November 23, 2017

Action of the Week!

​Give thanks on this day: Today, fellow UUs, we have a whole day devoted to giving thanks. And the thanks can be for anything. Most of my thanks this Thanksgiving are for my parents. They are growing old and are now struggling with all kinds of bodily afflictions, but they still love to see their children and get a kiss from their grandchildren. How can I not be grateful for that?
The Action of the week, during this Thanksgiving week, is not a click away. It is to give thanks today.

As Religious Liberals we are dedicated to the truth. We know enough of history to know that our country has done many things that make us weep. It isn't all the past either, we see injustice now. And yet ... one part of a spiritual life is that we strive to live without bitterness.
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On this day your justice task is to hold thankfulness in your heart while knowing the imperfect nature of our world. We need to live in hope. Not a hope based on made up stories, but an eyes-wide-open hope. We see clearly that much is wrong, but we know that the future is not certain and we can be part of it's change.

This eyes-wide-open hope balances between the two truths of the world's terribleness, and its wonder. It is a middle path and a discipline. Love the world while knowing it. Love what is, while changing it.

When we discover the middle path, we neither remove ourselves from the world nor get lost in it. We can be with all our experience in its complexity, with our own exact thoughts and feelings and drama as it is. We learn to embrace tension, paradox, change. Instead of seeking resolution, waiting for the chord at the end of a song, we let ourselves open and relax in the middle. 
                                                                        Jack KornfieldIn Love and Faith,
Rev. Katie Larsell