Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Embracing Life's Unpredictable Moments {Reflections}
What happens when your meticulously planned retreat turns into a series of unexpected challenges? Join me, Ryan, as I recount my recent five-day silence, solitude, and wilderness retreat in the picturesque mountains near Montrose, Colorado. Faced with canceled flights, expensive Uber rides, and an unplanned overnight stay, I discovered that these inconveniences were more than mere setbacks—they were pivotal moments that deepened my spiritual journey. Drawing from a similar experience in Israel, I share how embracing every twist and turn can transform a frustrating ordeal into a profound pilgrimage.
Find out how adopting an open-hearted and open-minded approach to life's unpredictable moments can lead to spiritual growth and mindfulness. From the mundane frustration of being stuck in traffic to unexpected delays, learn how to turn these situations into opportunities for aligning with the present moment. This episode offers a blessing for openness and mindfulness, encouraging you to find beauty and divinity in all experiences. Plus, I invite you to join our community gatherings at Central in Elk River, whether in person or online, to deepen your practice and connect with like-minded souls.
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What is up everybody? Hey, this is Ryan and I'm coming to you from Mike's Beats Laboratory. This is our Reflections podcast. And hey, welcome in, glad to have you. And hey, I just got back from Denver. I was in. Well, actually, not Denver, I was an hour and 40 minutes into the mountains from Montrose, colorado, which is the Western Slope, beautiful. I was on a five-day silence, solitude, wilderness experience in which I was trying to encounter the divine. This is what I do. I go out into the woods on occasion, and silence, solitude these things for me are wonderful. And you pray, you walk and you wander and you experience the mystery of God, which is lovely. But here's what happened the day I had to leave.
Speaker 1:I had to fly out last Wednesday, got up like at three in the morning, my flight was at, I forget, like 6 am, and so my buddy, bob, shout out to Bob Ruprecht, bob was coming to get me. And as I'm up in the morning getting ready, I check in on United Airlines. And I check in and they're like oh sorry, your flight was canceled. We bumped you to a flight two and a half hours later, which would have been awesome if I had known this the day before. I could have slept in for two and a half more hours Bob as well but here we were, bob was already on his way and I was already up half ready. I'm like, ah fine, so I just kept getting ready, and then Bob came and got me and it was like kind of a frustration, you know. So I got to the airport two and a half hours early and I think I took a nap. I laid down and took a nap on the floor, which is not ideal, but I did it because I'm a gamer.
Speaker 1:Fine, got to Montrose, but what happened was I was supposed to catch a ride up to the campsite from this person who's also on the same retreat, and I texted her hey, I'm not going to be able to, I'm going to be another hour late, cause, though I was two and a half hours delayed, my flight would have gotten a bit. You know, it was only going to be. When I landed, finally, it was only an hour later. So she's like, oh well, we were already going to be a bit late, so I'm going to just go ahead and go on You'll you know best of into the mountains, and I'm like who's going to pick me up in Montrose? So I found an Uber thankfully, last minute I found an Uber, which cost me quite a bit of money, and go to the retreat.
Speaker 1:Now here's what happened. The retreat was amazing, by the way I'll do another podcast about that later but on the way home you can't make this up I'm coming down the mountain five days later after this great experience with God and other people, and I check in again like, oh sorry, your flight was canceled again. We rebooked you on a flight tomorrow. Like they're so generous. Thank you, united, for doing that to me Like man.
Speaker 1:So now I got to spend the night in Montrose and pay for a hotel. I got to find a ride to the airport the next day so you know, another Uber ride and I'm like, what am I going to do? I wanted to see my kids and my wife. I was so excited to see everybody and here I am, stranded in Montrose. I was so frustrated. You know what I mean and I realized somewhere in there I did. I was like you know what this experience, all of it, from the 3 am wake up to check in to find my flight was delayed, to the getting to the airport, to flying there, to landing, getting an Uber up to the mountain, the whole mountaintop experience, the coming back, coming down the mountain, driving by Ralph Lauren's ranch by the way, 17,000 acres of double RL ranch, you got to Google it. It's incredible. But the things he's doing out there. But coming down, finding my flight was delayed again by a whole day.
Speaker 1:Staying out in Montrose, I actually ran into a guy from the retreat. We had dinner together. But, and all of that, even the frustration, was all part of the trip. It reminded me a year ago or a year and a half ago, we were in Israel with some friends from Central and Kent Dobson, who was our retreat leader. He was like hey, we showed up there on the bus ride to the hotel from the airport I just met Kent. He's like hey, just so you know, everything that happens is a part of this pilgrimage.
Speaker 1:A pilgrimage is this ancient spiritual practice of taking a physical journey while exploring a spiritual journey. Right, it's what the ancients would do. People today do pilgrimages to Mecca. If you're Muslim Christians often will go to Jerusalem or there's all kinds of places to do a physical pilgrimage. But Kent said on our way to you know, when we were in Israel, he's like everything that happens is a part of the pilgrimage. So if the tire on the bus blows out, part of the pilgrimage. If it starts to rain one day and you're uncomfortable, that's part of the pilgrimage. In other words, everything about this belongs as a part of the pilgrimage. Open your hands and experience it that way and don't resist it. And so I was like man, there's nothing I could have done about my flights on United. I mean, they weren't trying to like, do me wrong and I had no recourse and I had no other options but to sit there and either be against it or just open my hands like this is all part of the trip and experience it as part of the trip. So it reminds me of one last story, and then I'll get out of here.
Speaker 1:But a buddy of mine named Jim he was this, you know, he studied indigenous cultures when he was younger and tribal cultures, and he's this very he's got a PhD, I think, in philosophy and theology or something like this Great, brilliant man. But he came across this Native American Indian chief doing a rain dance. This is like think down in the Southwestern United States a while ago and he walked over to him and he's you know, jim is a young guy and a bit. He wanted to sort of show this native chief that he knew what was up. So it's like hey, you're doing the rain dance, you know. And the native chief, unimpressed, was like do you know why we do the rain dance? Whoops.
Speaker 1:And now my friend Jim is like, uh, on the spot, he's like I think I do. He goes yeah, uh, don't you do the rain dance to make it rain. And the chief looks at him and he goes you white people are all the same. Not a good start, right? He goes you guys are all against everything. Wow, you white people are all the same, you're always against everything. Wow, you white people are all the same, you're always against everything. And then he says we don't do the rain dance to make it rain. We do the rain dance to bring ourselves into alignment with the fact that it's not raining.
Speaker 1:There are so many things in our lives that we are against. And look, some things we should be like evil, injustice, abuse, oppression. We should always resist these things. But there are many things in life that we cannot help and we expend energy and time and effort to be against them and it makes no difference. I can't make it rain by being frustrated that it's not raining. I can't make the airlines change their flights just because I'm mad and stuck in Montrose. They don't really care anyway. I'm one of how many travelers that day right, they're not going to rearrange the whole travel schedule for Ryan Braley stuck in a hotel in Montrose.
Speaker 1:Or if I'm in traffic here in Elk River, which is getting increasingly more you know it's increasing by the day it feels like there's nothing I can do to make the traffic go. So I can either set myself against it, cause myself frustration, anger, kind of ruin my afternoon, my moment, miss the pilgrimage, miss the beauty of the pilgrimage, or I can open my hands, open my eyes, open my ears, open my heart and say, okay, what's happening here? How can I enter into this moment in a way that's open and experience it all as a pilgrimage, that it all somehow belongs, it's all part of the retreat, and bring myself into alignment with the way things actually are and maybe even find something beautiful, mysterious or wonderful in the midst of it. So, friends, today may you have open hands and open heart, open eyes and open mind and experience God in all of it, in all of the retreat, the not raining and the pilgrimage. May your life indeed be a pilgrimage.
Speaker 1:All right, hey, love you guys, peace. Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share it with some friends. And don't forget, you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 8.30, which is our liturgical gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering, or you can check us out online at clcelkriverorg. Peace.
