The East Coast got blasted with a winter storm at the end of January. Here in North Carolina, that means almost everything shuts down in anticipation of a storm. Being from Philadelphia, me and the other transplanted northerners confidently think we have a higher degree of skill from years of driving in the snow than our southern born counterparts. Its kind of a standard running joke down south that probably has some merit, but is not totally true.
Anyway, with my Yankee mindset and four wheel drive mode in my wife's 4Runner, I set out to go to hot yoga class by the mall and through the 2 inches of unplowed snow and ice that had accumulated that first morning of the storm. There were very few cars on the roads and I chuckled thinking that I remembered riding school buses in deeper snow than this when I was child back in suburban Philadelphia.
There were 8 other students in class, and the hot yoga room temperature of 95 degrees was a welcome environment. A woman walked into class and put her matt down next to mine and smiled at me. I smiled back and said "only the die hards are here today." She said "this is the time you get the most out of it, when its hardest to get here." I took a moment to let that thought sink in and I sat up and said "you know, that is so true and it reminds me of the best sermon I ever heard at church." She looked at me as if to say "continue" as she set up her mat and towel and yoga blocks and straps for her practice. So I shared with her this memory:
I remember being 9 or 10 years old and my mom loading my two sisters and brother into our red station wagon and dragging us to church for 9:15am mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church even though there was over a foot of snow on the ground. I was so amazed that she would bundle us up, risk the ice and snow on the roads and drag us to church, but that’s what she did. I complained, but to no avail. One of her most memorable and permanent sayings to her children was "God gives you 24 hours 7 days a week and you can’t give him an hour a week on Sunday morning?” It was hard to argue with that logic as a kid, and even though I don’t like the use of guilt as motivation for worship, it is still a powerful reminder to me today as an adult.
So, sitting in church with my younger siblings munching on pretzels as entertainment during mass, we all sat in a half empty church as Father Kerwick got up to give the sermon after the reading of scripture. I usually tried to listen to what the priest said, even though it never felt like it applied to me that much. For some reason, I was extra tuned in that morning and listening intently. The priest got behind the podium, adjusted the microphone and just looked out upon the thinly assembled congregation. He was quiet, just looking out for what seemed like a minute. And then he spoke;
“Friends" he said, "anyone who made it to church this morning in these conditions doesn’t need a sermon from me. Let us pray."
And we all stood up and moved right on with the normal mass. I stood up so excited that there would be no sermon and it would be a shorter mass. And it was, we were out of there in a record 30 minutes. But you know what, that was the one of the most impactful and memorable sermons I ever experienced. Maybe that says something about me and the depth of my faith, but I really don’t think so. Father Kerwick impacted me for the rest of my life, and that by definition is a great sermon.
My fellow yoga student that morning smiled and said, "that so true, you should want to be where you are, and you always get a lot more out of it."
I spent my entire 75 minute yoga practice thinking about that simple but profound thought. To "WANT TO BE WHERE YOU ARE!" and I kept that thought for the entire day, sledding with my kiddos down the 10th fairway of the local golf course in 25 degree weather later that day, and then giving them hot cocoa, and a bath and snuggling them and saying prayers with them as I tucked them in for sleep that night.
It was a great thought that I wanted to share, and one that I hope I can utilize and live more on purpose each day going forward, to WANT TO BE WHERE I AM, and to be fully present where I am and doing what I am doing. It brought me great joy. I hope when you try it, it brings you simple and deep joy as well.
Amen and AMEN.