Calm Skies
November 21st, 2009 Posted in writing | Comments Off on Calm SkiesI get a little jittery when I’m on an airplane. I suspect most people do. But a few weeks ago, I felt very calm, not just because the stewardess was pleasant or there wasn’t any turbulence. Those helped, but what really did it for me was that I was sitting right next to a little old lady saying her rosary.
She held the rosary in her lap and as she moved the beads, they made little reassuring clicks. I guess I figured that God wouldn’t be impolite enough to let anything happen to this nice person — or us — while we were up in the air and she was engaging him in conversation.
Not very sound theology, of course, and it doesn’t have anything to do with aeronautical engineering or the laws of physics. But I enjoyed that flight a whole lot more than if I’d been seated somewhere else.
Upside Down
November 10th, 2009 Posted in writing | Comments Off on Upside DownJesus was very skilled at turning his disciples’ perceptions upside down, as he did when he told them that two cents given to the Temple by a poor widow was a bigger gift than all the money that came from the wealthy.
He did something similar when he said that a no-account child was the best example of how one ought to live in the Kingdom of God, or that sinners and prostitutes would get into heaven before the so-called righteous people.
Because of this, the disciples must have felt off balance more times than they would have liked. If we want to follow Jesus, we (whether as individuals or as a church) shouldn’t be surprised that he will do the same to us, turning our ideas of good and bad, holy and unholy upside down, if we let him.
