During times like this, my hope is that we can take some time to reflect as often as we need. Take a few moments to join me here - mentally and spiritually. This is that moment I love to give to focus or to get to the place we can all pay a bit more attention. Get in sync so to speak. Some days are fuller and more than others, these past few almost a week seems to be quite filled with a lot. I don't pretend to not live in the real world. Quite the opposite. How does Modern day Jeddist handle the day to day or the actual application? How does a Jedi handle the isolation in the real world going on now. Today. Right now. I am here with you. The other day I awoke to my "tanks" empty. I started on empty. I was, for a lack of better words - out of gas. I was out of grace and much of the essentials I use every day. Understand? I didn't care. My care light shut off because that day started as though I woke as Oscar the Grouch himself. Scram and beat it - get lost- was the first response from a very irritable me. This is what it is to be human. To be a Modern day Jeddist in the real world. What do we do?
No one can run on empty. In moments like these, as Pastor I encourage us to remember our "TANKS" can't run on -give- all the time. Jeddi are smart. Be smart. your gunna run out of love and grace and drive and care and things like this. Its real and natural. What happens then? There is an idea out there that if we think of our hearts and minds and things like this as tanks and exhaustible ... we can understand a bit more than yesterday. Where I come from we swear and truthfully that morning I was all out of a lot of things I needed to give including that word that rhymes with ducks. It happens in real life. Compassion Fatigue - Empty tanks don't work well. In the Coast Guard there were moments we answered or acted too many times. Emergency responders have the same thing. We had measures in place for things as such. LIMIT 3. We know there are limits. Be smart and understand we all have limits.
Jedi teaching
7. Jedi understand their limitations. We recognize, and take responsibility, for our failures and develop a level of modesty about them. We respect the right for others to disagree and understand that they themselves are not perfect.
PLEASE don't forget we have limits. Every one does.
There are a many things we can do to combat things like this. There are books for making mountains and stacks and videos you could watch until the Corona virus is gone, there are video of people with puppies, people with bunnies, and people making erasers or see how crayons are made (thank you Mr. Rogers) and then some on how to NOT run on empty. We got what we need most of the time handy. During moments like these my Temple remember we are Modern day Jeddist and humans too. Get back the place you serve, the reasons you serve and love and care and matter. Fall in love again. Remind yourself. Remember. Take a walk or time or even just nothing but do what ya need and remember we are all in things together in real life. Jedi are smart- maybe THIS is that moment you were waiting for to be that light where ever you're at or that hand that helps rather then not or even that one that cares. Maybe this is the moment to practice what we preach and display it and see it its all that and a bag of chips. Don't run on empty and.......... if ya hit that point - so do I. We all do- how we react, how and what we do after that can be- just might be up to us some times.
Be well and know your not alone. Take time to reflect and think and act. We need Jedi more and more every day. We need good people every day. We need more people who think.We need you still...
May the Force we share and seek and serve and sell continue to be with us during this time.
