is to become one with the best that is, to join with and add to the beauty of creation; to play harmonious tones, not to sound sour notes. That’s where we are going and there are lots of venues that can be used to join with the harmony of the Universe.

We can be kind, loving, forgiving, helpful, mindful, offer our best, be at a high level the creation, the animal the Source of the mystery made us to be and we can do this being a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a clerk, a doorman, a friend a neighbor and a host of other things. We can go there, we can go to harmony, our destination, no matter the roles we play.

Not only did the Creator leave us signs about who we are and where we are going, She also left us some of those wonderful “how to do it” signs. God has left wonderful clues all around. One of them is what I want to invite you to reconsider this morning. It has to be a very important clue to doing well with life. It has to be a highly important road sign simply, if for no other reason, simply by the fact that it is everywhere. You can hardly move about in stores or shop on the internet without seeing this road sign, this clue to living well that God has given us. You see it everywhere. It’s the sign that reads, SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED.

All of the great wonders that are available to us through life and love don’t come our way just because we are; just because we fall into life and love; not even just because we find a lovely person as a friend.

They come our way only as we participate with God in the completion of our creation and the completion of the love stories She helps us find and begin.

Like my son’s wonderful new desk with all it’s levels, nooks and crannies, life kind of comes to us in a flat Ikea like box with a label “Some Assembly Required.” It only becomes wonderful with our participation. God made you and I to be co-creators of our lives. God starts the process and offers us meaning and joy through the process of participating in our creation.

God starts it all but leaves to us the great opportunity to take our creation to its wonderful limits. God is like some awesome musician in a blue grass band who after a playing a super hot lick, turns to us and says, “Take it Paul. Take it Joanne. Take it Jerry. Take it Michele.” God starts the tune, sets a great beat, gets us up on the stage, gives us the best instruments and leaves to us what we will do with the opportunity of a life time.

We can join in with the sweet rocking harmony of the universe or not. It’s up to us. We have, all of us, everything we need to rock and roll and make sweet music. But remember, there is some assembly required.
I really believe that our happiness, our joy, has less to do with our individual circumstances and capabilities. I think it has a lot more to do with making the most of our circumstances and stretching so that we realize our capabilities and live near the top of our potential. That’s how we find joy.
All of us vary in both capacity or potential and joy but the variance in the amount of joy we find isn’t accounted for by our individual capabilities. I think it’s accounted for by the degree to which we live up to our capabilities, the degree to which we do our best, do our part in this ongoing continuation of our creation. Taking seriously that some assembly is required is crucial to living well.
God leaves with us a lot of latitude in this matter of our creation. It’s for us to discover, what gifts are on board. It’s for us to find out what we can do. It’s for us to take care of our bodies, the vessel housing our consciousness. God will let us take our bodies our fitness to its potential and treasure them like the prized possessions they are and She will let us tear them down, abuse them and create unnecessary problems that can distract us from the challenge and opportunity of creation.

A psychiatrist I once met has a sign in his waiting room that reads, “First Be A Good Animal.” He would say to his patients, “How can I help you if you don’t take care of what is mediating all of your moods, feelings and sense of well-being. So first, take care of your body. First be a good animal.” Some assembly is required.

Remember that outside of the charitable attention you attract to yourself, the rest of the interest and goodness others bring to you comes because you are living well. It comes to you because you have recognized and acted on the possibility of being lovely. Charity is good. Thank God for charity and kindness. I am thankful for the many kind acts others have extended me. But thank God also for our loveliness and for all the good that comes our way because we are lovely. We are here in this place right now because we find lovely people here and we like what happens when loveliness gathers and mixes it up.

Some assembly required reminds us that it is up to us to capture and maintain our loveliness. Loveliness is a key that unlocks a great deal of peace and joy.

I always imagine as I pray that God hears my prayers and immediately puts together an implementation team to address my petition. I always see God including me on that team and sometimes see Him putting just me on the implementation team, turning over the whole matter of answering my prayer to me with the divine confidence that I am well-equipped to handle the job.

Like my friend said, no one has THE answer. Certainly I don’t. I love the tradition here of sharing our lives, our journeys. So, in that spirit, I don’t offer answers for you, just observations from my journey. From my experience reaching high levels of spiritual wellness seems to require discovering who we are and striving and succeeding at living near our peak potential on all the dimensions of self, physical, intellectual, emotional, that we discover about ourselves.

What’s convinced me of this have been the countless individuals I’ve known whose lives have been challenged, whether, by illness, injury, pain, suffering, poverty, adversity or another challenge. Over and over I have seen such individuals continue the wonderful process of their creation, continue to discover who they are and grow ever closer to their marvelous capacity. I got to see this up close and personally with Lynn and Cathy. They and others have reminded of the opportunity to live in kind with them as I embrace the reality of challenges in my life.

I often think of the story my friend Harvey Minchew tells about the ceremony they had in Georgia many years ago when the law had changed and the form of capital punishment was changed from hanging to the electric chair. Supposedly they had a little ceremony to commemorate the last hanging and someone thought to ask the man being hanged if he’d like to say a few words. I often think of the words he was reported to have said, “Except for the honor of this I’d just as soon not be here.”

Except for the “honor” of it we’d just as soon as not have a lot of things that challenge us. But the good news from observations from my journey, is that these challenges don’t have to limit our getting to the destination of peace and harmony. They may even be appropriated for the good of ourselves and others.

Disorientation is a dreaded condition. The greatest fear I’ve ever seen in another was the day Lynn’s cancer invaded her spinal fluid and she lost touch with who she was, where she was and who all the people around her were. It was a picture of how dreadful being disoriented is. Her doctor quickly alleviated her pain and she asked him to please help her never experience that feeling again.

Isn’t that our deepest fear? Isn’t that what we want to avoid at all cost? And isn’t our deepest yearning to be oriented not to just time and place like the doctor wants to see. It’s this mystery we call life that we want to know about, be oriented to. Within it we want to know who we are, where we are going and how to get there.

Read the clues, the tea leaves, the road signs. And pay particularly close attention to that one that reads, “SOME ASEMBLY REQUIRED.”

That’s just the deal and we can’t change it and couldn’t possibly improve on it if we could change it. We can accept it or reject it. We don’t get to make the rules. Just remember when the show is over and the credits role after your journey, after the creation of you is completed, it’ll be a co-authored work of art. God and you, co-authors of the life called yours.

So buckle on the tool belt and get those parts together and keep on turning that flat box into a wonderful work of art.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 and is filed under Life- Assembly Required. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.