March 17,  2022

LEAPS  OF  FAITH

AND LOST LEADERS

  
To get people into the store, supermarkets and department stores use “lost leaders”.
 
The store owners and managers are willing to take  a loss on one thing, knowing that you’ll hopefully buy something else when you come into the store for the bargain.
 
There’s a parable, a message, a lesson, in this somewhere.
 
Sexuality works pretty much the same way.  Sometimes it gets us to stop getting  to really know the other person. Sometimes people get lost and the other becomes our leader.
 
God “works” the same way, I suppose.
 
The feelings get us to pray – or to at least go “Wow!”
Sunrise … sunset … a mountain … the ocean … and we stop the car to walk to a scenic overview – and we see an overwhelming view.
 
Rainbows, autumn leaves, all get us to say, “Wow!”
 
Beauty stops us – yet we also know there’s always more….  Life – time – being a human being – and we always know there’s more.
 
The color, the splash, the music of morning birds, seeing children playing soccer – all can be awe moments – and all can be grabbers.
 
Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “Awe precedes faith; it is the root of faith.  Awe must grow in awe in order to reach faith.”
 
We marry in awe. We honeymoon in awe. We take vows in awe.
 
Surprise! Autumn leaves crumble …. Skin wrinkles … There is the second year of marriage … as well as the 26^th year. We stop growing.  We stop getting to know the other – or ourselves for that matter.
 
We can say, “I was suckered, tricked, caught by a lost leader.”
 
We can also wake up to a new day – a new phase – the new adventures life provides.
 
Go for the ride.
 
Laugh go out further with the tide.

 

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2022