Reflections for 2/20/13

"But all things should be done decently and in order."(1 Corinthians 14:40)

One of the reasons I like being an Episcopalian is the liturgy.  I like that there is a clear beginning and ending. I love the rhythm of the church year.  I like that most liturgies are done decently.  For some this doesn't work, not enough excitement, no "spirit."  I don't know what that means or how you measure that.  What I think it means is that it doesn't speak to that person.

I also know that I like when my day to day living feels like there's some order and things went decently well. Perhaps not perfect and perhaps not even as I might have imagined, but the day seem to flow in an orderly fashion, nothing bumped into something else.

I guess part of this points to a longing for some sense of control.  Yet there are always parts of our day that are out of our control.  Things come up that we didn't anticipate and yet require a response from us.  Perhaps it is the case that when most of our lives our running decently and in order, that we are better equipped with the "what the..." moments.

When nothing is going right and chaos seems to have taken over, where no sense of order is evident, that despair and frustration set in.

We don't a hard rigidity in our lives, some flexibility is really useful.  But to have no outline, no parameter with which to work, I find that nothing gets done.

Blessings,
Ed