Passover thoughts

Well tonight at sundown began Passover.  I am sure many of you are familiar with the Biblical story of Moses and the Hebrew people trying to leave Egypt.  What followed of course was a series of plagues, a journey to the Dead Sea, the Dead Sea waters parting and the Hebrews crossing safely.  The Egyptians were not so lucky followed by the Hebrews wandering for 40 years in the desert.

I believe there are those among us who live in environments that we are not to live; environments of temption, places that are out right sinful in nature,spaces of addiction, places of pain, turmoil and trial.  Places where we do learn many times the hard way, but yet lessons we will never forget.  For many of us we are tried by our own plagues, some of them very personal that we may never share with another human being and some that we chose to share with those that are closest to us.

Some of us wander for years trying to find who we really are, where we need to be, what we need to be doing and for some us we even struggle with what we really deeply think and belive. Some of us have watched in horror as our friends died around us from the plagues of our day--Cancer, obesity, AIDS, heart disease and a countless list of other diseases,

It is my deepest hope that this Passover that we take the time to remember where we have been, what we have lived through, where we are going and where we are even now.  May we also realize that being spiritual doesn't really mean that we have to be religious or even attend church/temple.  The holy lives in us, through us and challenges us to take the next steps we need to take.  May you find strength, courage, hope and peace by these thoughts and may your Passover be sacred.  Until next time I am so glad we had this time together.