Midweek Faith Lift
September 25. 2024
“This Too Shall Pass”
Clark Ford, guest speaker
If James Michener wrote a novel about Iowa, the first chapters would not take place in the present day, but would instead follow the land through millions of years of change.
A tectonic plate near the equator, with ancient tropical plants and dinosaurs roaming. Volcanos, floods, inland oceans, layers of sediment and fossils, as this tectonic plate moved slowly north to its current home. Uprising of the land, erosion, massive glaciers which gradually melted, the formation of rivers, forests, prairie, rich soil, the advent of buffalo and other wildlife, and of Native Americans, and finally the relatively very recent conquest of the land by Europeans and the rise of large-scale farming, industry, paved roads, railroads, cities and life as we know it.
Michener paints these pictures to point out that we are just the current inhabitants of this land, have only been here a relatively very short while, and are likely to be no more permanent than the dinosaurs or the buffalo. This too shall pass.
Shakespeare wrote in Macbeth: “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.”
Or, as Andy Warhol supposedly said, we all have 15 minutes of fame. My question is: what should we do with our 15 minutes of fame?
In Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye says: “A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck.” Living life in balance to make a joyful noise. This too shall pass, but in the meantime, praise the Lord in gratitude and celebration for each day lived!
So here we are at the fall equinox, the end of summer and the beginning of fall, a time when the day equals the night in length. Behind us we leave behind summer with long warm days, the sun rising in the northeast and setting in the northwest. At the equinox, the sun rises due east and sets due west. And ahead of us the sun will be rising in the southeast and setting in the southeast, with shorter and shorter days until the solstice.
We are at the balance, with heightened awareness that every day is different, every day is special, every day leads inexorably to the next, and thus every day, every moment cries out to be savored and appreciated, as it will not come along again for a great while.
Thus, the equinox has traditionally been a time of celebration, a time to feast, to express gratitude for the ongoing harvest, a time of Thanksgiving. I like to think that every day is a day of celebration. To celebrate being alive, to celebrate the love and community shared between people, to celebrate our connection to the divine.
This time of year will come again, but this day will never come again. This moment, right now, will never come again. And life is made up of a stream of moments. Each moment shall pass, but will each moment be savored and appreciated? That is up to each of us.
If we dwell on the past, we are dwelling on past moments that we remember vividly. If we dwell on the future, we are anticipating future moments that will impact our lives for better or worse. But neither the past nor the future has any meaning if we cannot fully live in the moment.
We cannot hold on to the joy, the love, the excitement, the peace, the truth, or any cherished aspect of the present moment. We either live them, or we lose that opportunity. And likewise, maybe blessedly so, we are not stuck with negative aspects of the present moment: fear, pain, hatred, lies, destruction, loss. These too shall pass.
Although we cannot hold on to each moment, we can string moments together. we can purposefully choose each moment how we live, choose our focus, choose to be spiritually connected, choose love, choose to embrace and celebrate life. We can choose to be open to goodness, open to love, open to spiritual connection and guidance.
We can choose not to react to the negative, not to allow it to gain purchase in our consciousness. If we ARE feeling negative, we can choose to let those feelings go, walk away from negativity, seek out positive aspects of life, positive experiences, positive people to be with.
When bad news hits us, we can choose to try to stay balanced, to think and act positively in the face of disaster, tragedy, and pain. This is not to deny the existence of sad or negative things, nor to ignore the lessons that these may have to teach you.
It is simply a matter of choosing how we want to navigate through life, connected to life, to love, and to the divine. “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.”
We cannot control the future, but we can play a part in the present. Each of us has the choice to imbue our own sphere of influence with as much balance, peace, positivity, love, and openness to the divine as possible. We might even inspire others to do the same.
There is nothing to be gained by wallowing in negativity, remorse, bad feelings, and fear. The future will take care of itself. This too shall pass no matter what it is.
Right now is the time to reach for the stars
Right now is the time for love
Right now is the time to get it all together
Right now is the time of my life
I live my life one day at a time
grateful just to be living
I'm working on life one day at a time
To be more loving and forgiving
And the good news is that we don’t have to do this alone. Through prayer and meditation, through our connection to the divine, we can call on guidance, strength, and inspiration. Through community and our relationship with other like-minded people, we can also gain strength, inspiration, and feel connected to love.
When we come to church and connect with others, when we listen to music or an inspiring sermon or take a class that changes our life, we have a personal experience and we have a shared experience. Positive shared experiences are powerful and transformative. They help us appreciate each wonderful moment, and help us string these moments together to create a positive and spiritually connected vibe.
I used to go to spiritual camps each summer as a child and as an adult. Being in nature, being with other people seeking spiritual connection to themselves, to each other, and to the divine was wonderful. We would be on a kind of high all week with our chakras wide open – open to love, to life, to joy. Many of you have had such experiences in the safe environment of a gathering, a camp, a retreat, a class, or at church, where it is ok to be unguarded. Then when it was all over, we knew we would have to dial those chakras down to re-enter the “real” world, because our culturally-induced, carefully taught deep conviction that survival in the real world requires all of our critical thinking skills, strong barriers, hard work, and a healthy dose of cynicism.
Although we love the sermon on the mount, many of us don’t actually believe it applies to us. We may look at the lives of mystics who are connected to the divine all the time, and think: well, that’s great, but I have to be out there scrapping all the time or I won’t survive. And then we wonder how negative thoughts creep into our lives.
In the end, it is a choice. We are not perfect. We HAVE been carefully taught to fight for whatever we need to survive. And yet we don’t want to be that way. And so in this life of moments, where each moment is a choice, we can choose more moments spiritually connected.
And the path from where we are to spiritual connection is gratitude. Gratitude is a rational response to the blessings in our lives, especially when we realize that we don’t control everything and we have not created every good thing in our lives. Through gratitude, we acknowledge the divine, opening a path of connection to the divine for this moment. One moment at a time…
Thank you for this day Spirit, Thank you for this day.
Thank you for this day Spirit, Thank you for this day
This beautiful, this beautiful, This beautiful day.
This beautiful, this beautiful, This beautiful day.
May your find more moments each day for your Chakras to be open, to be connected to the divine. And when you’re down or besieged by negativity all around you, remember: This Too Shall Pass. As Scarlet O’Hara said: Tomorrow is another day. Blessed be,
Clark Ford