Living with Intention

St. Paul’s United Methodist Church
Matthew 7:  24-27, Phaedra Raymond, August 17, 2008

 

Have you ever been driving and all of sudden you snap out of what seems like a trance and you can’t remember the last 5 minutes? You don’t even remember the scenery or being aware of where you were driving. It’s like you were on autopilot. Well, the other day I was in my car, thinking about all the things I had to do, talking to my kids and probably listening to the radio when I realized I was on my way home. Now, normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, since I do live there after all. But on that day I was so wrapped up in the routine of my life that I forgot what I had intended to do, which was pick up my son Connor.

When my mind jolted me back into real time, I felt silly, embarrassed and like I had wasted valuable time.  In this ever-busy world it is easy to live our lives this way. We wake up each morning taking for granted the blessing it is to wake to a new day and the opportunities the day holds for us.

So often we are lost in our routine or thinking about how much we have to do that we miss the beautiful wonder of life that is happening all around us.  We’ve all known someone or heard a story of someone who found out they only had a limited time to live. All of a sudden life takes on different meaning. It is like watching a movie in 3D. Your life starts popping out at you and you can’t help but react to all that is happening around you. So, how do we live this way without something tragic happening to us to knock us into ultra awareness?

Obviously we cannot neglect our everyday lives and responsibilities and routines become important especially if you have kids. But, we can live those routines and our everyday lives with intention. We can take those ordinary moments and find the extraordinary in them.

Now, I am a person who strongly believes we are all called to make a difference in this world. That looks different for all of us, but we all do need to be a part of the big picture of making this world a more peaceful, loving and fair place to live. We all posses gifts that allow us to give back in some way. I’ve talked many times about how we can find our calling and give back to the world.

But today I want to focus on how we can make a difference every moment of our lives, just by becoming aware of our surroundings. If we live each day with intention we are able to transform the simplest of moments into precious pieces that become part of the tapestry of our lives.

 Just like the verse I read from 1Timothy, “The purpose (or intention) of this command is to have love, a love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience and a true faith.”  God’s prayer for us is that we live each day like this. We are blessed to have endless opportunities to seize each moment and live them to their full potential.

This has been a really important lesson I have learned most recently in my life, even more than any other time before. As I mentioned I have a passion for “doing”. I love to be involved, give back and donate my time and gifts to the community. I’ve always tried to recognize the importance of the moments I am involved in, which is easy to do when gobs of people show up to help build a playground or a new house for a family that lost theirs in a fire. But what about the everyday moments?

 As I sit and write this sermon, my youngest daughter Sealey is playing office. She has literally spent hours setting up her office in the living room. She is trying not to be bored, because daddy is working on a bid, I am writing this sermon and her boys are gone. I can hear her talking to herself and being completely consumed by her task. Although I am feeling the pressure of getting this sermon completed (couldn’t be because I waited to the last minute), I decided to take a moment to pay attention to what she is doing. Without her even knowing I stand back and watch her. What a joy she is to me. I giggle as she very precisely places everything in its place with great intention. She pretends to answer the phone and type something (a proposal maybe) and is perfectly content. What a gift to find such pleasure in something so simple. When she sees that I am watching, she invites me into her moment and takes my hand to give me a tour of her office. With such pride and confidence she shows me every little space.

 I believe that it is God’s intention for us, to live a life that is defined and lead by Godly living. Leading with a heart that is full of love, for others, and ourselves, full of compassion, understanding, forgiveness and intent. When we do this we are spreading the love of God. When I take a moment to recognize and acknowledge my daughter as she plays make believe, I encourage her to feel confident, to dream and to be proud of whom she is. This in turn will help her to show someone else these same things and to embrace their uniqueness.

 I am going to tell you about something that changes my life…..a lot!  A shoe, a very cute shoe. Last November in an unusually warm period I was wearing this very cute shoe and I stepped out of my car, as I have done hundreds of times before. However, this time was not the same as any of the other times before. I stepped out, rolled my ankle and in one quick moment broke it in 3 different places. The first thing that went through my mind was, “this is not good!”

 So, life as I knew it changed immediately. I was reminded quite quickly that the all the little things I took for granted, like walking, driving, and doing most anything for myself were not as easy as they had once been. My busy life came to a screeching halt! For nearly a month my life consisted of going from my bed to the couch and then from the couch back to my bed.

Now, I admittedly had times of feeling sorry for myself, and thinking, why me? I was way too busy to have to be on crutches for 12 weeks. It took a great deal of adjustment on my part to find a sense of peace in my new predicament. Well, maybe not peace, but acceptance. Most of my responsibilities shifted to someone else and I had to rely on others for some of my most basic necessities. I had a lot of time to think and put things into perspective. For the most part, I love my life, but I am not sure I was taking advantage of the simple joys life had to offer me. It seems cliché to say, but I did not stop very often to smell the roses. If Randy bought me a big beautiful bouquet I saw their beauty, but what about right out my front window or in the yard of a strangers home that I drive by everyday.

 God has given us the gift of sight, hearing, smelling, touching and feeling. Every moment of our lives affords us the opportunity to witness the miracle of God in everything and everyone.

 Even though we weren’t all dealt the same hand in life, we have equal opportunity to live in a God like fashion, without judgement and with a sincere gratitude for our blessings. When we choose to see God in all things, we are most certainly being a part of that bigger picture I spoke of earlier. Now, we might not have the gifted hands to heal the sick, a huge bank account to feed a hungry nation, or the brilliant mind to find a cure for disease. But we all have the capacity to mold our own lives around the gifts we were given and use them to share our love with others. In this way we do make a difference and we get to be a part of bringing about positive change to this world.

Right now we get to see this with the Olympics. Where else do we get to see nations put aside their differences and join together in one event?

 We were watching gymnastics the other night and Sealey asked me whom we were going for. I said the guy in the red, white and blue, because he was from the US. She watched for a minute and then asked me, “do we have to go for him? I want to go for the guy from Russia.”

 If that isn’t a true reflection of what we are meant to learn from this experience, I don’t know what is. Of course we are meant to cheer for everyone, to celebrate the accomplishments of all and to hold each other up in moments of defeat. It truly does not matter what colors we wear or what nation’s name is emblazoned across our chest. What does matter is that we are all human beings experiencing life in all that we can and reaching to be the best we can be.

 If each of us chooses to live a Godly life that goodness will create a ripple affect on everyone we encounter. You have no doubt seen the ripples created when you toss a stone into water; the affects of that moment reverberate out. And when more than one stone is tossed, the ripple touch and fold into one another. That is what happens when our lives touch others. The ripples of our lives join with the ripples of another life. We can change the direction those ripples are flowing for good or bad.

 I would like to share a story with you from the book, “My Grandfathers Blessings”.

Harriet leaned forward in her chair, her twill clad knees separated and her clasped hands dangling between them. In a flat and angry voice she told me she had studied and practiced medicine for more than 20 years, rising to the top of her specialty, first as a pediatrician, then as a neonatologist, and finally as an expert in the care of premature infants. Unmarried, she had dedicated her life to the survival of these smallest of people and had made herself one of the country’s best in this demanding and highly technical specialty.

 As she spoke, I had the chance to watch her. A big solid woman in a plaid shirt, without makeup or jewelry, she wore her hair short and simply combed, just as it came out of the shower.  She looked genuine.  Suddenly, I had a sense of being safe with her, that her capacity to be there for the vulnerability of others was total and absolute.  I was deeply moved.

 As she continued to speak of her work I began to sense something under the competence, below the anger.  Something I could not name.  I leaned forward to listen more carefully.  In the past five years, she told me, more and more of her time was spent defending the needs of her tiny patients for care.  She spoke of the hours she now spends every day on the phone, the blizzard of paperwork, the frustration of arguing with insurance company employees day after day, justifying the value of a premature bay’s life in terms of the cost of needed care.

 “I just can’t do it anymore,” she finally said in her flat Midwestern voice.  The thing I could not name became crystal clear.  It was despair.  As we spoke, Harriet absentmindedly fingered an object she had taken off one of my shelves, a tiny dried starfish someone had brought me from the beach.  Over time I have learned that no one in this sort of conversation does anything at random.  Still listening, I watched her hands, noticing how delicately she handled this tiny object. From time to time holding it in the palm of one hand and gently placing the other over it.

Toward the close her session I pointed out to her what she had been doing with her hands. She looked down surprised. “Does this little starfish have something to do with what we have been talking about?” I asked her. Puzzled she said, she didn’t know. “How do you feel about it?” I asked her. Without hesitation she replied, “it matters.”  Then why not take it with you I offered. Bring it back next time. Perhaps the reason it matters will come to you. She slipped it into her breast pocket and stood, “Back in a week.” She said and left the office.

 As the day went on, and I met with one person after another the incident slipped to the back of my mind, but it was not over. In the final hour of the day as I sat making notes and reflecting on those who had spent time with me, there was a knock on the door. Opening it I was surprised to find Harriet. “Do you have a little more time? She asked.

Sitting once again in the chair opposite, she looked at me. “ I remembered” she said simply and laid the starfish down between us. Then she began to tell me the story of an old man who was walking along the beach at low tide, picking up starfish drying in the sun and gently throwing them back into the ocean. Ha had been doing this for sometime, when a jogger overtakes him and asks him what he is doing. The old man explains that the starfish will die in the sun and so he is throwing them back into the ocean. Astounded the young man began to laugh, “why old fellow don’t waste your time, can’t you see that there are thousands and thousands of starfish on this beach and thousands of beaches in this world, and another low tide tomorrow? What makes you think you can make a difference?” Still laughing he runs on down the beach. The old man looks after him a long while. Then he walks on and before long, he passes another starfish. Stooping, he picks it up and looks at it thoughtfully, then gently he throws back into the ocean. “Made a difference to that one.” He said to himself.

With tears in her eyes Harriet told me that she had somehow forgotten that every phone call and every letter, every form that she fills out matters. I was so caught up in the inanities of the system that I did not remember that my work is not about changing a world I cannot change, it’s about touching the lives that touch mine in a way that makes a difference. I used to do this in one way, now I do it in another. But I am touching those lives just the same.

Every moment matters!

As a Jaycee I have bee the chairperson for the Demolition Derby for the past 12 or so years. This year however, I had a rare opportunity to do something really fun and potentially life changing with my daughter Mary. Our adventure took us to Salt Lake City for American Idol tryouts.

We had so much fun, but I have to say I felt a bit guilty for not being at the derby and for others having to shoulder the big task of running this event.

Well, you may have heard….there was a terrible accident at this year’s derby. My Sunday afternoon was swamped with non-stop phone calls about what had happened and what was going on. My guilt began to build with every passing call. I felt as if I could have been of some help if I had been there.

 As the day passed into night, I learned that Tom (my friend) would be flown out of Helena to a facility that could better care for his injuries. It was not good. But I learned that he would be coming to a facility in Salt Lake City. What a coincidence, or was it?

I was able to be at the hospital when Tom and his wife arrived and when she saw a familiar face, she melted into my arms.

I was able to spend a few days visiting Tom and his wife and letting Tom know that we were all praying for him.

 I know now why I was not at the derby this year. I was meant to be in Salt Lake and offer my love and support there. It isn’t always as it should be, which makes me think we should be even more mindful of all the moments and situations that present themselves to us and find what we are meant o in each moment.

We are all here to shine our own special light on the world. So live your days with love and intention. Etch each and every moment into your heart and use those experiences to share the love of God.