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. 

Information

 

One of the ideas I have been working with recently is that in life, when we encounter an idea (written or spoken) for the first time, there is a continuum of information to inspiration.  For example, is a sermon trying to give you information or inspiration?  You are welcome to answer, “Yes” to that question ~ because my prayer is that there is both in sermons I offer.  Or maybe you find yourself leaning more toward wanting a sermon to give you just the facts about the setting and structure of the scripture passage.  Or maybe you prefer your soul to be awakened by what is said by the preacher.  The same can be true of reading the Bible, are the words we read on those razor thin pages with tiny print for information or inspiration?  The same can be true of a book or a lecture or a conversation. 

There are certain times in my life when I am looking for information.  A few Sundays ago, I preached about the joy of building IKEA furniture.  When I open the directions with the Ziggi-cartoon-like character staring back at me, I am not looking to be inspired beyond getting the dresser built.  Or when I want to know how many pieces of furniture are sold each year, I am not asking a philosophical question, what really is furniture?  I am simply curious about how many couches were sold in 2022.  Or when I want to know how hot it is going to be or what is happening in the tropics or the score of the latest game, I am searching for information.  There are times I go searching for data, not someone waxing poetically about mighty Casey at bat.  

At some point in our life, our own education becomes self-directed rather than prescribed by others.  What helps us keep growing is to ask the question, where am I curious?

Do I want to know more about medieval moats and what animals thrived in swimming circles around the castle?

Do I want to know more about Ukraine?

Do I want to know more about painting or sculpture?

I am not asking the questions above rhetorically, I pray you would ponder, where are you curious as we begin September?  Where could you use some more information, because the truth is that we never really exhaust all there is to know on any topic.  Just like you will never finish the internet, there is always some new insight or idea to build on the knowledge that exists.

One final question, where are you curious in your faith?  Do you want to know more about prayer, the Bible, worship, service, justice, caring for creation, embracing people who are different?  Please come talk to me.  I am fascinated to hear what is fascinating you.  May each of us continue, as school is now in full swing, to the life-long pursuit of encountering and engaging and exploring this world with all its beauty that can never be fully known.  Amen.

Honoring Labor Day

 

As we honor Labor Day today, I want to offer a prayer for the expansive and elastic definition of the word, labor.  The work of our hands, heads, and hearts may be something for which we are compensated monetarily, or perhaps we have a labor of love in volunteer work, or perhaps we pour out our energy/life in poems or paintings or art, or perhaps the calling that sets your soul stirring is connecting with others in caring ways.  Labor can include all the ways we share and shine our light in the beautiful uniqueness of being created in God’s image.  On this Labor Day, I want to give thanks to all the people who have been working on our sanctuary renovation this summer.  We have been blessed by hard working folks moving pews, breaking tile, preparing the floor, installing new T-Loop wiring, and laying new tile.  Our sanctuary is already blessed by the hands and hearts of those who are renewing the space.  We have also been blessed by hundreds of volunteer hours this summer, church members and friends who have pulled up and painted new baseboard; cleaned doors; removed hymnals; wiped down window ledges with layers of construction dust and countless other ways you have helped to share in sweat equity in this project. 

With gratitude, please pray with me.

Gracious God, we give thanks for the work of hands, heads, hearts, and our whole lives.  We give thanks to those who balance spreadsheets and weed gardens and inspire our living.  For frontline workers who help us check out at stores and deliver packages to our doorsteps.  For firefighters, police officers, social workers, nurses, and medical personnel who take care of those who are hurting.  For chefs who prepare meals we eat and people who make sure our water comes flowing from our facets.  O God, we are surrounded by people whose labor makes our life what it is. 

We give thanks for thousands of volunteer hours in the church, community, and across the country.  We give thanks for those who give generously of volunteer hours in hospitals and care facilities; for those who provide rides and read with students; for those who care for your creation on turtle patrol and give tours at Mote; for all the ways we can share and shine Your light of love in others lives. 

Pause for a moment to give thanks for one moment you shared the work of your head this week ~ words spoken or sung or silence shared or numbers crunched or problems discussed.

Pause for a moment to give thanks for one moment you shared the work of your hands this last week ~ made a meal or held another’s hand or pulled weeds or created a painting.

Pause for a moment to give thanks for a place you encountered and experienced God this last week ~ recall the space ~ the sights, smells, sounds, and sacred hovering.

Pause for a moment to give thanks for a place your heart grew this last week ~ a conversation had, or book read, or concert attended, or relationship where you were seen/loved for who you are.

You are God’s handiwork, the labor of love God is still crafting and creating.  For you, my brothers and sisters, on this Labor Day, I give thanks.  Amen. 

A Final Word from the Psalms

 

Here we are at the end of our time with the psalms as we start the month of September.  There is so much more we could explore and say about the psalms, but for now we will pause. I pray some of what you’ve experienced reading these mediations over the last month has been meaningful.  I do pray you continue to explore, sing, let these ancient hymns provoke and evoke what is roaming around within you.  Remember psalms are poetry.  I just read a quote from Mary Oliver, “I believe poetry is very old and very sacred.  Poetry wishes for community.  And that’s why, when you write a poem, you write it for anybody and everybody.  It is a gift to yourself, but it is a gift to anybody who has a hunger for it.”  Continue to let the poetry of the psalms feed you and nourish you.   A few weeks ago, I preached on the Doxology, which was written almost 350 years ago.  Doxology was meant to be the final word, nothing else to say after.  For now let the Psalms have the final word.  Sing with me the words of Psalm 103:

O my soul, bless God.
    From head to toe, I’ll bless God’s holy name!
O my soul, bless God,
    don’t forget a single blessing!

    God forgives your sins—every one.
    God heals your diseases—every one.
    God redeems you from hell—saves your life!
    God crowns you with love and mercy—a paradise crown.
    God wraps you in goodness—beauty eternal.
    God renews your youth—you’re always young in God’s presence.  Amen.