My life, like many other person’s lives, includes keeping a number of balls in the air. Sometimes it’s manageable and other times it’s like Mr. Moose’s punch lines on Captain Kangaroo and they all come crashing down on our heads. Most people figure out how to juggle at some point along the way, although we all drop some balls, while keeping others in the air. Each of us has to find our own way to stay organized so that we don’t drop any more than we have to.

I learned over the years to maintain a to-do list. That list has taken different forms at different times, but it’s a necessity for me. Some of you know that when you speak to me on a Sunday, I ask you to email me to remind me; Sundays are terrible days for getting something on a to-do list. If it doesn’t get written down, it doesn’t happen.  Every Sunday I find myself trying to keep track of 1000 details – literally.  In addition to keeping track of the liturgies and parish logistics, I also try to remember names, what’s going on with people, and all the things on my to-do list that seeing people reminds me about. It’s too much to remember one more thing unless I get it written down.

This is why I was skeptical of one of the candidates for our Parish Administrator position, when the candidate told our interview committee that he/she didn’t need to write things down. That person simply remembered all the things that needed to be done.  I am highly skeptical of that approach, because I know how many things go across that particular desk. Unless a person is some kind of savant, there are just too many demands and requests to keep them all organized organically. Needless to say, we didn’t hire that person.

 If you have a to-do list mindset, you know that as new things enter the list, it involves reordering the existing list. My UPS days taught me the Franklin Covey system of organizing all tasks using a matrix system like the one President Eisenhower used; keeping track of tasks based on urgency and importance. That really helps determine what should happen next. But, when a list is chronically long, some things never get off the bottom of the list. For me, dropping balls happens when I have so many urgent items that I can’t get to the part of the list where things aren’t as important. Some days, some weeks, and even some seasons simply don’t allow it. 

This is why I have trouble getting rid of books. In my mind, I have a running list of texts I will get around to reading when I have time. Every time I look for a book on my shelves, I find three more I am tempted to pull out and add to the list. Eventually I’ll get to read them all, right? It is also why I have a number of pieces of furniture and other projects at home that are waiting for me to get to them when there’s time.  It’s just a matter of importance. If I could just have fewer important things to do, I could get to them.

For some people, their spiritual life is a bottom of the list proposition. Many of us tend to think that forming our spiritual life is a “when I get to it” proposition. This is particularly easy to do if we buy into the “future heaven” model of Christianity; the idea being that we live in such a manner that we get the rewards of heaven when the time comes. The age that constitutes “old” is a moving target, so therefore we tend to think we always have time to work on such things. Richard Rohr deals with this in the book the Men’s Group is reading in February, Falling Upward. At one point in the book he addresses the reality that most people think of heaven as a future reward, whereas it is actually a state of consciousness available to us now.

When Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven, he doesn’t mean the future heaven in the clouds where we spend eternity with God. He means the reality of God’s Kingdom being lived here and now. Eternal life is not just a promise for tomorrow when we’re old and about to pass into the next world; it’s about living now in such a way that recognizes the places where things exist “on earth as it is in heaven.” Rohr offers that heaven is realizing such things here and now; recognizing the joy of community and the reality of our identity as God intended it. Hell is the loss of that reality when we allow it to be replaced with other things, other messages about who and what we are. He quotes author Brian McLaren and his poignant description of the standard way of thinking that relegates our faith life to an “evacuation plan for the next world”.

Every once in a while something really important gets pushed farther and farther down my list to the point where I miss it or blow it completely. Worst case scenarios would include an opportunity to do something with one of my girls, or not accepting and invitation to a wonderful event that I remember just after it is over. Our spiritual life is just that. It is an open invitation to a way of life here and now that can make heaven a reality here and now, not something we are simply hoping for at some point when we’ve run out of energy to do the things we’ve been telling ourselves we’d rather be doing. For Episcopalians, the fear is not that we screw it up and find ourselves in Hell; God doesn’t work that way. But we might ask why we would pass up an opportunity to live as one who is fully alive and not just repeating the same patterns endlessly, hoping to find some meaning in their comfort. 

Don’t think our spiritual growth isn’t important. There is endless opportunity for discovery of our true, God-given selves, and thereby of God’s love for us. Life is busy for most of us, to be sure, and my advice is to move our spiritual growth up the list a bit. We’re a few weeks away from the start of Lent. Perhaps we can start thinking about how a 40-day journey might help us go deeper? Whatever the course that works for us, it is worth pursuing here and now, and not assuming we’ll get to it later. We can read our bibles, share with others, participate in worship, sit with God, and do any number of things that take us beyond ourselves.  

Check your to-do list. Where have you put yourself on it? Where does finding true joy rank? Where does God rank? Maybe it’s time to reorganize the list a bit.

Tom +

This is another day, O Lord. I know not what it will bring forth, but make me ready, Lord, for whatever it may be. If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely. If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly. If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently. And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly. Make these words more than words, and give me the Spirit of Jesus. Amen.