1. Not certain about your next step? Maybe that's not such a bad thing: We always long for clarity and certainty, especially when we have to decide on new directions in our lives. We want the road mapped out for us, and we hate when things aren't clear. I think Wendell Barry would say, "Get over it." Here's his quote (from a book about marriage):
"It may
be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings." - Wendell Berry
2. We are so much more alike than different: Is it just me, or are you also tired of people who are continually trying to drive a wedge between us? Black, white, male, female, rich, poor, immigrant, Eastern, Western, Latino, Republican, Democrat ... we're people, and we need each other. Listen to the Indian author B.K.S. Iyengar writing about this:
"We are all human beings, but we have been taught to think of ourselves as Westerners or Easterners. If we were left to ourselves we would simply be individual human beings -- no Africans, no Indians, no Europeans, no Americans. Coming from India, I inevitably developed certain Indian characteristics adopted from the culture in which I was nurtured. We all do this.
There is no difference in the soul -- what I call the 'Seer.' The difference comes only between the 'garments' of the seer -- the ideas about our selves that we wear. Break them. Do not feed them with divisive ideas.... We are no different in our deepest needs. We are all human."
3. Are new churches in the city actually helping the city? I'm getting ready to start full time leadership in an urban church: Loop Church in Chicago, where I have been serving part time. Guess what? Some people don't like it when people (like me) come in from the Suburbs to do ministry in the city. Why? Because those people sometimes bring an arrogant attitude:
"Hey everybody, check this out: we're going to bring Christ back into the city!" I'm not so stupid as to not recognize that Christ has been at work all over the place in the city before I or Loop Church got here -- of course Christ never LEFT the city! I also know I have a lot to learn about doing ministry in the city.
But I also think it's time somebody called out the arrogance of those with judgmental attitude towards people who aren't native urbanites coming in to do ministry. Check out this interview with an urban church planter, dealing with some of these questions. There are many different people who live in cities, and different people moving into cities ... urban ministry isn't about just doing things one certain way. I have lived in rural areas, small towns, suburbs, and cities. I'm looking forward to this new season of life and ministry in the city. Please pray
for us, and join us if you live or visit in our area!
4. Feature article -- Time in personal retreat is not a luxury, it is essential
Both in and out of recovery, one of the habits of people I look up to is that they're disciplined about taking some time
each day for spiritual habits that involve time apart: a set time in their day when they get alone ... reflecting, taking in spiritual truth, praying. Call it quiet time, personal retreat, prayer time, meditation time, whatever. The specific activities done in this time of daily solitude and spiritual connection vary, but the action itself seems universal and essential.
Without
exception, people I know who've had deep, long-term recovery have made this a cornerstone of their program. In the spiritual life, people I've learned from and looked up to the most have made this a central part of their lives.
In her excellent book "Lost in Wonder" (which is all about this practice of taking time on a regular basis to connect more deeply with God), Esther DeWaal writes
this:
To take time to be apart, which I consciously give to myself as something positive, creative, is not a luxury, it is essential. The gift of space for myself seems so simple, and in a way it is; but it is also surprisingly difficult to do without some form of external encouragement....
Its purpose is the same in whatever way it is used: to wake us from drift and drowsiness into a fuller and deeper sense of attentiveness to the world around and to the presence of God in that world.
If we fail to find the time to stand back, to give ourselves a break, a breathing space, we are in danger of failing to be fully alive, or to enjoy that fullness of life for which
we were created.... In any particular situation there is the danger that we are wasting the God-given possibility of living life to the full. I long for fullness of life and it is frightening to think that I might be wasting that most precious of God's gifts, the chance to live fully and freely. Stopping to take time to look at the pattern of my life, and to think and pray about it, will almost inevitably mean that I not only learn more about God but I discover more about
myself.
5. Quote of the week ... the other side of this issue:
“The outer work can never be small
if the inner work is great.
The outer work can never be great
if the inner work is small." - Meister Eckhart
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