Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters.

One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. (Romans 14: 1-5)

 

The only good paper is a finished paper.  (Faculty advisors everywhere)

 

My pool is green.

My house is a mess.

I have laundry piled up.

I have a paper due.

And I’m sitting in my jammies on my couch writing this blog on my day off because I wasn’t particularly organized this week.

I look a hot mess.  I need a shower.  I need to give the dogs a bath and I need to get some groceries.

And, on top of it all, I think I’m starting to get a cold.

Its not a highly ‘successful’ week.  Truthfully, its pretty much “you haven’t met any standards” week.  Don’t try and come over to my house, I probably won’t let you in.

 

This morning I also went down the social media rabbit hole and watched a bunch of Valedictorian speeches from our local high schools.  I love valedictorian speeches.  They’re so full of hope and excitement for the future.  They express so much gratitude for the opportunities given to their classmates by the teachers, parents and other adults that speak into their lives.  They talk about the 4 brief years of high school as if they are the most determinate years of their lives; and really for them it is.

 

And every single speech had  a common message:  “If you try hard, if you do your ‘best’, then you will be successful”.  It’s a lovely sentiment.  It encourages people to be determined in their goals and to move forward in their lives.

 

But it also begs a whole lot of questions:

What is success?  Who determines success?  What if you put a whole lot of effort into your life and find yourself sitting on your couch in your jammies and needing a shower?  And what about those times where you try your absolute hardest to do something, and you fail?  Or what about those times when you do nothing, and yet you seem to be successful?

 

Because, you know, there are huge swaths of times in my life where I have not been successful at anything, and life has been simply about putting ‘one foot in front of the other’; without ‘achieving’, without ‘goals’, without ‘direction’.  I don’t talk about those times easily.  Because, really, I’m embarrassed that sometimes life is difficult.  And that sometimes my life isn’t about moving towards success; because I’m not really even sure what success is.  And sometimes I’m just plain worn out from trying to be more than my green pool and my messy house and my mounds of laundry.

 

I wonder if it would change things for our young people if we were honest that sometimes you just can’t achieve the things that our society tells us are markers of success.  I wonder if it would change things for all of us if we were honest with each other about the times when we feel like our lives aren’t about goals and direction but are about being and just breathing through the moment.  I wonder if it would change our world if we were honest about all of our lives.  The wholeness of our experience.

Honest about pools that are green.  About messy houses.  About mounds of laundry.  About unfinished papers.  Even about the times when we can’t get ourselves into the shower and put on clean clothes.

 

Because I don’t think God is calling us to clean houses and clean selves.  The scriptures that I read tell me that God is calling us to justice, mercy and humility; and more than anything, calling us to Love.  To Love God and love each other with our “hearts, souls and minds”.   And maybe even Love ourselves with our “hearts, souls and minds”.

 

Not just the ‘hard-working’ ‘achieving’ ‘goal directed’ and ‘successful’ parts of ourselves, but the parts that include green pools, messy houses, unfinished papers and mounds of laundry.

 

So come on over my Bethel peeps.  I will let you in.  Because it’s the whole of us that is loved by God and we are called to love the whole of each other.  If you give me a ten minute warning I may even get in the shower.  But its o.k. if you don’t.

 

Blessings today and remember you are loved – the whole of you.

~Rev. Lynne