Human life has been socially constructed and categorized into several stages. These are set, if not pre-determined stages set and laid down. Everyone is ironically expected to go through them. Stages like birth, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, “married life,” being gainfully employed, … and then death. These traditions go a long way in building a society, if done well. Yet traditions can be very oppressive, if they are meant to be kept at the expense of serving the people they are meant for. Not only does transitioning through these traditions need celebration, it needs to be remembered and put into context. Marriage, graduation, retirement, transfers, welcomes, death, naming a child, etc, help us in accepting change.
In our lives, how do we find peace with ourselves or our situations? How do we handle bad news? How do we transition from where we are to the next? What is ours when it comes to faith? How many transitions have you gone through & did you do them well? In your times of distress, what do you do? What spiritual disciplines do you employ when faced with life situations?
How does your encounter with the divine minister to your inner being? Where do you seek these divine encounters? How can we keep ourselves in good shape at all times? What disciplines do we practice, when things are great but especially when chips are down? Sometimes what keeps us going is not what we have, but what we expect. Most prayers are answered when we take action to achieve them.