Musings at Altitude

This weekend is very special for me because of the sacrifice of a man 2,000 years ago.  We celebrate on this weekend His death and His resurrection, and I seem to then spend lots of time thinking about the sacrifice made, the example set, and the expectations then of me and others because of that sacrifice.  I believe we are here on this earth to serve, and I can’t find a better example of service and sacrifice than what Jesus showed to us in His short time here on this earth.

In so many ways we’ve lost our purpose of service to our Creator and service to each other.  We have the perfect example in His son and yet we let our egos, our desires, our defiance, and our defenses get in the way of humbling reaching out to Him and to each other.  As I look at the world today, I see a dramatic rise in tensions and a dramatic rise in rhetoric.  I see an incredible self-centeredness emerging (not that it hasn’t always been that way) and a win at all cost mentality that pervades most contentious relationships.  I’m surely not pointing fingers at others without pointing fingers at ourselves or even at myself.  We exhibit that same behavior at times in our politics, in our litigational mentality, in our business relationships, and in our personal relationships.  I’ve exhibited that same behavior at times where I’ve believed I’ve been completely right and I was willing to do anything to prove my point, even by dumping on another person and causing pain in other peoples’ lives. 

Near as I can tell though, that’s not the example that was set and that’s not the attitude of humility and servitude and sacrifice that we’re supposed to put forth.  As parents, we often times put our kids in time out so they could think and reflect and learn from a particular issues or after a particular behavior.  Even today we still here folks say “take a chill pill” as the emotions run rampant and the tensions get high.  Jesus gave us a great example of how to handle stress and how to handle the issues of life – break away in quiet prayer and reflection and spend time alone speaking with our Creator.  He showed us the ultimate chill pill and the ultimate time out, though He broke away not from sin or from conflict, but for reflection and recuperation.  We can learn from that lesson though – maybe when things get tense for us or when conflict is imminent, at those times we too should break away for reflection and recuperation.

As we prepare for this Easter celebration, I am committing myself once again to service to our Creator and service to others.  I’m also committing myself to breaking away for prayerful reflection and recuperation.  Maybe in my own special way I can ease some tension in my own life and through that example allow others to feel less tension as well.