Today, May 21, 2011, the world was predicted to end. Every few years someone (usually a fundamentalist religious person) will predict the end of the world. However, you and I are still here! But, for some people their time on earth did end today. The sobering fact is that our lives are brief and we need to choose carefully how we will use our time and what we choose to love. Actually, there is only time for love. I like these words written by Pedro Arrupe entitled, ‘Falling in Love’:
“What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love. Stay in love, and it will decide everything.”
One of the joys of my vocation is getting to work with a pastor and team of ministers who love what they do, and really want to make a difference in the world. This week we are going on a staff retreat to re-imagine what the kingdom of Heaven might look like if it were to arrive in Richmond, Virginia. For the next three days we will share our ideas and dreams for our ministries and how we can better love people in the Spirit of Christ. Most of us tend to love only the people who look and sound like us. So, we hang out in our circles with people just like us. Mother Teresa’s expresses it well with these words, “The problem with the world is that we draw our family circle to small.” Most of us have experienced being in groups that have drawn their circles to small. But, we can help change that. Today is a new day. We have another chance to open our eyes and embrace people who might be a little different from us. These are people who really need our love. Everyone needs love!
For most of us on this planet the world did not end today. But, life is fleeting and our day of departure will come. Someone has said, “Maybe we should greet every person as if it were the first time we met them and the last time we will ever see them.” In order to do that we will need to live life like Erwin McManus. Erwin is a filmmaker, activist, innovator, author, and pastor of Mosiac church in Los Angeles. I love to read anything written by Erwin McManus.
In his book, ‘Wide Awake’, Erwin says, “We need to live wide awake because there are diseases killing millions and we need to find a cure, famines leaving multitudes starving and we need to provide food, economies leaving families homeless and we need to create opportunities for work and wealth, genocide that must be stopped, slavery that must be ended, water wells that must be dug, children who need to be loved, relationships that need to be healed, elderly who need to be cared for, beauty that needs to be created, futures that need to be saved, and dreams that we must not let die or go unfulfilled.” McManus continues, “There is a future that needs to be created, and it is waiting for you and me to wake up and get out of bed. The alarm has sounded, and it is time to shake off the slumber.”
Today we are still here on this planet. If you have been sleepwalking, it is time to wake up and start dreaming wide awake. Let’s make the world a better place! May each breath we take be an inspiration from God. It’s time to live, to create, to imagine, to dream. It’s not to late!
Let’s fall in love!
Ralph
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