Page 97 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2018 - Online Magazine

HONORING SENIORS

Consider Changing Your

Own Climate!

by Robert Fortney

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The The new beginnings found in God’s promise of life can
words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the be understood as an invitation rather than a threat -
beginning of God’s creation…. I know your works: you an invitation to say a deeply thankful “yes!” to God’s Inspiration
are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or eternal, gracious “yes!” to us. Whenever we choose to,
hot! So, because you are lukewarm and neither cold we can carry ourselves in a way that reflects gratitude
nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth....” Rev. 3:14, for being part of and belonging to God’s creation. To
RSV belong to His creation is to understand oneself in an
intimate, connected relationship with the Creator.
Behind this haunting and startling threat to Laodicea This is the true meaning and experience of joy, which
is an urgent point written in hyperbole. The use of provides us with what we need to face our deepest
literary drama here is aimed at shocking us into the fears.
process of choosing to live our lives on a day to day,
moment to moment basis. That is easily enough said, The following questions may be useful in challenging
but to bring about this “now” kind of real moment your own spiritual assumptions and heritage:
realism demands a soulful decision from us.
1. At what age must I be to have a positive change or a
Do we choose to open ourselves to the process of new start in any area of my life?
beginning to live in the moment before us, a moment
that always holds a God-given promise of life, 2. What qualifies me for a new or positive change?
of wholeness, of joy? Or do we choose to remain
undecided? Dr. Seuss’s “Zoad in the Road” could not 3. What would help me to feel worthy of having a new
decide whether to take a left or a right, so he tried to go beginning?
both places at once. Because of his fear of avoiding risk
and “not taking a chance, he got no place at all, with a 4. How would it be possible for someone under hospice
split in his pants!” care to have a new beginning?
Some good news here is that we have the ongoing 5. What choices can I make that might improve
opportunity to choose again in each new moment. New my outlook despite my personal difficulties and
beginnings can occur for us in the most ordinary ways, challenges?
in the most ordinary kinds of places. New beginnings
even find their way into our ordinary hiding places
- places within ourselves, where we hide because we
fear the experiences that await us may be painful and/
or have no end. Or
perhaps joy may “We have the ongoing
be there, but we opportunity to choose
are afraid to trust again in each new
it because it might moment.”
abandon us. On the
other hand, it is often the case that we feel we are too
young, too old or too sick to have and/or deserve any
fulfillment in life or new beginnings at all. The result is
a lukewarm existence!

Lubbock Senior Link 97