10%

10%.

It is a percentage filled with mystery.

At the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) you can miss this number if you aren't looking for it. There is a small sentence in one of the cases with a few animals on the 2nd floor. This percentage represents the approximate amount of species scientists know about.

90%.

This is the amount of scientists don't know and it is crazy. When I think about all the different kinds of species out there and recognize it's only 10% of what is actually in the world it humbles me. It humbles me because I think I know a lot. Yet, 90% of the Created species of God are still yet to be discovered.

Look up into the sky. Look down into the depths of the ocean. So many things above and below yet to be discovered and yet I often live my life as if I know things, as if I know what I am talking about when it comes to certain concepts and ideas. This may be true, I may know a lot of things, but I always have to put it in perspective of what I don't know because if I don't, things go bad.

Often times I catch myself looking out on the water or up in the air and simply marvelling at the bigness of what I am experiencing, realizing I am just a small person - a small person with knowledge, but a small person with a lot of learning ahead of me.

It's always important for me to start my day in this posture because it makes me a more loving, accepting, compassionate person. I don't go about my days wondering how a person can't understand this or that, because I don't understand this or that; I am able to listen and connect with others. If I start my day from the posture of arrogance I get caught up with what I know and simply can't connect with others.

I wonder what the world would look like if people lived their lives with this perspective. Instead of trying to prove how much we know or don't know, maybe we all need to start with a posture of "we are all just trying to figure this thing called life out." This makes it easier for us to come upon a person who doesn't know something simply and help them understand it. This makes it easier for a person to teach me something instead of thinking I don't need to be taught because I know it all.

I am still learning. I am still growing. I am still maturing. If I don't humble myself under the truth of the 10% I will hardly, if ever, be able to experience the 90%, but as I humble myself under the truth of the 10% it leaves me open to experiencing the other 90%.

This morning I am choosing to be a part of the 10% and look out into my day with awe and wonder, or with what Abraham Joshua Heschel calls "radical amazement."

Breath

Breath is wonderful. It is so natural to a body. More often than not a person is unaware of it. As talking happens, as TV is watched, as food is eaten breath is often the very thing keeping people alive and the very thing people forget about. In fact, as I sit here and talk about breath I have noticed every inhalation and exhalation, but if I weren't talking about it I would probably forget I was breathing because it is so natural.

Breath is life. It keeps a person alive. As a person exercised and the heart rate starts to increase, so does the breath; more oxygen is needed for the body to continue to function. The first sign of life when a baby is born is a cry and a cry is done by first taking in a deep breath and letting it out in scream form.

How often are we conscious of our breath during the day? I am conscious of my breath when I am in a tense situation as I try and slow my heart rate down by deep breathing. My breath becomes the very thing a focus on, but if I am not in this type of situation I seem to be unaware of it.

If find it interesting, breathing. I find it interesting because in the beginning of the Scriptures the writer of Genesis says God breathed the breath of life into humanity (Genesis 2:7). It wasn't until this breath was given did humans become living; without breath people are, well, dead. Breath is given by God, breathed from the Divine, and yet it is often the thing I forget about the most.

Taking a moment.

Could it be the very way to connect with God is through the very life source God gave to humanity in the beginning? Could it be as I breath in and breath out, and am conscious of it, I am interacting, communing, with the Divine? Could it be as I notice my breath I am slowing my body down, becoming still, and now in a posture and space where I can rest with God?

Pneúma is an Ancient Greek word most often translated spirit. It follows with the Hebrew word Ruach, which also means spirit. Yet, spirit, in both the Greek and Hebrew, can also be translated breath.

Every breath I take is the breath the Divine has placed into my body. It is also possible to even say every breath I take is the Divine breathing through my body. This is cool stuff.

Today I am taking more moments to notice my breath because as I notice my breath, I notice the Creator who gave me my breath and is continuing to breath through me just as with the the very first people to roam the earth.

Time to hit publish.

Natural Rhythms

A year ago this week marks the start of my 6-month long Sabbatical from my pastoral role at church. I was given the opportunity to take the Sabbatical to rest, travel, study, be a stay-at-home dad and become less cynical. The first three were given by the Elder Board at my church, the other two by me. I am thankful to have been able to do all five of these things during those 6-months and although it is impossible to be a stay-at-home dad and pastor full-time I do believe I developed healthier rhythms throughout this time.

Lots of people asked me what I learned over the 6-month period and I am not sure what people were expecting me to say. I personally imagined an incredible awakening to something I had never seen before. Maybe it would be the development or implementation of something which could affect many lives. Either way I felt as though people were expecting me to come back with some earth shattering discovery, but the truth is I learned what I went away to do.

I learned to rest.
I travelled.
I studied.
I was a stay-at-home dad.
I became less cynical.

Above all of these things there was something else I learned.

As the summer was winding down and the fall was beginning to emerge it was then I took my Sabbatical and had less noise surrounding me. It was brilliant. It was hard. No one really needed me. I didn't need to get anything done. No deadlines. No meetings. No emails. No voicemails. It definitely took some time to get used to. I stepped into a space I had never been and had to cultivate new routines and patterns. What I noticed though is after the noise around started to disappear I was noticing one important thing all around me: The Natural Rhythm of Creation.

We as people run at a torrid pace. Seriously. If we compare ourselves to the rest of Creation there is a stark difference in how we operate. We wake up whenever we want, we go to bed whenever we want, we abuse things all around us for our gain, and the worst part is we don't usually care. As the noise surrounding me started to disappear I had the capacity to look and see people around me. Always rushing, always hurrying, hardly ever enjoying. I made the conclusion, for myself - I was going against the very grain of the Natural Rhythm of Creation.

The sun rises at different times all throughout the year and it sets at different times as well. As the earth rotates around the sun we get longer days and shorter days. September went into October and the days started to get shorter, but it seemed as if no one around me cared. Everyone went as if nothing had happened. People would just complain it was getting colder and the days were getting shorter as if it is such a bad thing. Instead of trying to step into the rhythm of creation I noticed people all around me ignore it. They had things to do. They couldn't slow down. Some even chose to increase their busyness. As the rest of Creation started to prepare for hibernation and rest the people I saw just lived as if nothing was changing, well they did put on a jacket.

The fall season is a time of dying, per say. It is a time where we marvel at the beauty of so many colourful leaves here in Canada. These leaves turn colour because they are dying. They die in order for life to grow in the Spring. Creation starts to die, prepare, and hibernate in the fall. The speed of animals starts to slow down, the frequency of animals we see gets fewer: less birds, less raccoons, the squirrels.

As winter comes and the days are short it seems as though life has disappeared from what we see. The colour from the fall has no disappeared and white snow hits the ground covering everything which once bore a colour.

The natural rhythm fall told me was to slow down.
The natural rhythm winter told me was to nestle in, stay warm, and enjoy my wife and child around me.

It seems so natural does it? If we notice the days of the year move in a way which begs for us to join in. The sun rises, we wake. The sun sets, we rest. The days get warmer we spend it outside. The days get colder we spend it indoors.

The thing which struck me more than anything over my 6-month Sabbatical is how people, literally, run against the rhythm and fabric of Creation. We ignore, for the most part, this natural rhythm. It's a shame because there is so much goodness found in this rhythm.

As September has come again this year I feel more prepared for the fall and winter. I am not trying to get through it in order to get to spring and summer. I am prepared to enjoy each and every moment as I look into creation, see how it operates, and step into this rhythm knowing my Creator has designed it to operate is such a way.

It's amazing isn't it? I know I complain often of not being able to hear, feel, experience God in my life and more often than not refuse to step into the very rhythm of Creation. Maybe if I step into this rhythm I will be able to see, hear, and experience God more.

Well it's the time. 6:30am. Clicking publish.