Today’s Word from Pastor Jim
“As for mortals, their days are like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.” Psalm 103
My friends, readers, sojourners on the journey of life, I have an announcement to make. It is among the most obvious of announcements and yet we spend much of our lives denying this simple truth: WE WERE BORN TO LEAVE.
Born to leave, let that sink in for a moment.
It was never a part of God’s plan that we would stay. When we were knit together in our mother’s womb, we dwelled safe, warm and secure. We were nourished and protected; we had NO concerns about tomorrow.
Our bodies were marvelously made, every detail a miracle. We were— we are—each of us, a small expression of God’s creativity, wondrously and mysteriously created in the image of the one who formed us, and it all came to us as a gift.
We did not initiate or earn the magical nine months of nirvana, floating in the still amniotic waters, an umbilical cord our only connection to an unknown world. We were gifted with this time of lightless grace, but we were destined to leave. It was never a part of God’s plan that we would stay, not there in the darkness; it was a necessary stop on the way to a new existence.
We were born to leave. We rebel against this notion, we fight with every ounce of our being to stay, to breathe, to live, to carry on in a world so beautiful and so troubled.
We desperately try to hold on to the known, not able to calm ourselves for a passage into the unknown, the mysterious next chapter that waits for us on the other side of earth’s maternal womb. We curse death as if it was an aberration, a stranger, an unexpected part of the human journey. We were born to leave. We are like a mist that appears for a little while, we are grass quickly fading, dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind.
We were born to leave. We have no “eternity” in this world, any more than we had an “eternity” in the womb. This earthly existence might be more accurately described as a tour of duty. We arrive helpless and 100% dependent upon others. Unable to survive on our own, we must look outside of ourselves. Slowly that dependence diminishes, false bravado leaves us with the illusion of independence. But it is nothing more than an illusion. Our tour of duty includes seasons in the sun, a time to run, a time to play, a time to love and be loved, years of discovery followed by a time of soul-searching reflection as our bodies display the inevitable signs of decay, and the truth becomes more difficult to ignore. We were born to leave. We are dust and to dust we shall return.
Can we make some peace with God’s plan? Can we somehow embrace the words most often spoken by God to fragile humans like us: “Do not be afraid”? Bread, wine, water: eat and bathe in a sanctuary of safety; do not be afraid. How intimately God knows us, how frail and fleeting is our existence. How childlike our fears of the dark.
Can we learn to trust in things that are beyond our control and most certainly beyond our comprehension? Can we reflect on our time in the womb, on the gift of the lightless construction site where our limbs, organs, and tiny bones came together? Can we consider the labor that brought us to this world and in doing so can we find the faith to leave this world? It was always the plan, you know. We were born to leave. Our tour of duty will end.
“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” Mark Twain
May we treasure our tour of duty. May we make the best of each precious day. May we live with less fear, assured that as we arrived safely here, that we too will one day arrive in a new world. A new existence will be ours, all a part of God’s plan, a mystery beyond our understanding. We were born to leave.
One beggar, telling another beggar where to find bread, I am your
Pastor Jim
