A great article and something I've said for years, looking for those signs of God in everyday life.
'Holy' moments surround us
You don’t have to be religious to know that there’s something bigger
out there, often in plain sight.
By Dean Nelson
In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, Tim Robbins' character serves a
life sentence for a crime he did not commit, but he eventually escapes
through the prison's sewer system, makes it through the outfall pipe
and collapses in a river. He staggers to his feet, and in a deafening
downpour, lightning flashing around him, he stumbles through the water
from the earth and the sky, takes off his prison clothing and heads
toward freedom. When I first saw that scene, all I could think of was
one word — baptism. He had just crawled through some of the worst muck
imaginable. He had just lived through the worst life imaginable. And
now he's in the water, shedding his old self.
I know that not everyone thinks "baptism" when they see that scene.
Baptism (stating our spiritual identity) is one of seven ancient
sacraments that organized Christianity has recognized for thousands of
years. Along with Holy Orders (or what I see as vocation or our
purpose in the world — not the same as occupation), Confession
(revealing our inner lives), Confirmation (commitment to spiritual
depth), Marriage (experiencing the shared life), Extreme Unction
(recognition of moving from this stage to the next) and the Eucharist
(food that represents life, death and resurrection), the sacraments
have been celebrated as means by which we experience the presence and
grace of God. They're usually conducted during formal occasions,
dispensed by religious officials to the rest of us non-professionals.
I've been thinking about them differently, these days. Maybe it's
because my young-adult son just moved to a country experiencing
significant political unrest, and I'm looking at the world more
closely for evidence of that presence and grace. Or maybe it's because
we're in that season between official holy seasons — Yom Kippur last
month and Christmas on the way. I have decided that thinking about
these holy days and moments only in organized religious settings is a
missed opportunity.
Throughout civilization, people have looked for ways to experience the
sacred and holy. Christians go to church no matter how boring it is,
Hindus plunge into the Ganges River no matter how foul it is, Muslims
make pilgrimages to Mecca no matter how far and crowded it is. "So it
is that monks kneel and chant, that Jews eat a Passover meal, that
Polynesians dance, and Quakers sit still," writes Joseph Martos in
Doors to the Sacred. "In themselves they are just locations,
activities, things. ... In this case they are all sacraments, symbols
of something else which is mysterious and hidden, sacred and holy."
'A deeper dimension'
Haven't we all been part of conversations where they somehow take on a
deeper dimension, even though it's just two people talking? It's as if
the two (or more) people tapped into something much bigger than
themselves. It happened toward the end of the movie Away We Go, where
the couple (played by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph) expecting a
baby makes promises to each other. But because of the camera angle
from above, it is clear that they are making those promises to the
universe as well. It's both private and cosmic. Watching it, I thought
of the sacrament of confession. And haven't we all had meals with
friends or family where there was another level to that experience,
and we didn't want to leave the table because of that additional
Presence? I've had Eucharistic moments at picnic tables, restaurants,
kitchens and the beach.
As we become aware of that additional dimension, those moments take on
the quality of the holy. They're thin spaces where the distance
between this world and a bigger unseen world seems to briefly
disappear. You don't have to be a person of a particular faith to
sense that there is more going on in this world than just the
activities we experience with our senses. Call it God. Call it
spirituality. Call it whatever you like, but it's unmistakable.
With my faith, seeing the day's events through the prism of
confession, holy orders, baptism and other sacraments gives me lenses
to see those events for what else they are.
That bigger world
And it's not just for characters in movies. When I taught my kids how
to ride a bicycle, running alongside them holding on to the seat, then
holding on less tightly, still running, then letting go altogether, I
remember raising my fists in triumph as my son, then my daughter, rode
away without me. I cheered at their achievement but had tears running
down my cheeks. In a sense, I was grieving the fact that they were
leaving the life that we knew (where my wife and I were responsible
for their transportation), and heading into the unknown. That's the
sacrament of Last Rites, too — experiencing something Transcendent,
leaving one world for a bigger one.
Our conversations, meals, jobs, transitions point us to something
bigger than ourselves. Or at least they can. Seeing them as sacraments
helps move us from the known to the unknown world.
Whether we see the sacred and holy in everyday life is not a matter of
whether it exists. Wearing the lens of the sacraments can show us that
it has been there all along, hiding in plain sight.
Dean Nelson is the founder and director of the journalism program at
Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. His recent book is God
Hides in Plain Sight: How to See the Sacred in a Chaotic World. His
website is www.deannelson.net.
