Religion in Daily Life

© By the Rev. Edward Chinn, D.Min.

"In the last few years, I've been looking for more balance," said actor Nicolas Cage, currently starring in the movie Windtalkers (Parade Magazine, June 9, 2002, p. 4). This film is about the Navajos who served in World War II and created an unbreakable code. Cage was born Nicolas Coppola in January 1964. His uncle is film director Francis Ford Coppola. Cage had a son born to him in 1990. "Becoming a father made me more mature," says Cage. "Before, I was an anarchist setting off fireworks." Now Cage is trying to keep his life in balance.

We need to balance grief and hope. Since September 11, 2001, we've grieved for those who died at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in Western Pennsylvania. With grief have come the emotions of anger and depression. We grieve, too, over the loss of "normal life," the life that we and our children knew before terrorists' attacks took place on our soil. The author of Ecclesiastes wrote of "a time to grieve and a time to dance" (Ecclesiastes 3:4). We need to balance our grief, anger and depression with the hope that we will dance again. This is the hope that believes reasonable men of good will can halt, confine, and eliminate the threat of widespread terrorism.

We need to balance work and rest. A famous monk relaxed with his disciples outside his hut. A hunter came by, saw the monk relaxing, and expressed surprise to see him taking it easy. A monk at rest did not square with the hunter's idea of what a holy monk should do. The monk said to the hunter, "Bend your bow and shoot an arrow." The monk asked the hunter to repeat this action. Finally, the hunter objected, saying, "If I keep my bow always stretched, it will break." The monk smiled and said, "The same is true of us. If we don't relax from time to time, we'll break, too.

We need to balance detachment and attachment. Jesus of Nazareth kept his life in balance by detaching himself at times to be alone, to think, and to pray. At other times, he was intensely attached to people and their needs. In the book How Do You Spell God (Gellman and Hartman), the authors address the question, "How Are Religions Different?" They suggest a major difference exists between religions that emphasize detachment ("how to get free of the world") and religions that stress attachment ("how to get involved and change the world"). Buddhism and Hinduism stress detachment. Judaism and Christianity encourage followers to repair the world.