“PICKING DAISIES IS GOOD FOR YOUR SOUL”
GENESIS 1:31-2:23
26 Then God said, "Let us make humankind
in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air,
and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."
27 So God created humankind in his
image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them, and God said
to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over
the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."
29 God said, "See, I have given you
every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them
for food.
30 And to every beast of the earth,
and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given
every green plant for food." And it was so.
31 God saw everything that he had
made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth
were finished, and all their multitude.
2 And on the seventh day God finished
the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.
3 So God blessed the seventh day and
hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
How healthy are
you these days? Is your blood pressure okay? How about your cholesterol? Do you try to exercise regularly and watch what you
eat? Do you read the labels that tell you how much saturated fat there is in
the food that you buy? Overall people these days are more health conscious than they used to be. That focus on being healthy
can also be seen when you turn the television on. There are all kinds of commercials
for vitamins, pills and exercisers that are designed to help you live longer. Yes, overall people these days are more health
conscious than they used to be. Bottled water is in and soft drinks are out. You
see more and more parents giving their kids apples and oranges to snack on instead of the usual junk food. You also don’t see as many people smoking these days.
Not every one is committed
to being healthy of course. Take the man who wasn’t too happy after he
died and went to heaven. Shortly after he arrived at the Pearly Gates the man
was given a tour. Now the man was very impressed by all of the beauty and the splendor that he saw in heaven. After a while,
the tour took the man and his guide by a spectacular golf course. The guide could tell that the man was a golfer. So, he smiled and said, “You can play here anytime you want, and you’ll never have to wait
for a tee time.” The man was thrilled.
“This is wonderful,” he gasped, “and to think I could have gotten here ten years earlier if my wife
hadn’t made me eat all that oat bran.”
Overall people these days
are more health conscious than they used to be, but here’s the thing that doesn’t make any sense. How can people work so hard on being physically healthy and neglect their spiritual health at the same
time? I have to tell you there are a lot of sickly souls out there. You can see it in the apathy and the cynicism. You can see it in the frustration and the futility that
a lot of people feel. How about you? How healthy is your soul?
You know it isn’t all
that difficult to have a healthy soul. You start by doing the things you would expect to do. You spend some time with God
in prayer and you spend some time reading your Bible. If you want a healthy soul though you also need to do something else.
You need to do the same thing that God did on that 7th day. If you
didn’t notice it, the creation story ends with an amazing claim. It says that on the 7th day, after everything
was said and done, God rested. Now, that’s really mind boggling when you
think about it. You mean to tell me that God was actually tired? You mean to tell me that after creating all those quasars
and quacking ducks God was tired and had to take the next day off? It almost
sounds like God woke up that morning and said, “You know what? I’m
really pooped. I’ve been working like a dog all week. So, I think I’m
going to give myself a break and sleep in this morning.”
That isn’t what happened
of course. That’s because God isn’t like you and me. God doesn’t get tired. The psalmist makes it very clear.
God “neither slumbers nor sleeps.” (Psalm 121) So, if God didn’t sleep in what exactly did God do on that 7th day? The answer to that question can be found by looking at what God said right after the last of the cosmic
dust settled into place. We’re told that God stepped back and declared that it was all very good; not just good but
very good.
Those words seem
to suggest that what God did on that 7th day was spent some time enjoying everything that had been created. That
makes much more sense. Instead of lying in bed like a slug, it’s much easier
to see God dancing with the wind on that day of rest. It’s much easier to see God shouting with glee while looking down
on the snow covered mountains of the Himalayas. It’s
much easier to see God laughing with delight while watching the otters frolicking in the ocean. It’s much easier to
see God playing the role of a proud parent and watching the man and woman explore their newly created world. It’s much
easier to see God taking it all in, and saying, “Wow! You know what? This is really awesome!”
That, my friends, is a big
part of what you need if you want a healthy soul. Taking care of your soul means
doing the things that help you to find delight in God, the world around you and yourself. It means enjoying the blessings
that God has given you and finding ways to put those blessings to good use. It means laughing and not taking yourself too
seriously.
By the way, this
isn’t a suggestion to eat drink and be merry. It isn’t a suggestion
to go out and paint the town red. I’m not suggesting that you let loose
and squeeze as much fun into your life as you can.
That’s because having
fun and taking care of your soul are two very different things. Just ask the
two guys who decided to go play golf one Sunday morning instead of going to church.
While they were out on the course they found themselves behind a particularly slow twosome. Finally after waiting and
waiting one of the men rode their cart down the fairway to see what was taking the twosome so long. When he got there he found one of the men standing in the fairway while the other man was thrashing around
in the woods. Upon seeing that, he shouted impatiently to the man standing in
the fairway. “Why don’t you help your friend find his ball?” “Oh,”
the man replied. “He isn’t in there looking for his ball. He’s
in there looking for his club.”
Having fun isn’t
the same thing as taking care of your soul. So, if you want a healthy soul then go out and spend some time doing the things
that help you find delight in God, the world around you and yourself.
I might add that it would
be a huge mistake to think that’s going to happen when you’re sitting in a pew on Sunday morning. It should but
it doesn’t always happen. Despite the Good News that because Jesus lives we will live also we don’t do a very
good job when it comes to help our souls to sing and dance and celebrate. Instead there seems to be this unwritten rule that
when you’re sitting in a pew on Sunday morning you’re supposed to be somber and serious. You’re supposed
to be staid and stoic. That sad reality is why people who go to church on Sunday morning are sometimes referred to as the
frozen few.
That contradiction
between the Good News and the way we react to the Good News is something that always puzzled Erma Bombeck. Erma couldn’t
understand how it’s possible to sit in church on Sunday morning and in her words, “‘Make A Joyful Noise
Unto The Lord,’ while our faces reflect the sadness of one who has just buried a rich aunt who left everything to her
pregnant hamster.”
We laugh at Erma’s
observation because it’s true. Many years ago I attended a seminar for
clergy and I will always remember how the keynote speaker went to the podium and began by saying very emphatically, “Congratulations!” That surprised everyone and as we sat there trying to figure out why we were being
congratulated the keynote speaker went on to say, “We need to congratulate ourselves because we have succeeded in doing
the impossible. We have succeeded in making Jesus Christ boring!”
Well, Jesus Christ isn’t
boring. God isn’t boring. The gift of life isn’t boring. So, if you
want a healthy soul you need to do what God did on that 7th day. You
need to let your soul sing and dance and play a little. You need to spend some time doing the things that let your soul delight
in God and the gift of life that God gave you when you came into this world.
A lot of us don’t do
that though. Instead we worry about things. We analyze things. We look at what’s
wrong and what needs to be fixed. We look at what’s missing instead of
enjoying what’s already there. We take life and ourselves too seriously.
That’s the conclusion
that an elderly woman came to one day when she sat down and evaluated her life. This
is what she wrote:
“If I had my life to
live over I’d dare to make more mistakes next time; I’d relax; I would limber up; I would be sillier than I have
been this trip; I would take fewer things seriously; I would take more chances; I would climb more mountains and swim more
rivers; I would eat more ice cream and less beans; I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I’d have few imaginary
ones. You see I’m one of those people who lives sensibly and sanely hour
after hour, day after day. Oh, I’ve had my moments, and if I had it to do over again, I’d have more of them. In
fact, I’d try to do nothing else, just moments, one after the other instead of living so many years ahead of time. I’ve
been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, hot water bottle, raincoat, and parachute. If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter than I have. If I had my life to live over, I would start
barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dinners; I would ride more merry-go-rounds;
I would pick more daisies.”
It isn’t hard to have
a healthy soul. You pray a little. You read your Bible a little and you make
sure that you take some time every now and then to let your soul come out to sing and dance and play a little. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes
September 3, 2006
