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I’m having a birthday this
week. The calendar says I’m turning a mere 59….
my sixth decade coming to a close while still another softball season is just
around the bend. I'm ready. I think. At my age and as I
interact with men covering three generations, some think me to be a pup while
others, like that young 20 something buck on the softball diamond last year, see me as an
old man! “Hey, old man,” he said… I smiled inside and thought... "old man, huh? Your day's coming!" Me? I think I’m somewhere in the middle. I don’t run as quickly as days of yore and my
power to drive 'frozen ropes' down the right-field line have subsided despite my
young-at-heart attitude. But, I hope I’m
bit wiser and can remain purposeful for a couple of decades to come... on and off the softball diamond! Do you sense that tension? The voice of St. Paul deep down in our hearts... "all that I don't want to do, I do ...and all that I want to do, I don't do!" Life does reflect a certain kind of ‘gauntlet’
as one moves from birth to the grave. The deeper one moves into the gauntlet, the faster life comes at you! The gauntlet of a man’s life serves up tests of mind and body and
spirit--- hurdles and obstacles – known and discovered---physical and
mental--external and from deep within to face and overcome and risk being done in by
the same. And to think this not the case
is to realize one might already be dead!
The gauntlet is real--- a symbol of the
harshness and danger our life’s journey is… Each one of us enters the path. Over
time or suddenly, we sense the danger… but also the joy! To avoid the blade’s cut and pendulum blows
is cause for rejoicing, yet the bruising comes, we’re knocked off balance, scars
are acquired and the journey can be lethal. The gauntlet forces us to
self-differentiate and self-define! I’m not a pessimist; but at my age I’m not naïve,
either. I know for many men life is experienced as cruel and unjust with some
even wondering why they were ever born. Victims. Others seem oblivious at times that
life has any difficult moments at all! Jokers, perhaps. And I know those who have overcome great hardships. Conquerors within the flock. Heroes to some. Examples for sure. Me?
I’m somewhere between a survivor
and a thriver… seeing life as gift
... one I don't deserve... recognizing that I don’t have to be here at all… but I am... and because
I’m here I need to join in and tend to my part.
Boldness and humility wrapped like a red and white candy cane... continuous ... unable to discern the beginning or end... So, then, we all have our own gauntlet to engage. But, what’s the reward? What brings us joy? Is there a goal? Does God care? Does the new reality of Jesus make any
difference? Or is life ultimately a fluke, with our being here just
happenstance with one gauntlet only leading to another coaxing our demise? Mine? Yours? Where we step, how we breathe, focus, plan
and proceed has consequences that are both short-term as well as long-standing. One life.
No do-overs. And, frankly, I’m
willing to admit even my best shot won’t be enough.
Check out this short movie clip
and then come back…
Along with the crowd, Sir Lancelot is offered the prize
to kiss the princess… and he bolts to be the first… Richard Gere plays an
engaging Sir Lancelot in this movie, “First Knight”… full of reckless abandon…
full of passion for life to grab the gusto that is his to sieze…
The gauntlet… has a beginning
point... and a goal… and in between obstacles, hurdles, lethal choices… sounds
a lot like a man’s life… full of pauses and breathes and calculations and
adjustments. Peripheral vision is just
as valuable as 20/20. Knowing from where
you’ve come will also inform where one is headed!
But, check out Sir Lancelot… he
was battle-ready and had training… and as one man “pads up” for protection, Sir
Lancelot just bolts through the crowd with someone down below in authority yelling in the
background… “get him off there”… the
world telling him… “you can’t do this!”
Others look on with anticipation… some hoping for his success and others
wanting him to fail.
I like the fire in his eyes and
his willing intensity. This will not be
easy, but it can be done. Challenge makes our hearts beat and causes our minds to reel... yet this gauntlet is a only a reflective image for daily life and the seasons of a man’s life… and way
different from the reality shows we’ve been offered up recently where
the consequence of failing is a quick launch into the water trough below or a tub of green slime. Yet
either way we will all admit… hopefully admit… it’s not all that easy nor is it
our reality as most men who get knocked off the gauntlet of life are more than just all wet… we can have
a hard time getting back up. They need
our help. We need their help. We need each other’s help. Can we?
Will we? Who will prepare us
to? Is it too late?
And even when we are willing and as we
are prepared questions remains…”What is the goal?” “To kiss the princess?” To say, "I did it?" Some feel as if they’ve kissed a toad. Are God’s goals our goals? What do we hope to accomplish... in the end? Today? Tomorrow? Right now? And how does God’s grace enter the challenge of the gauntlet
within us? Are we aware? Does it matter? It must!
In his book, "Adam's Return," Father Richard Rohr reminds us that in our culture...our American US of A culture we've lost sight of the ancient rites of male initiation. What you say? Our males have rituals... acquiring a Social Security number attached to a first paycheck... a driver's license at age 16... a weekend drunk after JV football season is over... hosting the "American Pie" party after prom and targeting that cute girl to deliver one's manhood... or maybe surviving boot camp on the way to Iraq or Afghanistan... at least the last one sounds more manly than the rest... But, Father Rohr takes us back to a time when these kinds of male rites of passage could not be texted or tweeted to a friend... and yet... they remain of value for each generation... and it causes me to wonder...'what got in the way?' or 'who threw the blanket over the list that we might somehow forget?'
Here's what life and the gauntlet and Father Rohr point out so clearly... stuff I did not learn in Jr. High history class or high school civics or even a college level anthropology class. Hollywood and Superbowl TV ads at half-time want it to be so much easier and simple. And it's worse than Rodney King shouting out... "why can't we just all get get along?" Chris Rock asked the same question... but why in the end did Rodney King die? Because HE couldn't get along... now that's simple. So, then, what would make the difference? Here's what can be said... it's ancient and will address our future...
- Life is hard. Actually, life is harsh. It always has been. Nobody really 'splained that to me until life did. Jesus did say, 'trials and tribulations you will have.' But, I really didn't think he meant me. I go to Kroger for rib-eye. Somebody had to feed, truck, kill & process that cow.
- I'm not that important. Well I was... for quite a while. I used to have the 'deed' to the world in my back pocket. Friends tried to tell me so. They called me out. I didn't care. I had the deed. But, that brought about far too much responsibility. Way too much burden. So, I gave it away. It seems others are vying for it now. Proceed with caution, I say.
- Life is not about me." It's bigger than me." It's more about us! Yes. That's about the time I gave away the deed to the world. So, now I tend to that which is closer to me. I'm not the center of the world anymore. I thought it would be fun having the world revolve around me. It was too painful for those close by. Their pain became mine and I had to find another way.
- I can't control it. So, there is no need to revert back to the 'good old days.' And even if that is my heart's desire, it's also my confession that God is 'back there' and not here in the now calling me into the future. What's the recipe for 'disaster?' This is a rhetorical question... 'dis-aster' is the admitting that one has "NO star to follow" OR"is following the wrong star." Who's your star?
- I'm going to die. Turning 59 forces me to admit this more so than when I was 29. Years ago, in 1997, I attended a Stephen Covey "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" seminar designed for pastors. One of those habits is... "work with the end result in mind." So I do. I'm going to die...and I'm working backwards from there... to right now as I type my fingers on the keyboard of my laptop... thinking about and praying for all the men and anyone else who might find these thoughts helpful or refreshing. You're going to die, too. But, don't let that make you be afraid or unwilling to step into the gauntlet! It IS your life!
And don't let these ancient rights of passage fool you. They are proven. The young boy is ripped from his mother's arms in the night and taken into the woods by his father, grandfather and tribal elders. He's placed on a stump and blindfolded and told to sit there. No movement. Unarmed. He is to sit on the stump all night and is not to remove the blindfold until he feels the warmth of the rising sun on his arms and face. So, he sits. Motionless. Nervous. The noises of wolves, armadillo, and deer are nearby. The shrieks of the owls and hawks working the night sky. He hears the grunts and snorting of a bear. But, he does as he is told. He is scared... but not to death. The sun rises and as he feels its morning rays tap his skin, he swiftly rips the blind-fold from his face realizing he is surrounded. The faces are familiar. His father and grandfather are seated on near by stumps and they have in their possession bow, arrows, spears and knives. He looks further to see the tribe's chief sitting close as well and immediately perceives that he is safe because others are looking out for him. They always have. He will not survive blind-folded and on his own. Community is critical. Days and nights will pass and years later this same boy will be sitting to protect his grandson and teach valuable lessons. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu told the 35,000 ELCA teens at the 2000 National Youth Gathering... "UBUNTU"... "We are because we belong!" How else will any of us survive this life's gauntlet?
Jesus said these things... his response to the rites of male initiation...
- "...take my yoke; learn from me. My yoke is easy and my burden is light!"
- "I call you to myself-- your name is written already in the book of heaven."
- "greater love there is not---when a man lays down his life for another."
- "Can any of you add a day or a minute to your life by worrying? AND
- "My Father's house is a big house and I go to prepare a place for you..."
These are also trustworthy words... Jesus' own comments to these ancient realities... spoken by one who entered a gauntlet of his own... one who came down from his throne to walk among us... one wounded for our transgressions, healing us with his stripes... avoiding being tossed off a cliff in his own home town in order to climb a hill for the sake of those who wanted to dismiss him... and those who still do... being God's scapegoat addressing our insistence for wanting life on our terms alone... raised from death to a new life so that all would live fully in his grace.
It will be good for the men of our synod to gather at Living Word Church in Katy this month. Jesus said, "I call all men unto myself." I am one of them. You are as well. See you there!
Brian
See this blog's upcoming events for details!
