This little light of mine...

I, like many others, am heartbroken over the events that took place this last Friday in Connecticut. I have a kindergarten age son and I cannot imagine the heartbreak and horror that this community is feeling right now. I see many, many people asking "Where was God?" or saying that if we had left God in our schools, this would never have happened. Dear readers, God *never* left our schools. Romans 8: 38-39 assures us that there is nothing at all that can separate us from God's love. Nothing. God was with every teacher, every staff member, every child, every first responder for every single moment of that day. 

I also see a lot of despair, a lot of fear, a lot of hopelessness. People are crying out in the darkness and asking: "Where is the light? What is there to believe in?" In the first chapter of John, verses 1-5 we find the answer. (From The Message) 

1-2 The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
    God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
    in readiness for God from day one.
3-5 Everything was created through him;
    nothing—not one thing!—
    came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
    and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
    the darkness couldn’t put it out.

Every day of our lives the darkness is struggling to put out the light of God in this world. Evil strives to extinguish God's light within each of us. Whenever we are confronted with the kind of tragedy, and horror, and disaster of something like Sandy Hook it is so easy to allow ourselves to fall into the trap of thinking that God has abandoned us.  God is with us, always, everywhere. There is nowhere that He is not present with us, no circumstance where His hand is not upon us. His light shines in the world and the darkness, no matter how it tries, cannot and will not overcome that light.

God calls us to be the light of the world, to share His light with all people. Remember the song, this little light of mine? When you feel hopeless, and afraid, and anxious, remember that you are to let your light shine. Don't let Satan blow it out. Let God's love, and grace, and peace fill you and shine out of you. This tragedy does not change the truth of who God is. We are the provision God made for the world in times of tragedy. We are called to be his people, to comfort the wounded, to weep with those who weep. Have faith. Although my heart breaks in this tragedy for those families who have lost so much, who would give anything to bring their babies home again, I rejoice knowing that they are with Jesus and I pray that the comfort, and peace, and strength of God be with all who are mourning, as we all mourn with them.

Namaste...Recognizing the Divine in All of Us

My mom and I have been taking a yoga class for several weeks which has several benefits, not the least of which is some mother-daughter bonding time. It is a day that I look forward to all week and I enjoy my yoga class very much. It's relaxing, it's fun, and it helps me with this whole being healthy thing I'm doing.
Anybody who has ever taken a yoga class will be familiar with the end-of-class ritual where everyone bows and says "namaste." For anyone who has not taken a yoga class, here's a little bit of background on the ritual and the meaning of the word. Namaste is a word that originates in India and literally means "I bow to you." The bow with the word is the recognition and acknowledgement of the divine spark, or soul, that lives within each of us. In some parts of the world, the bow alone gives this message. It is a beautiful, brief way to acknowledge that we are all the children of the divine, however or whoever  we may understand that to be.
I think this is something that we don't take enough time to do. We fail to acknowledge the fact that our fellow human beings are all children of the divine. We all belong to God. It doesn't matter where we live, what we believe, what we wear, what we look like, what gender we are, or anything else.
I see a lot of things on TV, on the internet, on the street disparaging groups of people for one reason or another. Things that suggest that Arab mothers aren't "brave" because they strap bombs to their kids while Jewish mothers are brave because they will cover their child's body with their own to protect them. Or things that suggest that homosexuals are less than human. Or that women are less than men and don't deserve to make decisions for themselves because they lack a basic morality. Or that poor people are lazy, shiftless, and morally bankrupt. You get the idea.
Put bluntly, I think all of that is a bunch of crap. If we spend so much time tearing others down just to build ourselves up we cannot acknowledge their spark, their soul. I get really angry when I see anyone professing any viewpoint that says that one group is somehow worth less than another. But sadly, I see more of that from people I love and care about than I would like to admit, and that doesn't just make me angry. It also hurts my heart.
It hurts me because I truly believe that all of the external packaging is superficial. What really matters is our spark, our soul. I acknowledge that everyone, in the whole entire world, has the same soul as I do, and what's more, that their soul carries the same value as mine. None of the external stuff matters in the least. And when I am tempted to forget that, I remember that God loved Hitler. I'm pretty sure that God wasn't a fan of what Hitler was doing, but then, I'm not sure God is a fan of a lot of the stuff we're doing either.
Now, I am not God. My love is not perfect. I screw up and make mistakes and get angry and I judge others.  However, I think if we could all be mindful of the fact that we all belong to God, it would be a  lot harder to draw these lines and make these distinctions. It would be harder to say that I am better than you. Because I'm not, and you're not.
So what does all of this have to do with yoga? Well, for just a little bit, every Tuesday, I take the time to acknowledge the God-given soul that resides in all of us. From my heart I acknowledge that your soul and mine belong to God and that it is there that we are all truly equal. Namaste.