Am I ignorning the deeper issues in life?

Hmmm.... I don't think so.... but perhaps.  I feel like for me the deeper issues are things like: justice, love, compassion, responsibility; and I feel like I do spend a good amount of time thinking about those issues.  What I think I am guilty of is  failing to put God into those deeper issues.  I believe that God wants equality for everyone and the end of violence and hatred.... but I don't always state my beliefs on the subject of justice as a faith issue.  I know that Creator God is a loving God who cares for us, and my tree-hugger beliefs include the understand that one of the ways we express our gratitude to the Creator is to care for all of creation... but that isn't usually included in my soapbox statements about electric cars and recycling.

I don't think I live a completely self-involved life, but that's probably a sign that I do.  I admit to being more concerned about my daily life than the bigger picture on the average day - and I will work to shift that balance.  More importantly, I want to work to include God more in my language and practice of my daily life.  

Lent, Day 1 and 2

So this is my commitment for this Lenten season: to reflect once a day on my faith and my walk with God. The Lenten devotional by Fredrick Buechner offers up some great questions for reflection, so I will work from there.

But first a confession...
I really want to be spiritually disciplined, I'm just really bad at it. I think that I get complacent about the fact that I know God walks with me and shares my journey, so I don't have to put intentional time into my spiritual health. But isn't that a little like knowing your heart is still beating so therefore you can eat whatever you want and never exercise? Knowing the existence of something is different that nurturing and growing. So I wear the ash of the season as a reminder that I am from dust and to dust I shall return, and in my broken and fragile state I need all the help I can get. Its time to get on the faith treadmill, to spend daily attention to my spiritual diet, and to be aware of the difference between existing and living.

Ok, yesterday's question: What would I do if today were my last day?
Obviously there are the typical answers of telling friends and family that I love them, but I think I still wrestle with my "legacy." So I might also (after the goodbyes and "I love you's") spend the day trying to help one person get back on their feet, find a way to correct one injustice, plant a few trees, and look for a good soapbox to crawl on top of. The other more selfish is answer is that I might give everything I own away, but that isn't charitable as much as it is a safe-guard that no one would have to sort through my belongings and wonder why I owned half the things that clutter my house and life. It could of sounds like I might need at least a week's notice before death.... but it rarely happens that way. Maybe I should stick to the 4 basics: I love you, I apologize for, I forgive you for, and thank you for..... well that and some silent time to get reacquainted with the God that is about to hold me and welcome me home.

Today's question: Do I act as if I'll never die?
Nope! I think I act like it won't be for a long time, but that's a different question. Anyone that has the paranoia that I do about dying before I make the world a better place knows that they will die someday. It sounds odd to hear this, but I am thankful to have been present at so many deaths (I think I am around 150 these days) because it teaches so many lessons: 1) We all die and rarely do we have any say over when. 2) Death is the worst for the people who get left behind, not for the deceased. 3) In every death there is a lesson for how to live either by example or by "what not to do" 4) In every death, there is God: a presence, a blessing, a moment of reconnection or expressed love.
I know that I will die, I think what I am afraid of is that it will be before I am ready... and that raises a whole different question.