#38 - Life is Not About You {Reflections}

what is up everybody, ryan braley, here in studio with mike lauer, mike is on the computer doing the editing and whatnot.

And hey, we are in.

I think we're in a five-part series on rites of passages and in these tribal cultures, what did it mean?

That these communities would send out these young men and women and then kind of do this stuff out there and then bring them back?

And predominantly, there are these five messages that are embedded in all of these tribal cultural rituals of passage for the most part, and so we've done two so far.

The first one is life is hard, and the second one is that you are not that important, which is great.

And the third one is just as good news, as good as as good news, as good news as the first two.

The third one is that, listen, life is not about you now.

These initiation rites were meant to help that young man or woman to grow up and to become a flourishing adult in every way and then contribute to a larger community.

And so these messages, they were vital for young people to hear and ingest, because most of what they thought or how they felt up until then was the opposite in many cases.

And so think about it today.

Young people today really do think that life is all about them.

I laugh because I was this exact way, my kids have been this way and I can hear all the old get off my lawn guys, yeah, kids these days, darn kids, they think life's all about them.

But I don't know.

It's sort of how it works when you're a kid.

That's what kids do and that's how they think.

And uh, I mean, and when I say young people, in these tribal cultures a young person was really eight, nine, 10, 11, maybe 12.

That's around the age they began to do these rituals.

And today, I mean being a kid has sort of stretched into the teens, even 20.

I know some 20-year-olds who still act like a kid, and I mean that like in every sense of the word.

But here's the deal I don't blame the kids as much as I blame the community, the adults in the room who are supposed to be giving these kids these messages, helping provide them with a larger vision of community, of life and of God and these kinds of things.

And so in our culture today we've definitely, I think, have taught these kids and kind of given them this idea that life is all about them.

So I don't know.

I blame us.

I blame ourselves as the adults in the room and I think honestly that our motivations for doing this, they were accidental, but our motivations were mostly positive.

I think we're trying to love our kids.

I mean I've got four kids myself.

I'm trying to love them and encourage them and care for them and be there for them and help them to do you know, all the things that that there are to do.

I mean, like my, my own kids.

I got four kids and I grew up in an era my father wasn't around, so my mom was a single mother and was wonderful, but she was gone a ton because she had to work.

We had a one income family.

She was gone all the time.

She'd leave early in the morning before I left for school, would come home way later.

I mean, in the winter it was dark by the time she got home, so she was gone a ton.

And so me, as a reaction to that kind of growing up, I'm like, oh, I'm gonna be all my kids stuff, I'm gonna go to all their things.

I and my job is pretty flexible, but I'm like I, it was almost an overreaction.

So I want to be there for them, helping them, I love them that I'm there, that I'm present and all these things.

And I wonder if, again, by accident, I I maybe did them a bit of a disservice.

I don't know.

I'm not katie, it's only my fault, mike.

It's not katie's fault, just my fault that there's a problem.

But anyway, the uh, because here's the deal, life isn't about them and they've got to learn that.

My kids have got to learn that at some point that life is just not about them.

And they have to learn hey, listen, young man, young woman, you're a blip on the radar of a much larger story, in a much bigger world, in a much vaster history, and you've got to learn this, and the earlier the better.

One of the predominant hopes of initiation is for this young person to understand their place in a larger system.

Again, they're, they're part of something bigger than themselves.

So, of course, the family, and then the bigger tribe or neighborhood or community, or then of course, the cosmos, again, history itself, that you are really here for a short while.

History has gone on before you, it'll go on after you and all of this exists within god, within god, and so this really I don't know.

It helps you discover that you're connected to everything else in this mystical and also practical way.

And so you know, we just got done preaching through the story of cain and abel and in that story cain kills his brother abel, and because he's upset and he's angry and agitated at God, and then God asks him where's your brother?

And Cain's response is am I my brother's keeper?

Like, what does that do with me?

Well, first of all, homie, you just killed him.

And second of all, the answer is profoundly yes, you are your brother's keeper.

You're a part of a bigger system, your own family, and Cain already has forgotten about that.

But his responsibility, his duty, it's all for his brother, his family, his parents in this case, and, of course, the world to the cosmos.

But he misses the whole point.

And the Jesus story is certainly one of this emptying and self-sacrifice, and one that contradicts many of the messages that young people hear today.

The stories that young folks hear today are stories about winning and conquering and domination, and me over and against others around me.

But the deeper calling is that you are called to serve and to love and contribute to your larger community, because life isn't just about you.

There's a bigger thing going on.

And so one famous Franciscan priest says our calling is a willing participation in a larger mystery.

I love it.

Our calling is a willing participation in a larger mystery, a bigger story, or as the apostle Paul writes in Romans 9,.

He says that the only thing that finally counts, the only thing that finally counts, is this thing that finally counts.

The only thing that finally counts is this Not what human beings want to try to do or accomplish, but the mercy of God.

I love it.

The only thing that matters and that counts in the end of it, not what you do or all the things you try to accomplish, but the mercy of God.

See, recognizing that life isn't about me.

It frees me up from self-obsession, preservation, fear that someone's creeping onto my territory or taking what's mine, and it allows me to be used for the greater good.

So today, may you know that life is not about you.

You are a blip on the radar.

You are here for a moment and then gone.

And while you're here, give yourself over to the community around you, your family, your friends, the neighborhood, your state, even your country and your world, and make this place a bit better by contributing to it and see yourself as a larger as a part of this larger story.

And when you let go of this obsession with the self, you can finally be used, I would say, by God, for greater good.

So today, may you know that life is not about you.

Peace.

Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share it with some friends.

And don't forget, you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 830, which is our liturgical gathering, at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering, or you can check us out online at clcelkriverorg.

Peace.