What's Your Balloon?

A few Sundays ago, Nita Cummings spoke about her experiences during her time of recovery from a stroke. It made me wonder about a few things upon reflecting on her story.

1)    How long did it take her to be able to laugh about her drug-induced hallucinations?

The recurring phrase during her message was, “I just wanted to go home.”

3)    

One of her experiences was trying to communicate to a helium-filled balloon.

a.     Her mind was convinced that it was really a deaf mute sent to communicate with her about how to get discharged from the hospital.

b.     If she could figure out a method of communication, it would tell her how she could go home.

c.     Nita would throw anything within reach at the ‘deaf mute’ throughout the night to get its attention.

d.     Of course, the situation was never fruitful. The ‘deaf mute’ had no control over how, or when, Nita would get to go home.

During Nita’s message, my mind started to whirl. That balloon part seemed silly. Nita was even giggling while she was admitting it to the congregation.  I was smiling, but I got a sinking feeling in my heart. I couldn’t figure it out.

And then I did.

Nita clearly wasn’t living in reality. But, if you break that down a little further, you can question if we are living in reality, or just a reality.

Suppose, for a moment, that we are truly Spiritual Souls. Sure, this isn’t hard to believe. We are all striving for that. But, imagine that the reality we are living in now is the false reality similar to what Nita was experiencing.

What balloons are you trying to communicate with?!? What, in this material world, has consumed your attention so much that you are reduced to throwing parts of yourself at, to gain its attention? And, is it something that will reward you with the knowledge of how to go home?

Of course, now, I have switched the literal meaning of go home from our dwelling here on Earth, to going home to Our Heavenly Father.

I think this realization folds gently into the event of Lent. Lent is a time when many Christians prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline. The purpose is to set aside time for reflection on Jesus Christ - his suffering and his sacrifice, his life, death, burial and resurrection.

Lent is a time to identify our deaf-mute balloons, and pop them.

Now that we are in our fourth Sunday of Easter, our journey of repentance should not end.

I challenge you to examine your reality. Identify your balloons.

Mark your calendars. Have the first of the month be your balloon day. I challenge you to fast from that balloon for the entire month, or a few weeks, at least. See if your reality morphs, or changes, so that you can see your Spiritual-self, again.

And, if you find yourself missing the opportunity of throwing things at your balloon, then you better practice ducking. Because, when you get to those Heavenly Gates, St. Peter will be throwing those things back at you to defend. 

------------------------------------------------

If you have any questions or comments you would like to share directly with me, please email thearmymommy@gmail.com