Don’t Let Balance Die!

December 2, 2022November 26, 2022 / Greg Asimakoupoulos

**A grave marker in a Chicago cemetery is a call to keep balance alive in our lives during this hectic holiday season**

Earlier this fall I was attending a leadership summit in a suburb of Chicago. Following our sessions one afternoon, I went for a power walk before dinner. Adjacent to the conference center was a cemetery. Because reading old headstones in a graveyard is one of my favorite pastimes, my aspirations of getting my heartrate up gave in to my curiosity as I looked down at the markers.

One tombstone in particular captured my attention. It marked the final resting place for a family by the name of Balance. Balance? Really? I’d never seen that word as a name before. For one whose mind delights in word play and double entendres, I had to smile. Balance was dead.

Before me was living proof that balance had been a casualty of life. What was relationally true for this Chicago-area family, has been emotionally true for me at times in the past when my schedule was out of control. And I know I’m not alone. Balance is that easy-going, less-than-obvious, reality that doesn’t call attention to itself. We tend to take it for granted. We don’t realize how key it is to a happy life until it’s gone.

When balance bites the dust, panic thrives. Life becomes chaotic. A kind of grief sets in. Inner peace plays hide-and-seek. When balance has ceased to be a reality in our lives, the consequences are endless. They include debt, illness, depression, a short temper, drug use, alcohol abuse and over-eating.

If ever there is a time when taking urgent care of balance is critical, it’s now. This is the season of the year when maintaining a healthy balance between demands and desires is at-risk. Advent, Hanukkah and Christmas can easily find balance on life-support.

Just looking at my own schedule at work is enough to rob balance of its breath. There is a tree-lighting ceremony, a St. Lucia breakfast, a poetry reading tea, four holiday concerts, three Advent lectures, two staff parties and an all-campus carol sing-a-long. (Were you expecting a partridge in a pear tree?)

And then there’s my own personal calendar of writing the family Christmas letter, addressing the Christmas cards, shopping for family members and workmates, wrapping those gifts and helping my wife decorate the house.

Add to all of the above the fact that Christmas Day falls on Sunday this year. Bah! Humbug! Once again, a day meant to be spent with family is threatened by the demands of the church calendar. Without an infusion of creativity, balance is definitely headed for the intensive care unit.

Your schedule is likely just as complicated. The commitments on your calendar may be different than mine, but the outcome is equally as stressful. With apologies to Dr. Seuss, it’s not the Grinch we have to worry about. It’s the lack of balance that threatens to steal Christmas (and ultimately our health).

To that end may I suggest reflecting on the lyrics of one of my most-loved contemporary carols. In “Breath of Heaven” (written by Chris Eaton and recorded by Amy Grant) there is recognition of the weight waiting for Christmas finds us carrying as well as the pressures that cause us to stoop navigating life in a less-than-perfect world.

I am waiting in a silent prayer. I am frightened by the load I bear, In a world as cold as stone. Must I walk this path alone? Be with me now.

In silent prayer and honest reflection, we just might find guidance in how to reduce the activities that typically define our December. We just might discover that Immanuel (God-with-us) is with us providing us the means to keep balance alive.

In the case of Christmas Day being on Sunday, for me there is hope. Balance will not succumb this year to the life-threatening complications with which I have to contend every six years. With the concurrence of colleagues, we decided to pre-record our Christmas Day worship service and broadcast it on our closed-circuit television channel a few times on Sunday. A hack we discovered during COVID proves helpful once again.

Now, what other ways can I simplify this season?

Let’s Hear It for Thank Banks!

November 25, 2022November 22, 2022 / Greg Asimakoupoulos

**Making daily deposits in a Thank Bank helps maintain an attitude of gratitude** **all year long**

My Thank Bank sits beside my bed.
I look at it each night.
It reminds me what to do before I sleep.
When I deposit gratitude
for God’s hand in my life,
I have no need for counting bedtime sheep.

My Thank Bank (like a Piggy Bank)
is for using all the time.
I have pocket change of blessings every day.
Enough to eat, a place to sleep, and evidence I’m loved
are little things the Good Lord sends my way.

Those dimes and quarters all add up
when placed within the bank.
So, too, my blessings even though they’re small.
By telling God I’m grateful
every day throughout the year,
it’s Thanksgiving summer, winter, spring and fall.

Saint Michael of Wheaton

November 22, 2022November 20, 2022 / Greg Asimakoupoulos

**Wheaton College alumnus Michael Gerson was a Presidential speech writer and syndicated columnist**

Saint Michael of Wheaton
like Anselm and Paul
gifted words to those needing to speak.
With eloquent reason
and faith-grounded thought,
Michael strengthened the hopeful and weak.

He gave a Bush fire
that brilliantly burned
as the White House became holy ground.
And like Gershwin, Mike Gerson
made simple words sing
through his adjectives, adverbs and nouns.

And today we are grieving
the death of a man
who gave life through the columns he wrote.
Through Saint Michael of Wheaton,
Christ’s Kingdom has grown
by a journalist’s penchant for notes.

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/19/1137925730/opinion-remembering-mike-gerson-washington-post-columnist

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/11/17/michael-gerson-speechwriter-post-dies/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gerson

A New Thanksgiving Hymn

November 18, 2022November 19, 2022 / Greg Asimakoupoulos

**The lyrics of this new hymn invite the grateful worshiper to lift his hands in praise**

With gratitude
we raise our hands toward Heaven
in praise and worship of the God we serve.
We have been blessed
with mercies beyond number.
God’s faithfulness exceeds what we deserve.
With hands held high,
we reach to One who loves us
much like a child who longs to be embraced.

With gratitude
we raise our hands toward Heaven
convinced our world is governed by God’s plan.
When violence
disrupts the peace we pray for,
when prejudice and fear divide our land,
with hands held high
submitting to God’s purpose,
we gratefully declare that God is love.

With gratitude
we raise our hands toward Heaven
acknowledging the One who’s in control.
We humbly bow
before our Lord and Maker
relinquishing our bodies, minds and souls.
With hands held high, we gratefully surrender
to One who works all things for God’s own good.

Suggested tune: FINLANDIA

A Classic Movie with a Timeless Message

November 18, 2022November 17, 2022 / Greg Asimakoupoulos

**Greg Asimakoupoulos interviews Karolyn Grimes about her role in The Bishop’s Wife**

Last month was Breast Cancer Awareness month. But for the last twenty-five years or so, October has also been observed as Pastor Appreciation Month. Churches throughout the country look for tangible ways to recognize pastors and priests for the contribution they make in our lives.

Needless-to-say, clergy serve on the frontlines of warring factors in our culture. They play a significant role in combatting injustice and self-destructive tendencies. Often, however, their efforts are overlooked. Their attempts at compassion are easily camouflaged. At the retirement community where I serve as chaplain, we recently invited area clergy to our campus and honored them with a special lunch and a small gift. They were grateful.

Having been in the ministry for more than four decades, I know firsthand the joys and challenges pastors face week in and week out year after year. Someone has aptly stated that the clergy person’s rewards are out of this world. But the struggles he or she faces are very much in the here-and-now.

One of those challenges common to the typical clergyman is taming the inner beast known as ego. What pastor or priest has not wanted to grow his congregation or parish? What person of the cloth has not looked for tangible ways to earn the respect and recognition of his or her peers? Who of them has not known the hunger for power and influence that becomes insatiable at times?

While that unhealthy hunger is hardly abnormal, it is also hardly new. The lust for power and recognition has cost too many celebrity pastors their reputation. The inner conflict that can destroy the gifted has been dramatized on the silver screen over the decades.

One of those films celebrates its 75^th anniversary this year. “The Bishop’s Wife” starring David Niven, Loretta Young and Cary Grant portrays the inner struggle of an ambition-driven cleric. Although this timeless picture was remade in 1996 as “The Preacher’s Wife” (with Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington), there is no replacing the original. I ought to know. “The Bishop’s Wife” is this chaplain’s wife’s favorite Christmas film. We watch it every year.

One of the actors in “The Bishop’s Wife” is a friend of mine. Karolyn Grimes, who played the part of Debby (the Bishop’s young daughter) is now eighty-two years old. Karolyn was also in “It’s a Wonderful Life” (my favorite Christmas movie) as George Bailey’s daughter Zuzu. Having spent time with Karolyn, I know that playing the role of the bishop’s daughter was a highlight of her young acting career.

Curiously, Karolyn once told me that David Niven (who portrayed the ego-motivated minister in “The Bishop’s Wife”) had his own struggles as an actor. He didn’t like children. Karolyn related much better to Cary Grant, whose angelic role on screen was replicated in real life.

As with Frank Capra’s “Wonderful” film about Mary Bailey’s husband George, “The Bishop’s Wife” deals with a dark plot. In both black-and-white classics, we see desperate men calling on God for guidance. In the underrated movie that exposes the over-ambitious clergyman, the film ends with a redemptive conclusion. The bishop discovers his identity is not tied to the construction of a new cathedral. Instead, he finds (with the help of an angel) that his life and ministry is most fulfilled by serving those most in need of his care. And those include his wife and daughter.

As one who has tasted the sweet (but forbidden) fruit of ambition, I understand the seductive nature of success. A bout with clinical depression thirty years ago proved to be the reality check I needed. An undisciplined ego demands a high cost. Examining my motives, I determined to invest my limited energy in those around me. As a result, this chaplain’s wife can attest to my contentment and hers.

And so, I commend to you “The Bishop’s Wife.” This movie celebrating a milestone anniversary offers a glimpse of the humanity of those clothed in holy garb. But it also reminds us that investing in people (and not brick-and-mortar) results in the most lasting value.