Years from now I would probably look back on certain moments in my life and decide whether or not they were pivotal. Christmas 2011 will be one of those pivotal moments. Things tend to come in threes and this pivotal moment is no exception.
It began with Samantha giving me the book A Course in Miracles, which is slowly breaking down all my previous preconceptions. As Pablo Picasso had said, "The destruction of the old gives birth to the new. Creativity is first of all an act of destruction."
A day later I had to babysit Sam the whole day on Christmas Eve. This semi-alone time allowed me to watch the movie Mother Teresa for the first time. I did not truly understand what it meant to be an instrument of God until just now. Money, fame, power, and everything else of "value" will come easily when you walk the path that God had laid out in front of you...even when that path is to be among the poorest of the poor. But when you are walking that path, none of those things means much. They will be more likely to be distractions or even obstacles to your goals. Such is the irony of creating miracles.
The last of the three events making up this pivotal moment came at Midnight Mass during the homily. I found out that the Nativity scene of Jesus in the manger is not real. The scene was actually a construct from St. Luke's imagination to show Jesus as nourishment for us unenlightened dumb beasts. Only an Archbishop could have broken down such an ingrained Catholic belief in my mind. If that is not real, than what else isn't real remains in my preconception? Plenty...
It began with Samantha giving me the book A Course in Miracles, which is slowly breaking down all my previous preconceptions. As Pablo Picasso had said, "The destruction of the old gives birth to the new. Creativity is first of all an act of destruction."
A day later I had to babysit Sam the whole day on Christmas Eve. This semi-alone time allowed me to watch the movie Mother Teresa for the first time. I did not truly understand what it meant to be an instrument of God until just now. Money, fame, power, and everything else of "value" will come easily when you walk the path that God had laid out in front of you...even when that path is to be among the poorest of the poor. But when you are walking that path, none of those things means much. They will be more likely to be distractions or even obstacles to your goals. Such is the irony of creating miracles.
The last of the three events making up this pivotal moment came at Midnight Mass during the homily. I found out that the Nativity scene of Jesus in the manger is not real. The scene was actually a construct from St. Luke's imagination to show Jesus as nourishment for us unenlightened dumb beasts. Only an Archbishop could have broken down such an ingrained Catholic belief in my mind. If that is not real, than what else isn't real remains in my preconception? Plenty...
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