Unprecedented times

I’m going to give you fair warning here:  what I’m about to write here will probably offend just about everyone I know to one degree or another.  I’m not an expert, and this is all just my opinion.  You don’t have to agree.  The thing is, your opinions are for the most part inexpert as well, and we all quote or share videos of “experts” that only support our current way of thinking, so there’s that.  If you don’t like it that’s fine with me, I’ll still love you and we can still be friends.  If you choose not to be friends after you read it, then I suppose we weren’t really friends in the first place if that’s all it takes to cut me off.  This will appear on my social media accounts because I get to express my opinion there.  I will delete any comments that appear that are disparaging to anyone or are attempting to argue, because I’m simply not going to argue.  I’m not giving that control to anyone.  You can use your own space for that.

We live in “Unprecedented times”. 

I’ve been hearing that a lot lately, but honestly, I think it’s kind of a dumb thing to say.  Every day is new so isn’t it all unprecedented?

There’s a lot of stuff happening right now in the world that is devastating to everyone to different degrees, and we have to learn to adjust somehow in “unprecedented” ways.  Before we do that, however, we have to understand the truth of what we are dealing with. 

For some time now I’ve experienced a genuine sadness over how we all as a people are treating each other.  We have allowed ourselves to be divided by false information, rumor, and even more minor issues to the point where there is nothing left to hold us together.  All that seems to matter is each person’s individual desires with no regard to the impact they might have on the life of any other human.  Our politicians tell us who and what to hate, and we should of course trust them because they all have our best interests at heart (that’s sarcasm just to be clear).  Add to this the current slate of politicians on both sides of the fence who use anything and everything to their advantage for their personal gain, and who tell us they are doing it all for our benefit.  And we eat it all up as though they actually even know who we are.  When I hear the things that politicians come up with to say about each other I feel like I’m listening to 5-year-olds argue.  I’m not singling out any party here either.  This is ALL of them!  What’s worse is we are actually listening to and supporting them! 

This is the environment into which a virus is introduced.

One would think that something as serious as this is would bring us together, but we’re already too far down the road of selfish ambition to make it that easy.  Nothing is off limits to political partisanship.  Instead of working together at a time when we need it most, when one side does something good the other side can’t possibly admit it so they have to do something the opposite and call it good instead.  Then the finger pointing starts and everything comes to a standstill.  Everyone caught in the middle suffers, all the while pointing fingers as well.

My point is this:  our political leaders are not special.  They are not better than us.  They are human too.  They all do some things right, and some things wrong.  None of them are all good, or all bad.  If I cut you off in traffic one day, does that mean I’m a bad person?  No more than you are when you do the same thing.

In order to agree with one thing a politician does, I do not have to agree with, or like, everything he/she does.  I actually have the ability to think for myself and recognize the conflict I see with my own eyes.  Open your own eyes and see what’s there for yourself instead of just accepting everything you are told!

The outright stupidity that infects and divides us over this is astounding.

Someone makes a statement like “Don’t live in fear”, and someone else picks it up and makes it some ridiculous rallying cry.  Fear is a choice.  You can do the right thing and not live in fear, but remember they are two different things that are not dependent on the other.  Just because I choose to live in a manner that you define as fearful, does not make it true that I live in fear.  It only proves that your opinion of me is irrelevant.  You are merely trying to manipulate me into living like you, who live in your anger.  And anger is just an aggressive response to fear.  So tell me who’s really living in fear then?  All you are trying to do is gain strength in numbers to prove to yourself that you are “not afraid”.  If I don’t want politicians to tell me what to think, why would I let anyone else have the right to tell me what I fear?

We’ve become too lazy to think for ourselves so we just keep repeating the thoughts of others, with no effort to learn any facts.  We simply accept the uneducated and/or untested opinions that skip across our screens that reinforce our existing beliefs.  When something different comes up, it is simply ignored or attacked, and the person who posts it is now considered untrustworthy or worse, an enemy.

I’ve seen another trend where someone uses statistics from other movements to deflect from the issue.  Most of you who do this do not support those movements in any substantive way.  You don’t work with them, you don’t give money to them, and when you get their emails you don’t answer them.  So how dare you hijack their work to support your own misguided attempt at selfishly giving yourself some credibility.  All you do is undermine any sense of integrity you had to begin with.

There are a lot of things that have been done wrong, or at the very least, inconsistently as we as a society have tried to deal with this pandemic.  Even to the point of denying its existence.  Let’s not forget that this is a worldwide pandemic.  It’s not just here in America, but because we’ve made it a political issue instead of a medical one, and put the idea of dealing with it into a political structure, we are now dealing with it as though we’re children on a playground trying to avoid cooties!

But here’s the thing: There are other diseases that we have not encountered here in America and other First World societies.  We need to acknowledge this and use the situation we are now in as a way to recognize what we can change in order to deal with future infections in a better way.  The First World has no idea what to do with contagion, and we have lived in blissful ignorance of the threat and call it “freedom”.  So, we reduce safe behaviors to “taking away our rights” because we are truly selfish in this.  There are viruses developing and spreading freely in Third World countries, they are mutating and becoming more virulent.  They are untreated for the simple reason that it is not profitable to develop a cure for a poor country.  They are ignored, but make no mistake; they are still coming.  There have been warnings of an approaching pandemic for years now, we just didn’t listen.

For this reason alone, we should at least be approaching the need for a response to this as an experiment that requires that we follow the prescribed patterns of behavior so we can find out the best ways to control it and save our own lives.  Instead we fall to the ground and wave our limbs uselessly and cry about the violation to our rights!  And people die, but instead of being concerned about the deaths or infections we find another useless video made by someone who wants to be an authority on something but isn’t, that we think somehow justifies our existing point of view.  For the record, it doesn’t justify anything, it only proves your willful ignorance.

We treat reports of death as inconsequential so we can maintain our ignorant bliss. 

“Do you actually know anyone who has died from this?”

Even asking the question is just a reflection of ignorant selfishness, because it wouldn’t change your existing view regardless of the answer.  You would merely find some explanation that made it acceptable to deny the cause.

“Oh he/she had underlying conditions.”

And that makes a difference how?  We shelter in place and practice social distancing and wear masks to protect those that have the underlying conditions.  As a reminder, THIS IS NOT JUST ABOUT YOU!  It’s about everyone you know or come in contact with!

“I know someone who knows someone who died of cancer, but they said they had to report it as a virus death.”

There are actually verified reports of this happening.  Again, many things are being done wrong as we learn to respond to this threat appropriately.  When government is involved in anything the response is usually at best, cumbersome and unwieldy.  I’m not an advocate for government overreach in any way, but if we are going to get a handle on this we need to make mistakes first and err on the side of caution.  The more we know and understand the better we can adjust to the reality of what we need to do.

“The guy in charge fired someone who was saying something he didn’t like.”

Again, how does this change the issue whether it’s true or not?  This is just following a persistent pattern set by the politicians and media to launch personal attacks on someone who is saying something we are simply too immature to hear.  Because, again, we have given up the ability to think intelligently for ourselves.

This is a worldwide issue.  It’s not about American rights.  It’s not about “OSHA regulations”.  It’s not about “one world government”, or any other conspiracy you care to name.

I’m going to take a moment to point out what should be obvious.

This is a virus.

The virus doesn’t care how old you are.

The virus doesn’t care how famous you are.

The virus doesn’t care what race you are.

The virus doesn’t care how much money you make.

The virus doesn’t care what you think you know.

The virus doesn’t care what political party you belong to.

The virus doesn’t care about your rights.

The virus doesn’t care about your religion or faith.

The virus doesn’t care about anything.

The virus doesn’t have the ability to care, or emote about anything at all.  It’s a virus.  It merely looks for an environment to thrive in.  That environment is you and me.

I need people.  I need human contact. 

Unfortunately, so does the virus.  What I need, and do, for myself, could now become a threat to the safety and well-being of others.  It’s hard enough to accept this on a basic level, but when we add political posturing to the process it completely overshadows the reality of our situation.

I will go on to say that as a Christian, I am appalled and ashamed of the way a significant portion of the Church has chosen to treat others during this time.  Both within and without the Church body I have watched people being treated cruelly, and so viciously.  I am completely disgusted by this behavior.  Those who do this have simply put their politics over their faith.  They are dictated to by hate rather than the Love of Christ, and it sickens me.  To you I would say this:  Step out of your current thought structure and re-examine your actions in light of what Jesus would really do!  Try to understand what Jesus meant when he said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  We are supposed to be different! 

So many times, I have heard it said, “I follow God’s law not man’s.”  This is commendable and I agree with that statement.  However, you completely undermine any credibility you may have engendered when you only follow God’s law when it agrees with something you want to do, and conveniently ignore it when it suits your purpose.  God’s law is always God’s law, not just when you like it.  His Law is Love, and our job is reconciliation, not judgement.

I’m not perfect.  I can’t claim any better record at actually following through with this than anyone else.  I am trying my hardest though.  I’ve learned more and more throughout my life that Love really is the answer. 

This thing really is killing people, and we can do something about it.  You will say something like, “I care, I just don’t think we should be doing it this way….”. 

Please just shut up.  Take responsibility for your own actions, and start thinking like someone else is at least as important as you are to yourself.

I know I am not alone when I say I have held the hands of the dead.  They are impossibly cold.  I have tried in vain to impart some warmth back into them, and I have discovered to my despair that I cannot bring anyone back to life.  There are no do overs.

If someone I loved were to die from this virus, and it could be shown that it came from you, that you were in fact responsible for my loved one’s death because you couldn’t be bothered to care enough to take precautions, then I would come to you.

We would have a meeting, and you would not welcome it.  I would not threaten you.  I would not harm you or do anything to you.

What I would do, would be to give you the unimaginable weight of my grief.

I would place upon your shoulders the overwhelming, unbearable burden of the effect of your own actions onto your shoulders.

I would watch alongside you as it weighed us both down together. 

As it pressed us to the earth and inexorably crushed us.

As it slowly and inevitably left us all but lifeless.

And then I would take it back.

I would forgive you, and take your hand to help you heal.

I would love you once again.

And then I would sit beside you, and take your hand and ask,

“Was the life we lost worth it?”

©Dan Bode 2020

His Glory

Christmas 2019

Christmas is not the only day we see His Glory.
Let us never forget that He calls us to Love every day,
Every hour,
Every minute,
Every second,
Every single moment of our lives.

This is where His Glory is most present.
This is when we know Him best
When we Love.

Humanity does not deserve my praise,
Only Him,
The babe, the Man, my God.
If all creation sings His praises,
Who am I to be silent?

There is no one on this earth who can tell me who to love or who to hate.
There is no one who can demand my love,
But He can call me to it.
And so I seek to reach the goal He sets for me,
Not on just this one day of the year but rather -

Always.

Dan Bode Copyright 2019

This Is Not a Path

Years ago, as I would walk my daily route to my office from the train station, I would walk along a cement pathway that cut through a portion of a back area near the Convention Center.  The pathway was only about twenty feet long and bordered a lawn area on one side and a planter bed on the other.  I had been walking this same route every weekday for a few years when one day I reached the other end of this short pathway to find an obstruction.

A metal signpost had been erected in the exact center of the pathway.  Attached to the post at chest height by bolts through the center was a sign that read,

“This is not a path”.

I was confused, to say the least.

I had been using this as a path for some time.

But it was NOT a path. 

There was a sign that very clearly stated this fact.

I stood there as my mind plodded along considering the implications for several minutes.

I even took a picture of it.

Was it a path before, and then not a path?

Or, was it never a path and I just never knew it until some unknown individual decided everyone needed to know?

Was I in violation of the law?  (I pictured undercover law enforcement lying in wait to tackle me for this flagrant violation as I cast surreptitious glances behind the bushes near the now “NOT a” path.)

And now, having been caught out by the signage, should I commit a collateral violation by stepping off the “NOT a” path onto the lawn (which was clearly not a path and never meant as one, which I had always assumed the “NOT a” path was there to protect)?

Quandaries often beget conundrums.

On this, my first encounter with the signpost, I carefully stepped around it without touching the grass and completed my daily sojourn to my office.

As the days progressed, I found myself completely unable to alter my route to work to avoid the “NOT a” path.  My feet were drawn to that cement like metal to a magnet, and as I approached it, I found myself looking over my shoulder to see if anyone was monitoring my movements.  At one point I discovered that someone else who walked the “NOT a” path took active offense at the sign’s legalistic declaration. 

Half of the sign was bent back around the signpost. 

While I was inwardly overjoyed to find that someone else shared my disdain for the message this sign conveyed, I shuddered to think of the consequences of this most flagrant disregard.  I carefully avoided touching it thereby leaving no fingerprints to implicate myself in this most welcome vandalism.  It was easier to get around the sign now.

Several days later I found that someone else had straightened the sign.  There was still a very obvious crease left where it had been bent, and the paint had cracked marring the previously smoothly pristine surface of the message.

And, as before, I walked past the sign with my now characteristic nonchalance.

Another span of days passed uneventfully until I set my foot upon the path again and found that the sign had been bent back again, except that this time my fellow “NOT a” path-er had bent back BOTH sides of the sign to completely wrap it around the post!

It seemed that war had been declared.

A few days later I arrived to find the sign had been straightened once again with the creases considerably more prominent than previously noted.

A week passed, and I had by now learned to approach the “NOT a” path with an air of expectation, constantly wondering what new iteration of sabotage I might find.  I sometimes found myself wondering about it as I drank my morning coffee at home before I began my journey.  As I eagerly approached the “NOT a” path I noted from a distance a difference in the sign, but I was too far away to identify the nuances of the change.  I walked a little faster as I approached and found, to my great surprise, that half the sign was missing!

The left half had simply vanished!  Closer examination revealed the wonderful perpetrator had simply bent the left half of the sign back and forth until, in its weakened state, the metal simply surrendered. 

It was a Monday and the final battle had begun. 

Tuesday found the other half of the sign bent back again in what I perceived to be a precursor to its removal.  I began to picture, in my mind, the previously removed left half hanging on the wall of someone’s garage reading, “This…i…no…pa”, patiently waiting to be reunited with its other half.

Wednesday the sign post-er tried to rally against the onslaught by bending the remnant of the sign back to as close to a straightened position as was possible, but it seemed a half-hearted effort at best.

Thursday was the last gasp where I found only a one-inch strip of the metal sign remaining where the bolts that held the sign to the post were located.

Friday even the small strip was gone.

All that was left was a lonely post left standing in the middle of what was apparently, once again, a “path”.

It has been several years since I walked that route to my office as I changed my commuter route, so I went back to check the status of the path.

The path is still there, as well as the post.

It is still used as a path, and there is still no sign.

It occurs to me that I often use things for purposes for which they were not originally intended, and that most of the time that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Sometimes, however, it doesn’t really do me any good. 

Sometimes I’m using something a different way because I’m too impatient to wait until I have the correct tools to do it right.  Sometimes I’m stubbornly selfish enough to just barrel right into a wall and knock it down, rather than build a door in it and leave the structure intact as the original builder intended.

Sometimes I look back on my life and realize that some of my views and actions were just plain wrong, and that I now disagree with my old self in many ways.

The problems I face most often arise when I see someone attempting to selfishly use another person for their own purposes.  Trying to control another for personal gain is never acceptable.  Relationships are not transactions, and people are not currency.  Yet that is what our politicians and media elite on ALL sides consider the rest of us to be.  We are simply a means to their ends.  We are used in ways in which we should not be used.  We hate whom we are told we should hate.  We deny existence to those we simply do not want.  We spew hatred and call it tolerance.  Honesty is rarely seen, and integrity is all but non-existent.  We allow it with our compliance, and we are simply walked upon.

We have become pavement.

A path that should not be a path.

Your choice is this: will you be the well-trod and worn-down stone, or will you be the one who stands up for those around you that are beaten down and disavowed – the ones you yourself so loudly shout down in disagreement?

Now consider that each person who reads this will interpret it to justify his/her own view.  They will come to the conclusion that the “other side” does this exactly!

 

My response to that will be that they have missed my point completely.

My point is that we – each and every one of us – is guilty of this at one time or another.  We all need to realize, and practice, the idea that understanding does NOT equal agreement, and we are not right simply by virtue of standing on a bigger soap box.

Sometimes I realize that it’s actually easier to apply love, grace, kindness and forgiveness than it is to find ways to justify my - sometimes actually justifiable - anger or disagreement.

There is joy in peace, and from this I find it easier to love.

I have found, finally, that love is always the more welcome path, and the most wonderful journey.

It always leads me home.

©Dan Bode 2019

WDJD?

WWJD

What Would Jesus Do?

He would live for you.

Jesus states that “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”(John 15:13).  I suppose I could probably make an argument that if He also says to “love your enemy”, then my enemy could eventually, in some sense, at some point in time, be my friend as well.  And then, of course, logic dictates that I might lay down my life for them as well.  Scary thought.  It’s happened before.

My point is that I have a choice in how I spend my life.  I could potentially choose to die in someone’s place in some instances.  So, Jesus gave me direction in the manner with which I could live the life He gave me.

But He didn’t give me the choice of where, when, how, or why I would be born, because He has reserved that option for Himself alone.

He chose to die for me, but He chose to live for me first.  He came into this world for that specific purpose, knowing what each of us needed.  No one else has the ability to love in that way, and yet He calls me to love others as I know He loves me. 

This level of love has, in the past, seemed so far beyond my abilities that I would simply give up trying and give in to the needs of the moment.  I would just do what I wanted, responding angrily to something with the rest of the crowd.  Or maybe trying to fix something, or someone, that was not my responsibility and failing miserably.

But real Love, just isn’t like that.

Real Love desires that I give up my prejudices, my anger, my politics, the things I was taught, and all the other “encumbrances” that I’ve accumulated throughout my life, even when I’m faced with all of those same things in my friends, whom I would in fact lay down my life for despite our differences.

My wife and I were talking the other day, and as we were driving past an insanely crowded mall with miles long lines of cars waiting to get into the parking lot she asked, “Why do you think people do that to themselves?  What is worth all that?”

My answer was nothing is worth doing that, but I think we do it because we have such a limited ability to express love for each other that we’ve given in to the idea of “things” as an expression of love.  We have reached a point where we have devoted entire industries to the idea that we can universally express love to our fellow man for only one day out of the year.  Some of us get a few weeks out of it.

We do this because this way we can get out of making a continuous commitment to love others on a regular basis.  Because if we love someone more than that one day then it interferes with our own desires for ourselves.  This becomes how we choose to live, and to die.  And so we choose to live in a constant state of discontent, because no one will give us what we want.

In light of what we’ve become, the question of “What Would Jesus Do?” is perhaps not as relevant as we think it is anymore.  I wonder if the more pertinent question today is, “What Did Jesus Do?”

It’s a question that has already been answered.

He chose to live – for you.  It’s the only answer He could give, and the only One who could give it.

Merry Christmas.

WDJD?

©Dan Bode 2018

Love Conquers All.

I'm reposting this one from 2013 because it reflects a lot of the thoughts that have been going through my head for a while now.  I'll be posting more stuff again in the coming weeks dealing with many of the topics that figure prominently in the news today - because I believe that almost everything that comes up in almost every discussion in our society today is tainted by a lack of the one thing we need the most: Love.

"Love Conquers All"
I’ve heard that phrase for most of my life at one time or another, and I’m not sure I ever really understood it until now. I have no idea why it took so long.
It portrays love in the sense of the conquering hero.
The one whom no enemy can stand against.
The difference for me now is that I understand that the battlefield on which all this conflict takes place is in my own heart.
When I examine it realistically I have to admit that I always thought of it in terms of conquering someone else. I wanted love to conform others to my own expectations of what they should be. I wanted love to be at my command.
Imagine my surprise then, when the blade turned upon me instead.
Love will, if I let it, overcome my pain to grant forgiveness, or ask for it.
It will overcome my pride to extend my hand in friendship to my enemy.
It will overcome my anger to allow my faithfulness.
It will overcome me.
Love conquers all, but first, love conquers me. My walls must be overcome from within.
It is sometimes hard to love, but worth your whole life to reach just one moment of being completely known by another, and to know the other in turn. To reach out your hand unseen in the dark knowing the hand of another is already there in expectation to take it.
It is worth everything for just one moment of this. To be known, and not forgotten.
Living your life in pursuit of that first, and maybe only, all encompassing instant of perfection.
Because God is Love, He created us as an expression of Himself, hence we are created in His image. As an expression of God Himself we are inherently worthy of His sacrifice for us, and yet God on a cross seems so incongruous to our concept of love. That’s the problem with our interpretation of love.   It’s so watered down we have no concept of what real love is. It’s as though in so many ways we have sanitized the true expression of love to be bloodless. It’s all butterflies and sunny days to our general way of thinking.
We seem to forget that love "endures all things"(1Cor 13:7), and the need for endurance implies conflict, distraction, and sometimes pain. We should love fiercely letting nothing come between us.
Love, when practiced honestly, becomes beauty incarnate.
Love influences the practice of my life. It gives everything I do different meaning.
Love truly is an action, and yet it is more. It becomes what we do, where we go, who we know and how we know them. Love cannot reach its full potential in our lives if we do not allow ourselves to live in complete surrender to it. If I am only capable of loving someone when things are all good, then I don’t really love at all.
Each of the qualities of love (1Cor 13) implies that there is a need for that quality because its opposite exists in the world. Patience is needed because the lack of it causes bitterness. Kindness is needed because cruelty exists. The difficult part of this is that we all know that we are capable of dealing out all the opposing forces of love. We focus on the positive aspects because we feel better when we actively pursue them as a lifestyle. There is healing in the practice of love.
“Love your enemies” (Lk 6:35), is the most difficult aspect of love, but Jesus gave us examples of it throughout His life. Judas was the most difficult enemy to deal with because he was already loved. His ability to cause pain was increased by the measure of love Christ gave him. There are times when the evidence of the love of God seems so profound to me that I actually understand why some people fear it rather than readily accept it.
Even the one who betrayed Christ was allowed at His table. Christ knew that Judas was His betrayer, and yet His love for him was such that He still desired Judas’ presence in the Passover meal; one of the most intimate of settings.
Judas didn’t deserve that and he knew it. Jesus knew this as well, and gave it to him anyway. All this made Judas’ betrayal that much more profound to Judas, for the greater the love we give when betrayed causes that much more pain for the betrayer.
And is it not one of the most important aspects of love that we should find the ability to love our enemies for the simple fact that when we sin we ourselves act as the most intimate of enemies to God, and He loves us still? Is He not the greatest example of loving one’s enemy simply by loving us for, “He loved us while we were yet sinners” (Romans 5:8), let alone the ones we condemn without authority?
It is the ability of love to not only conquer all things, but to remain after everything is done and over with. After all the blood has been shed, the ground churned, and with the vultures circling overhead to pick at the corpses of our discontent, Love walks among us to restore us after all the pain to a healed state ready to love again. It is self perpetuating by nature so that when we learn to love ourselves, as God loves us, we understand that we must do something to maintain it in ourselves in order to stay alive to share it with others.
His love makes us matter.
And so we are filled with possibilities.
Because of His love Jesus not only died, but He came back for us!
He. Came. Back.
It is this single, overwhelming act of love that inspires every other expression of true love that we can ever submit to or practice in the human experience.
Through His redemption we are alive with the potential to discover the worth of our very souls.
Live in love,
Do battle in love,
Rest in love,
Die in love,
Return in love.
God did.
It’s called Easter.
©Dan Bode 2010

The Day After

It was Christmas in 1914 during World War I.  

The British and Germans had fought to something of a stalemate.  It was bitterly cold on the front in Belgium where both sides were holding the line in fortified trenches in the early part of one of the worst wars in history.

And it was Christmas.

With no light to see the target the shooting stopped at night, and in the silence German voices were heard yelling across the “no man’s land” separating the lines, “Merry Christmas, Englishmen!”  The British returned their greetings, yelling into the frigid night.  Someone started singing Christmas carols which were joined by the opposite side.

Eventually, soldiers on both sides ventured out of their trenches – unarmed – to greet each other and exchange gifts of chocolate, cigarettes and other small extravagances that mean so much to a soldier in the field.  A truce of sorts was declared, and no shots were fired during Christmas Day on this part of the line.

For that one day they were able to put aside their human-ness, and take up the image of Christ to celebrate His birth. Yet they knew as well that they would soon be obligated to try to kill each other even as they celebrated the anniversary of new life come to save us all from death.All because of Christmas.  

I suppose Jesus wasn’t called “The Prince of Peace” for nothing.

The day after Christmas has always puzzled me. 

We spend weeks, if not months, leading up to Christmas Day, touting it as the “happiest time of the year”.  There are lights everywhere, and everyone is happy, and generous, and caring.

But then it’s over, and they aren’t anymore.  The lights go out, and, seemingly, so does our joy.

The days after Christmas are a period of undefined silence in which anything can happen.  We come down from that period of frenzied activity leading up to that one day with no idea what to do with our lives, but take down the decorations and throw the wrapping paper in the trash.

It’s in this period where Christ can strip us bare.  We have the opportunity to acknowledge His love and beauty, or we can pick up again the mantle of our humanity and return to the savagery we seek to leave behind.  This is not new; I do it every day. I give up the gifts He’s given me and return to being simply human.  

I give up the better part to become the least.

I give up being more than human, and become even less. 

Then He speaks, “Yesterday was my birthday, but I’m still here.  Why do you celebrate only one day of my life?  I am always present!  I still Love you!  Remember!  Remember! ”

So I wish you a Merry Day After Christmas!

And a Merry Day After the Day After Christmas!

He is still here….

©Dan Bode 2017