Daily Dose (March 24 – 27)
TUESDAY MARCH 24 — An elderly carpenter is eager to retire. He tells his employer (a very well-respected contractor) of his plans to leave the house-building business. He wishes to live a more leisurely life with his wife and extended family. He knows he will miss the paycheck, but it’s kick-back time and he needs to retire. And his family will get by. “I’ve hammered enough nails in one lifetime,” he tells his employer, with a laugh. There’s no need to put myself out any longer, he tells himself. The contractor is very sorry to see his best carpenter go, and asks this, “Would you be willing to oversee the building of just one more house, as a personal favor to me?”
Hesitant, the carpenter says yes. In a short time, it becomes easy to see that his heart is not in his work. No surprise that he resorts to substandard workmanship and uses inferior materials. It is an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career.
When the carpenter finishes his work the employer comes to inspect the house. The contractor hands the front door key to the carpenter.
“This is my gift to you,” he says. “This is your house.”
Most of us have been there. Holding those keys. And this is certain: it never helps slip sliding down the if-only-stream. We know where that takes us.
In my memory I’m back in southern Michigan, the son of a brick mason. I’ve been on countless constructions sites. Most of them as a hod carrier (mixing mortar, lugging bricks). So many days eager to quit. And hearing my father’s words, “Son, build this one like you’re building your own.” (Twenty-six years ago, my father helped me build my house on Vashon Island.)
Here’s the deal: We forget, or we do not see, that we make a difference, with every nail we hammer, each board we choose, each brick we mortar, each window we put in place.
And here’s the deal: because we live in a culture of bluster and ado, we forget that we can make a difference. So. More often than not, the wrong people get all the attention. (Okay, my confession, I forget that I can make a difference, one nail at a time.)
I’m with David Orr here, “The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind.”
Here’s to the restorative power of small gestures… one nail at a time.
We are, all of us, builders.
We are, all of us, about the business of building places and spaces for human dignity and inclusion.
Building spaces for kindness and compassion and mercy.
Building spaces for justice and hope.
Building spaces for resilience and confidence, and courage and safety and wellbeing. But this is important. This parable is not meant to scold us into making a difference. It’s a recognition that we have been created and are able to do so. This is not about bootstraps and will power and consternation. This is about letting the language of our (replenished and not overwhelmed) heart speak. Letting the light inside—the Imago Dei—spill.
Yes. Inside every one of us—in our DNA—we have the tools that we need, to navigate these unpredictable times. Yes, the “tools” to be builders—the empowerment to draw upon mercy and compassion—to create (“build”) places of sanctuary, and healing, and grace, even where cruelty and callousness are real.
When I live from overwhelmed, I react, I live fearful, and I give in to cynicism. No wonder the first to go are my courage, and my ability to laugh. Which is not good considering that they both come from the same muscle in our heart.
As builders, this is abundantly clear: We are connected. Every single one of us.
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality,” Martin Luther King Jr. reminds us.
Receiving his induction into TV’s Hall of Fame, Fred Rogers tells the audience, “We are chosen to be servants, it doesn’t matter what our particular job.”
And speaking of builders, our geese (Irv and Dottie) are back, nesting season here in the Pacific Northwest. They return to the same spot every year. And My Oh My, it’s always a treat to welcome them. And yes, we’re hoping for goslings sometime in the next few weeks.
WEDNESDAY MARCH 25 —
Prayer (poem) for our week…
Love God.
Love a neighbor.
Be a neighbor,
and let us not complicate things
by arguing about the specifics.
You know what it means to do love
because some time or another
you have been on the receiving end of love…
If you want the world to look different
next time you go outside,
do some love.
Do a little or do a lot,
but do some,
and do not forget to get some for yourself…
Just do it,
and find out that when you do,
you do live and live abundantly,
just like the man said.
Barbara Brown Taylor
Photo… “Hello Terry, I spent a couple of weeks in Cabo recently. The trip started off a bit after the violence in Puerto Vallarta and about the same time as the attack on Iran. It was hard to remain in the present while a place I’ve been that holds family, is being bombed by my own country. As it turns out, it was the ‘small’ things–which are, and have never been, small at all–that got me through, and continue to do so. The comfort and understanding of loved ones, the warm water, the migrating humpback whales, the fire dancing in its pit, the sunsets (pic attached), the birdwatching. A little margarita didn’t hurt either. So grateful for you walking with us via Sabbath Moment, for all the reminders to help keep us intact.” Mary Ajideh… Thank you Mary… And thank you for your photos, please send them to tdh@terryhershey.com
Donation = Love… Your gifts make Sabbath Moment possible.
I am so very grateful.
Please Share Sabbath Moment with others.
And find it on Facebook @RevTerryHershey
