The answer is yes, in fact, avocados and pain have something to do with each other. Why is it do you think that in the darkest of moments, life is intercepted by some of the most glorious and beautiful things? Well, good, I don't have the answer either. But, hear me out for a second. There is a terribly tragic occurrence happening to a dear friend and community member and his family right now. The thing is...this tragedy is deflected by so many glimpses of whole beauty.
While our friend lies in a hospital bed, responding to chemo, the sun still rises. The earth is still brought from complete darkness to light, with a billion shades of loveliness in between. The days where the skyline is covered in leftover clouds from the night before, day comes amongst shades of dark blue, and saucy yellows and oranges, and sometimes even fire-blazing red. As I run, there is no escaping the question of why I am fully capable and allowed to experience the swiftest moments of beauty which make life so rich...while someone so close is battling for life.
I pitted an avocado for dinner last night, grilled it, then filled it with mango green chili salsa. Spooning into it, I discovered something: a shade of green that I'd never seen...like the first spring grass, and don't think could be replicated. The shade and richness of the flavor of the avocado came in a moment that could not be replaced...it simply existed in its beauty and happened to be so full of flavor that it is something that can be described as rare and exclusive. I sat there wondering why I continue to treat life with stagnancy and lack of passion when such colors and shades of green and blue and yellow and sunburst orange exist. It was a small reminder that life is so rich. It is not a bland, single-dimensioned gift we just happened to land into and are required to suffer through until the end.
Again I woke up and watched the sun rise over the mountains today, I thought things are coming full circle. And the circle doesn't seem to end. Enjoy your life today for what it is and squelch out every other distraction. Our friend is covered in hospital blankets, with his eyes closed. But the sun rose and the ground is holy because of who made it. He walks amongst us bringing light and life to those of us with our eyes closed.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
What it all means
I never really believed I would ever finish a marathon, which made the actual experience of completing it pretty supernatural. I remember a year ago, going for a short 3-mile run and envisioning the feeling of finishing a marathon...it overtook me. I pictured moving past all those things that held me in chains: the feeling of being unsuccessful, insufficient, unworthy, guilty, faulty and flawed...running was a way out. Which is perhaps the reason I feel closest to my Creator and King when I am running. To me, it is symbolic of the change I experience when I remember I am redeemed; free from debt and the sentence to isolation. Running means I am covered. Drenched. Lavished upon with the love of the God of the universe. It reminds me of what it will be like one day to experience complete bliss. The aroma of the morning air lifting off the ground, and the sight of the sunrise setting the world ablaze are only a snapshot of what are to come.
Running the race meant a celebration of the many miles spurred on by only the pain I feel for my students who go home to violence after school; it meant being stronger than an abusive high school running coach; it was the acknowledgment that my gain is nothing of my own, but that I am allowed it; it meant rejoicing that I am slave to the King, not a captive of darkness.
I've realized running is a two-way cycle. An aching in my bones to release energy, and in exchange receive life and breath. I get crazy pictures in my head of nation after nation bowing before the Lord one day, of drug addicts and assassins and traitors and deceivers and slaves and run-aways being released from their shackles and falling prostrate, facing something so beautiful it can hardly be looked at. I imagine a King riding in on his horse and ripping free the women who are stuck in sex slavery. I imagine a God of vengeance who will come one day and break the chains we are all tied to. Every single one; broken.
So for this I will keep running: because I was given legs and because I can run when others cannot, I will. Bones to skin, sweat to ground, breath out, life in. Let's go.
Running the race meant a celebration of the many miles spurred on by only the pain I feel for my students who go home to violence after school; it meant being stronger than an abusive high school running coach; it was the acknowledgment that my gain is nothing of my own, but that I am allowed it; it meant rejoicing that I am slave to the King, not a captive of darkness.
I've realized running is a two-way cycle. An aching in my bones to release energy, and in exchange receive life and breath. I get crazy pictures in my head of nation after nation bowing before the Lord one day, of drug addicts and assassins and traitors and deceivers and slaves and run-aways being released from their shackles and falling prostrate, facing something so beautiful it can hardly be looked at. I imagine a King riding in on his horse and ripping free the women who are stuck in sex slavery. I imagine a God of vengeance who will come one day and break the chains we are all tied to. Every single one; broken.
So for this I will keep running: because I was given legs and because I can run when others cannot, I will. Bones to skin, sweat to ground, breath out, life in. Let's go.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Body
Have you ever thought about why certain words carry certain meaning? Like, why is the human body called 'body'? And why do women use 'body' to describe a great feature of their hair? The word 'body' means that life is carried within it; it means to be full of something. Normally, people run to energize for the day, or to gain energy after a long day. However, there comes a point when after too much running, the body does not have energy, nor seeks to gain any from further running. After much battling and physical and emotional fatigue this week, it occurred to me that no matter how hard I fought it, I had a body...and my body naturally wants to be filled with life and air and energy which was being continually suffocated from its natural desire.
I stand between a rock and a hard place knowing that there are essentially two choices in life: to use my body as a weapon against the lies in my head, or...use it as a cannon... [No pun intended] to propel me through life. I could use my legs as the very way to see the world...stopping by places and thoughts that need attention and positive regard, or...use my legs to condemn and feed the negativity that pervades the mind and soul.
I watched the sun set and the sun rise in the last 24 hours, and as I watched the earth turn over from night to day, and watched the sun set fire to the darkness and then rekindle in the morning, it became evident that the earth too has body. It needs energy and life and air to fuel the day. And so, the choice remains that I can work with the rise and set of the sun and be reminded of what propels the night to day and ask for that same thing to fuel my legs and send me forth through the day...
I stand between a rock and a hard place knowing that there are essentially two choices in life: to use my body as a weapon against the lies in my head, or...use it as a cannon... [No pun intended] to propel me through life. I could use my legs as the very way to see the world...stopping by places and thoughts that need attention and positive regard, or...use my legs to condemn and feed the negativity that pervades the mind and soul.
I watched the sun set and the sun rise in the last 24 hours, and as I watched the earth turn over from night to day, and watched the sun set fire to the darkness and then rekindle in the morning, it became evident that the earth too has body. It needs energy and life and air to fuel the day. And so, the choice remains that I can work with the rise and set of the sun and be reminded of what propels the night to day and ask for that same thing to fuel my legs and send me forth through the day...
Friday, October 15, 2010
Foundation
Odd question: Who loves being in the mountains? Some of you know I LOVE to run; but more than exploring the great city of Phoenix by foot, running in the mountains on a fall morning takes the place of almost anything.The funny thing is...when I run in the mountains I am reminded that the run is not about what I can do or how far I can go but about standing on unshakable ground. I stand at the bottom of the food chain of the world. No matter what I'm dealing with in life, something made that mountain stand still, and the same thing that gives stillness to that mountain can surely give it to me. If I hunger and cry out for that solitude, I expect that it will come.
When you look at a mountain you probably don't think of it as something weak or unstable. They are composed of millions of tons of rock and sediment and mineral. There is something huge and unexplainable about spending all your energy to make it up a seven mile mountain...especially when you've been to that same place a hundred time. It's that you stand in the middle of something which holds so much energy and strength and beauty. You stand on holy ground. You stand on something created with the swipe of a fingertip. And to stand in the middle of it, to scale it, to view it, to breathe it in makes you feel that the culmination of morphing phases of life you experience had to have been planned out by something way bigger than yourself. To stand in the middle of a mountain is to understand that it didn't just show up, and must have taken an incredible force to create...one that knew how and what the end result would be: a mountain.
When you look at a mountain you probably don't think of it as something weak or unstable. They are composed of millions of tons of rock and sediment and mineral. There is something huge and unexplainable about spending all your energy to make it up a seven mile mountain...especially when you've been to that same place a hundred time. It's that you stand in the middle of something which holds so much energy and strength and beauty. You stand on holy ground. You stand on something created with the swipe of a fingertip. And to stand in the middle of it, to scale it, to view it, to breathe it in makes you feel that the culmination of morphing phases of life you experience had to have been planned out by something way bigger than yourself. To stand in the middle of a mountain is to understand that it didn't just show up, and must have taken an incredible force to create...one that knew how and what the end result would be: a mountain.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Awake
For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. -Paul, 2 Co. 2:15
In case you were unaware, if you're a human, chances are that you possess all five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell; and only one of those has full capability of bringing you back to the full sensory experience: smell. I work in the coffee industry...meaning my job is to create sensory experiences for my customers. By 5:30 am there is not a line out the door so that people can simply get their dose of caffeine to wake up; there is a line out the door because the customer knows they are guaranteed whatever that thing is that allows a person to have connection with something good from an earlier day. Think about it: Why do you wake up and crave your cup of coffee or cinnamon pancakes? Because at an earlier time that same scent was linked to something positive and powerful. You crave your bowl of raspberry granola because the aroma lingers in the back of your mind...you start envisioning how good it tasted before, the experience that surrounded that bowl of granola: perhaps a good conversation, the feel of your dogs soft fur between your fingers, the energy that yields from a full night's sleep. The aroma of the experience lingers in your mind.
Catch this: An aroma is not a scent. The two are distinctly different. One (a scent) fades...it is a transient slight of air that disappears when other senses kick in. The second (an aroma) exceeds both time and place. It is something which is carried around, much like the smell of cassis perfume on a woman's blouse, still present hours after she puts it on. Similarly, God calls us out as the aroma of Christ; since Christ no longer walks around on earth, we cannot smell Him. This has to be why we study how to follow Him and be more like Him through scripture. Our mission is to exude the scent of Christ and to be Him to others. We are to carry with us at all times, the eau de parfum o christ on our shirts. We are the ones being held accountable for those who are being saved and those who are perishing based on if we carry the aroma of Christ. If those who walk behind us and follow in our footsteps smell musty soil or rancid milk exuded from our bodies, there is no way they can smell the beauty of Christ. So lets wake up, take a deep breath, and not forget what Christ smells like.
In case you were unaware, if you're a human, chances are that you possess all five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell; and only one of those has full capability of bringing you back to the full sensory experience: smell. I work in the coffee industry...meaning my job is to create sensory experiences for my customers. By 5:30 am there is not a line out the door so that people can simply get their dose of caffeine to wake up; there is a line out the door because the customer knows they are guaranteed whatever that thing is that allows a person to have connection with something good from an earlier day. Think about it: Why do you wake up and crave your cup of coffee or cinnamon pancakes? Because at an earlier time that same scent was linked to something positive and powerful. You crave your bowl of raspberry granola because the aroma lingers in the back of your mind...you start envisioning how good it tasted before, the experience that surrounded that bowl of granola: perhaps a good conversation, the feel of your dogs soft fur between your fingers, the energy that yields from a full night's sleep. The aroma of the experience lingers in your mind.
Catch this: An aroma is not a scent. The two are distinctly different. One (a scent) fades...it is a transient slight of air that disappears when other senses kick in. The second (an aroma) exceeds both time and place. It is something which is carried around, much like the smell of cassis perfume on a woman's blouse, still present hours after she puts it on. Similarly, God calls us out as the aroma of Christ; since Christ no longer walks around on earth, we cannot smell Him. This has to be why we study how to follow Him and be more like Him through scripture. Our mission is to exude the scent of Christ and to be Him to others. We are to carry with us at all times, the eau de parfum o christ on our shirts. We are the ones being held accountable for those who are being saved and those who are perishing based on if we carry the aroma of Christ. If those who walk behind us and follow in our footsteps smell musty soil or rancid milk exuded from our bodies, there is no way they can smell the beauty of Christ. So lets wake up, take a deep breath, and not forget what Christ smells like.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)