Taking stock

I heard an interview last night on Minnesota Public Radio with a man who works in Antarctica. He talked about the long winters. But what really intrigued me was when he talked about preparing for trips. One trip he took inland was for three months. He had to choose everything he would take, including every toiletry item and every meal he would eat, for the full time he was away. Choosing from canned and frozen goods, he would need to decide how many meals would require frozen hamburgers, scallops, chile rellenos, soft drinks, coffee, etc. He said taking stock was the hardest part of the trip. But he had to do it. His life depended on it.

Taking stock spiritually rarely seems like my life depends on it. But what if, as I suspect in my more reflective moments, it actually does?

So here's a start. My spiritual inventory for Lent 2013:

• Strong relationships with Katy and Jackson. These are my primary bonds where I feel love and acceptance.


• The ability to trust. This is the hard-won rock on which everything else is built. It's what makes me generous toward the humanity of others, but it's also where I can be most vulnerable to disappointment.


• A reasonably well-trained, critical intellect. This is where hard questions come from. It houses my hermeneutic of suspicion, and allows me to hold in tension both a radical iconoclasm and a deep respect for ritual and tradition.


• Thirsty curiosity. Not the same as being nosy, it leads me down new paths where caution would keep me away.


• Self doubt. I see this as a strength, not a weakness. It means I could well be wrong, and if I am, I'll kick against it for a while, but eventually admit it.


• Passionate conviction about the subversiveness of scripture. Unlike most official history that's written from the perspective of the victor, scripture is written from the underside, speaking truth to power. And anyone who dares to use it to oppress others had best beware the sword that turns back on the one who wields it.


• A growing conviction that Jesus really is God's Word. I mean this in the richest, mytho-poetic, metaphorical, and thus meaningful and powerful sense that in Jesus I "hear" something that "speaks" my life and the world and relationships we all inhabit into being.


• Spirit of Joy. I'm part of a community of faith that encourages and treasures each person as God's beloved gift to the world.

I'm sure there's more. A fledgling prayer life. A healthy heart. The use of all my faculties and abilities (even if my eyes need help). A basic assumption about the goodness I'll find in others.

But this is a start. For the 39 days (not counting Sundays) that remain in my journey toward Easter, I think I'm pretty well-provisioned. Now to see what comes next!

Blessings and Peace.