Let’s Go to the Movies
AM Psalm 106:1-18 • PM Psalm 106:19-48
2 Kings 21:1-18 • 1 Cor. 10:14-11:1 • Matt. 8:28-34
“The demons begged him, ‘If you cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.’ And he said to them, ‘Go!’...”
This passage is about the exorcism of demons by Jesus. A question to ponder: Why did the people want Jesus to leave their neighborhood after witnessing this act of healing? That might be an interesting discussion for another day. Today I want to explore the idea that we are all in need of exorcism.
To be alive is to be in what Thomas Keating has referred to as “the human condition.” “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” have wounded us all. Another way to think of this wounding is that we are all possessed by demons. One of the worst demons is our mind!
Last night while sitting in the chapel at St. Benedict’s Monastery near Snowmass, Colorado, I realized my mind was racing about a possible encounter with someone who had been unkind to me in the past. She happened to be sitting behind me in the chapel which added a dose of realism to my fantasy. Here I was in one of my favorite places in the world surrounded by holy people who I have known and loved for more than thirty years with my beloved Carolyn and friend, Paul Hrdy, by my side.
But I was creating in my mind a bad movie of what might happen in my next encounter with this person. We can’t get up and walk out of this mental movie like we might walk out of a theatre. However, that still, small Voice reminded me that I can stop projecting this movie in my mind. I am the writer, producer, and director and I can say CUT!, let go of the fantasy, and turn it over to God.
Part of this letting go enabled me to know that what this person feels, what they think, and what they do is not in my CONTROL. I can let them be who they are…. and I can let me be who I am. There is nothing they can do to change my conviction that I am a PRECIOUS CHILD OF GOD. And there is nothing they can do to change that they are also a PRECIOUS CHILD OF GOD! COWABUNGA!
Written by Nicholas Cole
...who is once again awed as the aspen in the Rockies change from green to gold. Thanks be to God!