Both Sides By Rev. Nina D. Grey November, 2002

There is a man in the building where I live who wishes me a blessed day. The tone of the greeting suggests that he is grateful for another day of life, that life is an unmatchable gift, and that he prays you will also feel life's blessing. He faces the same kinds of ordinary and sometimes not so ordinary problems that most of us do. He gets tired and weary, he or his family also sometimes live with illness or grief or worry, but I also see that he finds a way to be grateful for life. And each day his spirit brings a note of awareness to my day. So that if I am preoccupied or worried or hurrying too fast to notice what is around me just before I come upon him, he slows me down into gratitude.

I am not complacent about his presence in my day. At a ministers' retreat recently, in an exercise to write down the names of two people you admire, I wrote down his name. I think this sense of blessing is possible for him because he is a deeply spiritual man. He draws on wellsprings of his faith and hope. He also nurtures those wellsprings both by regular attendance at his church and by walks on his lunch hour

Holidays raise up for us values that are important every day of life. Thanksgiving is an invitation for deepened awareness of blessing. I know most of us feel we have something to be grateful for. And I am very grateful to all of you who care for one another and others, who create healthy church community, who are tending our world. But I also know that many of us are working too hard, and perhaps not taking good enough care of the one at the center of our being, our own self.

On the one hand we may sense we need to take more responsibility for the well being of our families, our church and our world. And many are working harder to support and care for families. And many are spending more time and energy in the care and nurturing of our church community. And many are taking on more tasks, writing letters, making phone calls, even joining protests, doing what you can to halt the movement toward war. This is all important and meaningful work.

On the other hand, we are called to recognize and respect the limits of what each person can do to make a difference. We may be working so many hours in the day, on home, family, church, volunteer work, and community work that we are leaving little time for refreshment and renewal. Yet current events like the threat of war, or the downturn of the economy, may leave us feeling we have little choice.

While I am not encouraging denial of these difficult realities, I am inviting all of us to remember the message of my lobby friend. Life is an unmatchable gift. There is a blessing in it. There is beauty in it. There is learning in it. There is meaning in it. There is love in it. If we are breathing, if we are sensing, if we are open, we can take in the sense of blessing. Of awareness. Of awe. Of gratitude. We can nurture the blessings of life. Take a cue from my. lobby friend. Come to church not only to work on our life together but also to nurture your own true being. Notice nature. Take time to draw on the resources around you. Recognize that while you can do something, you cannot do everything. Take time to feel the blessing of life and offer a word of blessing to another human being.

With love, in faith,

Nina