Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12: 1,2)

Some research has indicated that an exercise consisting of imagining and writing about one’s best possible self increases various aspects of well-being (King, 2001; Boehm, Lyubomirsky, and Sheldon, 2011; Layous, Nelson, and Lyubomirsky, 2013). The exercise instructions typically consist of something like the following: “Think about your life in the future. Imagine that everything has gone as well as it could. You have worked hard and succeeded at accomplishing all of your life goals. Think of this as the realization of all of your life dreams. Now, write about what you imagined” (Retrieved from: https://hfh.fas.harvard.edu/how-to-flourish)

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)

So.

Session has been hard at work to plan an afternoon that will help people do their funeral planning. We will be having someone come from one of the local funeral homes to talk about process, I will be talking about the service, the UCW will have their price list (and may even, if I ask nicely, provide snackies for the event. I love me my snackies.)  I’m hoping to get people to consider what their obituary would look like, how they want to be remembered and what they consider ‘meaningful’ in recognizing their life. Bethel’s session is an impressive, hardworking crew that are taking this workshop very seriously.

I did not help the situation one little bit; because, well, I’m so comfortable with the end of life on earth that I was a little on the cavalier side with my input. At one point I referred to this workshop as a ‘Funeral Party.’  One of the members of Session said to me, quite firmly, “Lynne, I am not calling this a ‘Funeral Party’ in the minutes. I’m referring to this as a ‘Funeral Planning Workshop’”. Ok. Clearly my comfort with funerals is different than the rest of Session. I guess it’s a workplace hazard!

On the way home from the last Session meeting, I was thinking, seriously for a moment, about what it means to have a life well-lived, and what I would like people to say I was like after I die. Of course, this whole thing took me down a rabbit-warren of pondering; my commute home is an hour on country roads and so I’ve honed ‘pondering’ down to a fine art.

What is a good life here on earth, and how do we live it?

The Harvard Flourishing Project has research out that tells us that “imagining and writing about one’s best possible self increases various aspects of well-being” (the reference is in italics at the top of this blog). Interesting, eh. Because, this assumes that you have an opinion on what your ‘best possible self’ is.  The quote goes on to say that part of this visioning ‘accomplishing all your life goals….and life dreams.’

Your best possible self. Your life goals. Your life dreams.

And see, here’s where I depart from the researchers at Harvard. Not because I’ve done any research on this, nor because I have any authority to speak about flourishing, but just because I have an opinion, right! So here it is, for what its worth:  My best possible self, my life goals and my life dreams are all a moving target. My goals and dreams 20 years ago were vastly different than they are now. I never for a moment thought I would have a goal of ministry, nor of doing a doctorate. My goals and dreams, right now, are also a moving target, right! I have a five-year goal of retirement (that sometimes is a five-year fear of retirement lol), and sometimes this involves a homestead in the middle of nowhere, (all on one level, mind you), and at other times a condominium on the waterfront. Which, of course, involves ‘dreams’ of lottery winnings and such lol. (That’s a pipedream, right. Because if you want to win you have to pay.).

And so, I wonder ‘why’ our sense of well-being can be influenced by picturing a ‘best possible self’ that changes by the season of life.  I wonder if we can ‘feel’ as if we are flourishing without goals and dreams.

And I wonder if this is what our scripture writers are trying to get at, when they talk about ‘not conforming to the world.’  Because our social pressures tell us that life is aspirational.  It’s a series of goals and objectives that you keep climbing until the end of your life, and that ‘well-being’ happens when you finish the climb.

I think we’ve gotten this all upside down.  At least in God’s world.  You see, I think that our life isn’t a climb that consists of a series of steps until we reach a goal. I think, maybe, our life, right now, is God’s perfect goal.

Right now, in this moment.

Not that I expect everything is easy and comfortable for everyone right now. In fact, I believe, firmly that life often is very difficult for many people.  There are times when you need to work hard at life, to set goals, and to move through them.

But I don’t for a minute believe that this means you’re somehow not doing well at life.

Because I don’t think God’s life has goals and objectives that we somehow need to meet and then we die. I don’t think our life is aspirational, or even inspirational.

I think, life is…. a living sacrifice. Right now. As we are. Holy and pleasing to God.

Blessings today and remember you are Loved.

Right now.

~Rev. Lynne