Big Swords
May 12, 2008
What's your name?
What do you want it to be?
From the movie Pretty Woman
God calls you to be. Frederick
Buechner
We are an incarnate word, spoken by God,
still being spoken by God, a word of grace,
of reconciliation, truth, love, healing.
But our word is often garbled. Part of our
struggle here is to liberate the word within
us so that it can be spoken clearly.
Robert Mulholland
Mr. Rogers stepped out of a Manhattan
subway train onto the platform. A group of
people recognized him, including a young
mother with her 6-year-old son. The boy
brandished a Star Wars light saber,
and was
intent on whacking everything-and everyone-in
his path. This included Mr. Rogers.
The mother stood mortified, "Honey, please don't hit Mr. Rogers! I think it's illegal. And it's not polite." Oblivious, Fred Rogers drops to his knees, next to the boy, now eye-to-eye. He whispered to the boy. The boy whispered back and put away his light saber. Goodbyes were exchanged.
One hour later, the people traveling with Mr. Rogers had enough suspense. "You have got to tell us what you said to the boy!"
Mr. Rogers smiled, "I told him, we are a lot alike. I have a sword too. Not as nice as yours. Mine is wood. I keep it inside me, for all the times I don't feel strong. When I think I need to impress people, I take my sword out, and I believe that when people see the sword they will think I'm strong. But when I feel strong inside, I know I don't need my sword, and I put it away. Looking in your eyes right now, I see you are a very strong boy on the inside."
The little boy said, "I guess I don't need my sword today."
I can relate.
I know what it is like to not feel strong on the inside.
I know what it is like to take out my sword, and do my best to impress everyone around me.
I also know that life's pace exacerbates the conundrum.
We assume our identity is predicated on consumption (more) and velocity (hurry). And our mantra becomes, "This is not enough." (Meaning this relationship or job or circumstance or new toy or prayer or faith or conversation or moment, or whatever.) As a result, I am not present. Given my need to impress-or consume or use or add or rush-I end up whacking everything around me. This is when my life becomes "garbled."
I need Mr. Roger's reminder: There is a word spoken about me. It tells me that I am strong on the inside. And not because of anything I have done, or failed to do. It is the incarnate word, spoken by God. Robert Benson writes, "The Hebrew word for it is dabhar, 'God spoke.' It is the word found in Genesis to describe the way the world came to be. God spoke the light. God spoke the Christ. God spoke Robert. God spoke Fred and Annie and Sara and Cindy and Alan and Barbara-and you too, whatever your name is."
God spoke Terry. A reminder not easy to hear in the noise, the bustle and the velocity of life's competing voices.
God spoke. This is not just about self-esteem, as if there's some club to join with a secret instruction manual. As if there is something else we need to add to our life to make it successful, or meaningful, or palatable. It's much more fundamental: Are you willing to be loved for being this you?
If I answer yes, then I guess I don't need my sword today.
Once, the great Hassidic leader, Zusia, came to his followers. His eyes were red with tears, and his face was pale with fear. "Zusia, what's the matter?"
"The other day, I had a vision of the question that the angels will ask me about my life."
The followers were puzzled. "Zusia, you are pious. You are scholarly and humble. You have helped so many of us. What question about your life could be so terrifying that you would be frightened to answer it?"
Zusia turned his gaze to heaven. "I have learned that the angels will not ask me, 'Why weren't you a Moses, leading your people out of slavery?'"
His followers persisted. "So, what will they ask you?"
"They will say to me, 'Zusia, there was only one thing that no power of heaven or earth could have prevented you from becoming.' They will say, 'Zusia, Zusia, why were you not Zusia?'"
To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting. ee cummings
The mother stood mortified, "Honey, please don't hit Mr. Rogers! I think it's illegal. And it's not polite." Oblivious, Fred Rogers drops to his knees, next to the boy, now eye-to-eye. He whispered to the boy. The boy whispered back and put away his light saber. Goodbyes were exchanged.
One hour later, the people traveling with Mr. Rogers had enough suspense. "You have got to tell us what you said to the boy!"
Mr. Rogers smiled, "I told him, we are a lot alike. I have a sword too. Not as nice as yours. Mine is wood. I keep it inside me, for all the times I don't feel strong. When I think I need to impress people, I take my sword out, and I believe that when people see the sword they will think I'm strong. But when I feel strong inside, I know I don't need my sword, and I put it away. Looking in your eyes right now, I see you are a very strong boy on the inside."
The little boy said, "I guess I don't need my sword today."
I can relate.
I know what it is like to not feel strong on the inside.
I know what it is like to take out my sword, and do my best to impress everyone around me.
I also know that life's pace exacerbates the conundrum.
We assume our identity is predicated on consumption (more) and velocity (hurry). And our mantra becomes, "This is not enough." (Meaning this relationship or job or circumstance or new toy or prayer or faith or conversation or moment, or whatever.) As a result, I am not present. Given my need to impress-or consume or use or add or rush-I end up whacking everything around me. This is when my life becomes "garbled."
I need Mr. Roger's reminder: There is a word spoken about me. It tells me that I am strong on the inside. And not because of anything I have done, or failed to do. It is the incarnate word, spoken by God. Robert Benson writes, "The Hebrew word for it is dabhar, 'God spoke.' It is the word found in Genesis to describe the way the world came to be. God spoke the light. God spoke the Christ. God spoke Robert. God spoke Fred and Annie and Sara and Cindy and Alan and Barbara-and you too, whatever your name is."
God spoke Terry. A reminder not easy to hear in the noise, the bustle and the velocity of life's competing voices.
God spoke. This is not just about self-esteem, as if there's some club to join with a secret instruction manual. As if there is something else we need to add to our life to make it successful, or meaningful, or palatable. It's much more fundamental: Are you willing to be loved for being this you?
If I answer yes, then I guess I don't need my sword today.
Once, the great Hassidic leader, Zusia, came to his followers. His eyes were red with tears, and his face was pale with fear. "Zusia, what's the matter?"
"The other day, I had a vision of the question that the angels will ask me about my life."
The followers were puzzled. "Zusia, you are pious. You are scholarly and humble. You have helped so many of us. What question about your life could be so terrifying that you would be frightened to answer it?"
Zusia turned his gaze to heaven. "I have learned that the angels will not ask me, 'Why weren't you a Moses, leading your people out of slavery?'"
His followers persisted. "So, what will they ask you?"
"They will say to me, 'Zusia, there was only one thing that no power of heaven or earth could have prevented you from becoming.' They will say, 'Zusia, Zusia, why were you not Zusia?'"
To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting. ee cummings
Poems / Prayers
Pied Beauty
Glory be to God for dappled things-
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced-fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
God bless to me this day
My eyes and my seeing
My ears and my hearing
My lips and my speaking
God bless to me this day
My hands and my holding
My feet and my moving
My body and my health
God bless to me this day:
My mind and my thinking
My heart and my loving
My soul and my believing
Celtic prayer
Peace,
Terry Hershey
