It is a different time ... actually a different timeline. People dress in clothing that looks a lot like steampunk costumes, great dirigibles ply the skies, and automobiles look much as they did on the early part of the 20th century. In this imagined life, I am in service to the Queen of England; her personal Paladin. My friends are people like Nikola Tesla and Harriet Quimby. I have many adventures, drive/fly interesting vehicles, and often "go under cover" to ferret out enemies of the Crown.
It's all in fun, a harmless exercise of my imagination. I "do" this imagining through a Pinterest board where, by pinning photos, I tell a kind of story about a life where there's ... mmm ... just a bit more swash in my buckle than in my real life.
Lately, real life has been crowding out my pretend life, and the experience reminds me of something important: We don't always like our real lives.
Sometimes, we don't even like ourselves. We struggle with how to live a good life, often fighting inclinations to do things we know we should not, and sometimes losing that fight. In a pretend life, we are completely in control. So, it's nice to pretend from time to time, to "get away" for awhile from the pressures of this life. It can be fun, and even a relief.
But we must not allow ourselves to spend too much of our time in this retreat. For, as the poet writes:
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not thy goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul. **
Each of us does have another life, a different life; the one that continues after this one concludes. Scripture says we get a new body ... and adventures so amazing they can't now be described in terms we can understand. For the time being, we must follow the teaching in this week's Lectionary selections from Matthew and Romans.
We must allow The Lord to place us in light harness so we may be guided; and we must trust Him to rescue us when we live a life contrary to what we know is good.
I cannot imagine a better way.
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 9 (14) (July 9, 2017)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67
Psalm 45:10-17 or Song of Solomon 2:8-13
Zechariah 9:9-12
Psalm 145:8-14
Romans 7:15-25a
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
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** "A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
If interested, you can view my Pinterest Board, "In Another Life," here: http://pin.it/b1n2j5U
A slightly different version of this reflection appeared in July 2014 as "Another Life."
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Join us Friday morning for Lectionary Breakfast. We start at 8:00-ish and spend the hour learning from scripture and each other. The food is good and the fellowship is better!
Waco's "Egg and I" restaurant (in the back).
Blessings,
Steve
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