By Kathy Berken
On Deck
When my friend, Brother Bob, gave me a Contigo coffee mug several years ago because the one I was using leaked when it tipped over, it, he told me it had a lifetime guarantee. After several years of constant use, it began to leak, too, and Contigo sent me a new one.
Just before Christmas, this one began to leak. So, once again, I contacted Contigo asking if I could take advantage of their lifetime guarantee. After answering several questions and submitting several photographs, they once again sent me a brand-new mug!
How many things have lifetime guarantees anymore? Your product is good until it dies, so “lifetime” could just mean the life of the product. It seems that standing behind a company’s products and protecting their bottom line have swapped priorities.
Do our bodies and souls come with lifetime guarantees? We like to think so, which is why we make New Year’s resolutions to keep the inevitable at bay. We want to stay healthy so our bodies last longer, although as I get older, I’m more suspect about the lifetime guarantee of this mortal chassis. But still, I persist with the fantasy that if I do all the right things, my body will last forever, or at least there’s the possibility of replacing some of my parts. Then I face the stark reality that my body did not come with a lifetime guarantee when I was born. Last I checked, it’s nowhere on my birth certificate.
However, I do have hope for my soul! I believe that my immortal soul does have some kind of guarantee, a promise that if my spirit starts to show signs of deterioration, it can be fixed (or possibly replaced?). A good New Year’s resolution to aid in that reconstruction is to pray more, pay more attention to the presence of God in everyday life, and be more consistent with spiritual practices.
Even though it’s not spelled out in so many words, the good news is our souls did come with lifetime guarantees when we were baptized. The offer includes instructions on ways to repair the damage. Every moment of every day I have the opportunity to liberate my soul from the ravages of sin through participation in the sacraments, prayer, and focusing on virtues such as forgiveness, mercy, and others that need more attention.
Through our baptism, God has promised that we not only participate in our eternal salvation, but we can take advantage of that spiritual lifetime guarantee any time we want. God loves us regardless, but sometimes we don’t feel God’s love or experience God’s grace because we get distracted from what’s most important. I also imagine the moments when we want a full replacement of our souls because they seem so broken that they appear unfixable. Aside from the rare instance of the completely lost and condemned soul — which is never for me to judge — we can pray for guidance in how to repair our souls.
When we feel our soul needs an overhaul, we can contact our Creator to ask if we can take advantage of our soul’s lifetime guarantee, and while we’re at it, casually questioning the possibility of a full replacement in order to start over. My guess is that God will send back a reply stating that your soul was created to last through eternity, and enclosed is a repair kit with a few helpful items and ideas for new spiritual practices, and a reusable never-expiring coupon to run your soul through the industrial wash of Eucharist and reconciliation.
When Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life,” he really meant that focusing on and practicing our faith is a great way to cash in on our soul’s lifetime guarantee.
(Kathy Berken is a spiritual director and retreat leader in St. Paul, Minnesota. She lived and worked at L’Arche in Clinton — The Arch from 1999-2009.)
