If I can characterize the Christian themes to remember during the month of November, I would use the phrase “conscious living.” At first glance, the phrase may seem redundant, since to be conscious is one of the marks of being alive. But this type of consciousness is related to being intentional about how we live our daily lives. Read Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5-7). The language throughout these scriptures calls us to be conscious about how we live before God and with one another. “Let your light so shine before others…; Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume them…; Ask, and it will be given you; seek and you will find.”
These themes are especially appropriate during the month of November, when we turn our attention to topics of Stewardship, Full Inclusion, and Thanksgiving. First, conscious living is closely connected with our finances: how we manage the resources God has entrusted to us and whether our spiritual priorities are intentionally reflected in our spending habits. Second, conscious living involves social justice: doing all we can to ensure that everyone is welcome and respected for the children of God they inherently are. Third, conscious living is grateful living: because failing to give thanks only shrivels our souls and stunts our growth as creatures privileged by God to live amidst real opportunity and abundance.
Sometimes it is hard to be intentional about our spiritual lives. The demands of the day, especially when money is short or health is failing or depression comes upon us, can muddy our thinking so that it feels we are already doing all we can just to get by. That is why it is important to remember that conscious living is not something else we add onto our full “to do” lists. Rather it is the foundation that makes it possible for us to get through our days with a measure of joy and inner peace. It happens when we take time for a moment of prayer; quieting our souls and giving thanks, or when we make the effort to really notice the people around us–our neighbors, those who serve you by driving the bus, or ringing up your purchase–or when we remember that we are loved by Christ, who has promised never to leave or forsake us.
I read a humorous short story by the playwright Anton Chekhov in which an abbot decided that it was wrong to stay sequestered in his monastery, so he took off to preach in the nearby city. Upon arriving there, he was horrified by all the vices he saw around him, the sins and temptations which he described in great detail to the other monks when he returned later to the abbey. Unfortunately, he described the temptations too well, for when the abbot awoke the next morning, all the monks had abandoned him for the city life!
We chuckle at the ironic turn of events in Chekhov’s story, and yet the tale could be told from the opposite perspective. It could describe how many people lead lives of “quiet desperation,” searching for meaning and hope amidst the ceaseless labors of their days. So they travel outside their sequestered “walls” and encounter the virtues of conscious, faithful living, giving thanks, valuing justice, practicing generosity. And after joyfully telling their story to others, the “walls” of their old life are abandoned and a new communal life begins. My prayer is that we use the coming month, as a church and individuals, for precisely this type of conscious living.