Spiritual Post-It Notes - Episode 24 Transcript
I hope that you are doing well and that your Summer has been a good one. It is so hard to believe, but less than a week ago the schools here in the Old Pueblo began. The tell-tale signs are still everywhere from the frenzied and frazzled parents in the back-to-school aisle (trying to get all of the things they didn’t get before school started), to the blue shirts & khaki pants that will remain in the clothing departments for the rest of the year. Yep, moms and dads everywhere were ready for summer to end and school to begin again. Although, coming from someone who only has a little in my house once a week or so, it does seem like Summer – no, quite frankly the whole year – has passed by very quickly. Maybe its because last year was such a dumpster fire!
I know it seems like I start each episode or blog post out with a confession – and today is no different. I have a confession to make…I need reminders for everything. And not just one reminder – lots of them. I have a physical planner, I use the calendar in my phone (with alarms), I make lists on note pads, we have a big dry erase calendar on our command center wall, and I utilize what I feel it the most important item in the office supply aisle: Post-Its! I already know of at least 2 people who think I have a problem in this area. I’m ok with that. Let me tell you, if you are a female and haven’t yet entered this special season of middle-age that brings a season of personal rainstorms and brain fog, enjoy it! Add to that the brain fog that comes from still navigating aspects of grief associate PTSD as well as long Covid and you have all the ingredients, not for a margarita, but for a mind mush cocktail! I kid you not, I can be thinking I need to do, take 3 steps to go do said task and almost immediately forget what said task was…THE TASK THAT I WAS ON MY WAY TO DO!!! To make matters worse, I often forget what I was about to say – almost as soon as the thought comes into my head! No joke, this past week I was talking to some friends and co-workers, and I tried to tell them something three different times in a span of 5 minutes. Not three different thoughts, the same thought three times – I forget what I was going to say! It’s funny, but it’s not. To be honest, I’ve gotten to the place that I must laugh just so I don’t cry.
So right about now you might be asking yourself what in the world post-it notes and list making has to do with anything creative or spiritual? Well, lets talk about another kind of reminder that everyone needs.
Do you ever have something amazing happen to you, through you or with you and you think you will never forget the goodness of that experience – especially if it is some blessing that has come after a hard season. Yet, the next time a hard circumstance or season comes along, you worry and fret and wonder how things will ever be ok again? We forget quickly the goodness bestowed on us if we don’t set up reminders. I call them touchstones; ancient Biblical writing refer to them as Ebenezers (a reference to stones set up to remind of God’s goodness and faithfulness like with Israel defeated the Philistines in 1 Samuel). You may have heard the line in the hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, “here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I’m come.” Ebenezer translates to “stone of help”
As fallible, forgetful humans, we need reminders of the good places we are brought to after walking through those hard places. Spiritual Post-It notes, as it were. Here’s the thing though – sometimes we forget simply because we are forgetful, and sometimes we try to forget because we want to choose to run from the hard places. I know that there are circumstances that we walk through that we would rather forget, but to actively choose to block them out is to actively choose not to see the good in the bad. Even the ancient Chinese philosophy of yin and yang recognizes the good in the bad and the bad in the good. However, we are looking at this from a God perspective.
To walk away from lament or choose to forget the mourning of a hard place, is to choose to not see God’s goodness even in the middle of the mess. It is like saying that everything that happens from a forest fire that takes homes and lives if worthless and only horrible. That is one-sided forgetfulness. The bad stuff is not simply bad – it is both and. It is both awful, gut-wrenching AND it holds goodness within the hard spaces. Think I’m wrong? Let’s look at the forest fire (which right now we are staring at several burning in the Western US). A fire starts, either by man or by natural causes, and it burns out of control. It consumes trees, plants, animals, building and often human life. After the fire there is the goodness of new life coming from the ground. It is the heat of the fire that causes some seeds to come to life – and only through that heat that they can do so. In some cases, it is the hardships that allow humans to see the strength they have been given, and to help us to help others – help that only comes amid the hard places.
I will use a personal point of view in this as well. Did the death of our only child hold the worst of anything we could have imagined? Without a doubt it did. Could I see the goodness in new grief? Nope, not at all. That said, I knew that I could not run to forget the pain. I could not push it away – I had to stare it straight in the face. I remember when my husband called to tell me that PJ had died, I hung up the phone, dropped to the ground and entered a place of deep lament – the groans that came out of me I observed as if I were out of my own body. I could not forget that pain even if I tried. And I don’t want to. You see, it in the remembering of that pain that allows me to remember the goodness of God even in the worst of times. Remembering that pain allows me to remember the hope of knowing that God is over all things. Yes, we are broken humans in a broken world. And yes, God could stop all the bad things, because that’s what our limited human thoughts tell us about him. Alas, the richness that comes from the fires of life would be missing and the roots of life would only go so deep. And I don’t know about you, but even when the pain is unbearable, I would rather that pain and the beauty of lament, than a life that is colorless and meaningless because there has been no pressure to bring about the pricelessness of the gem of a well lived life. My hope lies in the grace and sovereignty of God – not in myself. Should I choose to forget the hard places simply because I want to avoid the pain, then I lose the privilege of watching God create a masterpiece from the ashes.
It is a choice to remember not to forget. That is why I want to always make the point of setting up those spiritual post-its…those touchstones, those Ebenezers. So that I’m reminded of the goodness that comes after the fires and the floods.
Once again, these are the rambling thoughts of my heart. I hope you got something out of this jumble of words. I am currently working on the final episode of The Creative Table’s first season. It is so crazy that I we are getting ready to celebrate the one-year mark of TCT as well as start Season 2. I just finished an amazing interview today and have more to come. Season 2 is going to be incredible.
I say this in almost every episode, but it is so very true - I’m so glad you are listening and reading and taking this journey with me. Your support, sharing and commenting means more than you could ever know. And until next time, go out and find a creative way to make someone smile.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
