Category: Spirituality - trish hermanson

Got a Cop in Your Mirror?

3/7/2019

It didn’t take a cop in my side mirror to stop me in my tracks recently. It was a broken foot from a silly fall. Now as I lug around a cumbersome boot for six weeks, I can get pretty whiney. But I’ve discovered something that lifts me out of the dumps. And it’s all the more appropriate I practice it because the Spaniard Ignatius developed this technique nearly five hundred years ago after recovering from a leg wound.
     Here’s my adaptation of his Daily Examen. Several times a day, usually when rising and retiring, I consciously:
     ~REST in God’s PRESENCE - “You’re always with me. I’m never alone.”
     ~REJOICE in God’s PROVISION - “Thank you for a good night’s rest, for breaths of air.…”
     ~REFLECT on any emotional PAIN - “What’s bugging me here?”
     ~REACH for God’s PERSPECTIVE - “God, why am I bent out of shape about this? What can I do about it?”
     ~REVIEW my PLANS - “You always go ahead of me. Today, I intend to .… Is this aligned with your purposes?”
This is a great way to travel through my day, and helps me remember that true spirituality occurs not when I find a cop in my side mirror telling me what I’m doing wrong. It’s when I’m traveling along life’s highway with a personal guide at my side, the God-Man Jesus.
    Here's a song with lyrics that describes this journey.

My red badge of courage.

What Forced Me to Slow Down

2/28/2019

I wish I could report that I broke my foot in a skiing accident. But no, I was making my bed, tripped on covers on the floor, and went splat! So humiliating.
     Now for six weeks I’m modeling the Big Foot Fashion Look, wearing this cumbersome boot 24/7, and moving as slow as a slug.
     Sometimes as I lie in bed, I yell out “BORING!” because I’m not fond of inactivity. Then I get over my whining and remember others have it much worse than I do - and sometimes for a lifetime. So I’m taking this opportunity to retreat in order to be recharged. To listen more to God and others, and less to the voices in my head. To gain new perspective.
     Honestly, I’ve longed for a break like this, but just couldn’t force myself off my daily treadmill.
     So I’m on a forty-day intermission from regular life. Others have been transformed during forty-day hiatuses more severe than this: Noah floating in an ark during forty days of rain; Moses camping out for forty days on Mount Sinai; Jesus wrestling for forty days in the wilderness.
     I’m not comparing myself to those giants. I live a simple life in one of the world's backyards. But I’m still raising my antennae heavenward to receive whatever there is for me to learn during this time.
  Because none of us are Energizer Bunnies. We all need recharging.

Do You Hear Voices?

2/21/2019

That’s me standing next to all 6’11” of Ervin Johnson at a volunteer gig where he kept us hustling as we sacked food for kids. Some people claim you’re loony if you listen to “voices," but not Ervin. He didn’t play basketball in high school. Then while working at a Baton Rouge supermarket for nearly three years after graduating, something strange happened - he grew eight inches. One day at work he heard a voice: “Go. Back. To. School.”
     Ervin says, “I looked around, and no one was there.”
     He learned that the University of New Orleans basketball team needed some height, so he approached the coach. That meeting “was a divine appointment because it was the last day he could sign players.” The coach awarded him a scholarship, but warned that Ervin had a lot of catching up to do.
     Ervin hit the gym at 6 a.m. to learn the game. Hard work paid off, and eventually he led the Privateers to three conference championships and two NCAA tournament appearances. After that, he played center for NBA teams in Seattle, Denver, Milwaukee, and Minnesota.
     He sensed that after he retired professionally he’d have another calling. “God showed me this in a dream; I was standing in front of kids and talking.” And that’s what has happened. He’s a Denver Nuggets Community Ambassador and coaches the EJ Hoops Basketball Club. “It’s more than just basketball,” Ervin says. “It’s about life lessons.”
     So perhaps we’d better pay attention when we get "nudges." The Master Coach may be handing out directions.

What Color Do You Reflect?

11/30/2018

Can you imagine loving to clean house? Not me, but that describes a friend of mine. Another friend studies something broken and figures out how to fix it, while I stare at it dumbfounded. My friends and I are as different as colors refracting off a prism, and I’ve come to realize that these contrasts are clues to who we are meant to be.
     Exploring who I’m created to be has been one of life’s greatest adventures. I’ve learned to pay attention to how people compliment me. Or to ask close friends what I’m good at and not dismiss it. These are clues to my uniqueness, indicators of the particular colors God created me to cast.
     Sure, I still need to clean house and to tackle fixing things that are broken. But I don’t have to compare myself to my brilliant friends anymore. I can let my light shine with its particular hues.

Not a Beautiful Day in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood

10/29/2018

It was not a beautiful day in Mr. Rogers’ actual neighborhood when a gunman killed eleven in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Like a brutal slap in the face, this atrocity smacked of all the evil Fred Rogers sought to dispel. Yet after years of modeling kindness, Mr. Rogers had grown disillusioned near the end of his life, a recent documentary revealed. Despite his best efforts, the world had grown worse, not better.
     Why is that? Why can’t we bring about the peace we hope for? The compassion we long for? I think it’s because we have met the enemy, and the enemy is us. We operate under a shared human dilemma, trying to be better people so we can make a better world - a futile task.
     What’s the solution? Ezekiel, an ancient Hebrew, explained we don’t need our hearts rehabilitated through greater self effort; we need heart transplants. First-century Jewish teacher Jesus expanded on this, explaining we must be recreated into completely new beings. Then, he said, a powerful dynamic transforms us, God’s Spirit.
     Radical, I know. It’s not about getting nicer or performing better, which is like a caterpillar struggling to fly. Instead, the caterpillar must be transformed into a new creature, a butterfly.
I embraced this metamorphosis. Sometimes I still try to wing myself through our broken world with my own efforts. What a waste of energy. And as Mr. Rogers did, I long for the day when this shattered world is fixed, not through our best efforts, but through the dynamic of God’s Spirit.

***
Portrait of Fred Rogers by Don Sondag at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, which Rogers attended.

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