Opening to the Spirit
Today’s word: Promise
be a promising future engineer. A flowerbed of perennials in early spring has us anticipating the promise of bouquets on the table. Sometimes the anticipation is the most pleasurable part. I am thinking particularly of young children. Their gifts and talents are still to be developed, yet their curiosity and boundless energy capture our imagination and enthrall us with the promise of further developments.
Sometimes we think, once we have arrived at our middle years and beyond, that the promising part of our futures has come to an end. However, one of the most attractive parts of the message of Jesus for me is that we each continue to hold promise up until the day we die. We may have a hidden talent, an unexploited knowledge or an untapped capacity for offering encouragement or concern. In our senior years we can learn to drive a car, stop an addictive habit or go back to school. We can take up a new hobby or begin a new business. The only limits to the promise we each hold is our imagination and our capacity to persevere and keep a hopeful attitude towards life.
I look forward to discovering the hidden promise of all I meet, both young and old. I wonder what hidden promise I am holding right now and where that might lead me by next year?
) What does it means to live a life of promise? What promises do we make to each other and ourselves, as individuals and as members of a spiritual community. How do we help each other fulfill them? And, what do we do when promises made - by us or to us - are broken?
As children we practiced the power of keeping our word, in large ways and small. "Promise?" we'd ask. To seal the deal, we'd insist: "Criss-cross your heart and hope to die if you tell a lie." Among my siblings, the promis-ee would circle the promis-er to insure no fingers were crossed behind the back. And, true to life if not our words, some promises were broken - leaving us to deal with betrayal, our own or others.
The act of making a promise comes from a place of hope, trust and vision. I believe it is one of the strongest tools we have for making and maintaining our connections with others. If I take a job, or sign onto a task, it is not only to accomplish the task of the moment, but to keep faith with the goal, with those who may work with me, and those who will benefit from our efforts. We make vows to each other, swear oaths, and give assurances based on faith and trust that life will unfold in such a way, and our promises we'll keep.
Sometimes we lose faith, or a promise made in good faith becomes more burdensome to fulfill than we are able. As life unfolds, it challenges us to respond to our own and each other's failings with compassion, forgiveness, and reconciliation. This month our Jewish siblings in faith celebrate the High Holy Days, beginning with Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, followed by Yom Kippur and the day of Atonement, called the Days of Turning. It's a time for soul-searching and renewal, acknowledging the limitations and shortcomings we all experience as humans trying to live up to life's promise of goodness and love. What promises would you renew? Which ones might you need to renegotiate? And the promises you make to yourself, in your heart of hearts. How will you keep them?
) Wherever you are reading this, I hope that you recognize that the day ahead holds promise. We usually have some idea about what lies before us. We can think of the people we will spend time with and the tasks we will complete. Some things look obviously promising. Maybe you have some time planned with a friend, or maybe this is the day that you have decided you will clear the vegetables out of the bins in your fridge and make a big pot of soup. Maybe you have an important task at work or maybe you have the delight of a day filled with leisure that stretches before you.
Some things we anticipate with dread and we struggle to find where the promise might lie. We wait for test results that we expect will bring bad news. We worry about upcoming encounters with difficult people, be they family, or work colleagues, or other people in our life that we did not choose.
Whether you approach the day with optimism or pessimism, whether you anticipate with delight the things that will happen or live with the fear of imagined outcomes, there is one promise that always holds true. Whatever is going on in your life, God is right there with you. You can share your delight and say “Thank you!”. You can share your worries and say “Please, help me.”.
The promise that God loves you and will be with you through your trials is one that does not fail. The promise that there will be peace and delight, when the time is right for this, will never be left unfulfilled. Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, the day ahead is filled with promise.
One word, four voices - now it's your turn to reflect on the question: What does it mean to live a life of promise?
Rev. Mead Baldwin pastors the Hatley, Waterville & North Hatley United Churches; Rev. Lynn Dillabough is now Rector of St. Paul's in Brockville ON. She continues to write for this column as a dedicated colleague with the Eastern Townships clergy writing team; Rev. Lee Ann Hogle ministers to the Ayer’s Cliff, Magog & Georgeville United Churches; Rev. Carole Martignacco pastors Uuestrie – the Unitarian Universalists in North Hatley.