Photo credit: Susan NYC / Foter.com / CC BY
Staying Connected with My Kids
I learned how to send and receive instant messages in order to keep connected with my oldest daughter when she left home. When my younger daughter left home I learned Facebook. Now I text them. Their dad texts them all the time.
It's helpful, but if that is all that there is to a relationship, I fear we are missing something. In spite of all our “connections” we seem to find ourselves with more sense of “disconnection” than perhaps ever before.
Staying Connected with Nature
As the garden beckons for our attention at this time of year, Jesus offers us the image of a tree, vine or plant as a metaphor for deep relationship. He invites us to sense God as in our roots, rising up, rather than above us, condescending.
Relationship is what matters, Jesus teaches, and how we live is determined solely by that relationship, what flows from it. The vine and its resources enable the branches to grow and bear fruit. Our spirituality consists in letting the flow happen. But it needs encouragement, instruction, leading -- which is what we seek in communities of faith -- church.
We only find our real sense of purpose in life when we can finally let go of all the ways this world offers to make life meaningful and pleasurable, and turn to live life totally out of the spirit of God that flows from our religious roots.
The Sap is Still Running!
In March Break, our family visited a sugar bush. The sap is running later than usual because of the lingering winter conditions. The combination of those cold winter nights and only slightly warmer days may not appeal to us, but they do remind us of the contrasts of our lives -- when the spirit flows more surely through us as we reach deep into our religious roots to carry us through the cold dark nights.
Staying Connected with God
Christians learn that Christ gives them the most vital connection of all. It's a connection that will satisfy that ache deep in one's heart to love and to be fully loved.
Jesus promises, “Remain in me and I will remain in you.” (John 15:1-8)
