- Sunday Discussion Group with Charlotte Sunday is on the last Sunday of each month after Church; in person and via Zoom
- Bible Study with Seth is on the 1st and 3rd Sundays; in person and via Zoom
- Next Death Cafe is September 27th at 4pm (join us for an informal conversation around death and dying that may include curiosities, living well, and managing grief–we provide the sweetness with snacks and coffee)
- Council Resumes in September on the 2nd Sunday after Church
- Save the Date: A Spaghetti Supper is scheduled for October 18th at 5pm
Watch the recording HERE. Recording posts after services are complete each Sunday (usually by noon).
There’s a story that suggests we write each of our worries on a potato and put the potatoes into a bag. When we’re done filling the bag with all our worry-potatoes, we then pick up the bag and carry it around for a while. It might be so heavy, it’s impossible to pick up…or definitely not without any help. If we can pick it up, it’s likely going to be an awkward and heavy bag, getting in the way of everything else we do.
Our worries can become a heavy burden that we haul around. Collectively, they can get really, really heavy and awkward. Additionally, we tend to carry around worries that are not our own and we carry all sorts of imagined worries.
We also carry other weights, similar to worries. We carry heavy emotions, thick certainties, sharp judgements, big fears, ugly hates, sticky grudges…and the like. These are also heavy and harsh.
One of my favorite ways to think about the weight we carry is packing a backpack for a hiking trip. There’s a phrase in hiking that “fear is weight”. It’s literal in the case of our hiking pack and also figuratively in the case of our lives.
How do we pack our packs so that we’re safe from the possible, and most likely, troubles that might arise on our journey? For hiking, we have guidance: the ten essentials–we can find similar guidance, in many different places, for our walk of life. In both hikes and in life, when fear comes into play…the “what ifs”, we start adding things to our bags for those “just in case” and the “what if” possibilities.
Pretty soon we’re carrying a metaphorical sack full of heavy potatoes (our worries and the like) and a physical backpack full of things to combat all the impossibly possibly scenarios out there on the trails (created by our stories and fears).
We carry a lot of weight in our lives.
It gets really heavy sometimes.
One of the things we do here each week is to help one another lighten the load. We share our worries and cares and concerns. We stir them into the collective chalice with our joys, reminding ourselves that life is full of heavy things and light things and many things in between. Sharing and speaking aloud helps to lighten our life’s loads. Sharing our worries, concerns, and sorrows with one another, in this Home, and with Grace is…lightening.
Because life can get really heavy sometimes.
A lot of the spiritual journey is about “lightening the load”. There’s a literal lightening: leave behind everything and follow me. Leave behind your stuff (all those things you think you need), don’t even pack a bag (leave behind all the things you think you might need in case this, that, or the other things happens along the way), and follow me. Sometimes, it’s even: leave behind your family and friends and the life you know.
Don’t bring more than you need. Bring your feet and your faith.
Let it all go. All that stuff that holds you back. All those fears that hold you back. All them worries that hold you back. All these things that keep us from being fully alive and fully invested in…Grace and grace.
Take two shirts, though. Because you might need to give one away.
Then, come and walk. Walk with me. Walk it out. What do we do when we’re hurting? We walk it out. We move it. What do we do when we’re overwhelmed? We walk it out. We move it out. What do we do when things get heavy in heart and mind (and sometimes in body)? We walk it out. We move it out.
Walking helps us to shed what we do not need. In walking, we often find clarity. Maybe that’s the secret of pilgrimages, this magic combination of commitment, walking, and prayer lightens the load and makes space for clarity. When we let go, Grace fills the empty spaces.
We can create space for Grace by lightening the loads that get in the way.
Oh, and that extra shirt? It’s there to give away. It’s not to save for a rainy day, a “just in case”, or a “what if”….it’s there to give away. We have, and carry, a lot of things that we don’t need on this journey of life.
Lightening the load, shedding, letting go asks us to ask ourselves: What do we truly need? What helps us to live and live well? What is heavy and just…gets in the way?
What do we need to live and thrive on this journey of life? What might we accept that we truly need? .
Giving is a way of reciprocity. We have that “shirt” to give away, but we can’t always be the givers. We also can’t always be the receivers. It’s a balance, sometimes we need and sometimes we give. A colleague opens every meeting she has with these two questions: what do you need from this community (I need help) and what do you have to offer to this community (I have something to give/offer)? It goes hand in hand. Without reciprocity, things get stuck. Without give and take, that stuck gets…heavy.
Spirituality is so often about…lightening the load. Shedding the heavy weights of life and living to become oriented toward what is most precious and important.
Sabbath lighters the load–there’s a reason it’s one of those vital guiding essentials. We shed when we rest. Busyness is its own form of heaviness. It accumulates and collects and often makes things muddy and unclear. We’re just “too busy” to see clearly. Spirituality is often about shedding the heaviness that creates the muddiness in the waters of our heads and thoughts. That heaviness, that muddiness, gets in the way of our listening and trusting in Grace.
And…rest is essentially easy: close your eyes and sleep on it. How often do the heavy weights just fade away when we let it go and and let ourselves rest? We wake up feeling lighter. Maybe something greater than ourselves has taken away what we have, often inadvertently, been holding so tightly on to. Something that we didn’t need, but thought we did. Somethings that get in the way of what matters most.
Sometimes, we just need to…let it go. Let it go.
We carry a lot of weight. We worry about a lot of things. We carry and worry about and fear a lot of things. Many of these things are things that we don’t need to carry.
The paths of spirituality are often asking us to…lighten the load. Because, those heavy emotions…fear, worry, hate, grudge-holding, shoulds, busy, burdens, pushiness, anger, judgement…are heavy!
When we let those go, we make space. Space for the lighter things…love, acceptance, compassion, forgiveness, contentment, slowing down, trust, surrender, faith, generosity, kindness, gentleness… can you already feel that sense of lightness just listening to those words?
Walk it out. Sleep on it. Give it away. Accept help. Let it go. Give it to Grace.
Good Community is a place where we can let go of our tight grip on some of that load. We can practice sharing, giving, forgiving, loving, supporting one another in faith (in all our beautifully different ways), service (in all our beautifully different ways), accepting help from one another, offering help to one another, getting tangled up in reciprocity, love, and generosity. These are guide-lights on the path…
…follow the path. Lighten your pack, drop some of those potatoes into the dirt (who knows what wonderful things might grow out of them?), and walk the light path that leads us toward something greater than just ourselves on this incredible journey of life.
Community Church of North Orange & Tully 