Wilderness "Wonderings"...

The new chaplain at school chose a theme for the weekly chapel services this semester.  Chapel is a voluntary activity, and each week a different person usually gives a short homily.  As the theme is "wilderness," the texts for reflection follow the experiences of the Hebrews when they entered the wilderness, after being delivered from slavery in Egypt.  The texts start in Exodus.  And since I was asked to speak this week, the text was the following - Exodus 15: 22 - 27.  For those of you who don't have it memorized (who does?!), here it is...
²² Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. ²³ When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.^[a]) ²⁴ So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
²⁵ Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.
There the LORD issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. ²⁶ He said, “If you listen carefully to the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.”
²⁷ Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.   (NIV)

While preparing, I couldn't help but think I was doing some "wilderness wondering," perhaps akin to the "wilderness wanderings" of the ancient Hebrews.  Meaning, meandering, going about without much sense of what would be next, uncertain, and trying not to be too stressed out about that.  That brought me to the text...the people have left Egypt now.  Their bondage broken by the power of God…following the one tapped by God to lead them out.  You’d think they’d be euphoric.  No longer slaves, oppressed by the trappings of Pharaoh’s ego, pride, and wealth.  They’re free…we might expect singing and dancing in that wilderness…and in the verses before this text, that is, in fact, what we find.  Likely the oldest witness in all of Scripture, the Songs of Moses and Miriam show us the thankfulness and praise pouring-out from the people.  But then, enter the wilderness.  That place of uncertainty.  And what happens.  For 3 days, they’ve been walking and wandering...

• Without water!
• What they (and we all) know as basic necessity to sustain life is lacking
• This wilderness they’re in – it’s at a level of the worst kind, as they struggle for mere survival
• So, what do they do?
• Lash out…groaning and griping…complaining

Now, we understand that, right?  Perhaps we’re not altogether unfamiliar with their feelings when we consider our own “wilderness” experiences.  Granted, perhaps ours have not been as dire as life and death, but it sure can feel like it when we’re in it...When a personal relationship is a mess, or we feel alone in a new place (like college, or a new job, or a new team, or a new apt., or differences in our family configuration), or we simply have too much work to do, or things to accomplish and not enough resources to meet those needs…when these things happen, we might just feel like those Hebrews in the wilderness.  Wanting to groan and gripe and complain.  And if we're honest, really, honest, we don't just want to whine and complain, we do it!  Truer for me, than I like to admit!!

But here’s the good news…the story does not end there.  God – through Moses – provides.  God sees them through this real suffering, real struggle.  And here’s the really cool thing – it’s not some “lightning bolt,” “grand fireworks,” “supernatural/beyond our world and reality” – kind of event.  No.  God uses a piece of wood.  Nothing extra-ordinary, nothing otherworldly about it.  A piece of wood.  It’s nothing special in and of itself.  Instead, it’s made special, made sacred, through God. 

So, why do I find that good for me?  For us all, I think? Because in our very own wilderness experiences, just maybe God acts and will act in the same plain ol’ way.  That’s the unbelievable, amazing, gracious thing about it…God acts in the everyday, routine, common, ordinary with everyday, routine, common, ordinary things and people.  I think that just might be a good word from this story.  Yes, God indeed provides/heals/makes whole/restores in the wilderness AND God does so through all that is around us, before us, and with us.  That’s pretty comforting, I hope.  And empowering…empowering us to hang in there in those times and trust the goodness and mercy of God that surely will see us through, in whatever ordinary means and ways God sees fit.  May we all open our eyes to see where and when that happens. 

That was the gist of the "wondering" I thought about in considering this text and participating in chapel.  If it offers a word for you, too, terrific!  And if not, or it's less akin to your worldview and thinking, well, thanks for reading nonetheless.

To whatever "wondering" is next in these posts...

Wabi * Sabi Way of Life

Wabi Sabi is not actually a mantra.  It is a Japanese aesthetic that means
Nothing lasts, nothing's finished, nothing's perfect.  Sure sounds like a good mantra, or motto, to me.  Before getting too far, I need to acknowledge some folks here...

My good friend, Denise, provided my initial introduction to wabi sabi, through her new and wonderful blog.  Turns out there's a movement in design called "wabi sabi" at the moment.  And to my friend and colleague, James, I owe thanks because he knows so much about so many things, especially those related to things Eastern and philosophical (somewhat in this case).

So, once turned onto the term and its meaning, I realized that this is my mantra, or motto, or it sure ought to be because it epitomizes my life.  Nothing lasts, nothing's finished, nothing's perfect.  Since hearing it, I can't stop applying it to my life.  And my knowledge of it happened to coincide with my recent thinking that writing a blog might be fun.  I'm not sure I'm convinced of that, as I sit here writing my first blog post, having deleted my first two attempts at creating a blog (so far), but hey, even if it's only the one post I ever write, that fits, too, right...nothing lasts...wabi sabi.  But here's to hoping I might get the hang of it and like it.

Anyhow, more seriously, this view of life really has come front and center for me lately.  We recently learned that two of our good, good friends, who have been married longer than we (I am married and happily celebrated 10 years last week!), are divorcing.  Indeed, even when we hope beyond hope and dream beyond dream that marriage and all that it might be will last, sometimes it just doesn't.  And don't get me wrong, I get it.  Unhealthy and difficult relationships, in my opinion, should not be made to last just because that's what tradition or custom or culture says.  I know this one personally, in fact.  So, I'm simply and seriously saying, sometimes nothing lasts.  Wabi sabi.  And I'd go further, too, to say that even those things that do last, that we celebrate and champion because of their deep and abiding endurance, they don't really, in the sense of staying the same all the time that they do, in fact, "last."  Here's a beautiful and quintessential example:  A couple I know recently celebrated 70 years of marriage.  70.  Now, that is lasting.  Unbelievable really.  But here's the thing...while that couple has managed to last together all those years, the way it started when they said they're "I do," is certainly NOT what it was then.  It can't be.  It has to change and grow and develop because that is the nature of life.  Everything does not remain static and unchanging forever.  It won't last if it does.  So, in a sense, that lasting relationship in fact has only lasted because it's gone through change. 

And as to the other elements of wabi sabi...well, the notion that nothing's finished...that is my day-to-day, practical life in a nutshell:  the laundry's never finished, the moving-into-the-house that we actually took possession of more than 6 weeks ago isn't finished, the preparing for classes is never finished, organizing the bizillion Legos in our house cannot possible ever be finished-that would indicate the end of the world, etc. etc.  You get the picture.  Such is the nature of a household of 5, 2 full-time working parents, and 3 beautiful, precocious, funny, intelligent, busy, children and the family dog (a new addition, in fact). 

And finally, nothing's perfect...well, everything written above ought to say it all.  I'm wrong about 800 times a day, though as I told my students, I tell my husband all the time, "I know everything, and I am always right."  What a joke indeed!  So, there it is, wabi sabi.  The mantra that I think if I just embrace and accept happily will have me enjoying life all the more. 

I'm not exactly sure what will be recorded in this blog...reflections/confessions ?! of living as a teacher, mother, and wife, who seeks to be an engaged citizen in her world, as well, without too much cynicism and plenty of joy and laughter.  Here's to hoping.  And I hope that you might just sit in to hear those thoughts, every now and again anyhow.  After all, nothing lasts, nothing's finished, nothing's perfect.  Wabi Sabi.