Being Opened: 6 September 2009

There’s a lot that grabs our attention during the course of any given day. If we work outside our home perhaps we focus on things such as the work in front of us, what our colleagues are doing, phone calls, meetings, schedules, agendas, appointments, deadlines, etc. Work days can become a frenzy of activity and at times leave us feeling exhausted at the end of the day or the work week. Those of us who are no longer working by choice or because of circumstances beyond our control can be no less busy during the day as our fellow nine-to-fiver’s. We may very well find our days filled with a great many activities some of which may range from tending to elderly family members or perhaps job hunting to running errands, babysitting the grandkids, garden and lawn maintenance, keeping up with housework, and so many other activities that we too can find ourselves quite drained at the end of the day. We certainly are a people who tend to focus on doing something…anything to stay busy. This is not necessarily bad or wrong but we can miss much when we so often immerse our selves and our minds in a flurry of activities day after day and…at the end of the day find ourselves vegging out in front of the TV or busying ourselves with even more activities. After all, grandma used to say, “Idle hands are the devil’s handiwork”. Another saying I often hear is: “If you’re standing still, you’re falling behind”.

Imagine the following scenes: First we have a family with kids in school. After school a son is busy with sports practice, a daughter has dance lessons and of course, neither of which happens at the same time. Their mother is constantly on the go providing transportation to and from her children’s activities. Their father often works late. It is a very rare occasion when all their schedules coincide so that they can, as a family, actually sit down and enjoy a meal together. In another household husband and wife both work and here too their schedules and activities do not always offer them the “luxury” of being able to spend evenings truly connecting with each other. They both get home from work, the TV gets turned on to catch the evening news, the woman begins to prepare the evening meal (most often a quick and easy “packaged” sort of meal) while her male partner may bury his attention in the newspaper or go off to do a “quick” something or another that needs tending to before supper is ready. (At our house there is no such thing as a “quick” project.) Oh, the members of these two families do talk to each other but more often than not the focus is on doing, keeping busy and with different schedules, not to mention that TV blaring in the background. All this hectic busyness of these two fictional families should cause us to wonder just how often, at times, we deliberately/intentionally stop our busyness and open ourselves up to good old fashioned communication and really concentrate on hearing and listening to the dear ones with whom we live.

And the people brought to Jesus the deaf man with a speech impediment. Two little but oh so powerful words from Jesus: “Be Opened” offered this man both a cure and great opportunity (Mark 7:32-34). No longer could this man be labeled as “the deaf man” – he could now speak, hear, tell people his name, carry on a conversation with anyone and for the first time really listen to others. Not only were his ears and mouth opened, his whole life and way of being was opened to great and wonderful possibilities to connect with people in ways that were previously not available to him.

Amid the busyness of all our doing, how open are we to the many opportunities we are given each day for rich and meaningful connection and communication with those closest to us? And how open are we to looking for, seeing, hearing, taking into our hearts the multitude of Sacred wonders all around us? The already bright orange leaves on one tree in the woods at the edge of the pond and the little fawn prancing effortlessly across the field this morning caused me to pause a while for they truly imaged to my eyes and soul the great abundance of sacred gifts all around!

Peace on the Journey.