Being Still Here

 

As we have explored, “here” and “now” this week, I offer you a poem prayer to close out the week.

The Quiet Machine Written by Ada Limón

I’m learning so many different ways to be quiet.

There’s how I stand in the lawn, that’s one way.

 There’s also how I stand in the field across from the street, that’s another way

because I’m farther from people and therefore more likely to be alone.

There’s how I don’t answer the phone,

and how I sometimes like to lie down on the floor of the kitchen and pretend I’m not home when people knock.

There’s daytime silent when I stare

and nighttime silent when I do things.

There’s shower silent and bath silent

and California silent and Kentucky silent and car silent.

 And then there’s the silence that comes back a million times bigger than me, sneaks into my bones
and wails and wails and wails until I can’t be quiet anymore.

That’s how this machine works.

May the machine of your life find moments of silence and times when your voice sings out because you cannot be quiet anymore.  With God’s love and presence.  Amen. 

Here

 

Brian McClaren in his book, Naked Spirituality, entitled his first chapter, “Here”.  Because this moment is where we start the curriculum of life.  We cannot go back and edit everything about our life ~ there is no rewind button.  We can, of course, seek forgiveness, repair relationships, and engage in reconciliation ~ but this all occurs in the present, not by building a time machine to go backwards.  McClaren ends that chapter with a simple three sentence prayer.

Here I am God.

Here You are.

Here we are together.

In this sacred simplicity, you are invited to pause after each sentence.  Here I am, God.  Pause.  You can name and notice where you are physically ~ the sights/sounds/smells ~ as we did on Monday.  You can also name and notice where you are emotionally and mentally and spiritually.  Here I am, God, in my office with my cup of coffee.  Here I am a bit worn down and weary from the week.  Here I am, God still carrying that boneheaded thing I said yesterday.  Here I am, God, thanking You for this morning and breath and life.

The next line is to notice God is with you.  This is what the story of Jacob and Moses affirm ~ there is nowhere God is not.  After celebrating God is with you, listen for God.  Now, I am not saying God is going to show up instantly and immediately.  Mystics have always said that when we sit silently with God, God sits silently with us.  This isn’t about some mountain top revelation; it is the reassurance of being held in God’s presence.

This is where the third sentence comes into play ~ here we are together.  And as you honor this moment called, “here” and this time called, “now” may you sense your heart, head, and whole life being filled with the sacred. 

I pray this practice opens you to God in this time and as time unfolds today. Amen.

This place called, "here" and time called, "now"

 

A friend recently said to me, “My situation hasn’t changed, but I have changed how I’m in my situation.”  I said, “We should get that printed on a t-shirt.”  Because the truth is, how we show up to here and now is where we have the most control.  I cannot change everything about the world or what happens here and now, but I can change how I respond and react.  I can be thoughtful, prayer, loving.  I can bravely lean forward with love, hope, peace, courage, and God’s justice.  I can be open to God who is here in this place. Or I can spend endless amounts of energy trying to fix everything and point out all the flaws.

Here and now.

There is another great story of encounter God in our ordinary lives when Moses encounters burning bush in Exodus 3.  Moses wasn’t looking for a spiritual transformational moment.  He wasn’t looking for a new job.  He didn’t seem discontent or dissatisfied.  And God met him as he was taking care of his father-in-law’s flock.  Moses takes off his shoes on holy ground.  Maybe this was ground that Moses had walked countless times before, but now realizes something new is here ~ a place that he walked right past before.  Moses asks for God’s name and God says, “YWHW,” which can mean many things in Hebrew.  It can mean, I AM WHO I AM or I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE.  I capitalize this because it honors the divine name.  Notice, “I AM” is present tense and God’s name opens a sacred spaciousness to the future to be who God will be ~ God cannot be contained in this moment and yet is found here and now.  God promises to be with you where you are as well as then and there in what unfolds ~ we need not fear what will be.  Yet, that is NOT the narrative we are told or sold.  We are told by politicians that if the other party is elected, it is Armageddon and it will be the worst time ever!!!  Fear the other.  We are told by companies that if we don’t buy the latest iPhone, we will be laughed at and seen as less than.  To say that who we are now is enough because God is here, and who we will be in the future as we grow will be enough because God is there too.  I cannot change everything about this moment, but I can change how I show up to this moment.  May this truth resonate and reverberate every second this day with the presence and promise of God here and now. Amen. 

What is NEW here NOW?

 

What here is new now?

Yesterday, I invited you to name and notice this place called, “Here” and this time called, “Now”.  We recalled the story of Jacob encountering God.  A bit of background can be helpful to see that this isn’t some sugary sweet story.  Jacob had a twin brother, Esau.  The two were as different as night and day.  Jacob’s deepest desire was to be born first.  He came out holding his Esau’s heel and if to say, “Not so fast, bucko.”  (I have always wanted to use the word, “bucko” in a morning meditation…I feel my life is more complete now).  Esau grew up to be a hunter and outdoorsman.  Jacob preferred to stay and stick closer to home where he was more comfortable in the kitchen.  Pause whilst you think about the differences between you and your siblings OR your children; or any two children you know raised by the same parents in the same way but each beautifully unique!  Eventually, Jacob plotted with his mom to steal Esau’s birthright blessing in exchange for a bowl of stew.  I hope it was a good bowl of stew!  Wait, there is more.  Jacob dressed up like Esau, tricked his dad into giving him the blessing, and when Esau found out he said, “No problem, that is totally cool, bro!”  Just kidding.  Esau was as mad as you would be if you were wearing Esau’s hunting sandals.  So Jacob ran away from his family who makes me feel better about my family dysfunction. 

Insert the story we read yesterday here.

Wait, you might think, God blessed the trickster, Jacob?  God went to Jacob?  God actually liked Jacob?  I know, it doesn’t make linear and logical sense, does it?  So, why do we think our life should always be orderly and fit in neat boxes?  Why do we spend hours trying to come up with the perfect comeback to a conversation that happened hours ago or brainstorming thousands of future fictional problems that might happen?  We end up missing this moment here and now.  And what is new here now?  I am sitting in the same place as yesterday and yet the light coming in the window is different, the bird that sweetly sang yesterday is silent, but the breeze outside is causing the tree branch to wave, “Hi” to me. 

In this place called, “Here” that is familiar, is at the same time new right now.  May you hold this truth and explore it for the endless mystery that here and now truly are.  Amen. 

This Place Called, "Here"

I invite you this morning to open your eyes, ears, hearts, and sacred imaginations to the present moment.  What do you see around you?  Go ahead and name aloud the paintings or pictures or furniture and furnishings that are around you.  Now what do you hear?  I hear the whirling woosh of the ceiling fan and a car engine revved up as it fires to life and the soft bark of my dog in response to the car driving away.  What do you smell?  I have the scent of coffee and cereal that I can still taste on the tip of my tongue.  Or may you have candle burning bright letting loose an aroma in the room. 

We all live in this place called, “Here” and the time called, “Now”.  The funny thing about time is that you can be physically present in one place and mentally as far away as the planet Pluto.  I can be standing right in front of someone, and my mind can be ruminating on a conversation I had two hours ago or worrying about something that might happen.  Oh, I can play the “Let’s imagine the worst-case scenario” with the best of them!

But the truth is all we know is this moment.  Our memories are not machines or mental file cabinets where we just retrieve perfectly preserved pieces of time.  One study conducted soon after September 11, 2001, had people write down where they were on that tragic day.  They wrote down their location, in their own handwriting.  A few years later, they were asked the same question.  Now if our mind was a computer, we would just access that memory and repeat it.  But what the researchers found was that people had told themselves another story.  Maybe they had merged their experience with another’s story or tended mix up the actual day with something that happened a week or month later.  Malcom Gladwell has done some great reporting on this.  See video above.

I say all of this to suggest what mindfulness and positive psychologists are trying to teach us ~ that there is only this present moment.  What we recall from the past is not as solid as we think, what we perceive about the future may or may not come true (although self-fulling prophecy can play a role).  So this moment right here is what we have.  This isn’t new, it is as old as the first book in the Bible we read this story:

Jacob came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. ¹² And he dreamed that there was a stairway set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³ And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring, ¹⁴ and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. ¹⁵ Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” ¹⁶ Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” ¹⁷ And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

 

The power of place is where you are…the power of sensing God in this moment….the power of saying, “How awesome is here and now”…NOT because everything is perfect, but because God holds and enfolds us.  May this truth settle and sing and saturate your life this day and week.  Amen.

The Way-less Way Prayer

 

A prayer/poem today by Jon Sweeney and Mark Burrows ~

Here and Now

Everything hangs on the little word, here

And its sibling now;

But I often forget this; keeping busy with my plans,

Building for a future I cannot know;

And against worries I cannot finally tame,

And yet You/God wait for me to come home

To You now.  Now.  Now.  Here.

Now and here which is beyond the past and future.

And return to You’re here which is present before beginning

And beyond every ending.

Here and now with You.

May every hour, minute, second this day help open you to God with you here and now.  Amen. 

The Way-less Way Part 4

 

At this point in the week of hold this idea of the way-less way you might have a lot of questions.

Or maybe you are thinking, what is he talking about, “way-less way” that sounds like a paradox stuffed in a contradiction.  If you have time, I encourage you to go back and start with the meditation for Monday.  It’s okay, I’ll wait.

Insert elevator music here~ 

Everyone caught up?  Great.  If you have been following along, you might wonder, “Well, Mr. God is within us and God is where we are, how does this explain why do bad things happen?  Or why does life go off the rails?  Or why suffering?”

Great questions, to which there are no great answers or solutions.  Part of the invitation of the way-less way is not to defend God or blame another person or offer a rationale for these questions.  Rather, the way-less way reminds us that the root of the word, “question”, is quest or journey or direction.  If you are wondering why suffering, we need to spend time with suffering ~ not just skim the surface for platitudes.  What does suffering look like, sound like, feel or smell like in your life? Sink down into the suffering, don’t try to explain it away. What examples of suffering break your heart ~ personally and communally?  What have you heard about suffering?  Did any of it provide comfort in the moment?  It is okay if you had one way through suffering in the past that now is feeling like a dead end or leading you off a cliff to thin air.  Sometimes what helped in the past now hurts us.  We change and grow, so does our faith.  We don’t need to be confined or contained in the boxes of faith we were taught in Sunday School or hear from preachers on television.  The Bible is full of stories about hurt and ache.  This Sunday, we will start a series on Elijah, whose life was a soap opera of famine to fame to fleeing for his life.  Elijah wasn’t given the “plan” of his life, but he made the road by walking, listening, paying attention to the holy hover.  “Okay,” you say, “But God talked to him.”  So did a raven, a widow from a foreign country, and he had to go pick his own successor ~ it really is a great story!  At the same time, it isn’t like this story will solve all that troubles you.  Maybe, there will be enough gleaned from Elijah’s life that will help your life in these days.  It is my prayer, you will keep asking questions, you will keep trying new paths in this way-less way, and you will keep showing up fully with your certainty and doubt ~ for that is who we all are from Elijah to you and me.  With God’s love who is wherever we are. Amen.  

The Way-less Way Part 3

 

We are following the thread of the way-less way this week.  We are opening ourselves to our own story, God who calls each human heart/soul/life, “home”.  Let’s be clear that in many of the rooms of our souls there is a lot of clutter and cobwebs and cleaning that could help.  I know I tend to be a bit of a pack-rat when it comes to slights and someone wounding me.  I tend to replay the hurtful words someone said or read all kinds of things into a glance someone gives me.  A few weeks ago, we focused on Hebrews 12, the great cloud of witnesses.  We talked about how we are a stew of people who added to the recipe of our life.  This can be family, friends, teachers, colleagues, bosses, neighbors, fellow church members, etc.  Some of the people who add to the stew of your life bring sweet and savory spices to the kitchen of your soul.  Some showed up in your life and all they have to offer was a bitter herb or that wanted to toss kale into your stew ~ I really am not a fan of kale!  I get spinach, but kale is a hard pass for me. 

Is there anything you have been carrying around in the luggage of life that maybe you need to let go of?  These could be comments made by someone you will never see again.  This could be the wounds of family that keep getting bumped every summer at the reunion or Thanksgiving.  This could be your deep desire to save the world or others or yourself, and all the plotting and planning you still feel like Wiley Coyote chasing the Road Runner. 

Where do you keep running into brick walls because God created you to do more than bang your head against that barrier.  May this truth sink and settle and sing to your soul every minute of this day.  May you find ways to unpack what you are carrying around ~ the good, the bad, and the ugly.  May you find ways to let go of pain that causes ache within you and God so that you might open space for the sacred to stir in life giving ways.  Let your light shine brightly for you are God’s beloved.  This is the way-less way.  Amen.

The Way-less Way Part 2

 

In the beginning, when God began creating, one of the deepest prayers was for relationship.  But how do you craft, cultivate, curate a relationship?  When the great cloud of witnesses puzzled over this, they suggest God hide on Mount Everest, or travel to the moon, or even dive deep into the earth.  But none of those seemed quite right to the Sacred. After a very long silence, there was an idea whispered in God’s ear.  ‘That’s it!’ God shouted with a smile.  ‘I’ll hide inside each human; they will never find me there!”

I love the playfulness of this story.  We love to go looking for God all around us, rather than within us ~ as close as our next breath in this very moment.  Pause for a moment, where have you looked for God?  This could be church, retreats, creation, small groups, meditation, working for justice, volunteering, just to name a few places.  When and where have you caught glimpses of God; traces of grace; holy love lingering in the air?  I know sometimes I have found God in unusual places…then when I try to go back to that place…it isn’t quite the same ~ or I am not the same ~ or some combination of both.  When, where, and how you search for God are some good questions to hold lightly on tis ‘way-less way’.  When, where, and how you search for God will all be part of the way-less way.

To be sure, looking for God in us can certainly seem narcissistic or self-involved or just odd to our ears who grew up thinking of God as an old man with a white beard throwing lightning bolts smiting people.  I sometimes wonder how preaching this God ever kept anyone coming to church!  Yet, the foundational, fundamental truth is that you are created, crafted, loved into being in God’s truth.  Genesis 1 and 2 are all about original blessing and goodness.  The church made the mistake of skipping over that and went straight to Genesis 3 and original sin (which isn’t even used in the passage by the way).  I do think we need to be careful not to get too wrapped up in our own interior, less we suffocate, we also need to realize that God shows up disguised in our lives.  And Genesis tells us, it is not good for humans to be alone.  We are made for relationship with God, others, and self ~ each an important piece of the trinity of life.  How, when, and where did God show up in your life yesterday?  Name and celebrate this as part of the way-less way God is guiding, informing, inspiring, equipping, and empowering you in these days.  Amen.

The Way-less Way Part 1

 

We live in a world that loves quick fixes, instant gratification, and wanting what we want when we want it.

Case in point: the line at the grocery store ~ why do I act like it is a major inconvenience ~ dare I say an injustice ~ when I must wait for the clerk to scan my soy milk and hummus?  Why do I start an online petition when the person in front of me has 15 items rather than the allotted 10 items in the express lane?  Why do I immediately pull out my phone to check emails, as if I might “waste” a few minutes anytime I need to wait?  Why do I get frustrated and flummoxed when the grocery story is out of my cereal, when there are hundreds of other boxes to choose from? 

The truth is we can carry this way with us into church, sometimes without even realizing it.  Usually this comes up at the inopportune time when you are frustrated or flummoxed with this very human-sized institution called, “the body of Christ”.  Usually, our deepest values pay a visit at the exact time when everything else is crashing and crumbling down.  For example, the gift of anger ~ it tells you what is not right according to the gospel of your life.  Yet, if we are not careful, we will go around yelling at everyone (passing along our pain) rather than asking ourselves the important question, what is really at the heart of my frustration?  We may want the church to conform to our way and transformation sounds great for everyone else!  After all, as Anne Lamott says, “Of course, we think our opinions are correct, otherwise we would get new opinions!” 

Right about now, would be the time, I would introduce some amazing, astonishing, change-your-life in six-easy step process to sell you all for the low, low price of $19.95.  I don’t have some great product you can apply to your life to solve all that is unresolved within you or around you.  If you still want to send me $19.95, feel free.  More and more, I am coming to believe that we make the road by walking.  Yes, others have traveled this path, we might see footprints or even evidence of other creatures God blessed to be fruitful and multiply.  Yes, we may get glimpses of God’s grace that offers direction.  But for me the turn-by-turn GPS of life is constantly recalculating as I live day-to-day.  Meister Eckhart often spoke about the “way-less way”.  He once said, “Ours is the task of learning to seek God ‘without a way’ and ‘without a why,’ meaning to open ourselves to the surprising and often unsettling adventure that constitutes the search.”  In other words, seeking God isn’t about perfectly polished words of a prayer or the right retreat to help you meditate so you levitate or even some pastor who could dazzle and delight you.  The way we travel is more about our orientation than our destination.  It is not just following directions; it is the direction itself.  I know this starts to sound frustratingly circular or contradictory.  You may be yelling right now, “Make it plain!”  The way-less way is less about the techniques and tips and tricks, than actually engaging this present moment.  The way-less way says you can pray in more ways than you will ever exhaust in one lifetime ~ gardening, walking, sitting silently, watching cat videos on YouTube, cups of coffee with friends ~ if your spirit is awakened and enlivened ~ that’s prayer.  Being faithful doesn’t conform or contort to some mold, it is about showing up authentically and living the values you hold.  This week, we will focus on this way-less way as an invitation to us all to get caught up in God’s grace and love that never lets us go.  Amen.   

In-spire with God

 

I pray the questions this week of what is your best; when are you at your best/what are the conditions of your best; describing a good day; and honoring the blessedness of a bad day have awoken joy this last week.  I pray you have approached these questions lightly…not as some assignment to turn in for a grade ~ because my intention for you was to explore the curriculum called, “Your life” with the curiosity of George ~ that wonderful monkey who got into all that mischief from my youth.  One final question to ponder, what is inspiring you right now?  Or you may want to reframe and rephrase the question, who is inspiring you right now?  Or what conditions inspire you.  I have shared that being in creation, which is God’s first testament of the holy hovering in our lives and our web of life, inspires me.  Talking with my wife and kids inspires me.  Sunday morning worship, weekly Bible Study groups, and conversations with members inspires me.  Watching Ted Lasso inspires me.  Reading poetry inspires me.  Remember that the root of “inspire” is to fill or to prompt or awaken or activate or energize.  When you are inspired, you are overflowing with a flow of the sacred.  Note that the word, “spire” is breath so when you are in-spired, you are overflowing with the breath of God.  What/who/when/how/under what conditions right now do you sense the breath of God filling you?  When and where does God’s love overflow your life ~ splashing over the sides and sloshing onto the tea saucer?   May that image awaken you to the goodness of God’s presence this day and in the days to come.  Amen. 

Bad Day (note NOT the worst day ever!)

 

Yesterday we focused the camera on our life to see the ingredients of what goes into the dish of a good day for you.  Today, we are going to flip the coin and I ask you to describe a bad day recently.  Again, I am not asking for the terrible, horrible, no good, awful, very bad day (Yes, that is the title of a children’s book, thank you for picking up the reference).  

Let’s be clear there are bad days…

then there are bad days…

then there are “Oh my word, make the rollercoaster of life stop because I am woozy, and the whirlwind is too much and just wanna it to stop.”!!  

Try not to go to the extreme here of returning to the most painful day you had in the last week.  Rather, I want you to direct the camera of your mind’s eye to a day when things were just “off” kilter slightly.  You were a bit grumpy.  You yelled at the coffee barista because he said, “Coffee ready for Lest…is there a Lest here?”  I mean seriously, I spelled my name for the cashier!  Remember there is motion to your emotions, there is an energy that is within you and that you set a destination toward and direction.  Sometimes, our emotions, for reasons that are not always logical or linear, set their sights on “Grumpy-ville,” population, “Me, Myself, and I…no one else is welcome right now.  Thank you very much!”  Just as yesterday it wasn’t about a “perfect” day, but a “good” day.  So, today, I want you to think about the day when the scale of life tilted slightly toward just off.  For me, a bad day can be when I start to run late in the morning ~ not that I have a time clock to punch, or I spill coffee on my shirt.  I start to focus on the heaviness of life or that things are not getting “better” according to my agenda and timeline ~ and I really need God to answer for the lack of progress.  Or I read an email, emphasizing a word that the other person did not intend.  Or I let lose my sarcastic side on some unsuspecting person.  This is not end of the world stuff, this is a reminder that I am human size.  This is a reminder that I am not Superman who can leap over buildings in a single bound, solve all the church’s challenges, and come home to make a five-course meal for my wife.  Nope.  Just a featherless biped trying to navigate this world.  When has there been a bad day recently for you ~ what were the ingredients that went into the stew of that day?  May you find yourself even chuckling at bit as you look in the rearview mirror of your life, because blessed is the one who is able to laugh at themselves trusting that grace and love can hold/enfold even the brokenness of a bad day when the coffee was spilled, the traffic was bad, the project took an unexpected turn, and you burnt dinner so you just ate right out of the ice cream container from the freezer ~ because after all dairy builds strong bones.  Blessed be those who can be open to God’s presence in the valley of a bad day.  Amen. 

Good Day

 

The last two days we have been playing with the questions, what and when is your best.  I have invited you to investigate playfully your one wild and precious life ~ which is the curriculum we are all studying.  Today, I invite you to describe a good day recently.  I pray this question awakens you to the beauty of your wonderfully messy life.    First, notice the word, “good”, and please do not substitute in the word, “perfect”.  I am not looking for you to describe the most absolutely extraordinary, outstanding, soul-soaring, awesomest day ever!!  Nope.  I want you to reflect on a good day.  A good day for me is often reading, connecting with people I love, laughing, learning a new idea, enjoying a bowl of ice cream, winding down with a novel before I go to bed.  I know that no Hollywood producer just read that sentence and thought, “Call Steven Spielberg!  I just read the plot line for the most inspiring movie ever, I smell an Oscar!!”  This is not about seeking approval or agreement on what a good day is.  As a matter of fact, I think the beauty is that I can honor your “good” day without ever having my description threatened.  To be sure, you might hear someone else describe a good day and think yours does not measure up or meet some imaginary scoreboard or table of judges.  I encourage you to live the wisdom ~ you do you!  You get to craft and create what a good day contains and no one else can offer a critique.  More than describing a good day, try to find ways to weave in elements of that every day.  For example, a good day for me is reading a mystery novel.  So, almost every night I read a mystery novel.  I know this is not revolutionary.  This is not going to get me a book deal or land me on the New York Times Bestsellers list.  But the point here is to enjoy life, not strive and struggle (and then complain about the stress).  To honor what kindles the spark of flame in your soul, then tend that fire with the wood that is beautifully unique to you.  May you have a good day in the wonderful expansiveness of that word.  Amen. 

Practices and preferences

 

Yesterday, we huddled and hovered around the questions, what is your best?  I pray you found some responses or even lived some replies to this question yesterday.  Today, we continue to ponder the questions of Mr. Bungay Stanier, adding onto yesterday, when are you at your best?  This could be a time of day.  I am at my best in the morning.  One of the first things I do each morning is write, because this is when I have my most energy. I am rested and just had breakfast.  I am a morning person.  From 8 am to 11 am is what Carey Nieuwhof would call my “Green Zone” – when I am in a state of flow.  However, my college-aged children are the exact opposite.  I am a morning lark; they are night owls.  My kids seem to hit their stride about 9 pm each night, just when I am winding down and ready to lay my head down to sleep and pray to the Lord my soul to keep.  When are you at your best?  You may need to take some time to pay attention to your own energy throughout the day for a few weeks to see if there is a trend.  You could be an afternoon person.  You may find that right after lunch you have energy and feel alive.  Or maybe while others hit the 4 pm slump, you are ready to dive into a project before dinner.  As you consider time of day, think also about what are your practices and preferences?  For me when I am writing, I turn off my devices and ignore my email.  I light a candle to remind myself I am in God’s presence.  I prefer quiet to write at my desk.  Other people love working and writing at coffee shops surrounded by a holy hum.  Others seek out others and go talk through an idea with someone.  Some like music playing in the background, like a soundtrack to their work, others not so much.  Some do breathing exercises and center their thoughts, others dive right into.  As you consider what is your best, describe and define the “weather” conditions that help support and sustain you ~ the rituals and routines that feed/fuel your best.  This could be what you eat, times of day, to a special place, and the more descriptive you can be ~ the better.  The more this question can help you explore the curriculum of your life where God is showing up.  May the questions, what is your best and under what conditions you are at your best continue to sing to your soul in these days.  Amen.

Curriculum called, "Your Life"

 

I recently heard an interview with Michael Bungay Stanier where he was discussing his new book (How to Work with (Almost) Anyone) and some of the questions/exercises he suggests helping you be open and curious and connect with others.  I found what Mr. Bungay Stanier said both informational and inspirational.  In particular, he shared a few questions I would like you to ponder prayerfully with me this week.

First question, what is your best?  I know this can sound awkwardly phrased, and that is intentional.  We are more accustomed to answering, what am I good at or where have I earned a degree.  Moreover, as a Midwesterner from the top of my head to pinkie toe, I was taught to never get too big for my britches.  The word “best” makes me shift uncomfortably or feel like bragging.  Yet, know that you don’t have to share your response to this question with another person, although I would love to talk with you about this!  Mr. Bungay Stanier says that best is different than good at ~ for example you may be good at leading a meeting and following Robert and Rules of Order ~ but feel drained by the experience.  You may have a set of skills in a particular area but find it to be soul crushing and mind numbing and life zapping.  What is your best may not even be a particular set of marketable skills, but moments you are most fully alive.  For example, what is my best is out hiking in creation breathing in the oxygen the tree I am passing just shared with me ~ connecting us in the beautiful web of life.  What is my best can be writing, even when I make grammatical mistakes or spelling errors that would make my third grade English teacher sigh ~ note that “best” does not mean “perfect”.  That which you love, where you let your light shine, where you get caught up in what is called flow ~ losing track of time.  This can be with people or by yourself.  This can be in a particular place or way of being.  I pray you will spend time today holding this question, letting the wonderful awkwardness of it delight you.  

As we do this, today I acknowledge families for whom this day causes a wave of grief.  Many of us remember where we were on this day 22 years ago when we heard about the attack in New York, Washington DC, and PA.  I was in Des Moines, IA, my parents’ living, as I had just been ordained in my home UCC church on September 9.  We offer our love to families who continue to hurt and seek justice.  We pray for the ongoing wars that are happening in our world, where too often violence is the first and only response countries have toward each other.  We pray for a world where we will turn our swords into plow shares and where we would risk a love that can embrace our enemies.  Remembering that love can be fierce and have a strong back ~ while also living the truth that each person is a beloved child of God.  Truly, when I live this way, it is my best.  Let us pray: God of all times and places and people, we pray for the families for whom September 11^th has left a constant ache and heartbreak.  We pray for victims who died in the twin towers, on airplanes, first responders who risked running toward the destruction, and travelers who fought back downing an aircraft.  There is so much we will never know about this day, so we stay open to the experiences of others who bravely and boldly speak out.  We pray for comfort and care for those who will shed tears today and stand in solidarity with all who are worn out and weary.  For a world where violence is our only response, so us another way.  Let Your peace, love and presence be with all this day.  Amen. 

Empowering

 

This Labor Day Week, we have taken time to name and notice our curiosity, what sends shivers down our spin with inspiration.  I’ve invited you to ponder where are you putting information to work and where does heart-soaked inspiration work in your life.  On the horizontal continuum of information to inspiration, we added a vertical line with equip at the top and empower at the bottom ~ forming four quadrants.  Yesterday, we spent time with the word, equip ~ when you take the knowledge of knowing what kind of wood works best to build something with a hammer, to using that tool to build a birdhouse step-by-step.  But equipping is only one way to let information and inspiration inform our lives.  At the bottom of that vertical line is the word, “empower”.  These are moments you move from following directions to testing out new ways of being.

For example, I can read a book about racism.  Information is good here.  I can know statistics related to how black and brown children are expelled more in school or the median level of income for non-white people in Sarasota.  This is a good start, but it might stay just stuck in my brain.  So maybe I want to let that feed and fuel my work toward equity and finding ways for all people live out who God crafts the individual to be/become.  We long for the experience of inspiration that moves us toward change.  Perhaps we need to let information and equipping play with each other.  I need to not just the how or who is impacted by poverty because of race, but listen to what the person struggling to make ends meet truly longs for ~ because it might not be a bigger bank account.  There is a constant dance between information and inspiration ~ how each will equip us for action.

At the opposite end of “equip” on the vertical line intersecting the continuum of inform to inspire is empower.  This is where you take the information on discrimination to a different direction and destination.  Maybe you are empowered to advocate for change in a new way/direction that doesn’t have years of research backing it up.  Or maybe you are empowered to be honest about your privilege.  Whereas equip was about application, empower is about transformation.  Equip asks what the next right step is, empower might move you into an unexplored place.  Empower asks the hard to answer question, “How should I do this and can I take this idea/notice/data to a new place?”  Note that inspire and empower together are important and can be used in good ways or not so good ways.  We see many people today inspiring and empowering people to fear or to see others as the problem or giving one piece of data that is than used to convince others that there is only one way to act.  Note that empowering will rarely look the same for everyone.  This connects back to Tuesday’s devotion ~ there is a diversity in what you are curious about, or inspired by, or feel equipped to do.  Some people can read a book or watch a lecture on an idea and out they go to do something.  Others spend time devouring book after book with no pause to breathe, digest, reflect, and response. 

What is empowering you to move in new ways? Where is the growth of information with inspiration in a different direction?  Where are you being equipped and how is that different than feeling empowered?  May these questions stay with you (for they might take a few days or weeks or months to live into), and may you find moments of quiet joy as the God who delights in the culmination and cooperation of information, inspiration, equipping and empowering in your life in these days.  Amen. 

How to Engage

 

So far this week, we have imagined a horizontal line, a continuum, from information on the left to inspiration on the right.  As you have thought about that, you can notice how you engage things matter.  For example, if you come at Scripture as information to be distilled and discerned, the Psalms are really going to frustrate you.  Or if you come on Sunday mornings wanting a lecture on the cultural context of the passage, I will disappoint you.  Please know that information is good.  When my kids started driving, I didn’t only give them a pep talk, I gave them information that I have picked up over the years of driving.  Or when I started here at the church, I wanted to hear the stories, which gave me background, about the people.  I still love meeting people and hearing where they came from and what is inspiring them.  Imagine a horizontal line of information to inspiration.  Now right in the middle of that continuum, insert a vertical line that has the word, “equip” at the top and “empower” at the bottom.

If you focus on equip, this is different than inform.  For example, Wikipedia can give you all kinds of information about a hammer, but not tell you how to swing that hammer so you don’t hurt your hand.  Or I can get all kinds of information about a Bible passage, but that doesn’t mean I can put that into a sermon.  Information, facts, ideas, and data points are important, but equipping someone is to put that knowledge to work. 

When was the last time you took information and put that in motion?  When was the last time you learned something then went to test and try that out?  It could be a YouTube video you watched on how to repair a broken pipe.  Or it could be a new tip or technique you learned in relationships that you are now trying to embody with another featherless biped.  Equipping moves the information from your head to your heart or hands or practice as you participate in this art project called, “life”.  Where and when was the last time information moved you to a new way of being or to try something out?  To be sure, your first efforts may have faltered or failed. Sometimes, I learn more by doing it wrong than getting it right, even if that is so frustrating.  Ask yourself where do you long to take the information of life and move that into a practice and way of being in your life?  This may take days, weeks, or months to answer.  You may need to return and refine the places where you are curious (see the post from Tuesday).  But I assume that you would like information not just for the sake of filling your head with more data, but because you want to shift toward a different way of being.  May the grace of God that supports all our growing continue to equip you to be God’s people in these days. Amen.

God's Genius at Play

 

This week we are exploring the continuum of information to inspiration.  Yesterday, we asked the question, where are you curious?  What do you want to know more about?  Perhaps you started a list of places you’d like to travel or check out a book about or find a class.  Information is one part of the continuum, at the other end is inspiration.  Inspiration is what expands and evolves our souls.  Inspiration is the slow ripening growth of our faith toward beauty, justice, love, and God’s presence.  Often inspiration can be found in music, paintings, poems, plays, movies, and books.  Inspiration can also be found in complex problems that push our ability to solve.  Inspiration can be discovered by looking at the past, being in the present, and open to the future.  Inspiration is like the sound of grass growing, only it is our life that is inching in new directions and destinations.

When was the last time you felt inspired, felt the goosebumps race and run up and down your arms?  Wait, don’t race past that question!  When was the last time you stood speechless somewhere or tears in your eyes?  Inspiration can work hand-in-hand with information. Sometimes when we learn something new, we are moved to live, act, and talk in a different way.  But information alone does not always lead to transformation.  We see examples all around us.  We know that smoking causes lung cancer, but people still smoke.  We know that drinking too much or spending too much money or constantly surfing the internet can all be addictive/detrimental to our health ~ mentally and physically and relationally.  We know that racism and discrimination are hurting God’s beloved.  Information alone doesn’t necessarily lead to transformation or people making changes.  Often, inspiration helps with this.  We meet someone who has been sober for twenty years who offers to walk with us.  Or we encounter someone who tells us that we don’t need to spend every hour staring at a screen and shows us another way.  We form a deep friendship with people whose skin tone doesn’t match our own. Information and inspiration can play with each other and can be separately experienced.

Where do you long for inspiration?  What conditions keep you open to God’s presence?  How might you let that infuse your living.  May the God whose creativity is still at work in the world here and now inspire you to let lose your light of God’s presence today.  Amen.