Submitted by Paz on
So, what should our posture be? Many of us I’m sure can think back to our younger days when we were routinely reminded to “sit up straight and watch our posture.” What certainly seemed like a parental annoyance back then could have simply been to prepare us for the days that were to come. As I think of the sheer energy it takes just to “do life” and in particular to press on with the persevering strength needed to finish the race I’m challenged with the thought that there has to be a more life-giving approach. One that doesn’t feel as though we’re continually swimming upstream or being buffeted by headwinds. Could it be that we should take on the posture of a discoverer? Just think…as we are comforted with the reality that there is a perfect plan for each of our lives, “what if” we began to change our perspective to one of discovering what the plan is for each day? What a contrast to that of the never ending and ever elusive sense that we have to be the creator or said another way, “makes things happen.” Now, to be clear, I am not suggesting that we sit back and just wait to see what happens. Rather I believe we are called, as we endure and travel along the journey of life, to “lean in” to life putting our hands to work as we engage and discover what each day holds for us. It makes me think of the trek of Columbus into uncharted waters or the archaeologists, Howard Carter and George Herbert excavating the newly discovered ruins of Tutankhamun. Each woke up not knowing what the day would bring but remained enduringly faithful to “engage the day” and see what great discoveries that particular day might hold. I’ve often wondered, too, what must Michelangelo have thought when he looked at that big block of marble. Do you think he saw David in the stone before he put his hands to work? Did the task before him seem overwhelming? What we do know is that it was only as Michelangelo put his hands to work with hammer and chisel that David began to be revealed from the rock. So what’s our take away? These times suggest we consider a renewed posture, the posture of active endurance as we discover what life has in store for us. Endurance produces a persevering and sustaining strength that over time gives us the faith and hope we need to “chisel away” at the very mountains of life that many of us find before us. Peace.
Jon Thurman