Dr. D’s Hints

 

Dr. D’s Hints

KEEP IT SIMPLE.  The Ten Commandments were written for a people in the middle:  they are morally profound, but in their expression they are unbelievably simple and direct.  They can be understood by people like me.”  (October 8, 1972, The Quaker Dozen)


DO THE BEST YOU CAN WITH WHAT YOU’VE GOT.  Don’t let age be an excuse for letting your talents go unused.  Think of Casals in his 90s playing the cello, or Picasso painting, or Toscannini conducting.   You can even think of that old football player George Blanda; he doesn’t seem to get any worse at kicking field goals.  (January 13, 1974, Doing the Best You Can With What You’ve Got.)


GIVE YOURSELF TO OTHERS.  Jesus taught us a lot about comforting other people.... He accepted people as they were.  He blessed them for being what they were, poor people, children, his disciples.  He gave them – not expensive presents –not 50-cent valentines – not empty boxes.  No, he gave them the gift that always means the most in the long run, the gift of one’s complete devotion, himself. (February 8, 1976, The 50-Cent Valentine.)


LOOK FOR PARABLES AROUND YOU.   Jesus left for us to work out the parables that happen in our own lives.  For they do happen, I am convinced of that.  Things happen to us that we don’t understand, that bother us, things that are murky and misty and difficult.  Could it be that parables are happening?  Could it be that God is trying to teach us something?  (May 20, 1979, The Parables Around Us.)


PRAY.  We need to cultivate an active prayer life.  The practice of prayer can be a vital resource in helping us to displace our anxieties and worries.  Having regular times for prayer helps.  But also we should get into the habit of maintaining an inner, silent dialogue with God.   When we arrive at this level of closeness, of awareness of God’s presence in our lives, we gradually begin to understand what it means to “cast our anxieties on him.”  Worrying cannot prevail against the power of God’s presence.  (July 13, 1980.  Worryworts.)


BE THANKFUL.  It’s hard for us to be thankful, isn’t it?  ... And yet, as we grow older,  if we try to keep God at the center of our lives, I think we do learn to be thankful.  I think we gradually learn how fragile life is, how precious relationships are.  We learn to appreciate the abundance we have.  We learn to love our homes and our families.  We learn to experience the joy of sharing.  And gradually, very gradually, we learn to be thankful.  We learn what Thanksgiving really means.  (Nov. 21, 1982.  Learning What Thanksgiving Means.)


CLEAN UP YOUR ACT.  I remember that we cleaned wallpaper with some evil smelling pink stuff.  A wall would look perfectly fine to me, but my mother would make a vigorous swipe across it, and, as a great streak appeared she would exclaim, “You see!  It does need cleaning!  Get busy!”   Lent is the soul’s spring housecleaning time.  It’s something that has to be done or we won’t feel right.  We can’t do a surface job.  We have to do some deep cleaning.  (March 7, 1984.  The Soul’s Spring Housecleaning.)


BE OPTIMISTIC.  Christianity is not about death and decay and pessimism.  It is a religion of life.  It is about baptisms and confirmations and marriages and babies and roses on the altar and pancake suppers and sending missionaries to Bolivia and food to Africa.  It is about people who die, yes, certainly, but who die with a belief that they are going to to a new kind of life.  Christianity is mainly about living.  It is mainly about joy.  It is mainly about hope and faith.  It is about bread rising.  And rain falling.  And crops growing.  And new wine filling new bottles.  It is about freedom.  It is about change.  It is about possibilities.  It is about old men who dream dreams and young men who have visions.  It is about people looking for and finding a new relationship with God. (July 21, 1984.  Newness of Life.)


WE CAN CHANGE OUR LIVES.  ... My mother knew that even a lowly peach peeling could be turned into something good and valuable.  That’s why she didn’t like to waste even one.  Making something out of the peelings was a parable of the redeeming power of God in our lives.  Jesus didn’t want to waste people, not even one.  He didn’t believe there were any waste people.  That’s why he never gave up on any one.  That’s why we call him the Great Redeemer.  He knew that if you took a peeling here – like me – and one there – like you, perhaps –  and put them all together, and boiled them, and strained them, …and added a few ingredients, you could get out of nothing something fine: a church now, the Kingdom of Heaven later.  (October 19, 1986, Peach Peelings.)


GROW YOUNGER IN SPIRIT. We are growing older.  There’s no doubt about that.  We’re not really modern Merlins.  We live forward and not backward.  And some things that older people do to stay young are foolish and inappropriate.  No doubt about that.  But in matters of the mind and spirit, in matters of attitudes and opinions, in matters of information, we are not tied to the past, we do not need to become isolated and out of date.  We can become informed.  We can learn about the foods and the styles and the books and magazines and films and TV of our time.  We can communicate with young people.  We can keep our religious lives fresh and new and related to our times.  We can, if we wish, keep growing younger in spirit.  (January 27, 1994, Growing Younger.)


BE HERE NOW.  For myself, I know I need to get Ìout of the past and get out of the future.  I need to be here now for the others in my life and for myself.  For here – this instant – is where love is.  Here is where kindness is.  Here is where forgiveness is.  Here is where mercy is.  Here is where life is.  Here is where God is.   It is okay for me to remember my father; and how like him I have become in some ways.  It is okay for me to remember my mother, and how like her I am becoming in some ways.  It is okay for me to dream about how I would look with a really good haircut.  It is okay for me to imagine how good looking I will be in my blue jeans when I lose all those pounds and collect all those stickers.  But the Kingdom of God – the place I most want to  reach – is probably not to be found in my past or in my future.  In all probability, the narrow gate that leads there can only be found in the present.  To find it, above all else, I need to be here now. (February 18, 1996.  Being Here Now.)


Wayne Danielson  September 15, 1996