On January 5, 2021, I pulled up this mediation that I gave for a chapel service a few months ago, intending to offer it as a message as we started a new year; then the insurrection at the United States Capitol occurred. This piece fell by the wayside amid the upheaval of that event and the clear messages it communicated about the state of our nation.
All of this was on top of the year that 2020 had been for us. Today, as I have returned to this meditation, we are already 1/2 of the way through the third month of 2021. We have now even marked the one-year anniversary of mandated shutdowns across the United States as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of this country. None of us could have imagined a year ago what this year would bring for us or the multiplied losses we would face in navigating the pandemic journey. The year 2020 was a surprising year with many difficulties.
However, even the year 2020, as difficult as it was for us, brought with it some gifts. A major gift I experienced in 2020 was the opportunity to participate in a series of “thought exchanges” led by a clergy friend who is a coach for women who desire to become spiritual entrepreneurs. In working through her process, I experienced a new level of clarity about how my various gifts and passions could come together into something beautiful. Some of that has been reflected in my work here at Beloved.
As the focus of the work I am now entering became clearer, that realization stirred an excitement in me that said, “I want to be around to live out my gifts more fully!” Realizing that helped me understand that I need to do more, especially in the age of COVID-19, to preserve my well-being so I CAN be around and so I CAN function well to live out the dreams God has planted in me. The words that leapt in my heart were simply, “I’ve got stuff to do!”
It is a message that I want to offer to you as well. YOU’VE got stuff to do! As this thought echoed in my imagination, my mind was drawn to the message in Matthew 6:25-34 from the Sermon on the Mount, especially the final two verses. Here, Jesus is inviting us to not look at the future, that is, tomorrow, through the lens of worry.
o Don’t worry about your life, about what to eat or drink or wear (Mt. 6:25).
o Can you add to life by worrying? NO (Mt. 6:27)!
o Why worry (Mt. 6:28)?
o Don’t worry (Mt. 6:31).
Rather, Jesus invites us to look at tomorrow—that is, to look at the future—through the lens of hopefulness, through the lens of expectation. This is what began to surface in my soul during those experiences, a sense of expectation that made me want to get to tomorrow so I can live out all that’s in my heart to do. The question then becomes, “If worry has been taken off the table as a lens through which to look to the future, how then do we look to the future?”
When you have recognized that you’ve got stuff to do, you look to the future by attending to today because expectation (hope) for tomorrow brings with it a certain urgency about today! And so, how we attend to today matters because we’ve got stuff to do! My mantra for attending to today is this: We must SHOW UP and SHORE UP so we can SHOW OUT!
Part 2 is coming soon; so, be sure to come back to this page! While you’re waiting, remember that you’ve got stuff to do!
Reverend Dollie Howell Pankey
Beloved Theomusicologist-in-Residence
March 2021 Musical Notes Reflection
