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As I read through various blog posts on Friday, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Pope Francis had done a TED Talk? No way!
But, he had. For those of you who have missed out on these talks, TED stands for Technology, Engineering and Design. Thus the first talks were all pretty techy and many of them still are. But the people behind TED have branched out with talks on creativity and writing and how people see each other.
This past Tuesday, the Pope addressed the TED conference which this time around had the theme “The Future You.” In working within this, he addressed the power that each “you,” each individual in this world has to make change.
Francis discussed how deeply interconnected we are and how this connectivity works. To truly connect, and I’m paraphrasing all of this because he spoke in Italian which was translated, equality and solidarity have to be the goal.
And not just the goal on Sunday. Or when we are doing churchy or charitable things. Equality and solidarity have to be the goal of politics, of economics and even of science. This means, according to Pope Francis, going beyond our culture of waste in which it is okay for certain people, individuals and groups, to be cast aside. People, he reminded listeners, are not statistics. They are not numbers. It isn’t enough for us to have good intentions and talk about social justice. We have to get out there and make it happen like the Good Samaritan or Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Like them, we need to be individual candles in a world of conflict.
In doing, we will create hope. Where one of us is there can be hope. Where many of us are, there can be revolution.
That said, he calls on us to create a revolution of tenderness. This needs to be a revolution of tenderness to hear and see the hopeless and those who are crying out, to hear and see the damage being done to our Earthly home, It means to use our hearts and our hands to take action.
A revolution of tenderness.
Wow.
Just wow.
–SueBE
Yesterday was a crummy day. Fortunately, Tuesday was wonderful — chock-full of blessings and outright miracles. That’s the way life is sometimes. Pondering Tuesday’s beneficence, I keep thinking, “I didn’t deserve all that.” But isn’t that the point? Grace is unearned. God bestows it freely, even lavishly. All this generosity got me thinking about God’s love for each of us. It’s a little overwhelming. And there is no “why” or “because” about it. It just is. Here are some loose, unrefined thoughts on the matter:
Someone has a crush on you and it’s God.
Someone gave you a candy heart that said
LOVE YOU and meant it and it was God.
Someone sends ridiculous declarations,
love songs on the radio,
twenty dozen long-stemmed roses,
chocolates hand-dipped by blind monks,
a stuffed plush bear the size of a Volkswagen.
And it’s God.
God says you get a car and you and you and you
and they’re all dream cars even if yours is a Mercedes
and mine is a Porsche.
Someone swoons over you, knees knocking, heart
ticking quick as a metronome at full speed,
chest so tight breath barely breaks,
and it’s God.
To God, you are marvelous. Amazing. A wonder.
A sonnet with legs and arms and a face.
God will never get over you.
You might as well sign for the package;
take it in your hands. Guess its worth.
You will always come up short.
Dad always used to tease me (and still does) because I always ask “why?” I had one friend who was kicked out of Sunday school for asking questions? Fortunately, our pastor welcomed it and used to sit down and talk to the kids when we questioned things.
The Lord is the shade at your right hand.
Psalm 121:5
In the heavens, God has pitched a tent for the sun.
Psalm 19:4
There’s been talk of potential life in outer space.
Life at the deepest levels of the sea.
But there’s another plane of life that seems the most mysterious, and that is the life-force in inner space, or the soul.
There’s a trend lately called “Hygge” which is the Danish notion of cozy conviviality. It’s a way of infusing life with comforts that make you feel at home wherever you are.
I’ve done that in the corner of my kitchen, putting a tiny l
amp and candle onto a table so small, it’s not even big enough for a plate! I perch my coffee mug with its jaunty lid there, look out at the colorful flowers in the yard, and feel a sense of peace.
It made me wonder if there is such a thing as “Hygge for the Soul.”
Where do you feel most at home? Most yourself? For many of us, it involves looking at the beauty of nature in some way.
Of course, God created nature, not just as an adjunct to serve the needs of mankind – he also tends to nature as he takes care of us.
Pitching a tent for the sun has got to be like a production of Cirque du Soleil, on a universal scale!
Now, when he sculpted the sun, he made it capable of providing both wonderful warmth and searing sunburns.
When he crafted shade, he made it capable of providing relief from the heat and also clandestine cover for shady business.
The same one who created the gentle spring breeze also made hurricanes. It seems to me that in every powerful thing that can cause both life and destruction, God created a relief valve.
Just as there’s an eye in the middle of storms, it’s possible to find moments of repose, right where you are. It might be just a square foot of space in the corner of your kitchen, but now, it’s your own sacred sanctuary.
What do you practice?
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