The Center of My Life

St. Sebastian-themed Tie

The tie to the left was my one art project this year at the family resort at which we were on vacation.  It is multi-colored--I hardly realized there were nine different and mostly pastel colors) of Sharpie and I didn't even use them all.  In the middle you find two arrows and a coarse drawing of an open book.  The open book was intended to represent the Bible.  I had not intended it, but my sister said there was a bit of a snakeskin look to the tie.

As I enter the new year, I think about what the tie represents.  We are not insects, but if we think of the body as consisting of the head, the torso, and the legs the tie is worn down the center of the central part of the body.  Thus, I look for symbols of how what it represents as the center of my life.  And most of what it brings to me are things that relate to my end of year blog that reflected on 2012 and looked ahead to 2013.

First, it shows creativity.  Readers may have their own opinions as to whether it shows much talent, but my wife (who was making a scarf while I made my tie in the class last week) thought it showed creativity that she does not often see in me.  That is not to say that I have no creativity.  Just that it does not often come out through drawing as opposed to words, music, or even my teaching.  I am planning a new class for 2013 and trying to revise several others.  And who knows what other things I will be called on to be creative for in 2013 on the job.  Each year brings new and interesting challenges.  I look forward to continue to using my creativity and hope that it can remain central to my life.

The Bible is at the center of what will show when I wear the tie.  My spirituality is central to my life.  Thinking about what maters an why.  For me, that is manifested through my relationship with church.  Being part of the worship band.  Teaching Sunday school.  Helping out with the running of Sunday school.  Being a part of the St. Pius X community.  But thinking about what matters and why is not just about church.  (And not about church for everyone else.)  Spirituality can be about running.  Spirituality can be about not wasting any talent as a talent is as important a resource in the world as oil or water or wheat or gold.  Spirituality in its many forms is central to my life.

The Bible and the two arrows are both reminders of themes from St. Sebastian's life.  I have written a great deal about what I think of St. Sebastian and why over the past year in the process leading to the completion of my tattoo.  This Saturday, I will take the final step in a touch up visit with the artist.  St. Sebastian is part of my spirituality.  St. Sebastian is part of a reminder to speak out.  St. Sebastian is part of a a reminder to get back up again and keep trying. St. Sebastian is also an important reminder of just how much we rely on others and the hope and help they bring to our lives.  He would not have been able to continue after being shot by archers if it were not for the help of another.  The arrows themselves represent challenges.  There are many challenges in life--and there will continue to be many more.  All of them have to be faced an either overcome or set aside to the degree possible. The facing and overcoming relate to St. Sebastian.  The setting aside to the degree possible comes back to part of the Serenity Prayer--accepting what I cannot change.

The multiple colors coud be one of two things.  In the spirit of St. Sebastian they could represent the heterogenous group of individuals who help me in my life.  Taking the "snakeskin" comment and thinking about snakes in the Bible, we could also think of them as representing the heterogenous challenges.  In either case, there is a pattern.  Part of my way of dealing things is finding the patterns and using them as a way to represent the challenges and good aspects of life for my own purposes in sorting things out.

All this from a two hour project with a silk tie and a bunch of Sharpies.  Who knows what this year will bring in creativity and blogging with this type of start.  

Sirach 34:9-12

Just two days after Easter and I'm writing again. Why? Patterns. For anyone who has seen the new Kiefer Sutherland series called Touch, you know that the premise is that Sutherland's character is a single father whose wife died on 9/11 and whose son has never said a word. But in the first episode they communicate through numbers for the first time and subsequent episodes continue the theme. One of the supporting characters tells Sutherland that when his son sees numbers they reveal the world.

Well, yesterday I had a bit of inspiration. A student of mine (yay for Isadora) defended her dissertation. It was the third defense I'd attended in the past month. For two of the students I was either the student's advisor or co-advisor. Both students whom I had an advisor (rather than simply committee member) role for defended on the 9th day of the month. When I added Isadora's final defense to the list of those I'd attended I noticed 3/9/12 and 4/9/12. Combining those, I thought of 34912. (Of course there are other combinations, but that easily translates into 34:9-12). There are not many books of the Bible with 34 chapters. I looked in Psalms--no good. I then looked to other books of wisdom (only fitting as it was two PhD students whose defenses inspired me to look this up) and turned to Sirach. For my Protestant friends, Sirach is one of those "Catholic only" books. What does Sirach 34:9-12 say? Here:

A much-traveled person knows many things; and one with much experience speaks sense.
An inexperienced person knows little, 

whereas with travel one adds to resourcefulness.
I have seen much in my travels, and learned more than I could ever say.

What does this say to me?  It shows the importance of experience.  It shows the importance of going out into the world and participating.  It shows the importance of becoming resourceful.

It says, "Live a little!"  It say, "Don't hide."  It makes me think of the story of the talents.  It makes me think of how I learn.  It makes me think of the difference between running a road or trail and running on a treadmill.  It makes me think of the difference between running alone and running with others.  It makes me think of everything a person can do to gain experience.  To gain insight.  To gain from being different places doing different things with different people.  It makes me think of how being inexperienced can be constricting and limiting.

Of course, everyone is inexperienced before they are experienced.  The key for me is to maximize my opportunities for experience and to attempt to learn from every one of them.  

Learn things that will help in my continued physical development or health.

Learn things that will help in my continued spiritual development and well being.

Learn things that will help me to continue to grow.

Learn things that will continue to help be to become everything God sent me here to become.

The opportunities are there for me to take.  If I do not take them and do not gain the wisdom that is there for the taking it is my own fault.   

But if I take every opportunity that is presented, I truly hope that I can someday utter the last line speaking truthfully--that all my experiences will have taught me more than I could ever say.  

Revelations 16:13 and 6:9-10 and Interconnections

Yesterday, I commented on a humorous moment on the cruise last week. The way Carnival works dinners we generally sat with the same people each night. Two young women traveling together were at our table. One day we randomly also ended up next to them for lunch. One of the young women had on a Muppets t-shirt. For dinner she ordered frogs legs and bacon macaroni and cheese. The irony was not on me and Sherry or her and her traveling companion.

While that was humorous, it made me wonder what the Bible has to say about frogs. I bet that most people know about the plague of frogs in Exodus. But that is not the only place where frogs are mentioned. Frogs also come up in Revelations 16:13,

I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet. 
These "demonic" spirits are described as performing signs (presumably false signs) and that is followed by 16:15 which warns readers that God will return unexpectedly like a thief in the night, reminding us to always be ready.

The reference to the unclean spirits like frogs is also sandwiched between verses about angels pouring out the sixth and seventh bowls. These follow the seven seals. All of them are associated with the seven plagues in Exodus as a reminder that catastrophe will come to those who do not follow God.

And, that brings me back (ten chapters) to Revelations 6:9-10. There, the author writes,

When he broke open the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the witness they bore to the word of God. They cried out in a loud voice, “How long will it be, holy and true master, before you sit in judgment and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?”

This is clearly a reference to martyrs and the plagues are part of the answer to the avenging of the martyrs. The concept of martyrs brings me back to St Sebastian and my tattoo, which I have not written about in a long time but my appointment to get is now just 2 1/2 weeks away. Interestingly, I had a conversation with a colleague about tattoos just yesterday.

The level of interconnections of ideas and concepts, physical and spiritual, driven by my interests and what is happening around me often amazes me. It is evidence (in my mind) of how God is always watching over and the reason I should be as cautious as is recommended in Revelations 16:15 (and the more familiar Matthew 24:43 or Matthew 25:1-13).

Reflections in a Bible verse

Yesterday, I wrote about reflections.  Yesterday, the team I run with for Back on My Feet was encouraged to think about reflections.  When I typed in "reflection and Bible verse" into a web search, I stumbled upon the verses that connect the "Love is patient, love is kind...Love never fails..." verses with "and the greatest of these is love."  (The verse (1 Cor 13:13)that began my interest connecting my running to verses from the Bible.)


What is in between? Well, I'm not going to quote the Catholic translation in this case as it does not use the word "reflection".  It uses an alternative "indistinctly", and you'll see why in a moment.  The use of reflection in this case is not "pondering" but "an image".  Here are the verses surrounding reflection from the New International Version.  The connect "Love never fails..." the the verse that ends with "the greatest of these is love."


"Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

So, this verse is not about reflection as pondering as I have been doing on a daily basis during Lent. Instead, this is reflection as an image that is not the complete or perfect image.  In the same way that our actions as adults are not supposed to be childish--not that we cannot have fun, just that our actions should be preceded by thought.

All of this is in the context of the coming of the Kingdom of God and contrasting each of these other things "prophesy," "knowledge," "reasoning" are temporary and changeable.  Our holiness is supposed to be constant. God's is.  And of the faith, hope, and love that make up holiness, the highest of these is love.  

Despite the difference interpretation of "reflection", I still find it quite useful for me as a verse for today as it suggests the incompleteness that my pondering reflections seeks to complete as I continue to use my love of others to guide my running and every other activity of my day.

Bib numbers and Bible verses

Everything in life is linked to a lesson from God--even the bib numbers I get in the races I run. The main example I have of that is 1313 from last year's Baltimore marathon. For races that I have run since then, I have not necessarily gone to the Bible to look for some inspiration. However, today I received my race number for the Baltimore 10 Miler this Saturday--1486. This one was actually a bit of a challenge to interpret as a Bible verse. There are a number of books that don't have 14 chapters. There are very few that have 148 chapters--just Psalms. I could actually have taken Psalms 148 and 6--happy and a powerful lamentation. I could have taken Psalm 148 and then Chapter 6 from the Gospel of St. Luke--that includes the Beatitudes and some other stuff that I could relate to. However, I ended up with an interesting interpretation:

1 Tim 4: 8 and 6

OK. So the two verses are backwards, but I don't see that as a big problem. What do these two verses say in the New American Bible, Revised Edition (leave it to those witty American Bishops to think of something like Love your NABRE...):

8: for, while physical training is of limited value, devotion is valuable in every respect, since it holds a promise of life both for the present and for the future.

6: If you will give these instructions to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound teaching you have followed

So, what lessons do I take from these. Verse 8 seems particularly appropriate to take with me in preparation for a race--I actually think that physical training helps me to focus my spiritual training and devotion, but I'll be the first to admit that it doesn't matter how fast I run if I don't use my running as a gift from God to share with others. I've talked about that before, but it is a pretty cool thing to find as related to my bib number.

What do I take from verse 6? Well, I don't necessarily plan to evangelize my fellow runners (although I do share my view on running, sharing, and service with anyone who will read my blog) but it is a reminder that I have to read the words, have faith, and then follow the teaching. Actions speak way louder than words.

So, to have two key messages--focus on devotion and let my actions speak for themselves--provide me with a great guide to take into my final training for a race in which I will celebrate several running friendships and running with Back on My Feet.