Champaign-Urbana Deaf Catholic Ministry

Bucket List

I'm currently at grad school taking a class in human and faith development.  Today, we watched "The Bucket List", a movie starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson.  In the movie, both men are older and are told they have terminal cancer with a certain amount of time left to live.  They develop a "bucket list" of things they want to do before they die - skydive, see something majestic, laugh until they cry, the list goes on.  So, they take off together to try to fulfill all the things on this list.  Jack's character is very wealthy so he is easily able to finance the trip.  As they are sitting at the top of one of Egypt's great Pyramids, Morgan's character tells Jack's character that the Egyptians believed that when you go to heaven, before you are allowed entrance, you are asked two questions.  Your answers to those questions determine whether you enter or are turned away.  The questions:

1.  Have you experienced joy in your life?

2.  Have you given joy to others in your life? 

These two questions struck me - and still do as I write this.  They are actually not a bad way to think about living your life.  Everyone needs joy.  Maybe not all the time, maybe not even every day, but I believe everyone needs to experience joy at some point in their life.  As my professor noted, it's not the same as being happy.  Joy is deeper, more grounded, more fulfilling.  And, as a Christian, God tells us to share the gifts we have been given.  Joy is a gift, and it is a gift well worth sharing.  So - for myself, I'm going to be thinking about these two questions more as I go through life.  "Is this something that could give someone joy, or is this something that could give someone pain?"  If it could give someone pain, is it really worth doing?  Maybe it is.  Doctors often have to hurt patients while they heal them, especially those with cancer.  But, if I have a choice between joy and pain, I will definitely try as best I can to choose and practice joy.

God is in the Silence

Wow!

Yesterday (Friday) and today, St. Patrick's Church in Urbana hosted a women's retreat.  We had speakers from AVAH ministries come to talk about prayer and how we as women see ourselves.  It was a wonderful experience.  Two things struck me during the weekend - and both were from movies that were shown.  Both were developed by a company called nooma and written by Rob Bell.  You can find information about them at Nooma.com. 

The first movie, shown on Friday night during the prayer discussion, was about noise.  In the movie, Rob shares something that he learned from a man who records nature sounds for movies and CDs, etc.  The man said in 1968, in order to get one hour of complete silence (no planes, traines, cars, etc.) it took 15 hours of recording time.  Today, that same one hour of complete silence requires 2,000 HOURS of recording time!  That is over 83 days. 

Then, he shared the Bible story of Elijah from 1 Kings 19:11-13.  "[God said] “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the LORD ” And behold, the LORD was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.  When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Rob shared that there are some authors who say that the word for the "still voice" that Elijah hears is actually complete silence.  Some editions say "God was in the silence".  And so, we are challenged, those of us who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Hearing, to quiet ourselves so that we can hear God in the silence of our lives.

The second movie, called "Lump", was shown today.  Rob shares a story about his young son who was caught in a lie.  He was so frightened and ashamed that he ran upstairs away from his mother and hid under the covers of his parents' bed for 2 HOURS.  Once Rob came home, his wife told him what happened and he went up to talk to his son.  He was really very wise, I think.  He knew that his son was going to have to say "I'm sorry" to his mother, his brother, and others he had hurt.  But first, when he saw his son hiding under the covers, he realized there was a more important message to be shared first.  So, he pulled the covers back and looked at his son, and said a very important message.  What did he say?  He told his son, "There is nothing you can do that will make me love you less."  I want to repeat that.  "There is nothing you can do that will make me love you less."  His son comes over, hides his face in his shoulder, and sobs.  All Rob does is hug his son, rock him, and say "There is nothing you can do that will make me love you less."

Then - he reminds us - our Heavenly Father says the same thing.  The Bible says "Nothing can separate us from the love of God."  There is nothing you can do that will make God love you less.   This is an important message for me to remember.  I have made mistakes.  But, there is no mistake or sin so big that God will not continue to love me.  The same is true for you.  God loves you exactly as you are.

So - this week I will try to make time to be quiet with God, to listen for his "still small voice", and to remember that no matter what mistakes I may have made this week, God still loves me, completely, wholly, and passionately.  And guess what?  He loves you too!