A Simple Song, Lent and After

That's What Matters

by Rebecca St. James

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...Don't wish for a better day

Be glad and use the one you're in

Fear God and do exactly what He says

That's what matters

All else fades like the flowers

Well, he'd tried pleasure

There was nothing in that

He built houses, gardens, parks

What good did it do?

Just got him more depressed

Meaningless - Meaningless

He said "Everything's meaningless

But this is what I learned in all my years...

Many of us hear the word religion and all kinds of thoughts and reactions arise. We tend to make it complicated, intellectual, even. We like to think it isn't about politics, it's about god; it isn't about society, it's about spirituality, and so on. Well, it is about all these things, and some more. 

It's simple, really. Religion in another view is about lives, human lives living day to day. We all have thoughts, feelings and relationships. What and how we think about ourselves and the world which we are part of, vastly influences the style and quality of that human existence. So religion need not be icky or avoidable, because it's just about life. And all of us have some experience with that (Currently many are observing the Easter traditions: see Ash Wednesday: Lent in two minutes, a video.).

So a little help from others may just be what makes a community; for some, it sure makes an opening for a spiritual experience, like this song. Do we need to have an organ playing a dirge song to have a religious experience, do bells need to ring or incense waft upward? In my experience, I have discovered that most often I get out of something more or less what I put into it.

If a church, temple or community doesn't move me, then maybe I haven't given much of myself. Maybe my pre-existing notions circumvent me from connecting. Sure, I didn't get anything out of it; I'm just not. But what else did I expect? Nothing gets nothing.

Can our everyday coming and goings be a small part of the whole of life? If so, then this and many other songs may too. They touch us in some meaningful way. A simple song can create an awareness, an appreciation that we had not the sense of before. It's all religion, and like an artist, it's a part of my day. Everyday.

Now the Lenten period has concluded; Easter, the principle observance on the Christian calendar, has come and that leaves us at Pentecost, the Feast of the Weeks.
Pentecost is an ancient observance. At this time we reflect on the wonders of the Holy Spirit who descends upon the disciples, as we read in the Bible and the Faithful bringing his spirit upon them. Exodus 34:22 In Exodus, there is reference to this festival, though it has not yet taken on the character of the later era known by the early Christians.

Blessed Are Peacemakers; They Will Inherit the Earth

The Reason

by Hoobastank

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I'm not a perfect person
There's many things I wish I didn't do
But I continue learning
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go

That I just want you to know

I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
And the reason is you

I'm sorry that I hurt you
It's something I must live with everyday

And all the pain I put you through
I wish I could take it all away
And be the one who catches all your tears
That's why I need you to hear

And the reason is you
I'm not a perfect person

I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know

I've found a reason to show
A side of me you didn't know
A reason for all that I do
And the reason is you

If we want to be true peacemakers, the most vital and intimate peacemaking begins with each of us as individuals within the human family. We cannot support anti-war movements and turn around to attack our neighbor who happens to support another political candidate.
We forgive our selves first and most importantly for our own failings, "I'm not a perfect person," as the lyric records. None of us are. We are not required to be-- to be effective peacemakers.

What is required is that we give evidence of courage and a braveness to forge forward, that we take what is our own and that we own it. Just own it--it is after all  your very own creation, the failing that you have made, "I wish I could take it all away...be the one who catches all your tears." 
You can catch your own tears and do the hard work to "find a reason to show." Even if that reason isn't your first try, or your first thought. Blessed are the Peacemakers, they will inherit the earth.
Peacemaking, forgiveness is powerful, personally and to the world we live in. Let it begin to change you.

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

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music and lyrics

by Hoobastank

If we want to be true peacemakers, the most vital and intimate peacemaking begins with each of us as individuals within the human family. We cannot support anti-war movements and turn around to attack our neighbor who happens to support another political candidate, for example. We forgive our selves first and most importantly for our own failings, I'm not personally perfect. None of us are. We are not required to be-- to be effective peacemakers.

What is required is that we give evidence of courage and a braveness to forge forward, that we take what is our own and that we own it. Just own it--it is after all your very own creation, the failing that you have made, I wish I could take it all away...be the one... You can catch your own tears and do the hard work to find a reason to live, to exist. Even if that reason isn't your first try, or your first thought. Blessed are the Peacemakers, they will inherit the earth. Peacemaking, forgiveness is powerful, personally and to the world we live in. Let it begin to change you.