The Paradox of Honesty...thoughts on Holy Week

How do you know how to live your life?  Do you really shape your own life, or does the mundane and unexpectedness of living shape you?  Lots of thoughts about honesty this week.  Personal, professional, incidental....I took this picture at the Cincinnati Art Museum.  Pinocchio is the epitome of dishonesty. Only Jiminy can keep him on the straight and narrow.  I recently read a disturbing posting a friend left on my facebook page.  She shared a posting by a prominent Christian evangelist.  In the post, he suggests that if you "mess with the postings of the ten commandments in Odessa, someone in Texas might make an exception to #6...you know, the do not murder one.  Somehow I don't think that would fit on a WWJD bracelet.  I didn't comment back.  I'm not sure why.  Am I being dishonest in not agreeing with this? I have found that being honest makes me more vulnerable.  It can also leave me feeling broken when others around me feel whole. So why do it?  Why strive for honesty when many don't or don't even feel it's important?  Why should I be honest when others around me consistently are not and don't even see the necessity of  it?  Why do I strive for honesty when many who are not honest receive rewards for deceit?   How do I show the love of Jesus to the dishonest?  Tied directly to that is how do I stay humble and hubris-less in my own life and within my own call?   Is it possible a righteous person in the eyes of God might consist of more than morality and rule following? This Lenten season has made me curiously empty, patient and watchful.  I think maybe my call to honesty is to live as authentic a life as I can, knowing that I am saved by the grace of Jesus.  Knowing that even with my mistakes and fumbles and shortcomings and failings I  am loved and  worthwhile.   Jesus never said that to be his follower would be easy...as a matter of fact he was very honest when he said,

"Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?"  

Matthew 16:24

(The Message)

St. Patrick's Day

I am in the midst of planning a great adventure.  I am planning a pilgrimage.  To my Mecca.  The sacred  isles of Iona and Lindisfarne in Scotland and Northern England.  I am currently reading The Spiritual Traveler-A Guide to the Sacred Sites and Pilgrim Routes in Britain. I am planning to walk my way along the ancient pilgrim trails.  As I ponder more, I find I am also interested in King Arthur's Route, which runs from Glastonbury to Tintagel in Wales.  As a mountain-hearted woman, my identity resides and was shaped by my Scottish ancestors who made the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina their home, coming primarily from 1700-1750.  The roots of Celtic Christianity, first planted by St. Patrick in 650 AD , and nurtured by Sts. Cuthbert, Aiden and Adrian ( to name a few) in the years after, shaped the hospitality, wisdom, love of nature and spirituality of my mountain culture.  St. Francis of Assisi, five centuries after St. Patrick, lived a  life of simplicity and spirituality based on the teachings of the Celtic Christian movement.

.........In contrast to Western Christianity, the Celtic church celebrated grace and nature as good

gifts from God and recognized the sacredness of all creation.  It had a love of mysticism and poetry, and included women in its leadership.  Its society was rural, hierarchical, family based and tribal in nature, with each tribe ruled by its own king.  Monasteries were family based, not celibate.  They wanted to center their thoughts and lives totally upon God, to be as close as spiritually possible to the Creator....

Cincinnati Museum of Art