Last week a friend was sharing with me how excited they were to start working on their garden. Another friend lamented to me about the winter that would not end. And yet another friend on the other side of the world shared with me how they were looking forward to the changing seasons and cooler weather.
Next week Christians from around the world will mark the sacred journey that follows the path of life – death – new life. It is, however, not a once a year occurrence but rather the rhythm of all our lives.
Good friends of mine are learning the joyful exhaustion of being new parents. Though their eyes appear tired and red they also sparkle with love in ways that I have never seen before.
In the coming weeks I will be participating in three memorial services for three incredible women. They each spent their lives unselfishly and tirelessly sharing their gifts to better the lives of others, particularly young people. My life was much richer for being privileged to share the journey with them and I know many of those young people feel the same.
Theologian Richard Rohr offers theses words about the rhythm of life:
“God’s generous rhythm of life, death, resurrection,
moving in and through all things,
the very breath and source of the cosmos itself.
Our pathways converge and continue,
each one of us a catalyst for loving action.
We, a community of saints.
Conspire.
Breathe with us.”
And Theologian and friend John Philip Newell offers this with respect to life’s rhythm:
“The rhythm of life is yours, O God,
the changing of the seasons,
the busyness of the day and the night’s stillness,
youth’s energy and age’s measured pace.
For daylight followed by hours of darkness,
for the time of letting go
and of taking off the clothes of the day,
for the time of lying down
and being covered by the night’s intimacy,
for the overlapping of the seen and the unseen,
heaven and earth,
flesh and angels,
body and spirit,
rest and dying and new life
all part of your rhythm, O God, thanks be to you.”
Life – Death – New Life, literally and in all circumstances this is THE rhythm of our lives. In each place there is an invitation to lean in, to listen, to learn. This is the heart of the rhythm of life.