Pull my Trigger
This week I found unexpectedly that I had a trigger. By "trigger" I do not mean anything that has to do with a firearm. Nor am I referring to Roy Rogers' horse or to the car driven by the Bandit. Rather, I am talking about some occurrence (expected or otherwise) that serves as a reminder of some other event that brings on a flood of emotions (expected or otherwise).
This happened for me just this week. I won't go into the details, but Sunday night while watching TV, just such a trigger hit me like a bolt of lightning out of the clear blue sky. Suddenly, my eyes were full of tears and a situation from my past had taken on unexpected emotional impact.
It's rather funny to think about some of these triggers. Sometimes they are sights. Sometimes smells are strong reminders. Sometimes it is the spoken word. Sometimes they are rituals. Often they take our minds to a time where something happened that forever changed our lives.
Many elements of God's plan are rich with such things and His emphasis on reminders is clear. The Seder meal and baptism are classic examples of how God's people have performed rituals or sacraments with the very intentional purpose of reminding us of God's presence and real action in our lives. Different faiths employ different sacraments. Most of them adopt more than my personal faith background. Probably most notable in my background is the Lord's Supper, wherein we actually perform a symbolic re-enactment of the sacrifice of Christ's body so that we may be reminded of His love for us.
Such reminders are a good thing even in the opinion of this "emotionally detached" premature curmudgeon. While I may avoid displays of emotion, I cannot deny the benefit of anything that draws us into a deeper understanding of why we are the way we are or a better understanding of God's work in our lives. Some might argue that to go too far in the ways of rituals takes us into the dangerous territory of "traditionalism" and as Ferris Beuller said "Isms aren't good." But to completely ignore traditions or rituals could be akin to forgetting important elements in the story of how we got where we are. I suppose the key is to know the role the reminders play in pointing us to the real story. The outcome of such things may not always be guaranteed or even expected, but just in case: Go ahead- pull my trigger.
This happened for me just this week. I won't go into the details, but Sunday night while watching TV, just such a trigger hit me like a bolt of lightning out of the clear blue sky. Suddenly, my eyes were full of tears and a situation from my past had taken on unexpected emotional impact.
It's rather funny to think about some of these triggers. Sometimes they are sights. Sometimes smells are strong reminders. Sometimes it is the spoken word. Sometimes they are rituals. Often they take our minds to a time where something happened that forever changed our lives.
Many elements of God's plan are rich with such things and His emphasis on reminders is clear. The Seder meal and baptism are classic examples of how God's people have performed rituals or sacraments with the very intentional purpose of reminding us of God's presence and real action in our lives. Different faiths employ different sacraments. Most of them adopt more than my personal faith background. Probably most notable in my background is the Lord's Supper, wherein we actually perform a symbolic re-enactment of the sacrifice of Christ's body so that we may be reminded of His love for us.
Such reminders are a good thing even in the opinion of this "emotionally detached" premature curmudgeon. While I may avoid displays of emotion, I cannot deny the benefit of anything that draws us into a deeper understanding of why we are the way we are or a better understanding of God's work in our lives. Some might argue that to go too far in the ways of rituals takes us into the dangerous territory of "traditionalism" and as Ferris Beuller said "Isms aren't good." But to completely ignore traditions or rituals could be akin to forgetting important elements in the story of how we got where we are. I suppose the key is to know the role the reminders play in pointing us to the real story. The outcome of such things may not always be guaranteed or even expected, but just in case: Go ahead- pull my trigger.
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