“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive….”  

   (Howard Thurman, mentor to Martin Luther King)

This week, witnessing the solar eclipse was, for many, a memorable experience of coming alive. News reports featured people saying, for example: “We were so moved. It felt like a genuine sense of unity, with each other and with the universe.” “I felt a sense of belonging that I’ve never felt before!” “I cried the tears of joy that I cannot explain.” I did not see the eclipse, but hearing these stories brought me great joy. Coming alive can be contagious.

Easter is a time when the church comes alive. On March 31, the message rang out, “He is risen!” This is Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Hopeful congregants fill churches with soaring music and beautiful flowers. The spirit of joy shines through. Churches feel very much alive. Many homes (Christian and non-Christian) host Easter egg hunts and offer baskets full of candy, bringing squeals of delight all around.

The deeper message of Easter is that physical death is not the end of life. Christians have lots of ways of envisioning the afterlife, including hierarchies of angels. Buddhists, Hindus, and other religions around the world offer images of an afterlife. However one envisions what happens after physical death, Easter is an offering. The Easter message is that Jesus Christ is with us, guiding, holding, loving us. God is loving us into life, into “coming alive,” even until the moment of death.  

The center of the story is love. Interestingly, some who witnessed the solar eclipse echoed this theme. Many who proclaimed “not to be religious” said that witnessing the eclipse was a “spiritual experience.” They felt a sense of “safety”, of “being held” in a universal field.

So why does the Christian story, the story of God taking human form, living, dying, and rising, matter? And what does this story mean for you and me, right here, right now?

Howard Thurman was a theologian, an author and teacher. He understood that human beings have a special place in God’s cosmology. God created humans “in His image” to love and be loved. Thurman’s message is that being fully alive is humanity’s path of expressing love.

Writer and Celtic theologian J. Philip Newell speaks of love as God’s golden thread that binds us together. Newell writes:

“If the golden thread were to be ripped out of the clothing the whole garment would unravel. So it is with the image of God woven into the mystery of our being. If somehow it were to be extracted we would cease to exist.” (J. Philip Newell, Echo of the Soul: The Sacredness of the Human Body, Morehouse Publishing, 2000, page xi.)

Ideally, the Church is God’s offering, a divine organism known through Jesus Christ, to help us awaken to God’s love within and among us. It is to be a living body of Christ, a community of healing to a suffering world. The Church is, as the Zen koan says, the finger pointing at the moon, what scripture calls “the kingdom of God.”

From a young age, I felt a powerful pull towards Buddhist messages of compassion, as readers of this blog are aware. (See these posts: https://wordpress.com/post/incarnation-place.com/137 ; https://wordpress.com/post/incarnation-place.com/110 )

Today, Buddhist study and meditation practice deeply inform my Christian journey of faith. In Buddhist teachings, I learn practical tools for developing compassion. I also learn to identify and work with the obstacles to compassion, in myself and others. 

Buddhist meditation is for me a doorway into a deeper sense of authenticity, with myself and in relationship with others and the world. I learn how to make space for the depth of suffering and the examination of human sins, like pride, anger, greed, and so on, in myself and others.

Years ago, one of my sons dove into Zen practice and invited me to join him. I went on retreat at a Zen Buddhist retreat center. As I entered the zendo (Zen meditation hall), I felt a sense of what I can only call Divine Presence. It was so palpable I felt as though I could reach out and scoop it up. I felt startled. I’d been taught that this Presence was available only in Church, associated with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. But the feeling was unmistakable. No thought, confusion or doubt — just a knowing, as if held in the arms of Divine mystery.

Zen challenged me to give up my most cherished images of who I am, who God is, and trust that something new will emerge. Sometimes, I feel confusion, fear, and bewilderment. It is hard to stay in the space of “not knowing” who I am or what I believe. Yet, as I practice, a feeling of tremendous relief comes over me. It’s a relief to admit “not knowing”, to accept feelings of overwhelm and doubt to surface and speak their reality.

Through Buddhist meditation, a deeper sense of authenticity emerges, the very thing I was missing as a “practicing Christian”. This is a felt sense of belonging in myself, in the world, in God. This is an experience of Life breathing through me, in my body and mind. I come alive.

These are examples of what coming alive looks like in my life:

~ Various forms of writing, teaching, and coaching, including this blog

~ Time with my grandchildren

~ Walks in nature

I have also learned to set boundaries. I am not well suited for certain forms of service. I accept these limitations in myself and encourage to support to discover to do the same.

My life may look similar or very different from yours. My husband, for example, volunteers on medical mission trips in rural communities, often in Asia. He also volunteers in a shop, helping restore antique airplanes. They restore each airplane to ensure that it will fly. Bret thrives in pursuing these activities. Here, he comes alive.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

~ What makes you come alive? 

~ Do you struggle to answer that question? If so, what is this struggle for you? 

~ What helps you know you are not alone in the struggle?

Feel free to post your responses in the comments section.