Reflection: What Now?

• Next Sunday is Council.
• February 17th is our MidWinter Afternoon Tea at 2pm (please RSVP)

I had an epiphany last week.  Not big, not too exciting, but this moment of Aha!!  I realized something probably everyone else knew, but I was clinging to old thought patterns and couldn’t get out of my own way.  Suddenly, I realized…it didn’t have to be this way. It didn’t have to follow the old rules.  It was a moment of clarity.  I could do something I’ve always done one way, this new way and I was going to.  

What did I do with this new information, this little epiphany?  

Nothing.  I let the excitement fizzle away.  I let the energy die away.  I’m sure another epiphany will come.  

How often do we have these moments of Aha!, these epiphany moments, that we let fizzle and die away?  These moments where everything is so clear. We “know” something.  We’re “called” to something. 

Falling in love is kind of like this: this is the one!

Passion is kind of like this: this is my Great Work!

This is a Great Idea!  We all know the difference between a great idea and a Great Idea!!!

This sudden moment of clarity: it’s time to go!

This sudden moment of clarity: it’s time to join!

These priceless moments of Clarity.  This is it!!  I know.  It’s all obvious and clear.  

How often do we…let it go?  Ignore it?  Change our minds?  Overthink it?  Get too busy?  Have a “reality check”?  Get talked out of it?  There’s a heaviness and sadness that correlates to the size of the epiphany.  There’s loss in a Great Moment lost.  

My epiphany was just a small thing.  But what about the Great Ones.  We could be doing this!!  It’s usually the heart’s desire that maybe we knew was there or maybe didn’t know until it was touched and awakened by Something.  The: this is what I’m supposed to do!  This is who I’m supposed to be!  

Waylaid by money or too much or too hard.  That…”reality check”.  

Yesterday was Epiphany.  The wise men arrive.  Fun fact: no where in the Bible does it say three wise men. There might have been three or seven or twenty-one.  Maybe we have three, one for each gift of frankincense, gold, and myrrh.  

In any case, they discover a Star shining in the dark.  A star leading them to…something.  Calling them.  A light that says: here’s the way!  Come toward the horizon. This way.  They’ve been waiting for this.  This Aha!  This Great Work. We must go.  We must follow this Star.  

What if the wise men had a reality check?  We’re too busy to follow after a star. There’s work to do and bills to be paid.  It’s a lot of work and it’s scary and there’s lots of unknowns in chasing after stars.  We’d have to visit Herod on the way—we don’t really like him.  It’ll be so much easier to just stay home.  

Fizzle.  Dies.  

What happens if the wise men don’t follow the Star?  

How many wise men, and women, ignore the star and carry on with ordinary life until the star dulls, fades away, and is lost…gone.  How many missed epiphanies…

Perhaps more often than not it’s not what we do, but what we don’t do.  Every inaction is an action.  Maybe it’s less the epiphany itself as the follow through. What’s next?  

There are so many reasons to say no.  It’s scary!!  It’s hard.  It’s different.  

Usually our Big Epiphanies ask us the change everything!  To drop everything that’s familiar and known and step onto a completely different path full of challenges, obstacles, and (worse) the unknown.  They ask us to start anew and that’s terrifying.  

The Epiphany is the priceless gift, not the frankincense, gold, and myrrh (although those are useful on the journey).  It’s the epiphany we are showing up for.  The: this child is special.  This moment is special. This thing is special.  We have something special.  

We begin to move from the birth to epiphany to what now?  

Jesus is the epiphany, but what now?  What are we called to do?  Can we do it?  Will we do it?  

Epiphanies ask us to follow through on the thing that we are uniquely called to do in this time and place the we are born into.  PAUSE.  Epiphany asks us to open our eyes and pay attention.  To be Awed and Wonder-filled.  To be Enchanted. To not need to “understand”, but to feel.  To be a part of the growing Light.  

To see the Sacred in all things, including ourselves.  We’re each here with a gift in this time and this place for a reason.  God offers us epiphanies to call us toward our Good Work our Big Work.  PAUSE.  

It’s never too late.  Watch for the markers, the star, the this way, the do this, the I’m calling you!!  Come here!  Look to the stars and follow the light.  The YES.  The this is IT of our lives.  

It’s often hard and the head gets in the way. Sometimes it’s easy and the head gets in the way.  Feel it.  Trust it.  Follow your Heart, not your head, toward what is Calling you as the Light begins to unfold and grow.  

Grace holds you close and will guide you.  As soon as you take the first step toward following the Star.