JC's helper: Waiheke Break

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Waiheke Break

One scene as we walked to my son's place this morning.

Beautiful beaches in peaceful looking bays all over the island.

Her first big excursion in the car. It took four of us to read the manual and install this in the car.

Looking from our winery lunch table toward Auckland city.

How the other half lives...
Today was my son's birthday so we went out to a winery for a lazy lunch in the sun. Before we arrived at lunch we went around looking at some fancy houses belonging to some of New Zealand's richest. They were very nice with incredible views. We looked enviously at sections and lifestyle blocks with incredible views of the water, islands and Auckland. They were beautiful but I am really rich in so many ways and am basically contented.
Nuns retreat...
We are staying in a little cottage belonging to the Dominican sisters. It is a little retreat place for nuns and we discovered the nuns have small bedrooms with single beds. My wife and I for the first time in years slept in separate rooms in separate beds. We coped, but one of my elders upon hearing about it asked, "Is this something we should worry about?"
Work work...
While we were eating our lunch I received a work phone call. It was brief and the office manager apologised for it, but I was interested in my reaction. I immediately felt guilty for being away and began to feel stressed about the news and implications. It is funny though I have to lead a service this weekend and it had often crossed my mind while I was doing things during the day. I decided as I took a drink to my single bedroom last night to do some thinking about it. As I was undressing the sermon outline, readings and even some songs came to mind. I sat up in bed and jotted down the notes. Sometimes switching off means that your unconscious has an opportunity to switch on and sort stuff out. I often find this. If I do some work on my sermon and on Saturday wander up the mountain track, somehow thoughts gel easily.
Fun work...
Today my son and I did some work under the house putting in underfloor insulation and after lunch decided to change jobs and begin to install a window in the space under the house. I enjoy feeling useful when I visit. Tomorrow is our last full day here.

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The Blog's title

I am a Workplace Chaplain to the NZ fireservice.

At the firestation every time one man sees me he yells, "Here comes JC's helper!". I guess I am happy to be called just that... "Jesus' helper". I am a follower of Jesus.
A a quote from Dave Andrews in his book, "Not Religion but Love".
"Being a devotee of Jesus is not a matter of subscribing to a certain set of dogmas, obeying rules and regulations, and getting others to subordinate themselves to them.

The essence of being a devotee of Jesus is to live in sympathy with God as Jesus did; feeling the throb of God's heartbeat, and teaching our hearts to learn to beat in sync with the love that sustains the universe.

It means developing our capacity to sense intuitively what causes love pleasure, and what causes love pain, and doing everything we can to enhance the pleasure, and diminish the pain."

I love this charter.

The Charter for Compassion

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.