Keep Practicing Resurrection
/Keep practicing resurrection
Lean in toward the Light
The shadows of this world will say
There's no hope why try anyway?
But every kindness large or slight
Shifts the balance toward the light.
Carrie Newcomer, Lean in Toward the Light
It was the end of a hard New York day and the bus was crawling across town. People were tired and angry and frustrated. They wouldn’t look at each other. You could feel the tension and the negativity and the exhaustion oozing off everyone. The bus driver came on the intercom and said, “I can tell every one of you brought a load of trouble onto this bus with you. When you get off today, I’m going to hold out my hand and I want you to drop all those troubles, however large or small, into it because you don’t need to take any of it home. Now, this bus route goes to the river, and what I’m going to do is drop all those troubles into the water.”
When he finished speaking, they started laughing and talking to each other. The energy on the bus completely changed. There was a lightness and anticipation and maybe even hope stirring. Without fail, as folks left that bus, they dropped their troubles into his up-turned palm. And where they had each gotten on the bus weighed down, burdened and defensive, they left with laughter and lightheartedness and joy.[i]
One man changed the lives of a bus full of people one day. I wonder how many pets were not kicked in displaced frustration that night. I wonder how many parents were open and available to their children in ways they’d have considered impossible an hour earlier. I wonder how many spouses or roommates or deli staff got a smile and a kind word that possibly shifted their days for the better. All because one man saw a need and did a small thing about it. Who knows what events in the world were altered?
What did the bus driver do that made a difference? To begin with, he simply saw a need, he saw the suffering of other human beings. I have to wonder if he prayed for the people on his route regularly, or even just that day. When we practice our faith, our awareness and perception grow. It also takes a lot of inner resources to remain a non-anxious presence in the face of such energy, as well as to take the responsibility for doing something to shift it. He saw and named what others felt as they tried to keep their heads down and avoid any more trouble, and he took a risk simply to name it. In doing that, he suggested to these people that maybe, just maybe they didn’t have to bear everything alone. Maybe, just maybe there was hope of help or relief or forgiveness. Simply being seen and validated in the truth of where we are can bring great healing.
I heard Gerald May say once that we’re all functional atheists. We talk about God and faith and prayer, but when push comes to shove, we really believe it’s all up to us. What if there is help? What if the belief that it’s all up to us is a lie we’ve bought into? What if there are resources we never imagined waiting to be poured out for the asking?
The world today feels like that bus full of tired, angry, frustrated, and defensive people. Everyone I know is carrying their own load with sick relatives or friends, grief from losses of all kinds, not to mention bearing with their own diminishments along with all kinds of other challenges. Add to that the unhealed wounds of childhood and the habits of a lifetime that create rather than relieve our suffering. It’s a lot!
As if that’s not enough, there are destructive and chaotic energies unleashed and swirling all around us. We feel so small and helpless next to them most days. Even if we want to make a difference in the world, what can we do in the face of what Paul called the Powers and Principalities that seem to be so in control in so many areas of our lives? Or as Quaker singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer puts it, “shadows of this world will say no use trying why try anyway.”
Whatever his faith or preparation that day, the bus driver sensed the energy those tired people brought on the bus and by risking making a human connection, he made a profound difference in every life that day. We each have the potential to make a difference just as he did. Do we have a clue what the energies are we put out into the world? Or how we’re reacting or responding to the energies around us? Do we just put our heads down or shut down or get defensive? The Dalai Lama says that while it is difficult to bring about world peace through the transformation of individual hearts and minds, it is the only way.
Carrie Newcomer tells us to “keep practicing resurrection.” Resurrection isn’t some one-time event years and years ago, it’s available to every one of us if we’re willing to allow it. When we say “I’m sorry I did this thing that hurt you, will you forgive me?” we offer release and new life. When we receive forgiveness and let go the hurt and anger and resentments we’ve been grinding, that’s resurrection. When we feel alone or scared or weighed down and then for some reason look up to see this incredible light on the turning maple trees or a hawk sitting on a branch in the sun with its breast shining, the energy within and around us shifts. That’s resurrection.
As we practice resurrection, we offer our own energy of release and redemption to those around us. Carrie Newcomer assures us that “every kindness small or slight shifts the balance toward the Light.” It’s human to be unconscious about the energies we’re putting out into the world most days, and what’s unconscious is unconscious until it isn’t. As we practice our faith and live into our experience of resurrection, however small or slight, we are invited to become more and more aware of own energies, as well as those of others. Are the desires of our hearts for our energies to join the presence and purposes of the Light, the purposes of God? As we practice our faith, through prayer or awareness or intention of our focus, the fruit of God’s Spirit will be more and more manifest in our lives. This fruit is in itself transformative, as are our spiritual gifts used cleanly. As we practice our faith, we will find ourselves growing in love, kindness, patience, joy, gentleness, generosity, self-control, peace, and humility. We will, whether we know it or see it or can point to it and tell others about or not, we will shift the balance toward the Light.
The good news is we do not have to be perfect in order to make a profound difference in the world. In fact, our striving for perfection or striving to be good or to stand in a pure place or whatever it is we’re striving for can get in the way of our being used. We must have compassion on our imperfect human selves and offer love. We can only start exactly where we are. God can only use us exactly where we are. And whether you know it or not, you have what you need today to be of use for God’s purposes. Ask that it be so. Ask for one place today where you can make a difference. And then listen for nudges or coincidences and do your best. When we’ve done our best, even if it feels paltry, we say OK God, you make something of that, and we let it go. We say “You’re the one who weaves all things into good. Make something of that.” God, I offer you the work of my hands this day. Make something of it. Whether I ever see it or not. Amen.
[i] Elizabeth Gilbert wrote a version of this story that my pastor sent me after she used it in a sermon, but I’m certain I read it in another publication and, I’m pretty sure but can’t remember, by another author.
