Always Be Ready

If you've been reading this blog for any time at all, you know that I watch for "spiritual trends" that are sending me a message.  Over the last five hours, I've been bombarded with the message "Always be ready."

The Old Testament reading in church this morning was from Isaiah, and the prophet was saying to the Jewish people to be ready because they never knew when the "savior" would appear.

A few minutes later The New Testament lesson was to early Christians to always be ready because they never knew when their savior would return. A further admonition from the passage was that you couldn't wait until you thought the time was imminent to change behavior because there wouldn't be that opportunity. We had to always be ready.

I awakened this morning with a raspy throat.  I've been fighting a cold for several days, and my initial instinct was to curl up in bed and get some extra rest before leaving on a business trip.  Almost as quickly as I had the thought, I remembered what I'd written in my last post about consulting my inner compass before making decisions.  When I did, I clearly knew I was to go to church.  If I hadn't, I would have missed those lessons.

As I returned from church and started to make lunch, I thought my mind darted to habit.  Since I was out with friends last evening, I was going to flip on the replay of the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" presentation that I'd missed.  In my last post I wrote that I planned to spend my Sunday afternoon in a meditation on the floor of my bedroom closet, consciously choosing what would be part of my future and what I need to leave behind by December 21.  I thought I was hedging on my commitment to watch a television program that I know will be replayed a number of times in December.

One thing that became very clear to me when writing Choice Point, my as-yet-unpublished book about life as a meditation, was that everything, every thing, is connected.  There truly are no accidents or coincidences if we are listening: we will be led.

The gathering last night was a somewhat impromptu one, or I would have watched the program on its first broadcast.  That is important because, without the scripture lessons this morning, I might have missed that the theme of this television play was also "always be ready" or more precisely to "live your life like there's no tomorrow." Could I have guessed that the gathering was contrived by the Universe to help me "get it"?

Fortunately, when I checked in, it became clear to me that I was to watch the Hallmark program.  I thought to myself that I could bring some of the boxes into the living room and sort while viewing, but again a very clear message: the sorting was to be a meditation, and I couldn't watch TV and meditate.  So I ate and watched, and then I just watched.

The protagonist in the movie was a woman who worked too much.  (Anyone I know fill that bill?) As a consequence to a happy accident, she learns that she has been neglecting what is really important while giving every aspect of her life away to work, which we might say is pretty much what I've been doing over the last 16 years....maybe longer.  Of course, since there are no original story lines in Hallmark movies, I won't be giving anything away when I stay she does get a second chance, and this time she remembers what is important to her and to those around her.

So it is that in five short hours, the Universe has bombarded me to remember what is important in my life, an important lesson any time, but especially as I've been looking at my overly busy December over several days and struggling to find a time to put up my Christmas tree.

I got a headache about two-thirds of the way through the movie.  What is important?  I have known for a long time that I've squandered my relationships, and I've struggled to know how to intentionally choose to build a different life. I am sure that quandary is what gave me the headache, which lingers even as I write.

I truly do not know the answer, but as I wrote in Choice Point, I don't need to know.  I just need to consciously choose my path, and I will be led.  That is all I need to know, and I will "always be ready."