ODDS & ENDS X: There is Enough, Praying, Dieting [M, 10-25-21]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter

THE REASON FOR ODDS & ENDS

I just realized I posted O&E XI before O&E X. It’s no problem. They can come in any order. That’s how odds and ends work.

I stated doing ODDS & ENDS columns of necessity. I had various bits and pieces that I thought were worth sharing, but not enough for a whole column by itself. As I have been doing them, though, I realized that they might be valuable just in themselves, not of necessity, because of something then-teen daughter, Mary Beth, said. In worship services, I always tried to get every part of the service—sermon, hymns, scriptures, prayers, liturgy—to fit the theme for that day: forgiveness, witness, gratitude, etc. She said, “The problem is, sometimes that theme is not where my life is at all, and so there is nothing in that service for me.” Thus I began to do Odds & Ends worship services, without calling them that, trying to have at least one element of the service that would be a way to open to God for each person there, regardless of life circumstance.

THERE IS ENOUGH

Friends tell me that when I am frustrated or depressed or bored, I should could my blessings. But sometimes I have used up all my blessings, all my good memories and thoughts, and I get bored, so then I have to settle for bad memories and bad thoughts—disappointments and grudges and losses and regrets and anxieties and awfulizing about stuff that might happen.

Except… if I am patient, I find that there is enough to go around, enough blessings, enough good memories, to fill up all my available time and spiritual space.

The Gospel writers talked about that when they told the story of how Jesus fed several thousand people with just a couple of fish and a little bread. He said a word of thanks for the blessing of what they had, and then he had the ushers begin to share the stuff around, and not only did everybody get filled, but there was plenty left over.

If you say a word of thanks for what blessings you have, even if they seem puny and feeble, and then start spreading them around in all your memories and thoughts, there is enough. In fact, at the end of the day, you’ll probably even have some good thoughts left over that you didn’t get a chance to use.

PRAYER CHANGES THINGS… REALLY?

I don’t discount “the power of prayer.” I have experience with it. I know that prayers are sometimes involved, somehow, in changing things, in bringing about healing, especially the healing of forgiveness. Someties, yes,, the healing of the physical. But I don’t pray primarily to change God’s approach to you, or to change you. I pray to change me. The deeper I pray, the better person I become—more sensitive, more accepting, more hopeful. The better I become as a person, the better friend I am to you, and so that changes your situation for the better. Prayer changes that, at least.

HOW NOT TO DIET

            A woman in the lab waiting room was reading a book by that title. I told her I was way ahead, because I already know how not to diet. From what she told me, it sounds like a pretty good book, but there really is no mystery. We all already know that diet health is just eating the right stuff in the right amounts, plus adequate and correct exercise. Piece of cake… oh, maybe not.

John Robert McFarland

“It seems to be a spiritual law that sooner or later we treat others as we treat our own inner selves.” Flora Slosson Wuellner, Prayer, Stress, and Our Inner Wounds