We need Wonder Farmers!
Brad Montague of Kid President Fame leads Wonder Workshops. He is one of my heroes and he is leading one of these workshops here in Nashville in September. This week he offered a chance to win a free ticket to this event if we posted a photograph of wonder on instagram and wrote something about wonder. Brad’s post got me thinking about WONDER…and this is what happened.
I’m a 7 on the Enneagram, the enthusiast . I tend to be full of WONDER, the expectant, excited, “let’s go on an adventure” kind of wonder. The “let’s blow bubbles, or “let’s create something out of clay,” just for fun kind of wonder. The “WOW what a glorious sunset kind of wonder!” The Mary Poppins what is in your carpet bag kind of wonder!
But not lately. Right now, I’m in an uncomfortable place. The kind of place that has me doing a lot of Wondering … wondering if what i do really matters to anyone. Wondering if it’s time to do something different. Wondering what i am supposed be doing that I’m not currently doing. Wondering what is next. Wondering about the craziness of our world and it’s lack of love and justice. Wondering how long i will be wondering. What i know about myself is that when i get in this place of wondering, I tend to panic. I tend to run ahead of God and I can totally lose sight of all the good things around me. I shut down. I stop being me. I lose hope for myself and others. The circle becomes dark rather than filled with multiple rays of color. And I really lose all sense of true wonder and all it’s glorious goodness. Which also means I miss out on the goodness and wonder of God.
I know, I know…
There are seasons for everything
There are times of drought
And times of abundance
There are times of great creativity and time when things need to lay fallow in order for new things to have better soil in which to grow.
But if I’m honest, I’m in real need of some Wonder Farmers in my life.
I’m in need of some Wonder Farmers who have the patience and hope to help me grow again. I need people like Brad Montague and Christine Sine and Artist Scott Erickson who inspire me and encourage me to keep seeking WONDER in the middle of the worry wondering!
Farmers have lots of patience. They have time to pause and time to wait.
They know about the seasons.
They watch for signs and pay attention to the weather. They aren’t afraid of the storms.
They plant seeds, pull out the weeds and make sure there is extra water when the rains don’t come.
These Wonder Farmers know that pruning hurts but the fruit that grows is better after the pruning!
Where are you today? Are you Worry Wondering? or Are you filled with Wonder?
And maybe we need WONDER Gardeners as well as WONDER Farmers! The Wonder Gardener takes time for each plant and they plan out what they want to grow. Gardeners expect that things will grow well but they don’t give up hope when they don’t. A Gardner takes time to water some plants more than others, and chooses certain flowers for their color and others for their scent. They know when to fertilize and when to replant. They grow extras. Gardeners are generous with their produce and they like giving away the fruits of their labor to share with neighbors and friends. And this reminds me that God not only is THE Wonder Farmer, God is THE Wonder Gardener too!
Are you a Wonder Farmer? or a Wonder Gardener? Could you become one? What would that look like in your world?
Who are your Wonder Farmers? Who are your WONDER GARDENERS? Who are the people in your life that bring you hope? The people who inspire you? The people who encourage you?
Take some time to think about this. Take some time to be grateful for them today. Maybe you could text them or email them or even send a card and let them know they have value and they matter!
Even Wonder Farmers and Wonder Gardeners need encouragement!
How are you doing? Are you Wondering or Filled with Wonder?
What needs to be planted in your Garden of Wonder?
What is already being planted? What seeds are already there?
What signs of wonder can you already identify? What do you notice?
What needs pruning? What Needs Cultivating? What needs more water?
What WONDER produce might need picking and sharing with others?
Take time to write down the things that are causing you to worry wondering rather than wonder in curiosity. Give those to Jesus!
Are you letting Jesus be your Wonder Gardener?
Go to a garden. Walk around in it. Dig in the dirt. Plant something. Talk to God about all the things you are wondering and worrying about.
Allow God to show you what is already growing. Allow Jesus to fill you up with wonder again as you notice the flowers, the vegetables, the plants. Ask Jesus to be your WONDER GARDENER and your WONDER FARMER as you watch the bees and bugs and butterflies. As you see the creativity of creation and the beauty even in a blade of grass!
And don’t be afraid of the season of wondering…know that God the Gardener and Wonder Farmer is at work in the wondering too!
By Lynne Baab —
1367 years ago, on August 31, 651, Bishop Aiden of Lidisfarne died, so today I am reflecting on his life. I have learned several significant things from reading about him in recent weeks.
Aiden, who was born in Ireland, was a monk on the island of Iona when he was asked by the king in 634 to come to Northern England in the role of bishop. The king was a Christian, and he gave Aiden the mandate of spreading the Gospel in Northern England. Aiden set up a base on the island of Lindisfarne, connected to the Northeast coast of England at low tide. He spent his first ten years as bishop wandering the countryside of Northern England, talking to people about the gospel. He set up numerous Christian communities.
He received money from various sources, and he used all of it to help the poor and to buy people, especially children, out of slavery. At one point the king gave him a horse to aid him in his travels and evangelism, but Aiden immediately gave it away. He felt that the best way to talk to people about Jesus was to walk at their level, not to be above them on a horse.
Aiden also established a community on Lindisfarne to train ministers. The training emphasized study of the Bible, prayer, fasting, and walking the countryside with Aiden to tell people about the Gospel. That community lasted long after his death.
Aiden is often called the apostle of England because of his evangelistic work that had such a lasting influence. A few lessons I’ve been pondering from Aiden’s life:
- Aiden seemed to have a seamless commitment to:
- evangelism
- prayer
- meditating on the bible
- spiritual practices like fasting
- care for the poor
- freeing slaves
I love his wholistic approach to physical well-being, spiritual practices, and social justice. I wonder which components of his approach are the most and least apparent in my life.
- I ponder what it looks like today to walk at the level of people in need. Obviously horses are seldom involved in this decision in our time, but we still need to think about how to build bridges across barriers of culture and socioeconomic level. I wonder what acts and attitudes of humility today would parallel that moment when Aiden gave away the horse.
- After ten years evangelizing the people of Northern England, Aiden retired to another island to pray and meditate for the rest of his life. Ten years is not a very long time to have made such an impact.
Thinking about Aiden’s ten years of ministry has been helpful to me. I am a very late bloomer, partly because I battled depression from age 27 to 43. After coming out of my depression, I was ordained as a Presbyterian minister at 45. I got my first book contract that same year. At 55, I began a ten-year teaching career. The past 21 years since my ordination have been full and rich, but still, I often feel a great sense of loss about those 16 depressed years. Twenty years of productive ministry don’t feel like enough.
I feel a sense of freedom when I ponder the fact that Aiden did what he was called to do for that significant decade, and then left it behind to engage in prayer and meditation on the Bible. I’m not comparing the significance of my ministry to Aiden’s, but I do find myself thinking that if ten years was enough for Aiden, surely I can accept that twice that could be enough for me.
I visited Lindisfarne – also called Holy Island – a few years ago. I was stunned by the number of visitors there on a weekday in September. There were several hundred cars in the parking lot, and people streamed across the island. What a joy this month to learn about the man who founded the monastery on Lindisfarne. May we soak up the model of faithful Christians who speak to us from across the ages.
A wonderful post by Lisa Scandrette as we continue our theme, Spirituality of Imperfection —
I stand carefully on the edge of the inlet, feet on plant lined, ocean covered rock. The water is shallow and beckons me in. Yet, I don’t know how to navigate these rocks and the fertile sea garden beneath me. My feet seemed glued in place. Mark holds out a snorkel and invites me again. I want to do this. How can I be at this beautiful place so far from home and pass it up? He says, “Just swim. It’s easier.”
Though this inlet is protected, the powerful sea and the creatures it holds make me feel nervous. “Here, sit by me,” he says. I squat on the rock, unable to submit to the mossy, plant covered surface. He gives me the snorkel and mask. I put it on and peer at my feet, only to see tiny fish swarming where before, though I thought the water was clear, I saw nothing. In seconds, my body doesn’t believe it can breathe and fear rises stronger than my desire to see.
I want to and must do this thing. I squeeze the salt water from my eyes, readjust, and try floating. For a moment, it works and I see a whole underwater world. Then, I taste salt water and panic for air, lifting my face from the water. Mark’s shoulder is nearby. I hold on. Something solid. My body calms. I regroup. Again, I adjust the mask and snorkel and put my face to the water. I repeat this routine a couple more times. I feel childlike and embarrassed by my fear, but I am unable to mask it. Always, Mark’s voice calls when my body panics. Always, his voice steadies me, and his voice tells me I’ll get used to it.
And then, finally, I float. I breathe. I kick my feet gently and see fish, big and little; I see the kelp, sea urchin, little stars and pinkish plants growing on the rocks. My body relaxes and I don’t need to find Mark.
When the time comes for me to hand over the snorkel and give Mark a turn at that thing he loves, I am grateful….grateful for him holding my fear gently and yet not letting it prevent him from reminding me that I can do this. I’m grateful for his firm, steady shoulder. I’m also proud of myself for plunging in in the midst of my fear, for persisting because I did not want to miss this opportunity. Despite everything, I stuck my face in the water, I breathed, I swam, and I saw the fish.
As our kids began college, I felt a similar wave of anxiety surprise me. Sometimes, in the morning I would wake with my heart pounding and my mind swirling, with the visceral feeling that something was wrong. My body felt like I needed to escape. It took time in the beginning of each day to remember that I am not alone, to calm my heartbeat and breathing, and to proceed with my day.
I would rehearse the truths that calmed me….that God was near, that God walked with both me and my kids, and that God would help me through the moments when I felt ungrounded and panicked. And when I felt fear and anxiety rising up, I stopped to rehearse again throughout the day. God did not dismiss my fear or scold me, but rather encouraged me that I could move through it and embrace the very moment that I was in. At the same time, God invited me to notice the beauty in the new and unfamiliar stage of life I was entering. I wanted to embrace this new stage of life with grace, but it didn’t come easily. It took practice, learning a new way to move and breathe into my day. It was gentleness and patience with the process that helped me through my fear to embracing the day. And it was the steady presence of God, inviting me and accompanying me.
I’ve since acclimated more to this new stage. It is more rare to wake up with my heart pounding. And when I do, I can remember that God is near, his shoulder is right there should I need to lift my head out of the rough waters, reorient, and take a deep breath before plunging back in.
As we continue this months theme, Spirituality of Imperfection, enjoy this beautiful poem by Talitha Fraser —
You take, shape, mold me
You hold the raw material tenderly
and say ‘..this has potential’
I am a child.
I am underfoot and in the way.
I cannot stay within the lines
but I am so eager to help
You cannot resist me.
I am kind of cute and You
delight in my delight.
Surely this will be slower, more work,
not turn out quite as You intended
Surely this will be perfect.
By John Birch —
I don’t know about you, but August can be a hectic month in our household. So far we’ve had a week camping in a field at a Christian conference, and a week being invaded by family. There’s another camp coming up later in the month, at a folk festival, and in-between there’s the usual household and gardening tasks to catch up with, alongside work, preaching and other commitments.
It’s so easy to put God to one side in such situations, go into survival mode just to get through busy times like this. And yet, deep down, I know it’s so important to find those quiet moments within each day (and there are always one or two!) and just be still, and listen. For in those moments God is there, his peace will flow, his love refresh, and my day will be blessed.
May there be
within this day
quiet moments,
when I can rest
in your presence,
sit for a while
at your feet,
be still, and
simply listen.
By Emily Huff —
For World Forgiveness Day, I want to turn our attention to two stories. The first is the parable of the unforgiving servant from Matthew 18:23-35. One man owed the king ten thousand talents–the footnote in my Bible says that a talent was worth about 20 years of a day laborer’s wages. It is so easy to gloss over this note and not take time to do some basic math to understand the weight of this story (this means that ten thousand talents would equal 200,000 years of work!). It is crazy to try to wrap our minds around this, and it is no wonder that this man cried out for mercy because there was no way humanly possible that he would ever be able to pay back the sum. The king did extend mercy and canceled his debt, and he was set free. Can you imagine his joy and the party he must have thrown? Not long after, this same man in turn came across a man who owed him a hundred denarii, about the amount earned from a hundred days (or about four months) of work. While this is a significant amount of money and more than just a few dollars, the man forgot the gift that had just been given to him, and he refused to forgive the debt. The story ends with this warning of the consequences of an unforgiving heart: 32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. 35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
While we have been set free and forgiven by Christ’s amazing grace, are we not also like the unforgiving servant as we hold onto debts owed to us with a white-knuckled grip? We are so easily distracted, and we forget what has been extended to us. This story reminds us that we need to cultivate a heart of gratitude for the grace and mercy we ourselves have been given so that when we are wounded by others that we respond out of love and mercy and not out of anger and vengeance. We sometimes respond like wounded animals backed into a corner, lashing out to protect ourselves. Quite frankly, we have few other models in our culture for winning our battles any other way. Coleman McCarthy, founder for the Center for Teaching Peace, wrote, “We don’t know because we weren’t taught,” and the result of this neglect in our society is “peace illiteracy…a land awash in violence.”
The second story I’d like to focus is the tragic event from the fall of 2006 when Charles Carl Roberts IV walked into an Amish schoolhouse near Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania and shot ten girls. Five of those girls were killed, and five were seriously injured. After the attack, the murderer shot himself leaving the survivors with searing losses. While our country reacted with anger and outrage, the Amish community there responded with grace, kindness and mercy. Revenge was not a part of their agenda, and they instead poured out forgiveness on the widow of the murderer and on their family. The media did not know what to do with this. How could this community forgive such evil? Why did they not deliver a severe punishment demanding justice after this unspeakable tragedy? Some editorials wondered why more of the Christian community did not look like this with such a display of practical forgiveness as proof of the faith.
In National Catholic Reporter, Joan Chittister wrote an article about the Amish shooting called “What Kind of People are These?” She writes, “it was the Christianity we all profess but which [the Amish] practiced that left us stunned.” She answers the question posed in her title with her conclusion: “Interestingly enough, we do know what kind of people the Amish are — and, like the early Romans, we, too, are astounded at it. ‘Christian’ they call it.”
A beautiful book called Amish Grace described the Amish community’s authentic expression of faith amidst this tragedy. This book is based on numerous interviews with community members, relatives of the gunman, and family members of those murdered, and it examined the Amish views on forgiveness at the root of their actions.
In one of the most poignant chapters of Amish Grace, the authors share how the Amish revere forgiveness in worship services twice a year and in remembrance of 16th century martyrs who forgave their persecutors. They take time in their liturgy to remember that Jesus’ life and his message of forgiveness were central to his mission. In addition, the authors note: “The Amish believe if they don’t forgive, they won’t be forgiven. This forms the core of Amish spirituality and the core of their understanding of salvation: forgiveness from God hinges on a willingness to forgive others. The crucial phrase, repeated frequently by the Amish in conversations, sermons, and essays, is this: to be forgiven, we must forgive.”
Forgiveness takes practice, and the Amish take this practice seriously as they take Jesus at his word. It means doing the hard work of letting go of our resentment and grudges. “Genuine forgiveness takes a lot of work — absorbing the pain, extending empathy to the offender, and purging bitterness — even after a decision to forgive has been made.”
This Amish community shows us that there is a better way than the way of the unforgiving servant. We do not have to be trapped in the pain and brokenness of our world. Grace, not vengeance, is the answer where Jesus promises freedom and life. Extending love to our enemies with everyday practices of forgiveness is the gritty work we are called to in our life as Christ followers.
Mother Teresa writes the following:
So, my challenge for us on World Forgiveness Day is to take seriously Jesus’ words to us about forgiveness. Take some time to make a list of those with whom we share the journey- those who have been given to us and those to whom we have been given. To whom do you belong? Who belongs to you?
With this list in front of you, consider any bitterness or strife that comes to mind as you name these people.
Then, take some time to name what God has done for you and hold your hand open with gratitude. Allow God to wash over you in this space.
Now you are ready to consider the bitter relationship that needs tending. With gratitude that has been invited in, you are less likely to point the finger at the other person with blame and anger, and you are more likely to come from a place of compassion and grace.
Ask God for help and mercy to help you do this work that you cannot do alone and quite frankly is humanly impossible. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.” 1 John 4:7.
May God grant us hearts of forgiveness so we may walk in light of His freedom and grace.
I offer the Book of Common Prayer’s liturgy below to help you continue to practice this in your daily life because it is true that practice makes permanent:
Confession of Sin
Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.
Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life. Amen.
The Invitatory and Psalter
V: Lord, open our lips.
R: And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Psalm 95
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: Come let us adore him.
Come, let us sing to the LORD; *
let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *
and raise a loud shout to him with psalms
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: Come let us adore him.
For the LORD is a great God, *
and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the caverns of the earth, *
and the heights of the hills are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it, *
and his hands have molded the dry land.
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: Come let us adore him.
Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, *
and kneel before the LORD our Maker.
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. *
Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice!
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: Come let us adore him.
Harden not your hearts,
as your forebears did in the wilderness, *
at Meribah, and on that day at Massah,
when they tempted me.
They put me to the test, *
though they had seen my works.
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: Come let us adore him.
Forty years long I detested that generation and said, *
“This people are wayward in their hearts;
they do not know my ways.”
So I swore in my wrath, *
“They shall not enter into my rest.”
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: Come let us adore him.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: Come let us adore him.
Episcopal Church. The Book Of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church : Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David According to the Use of the Episcopal Church. New York :Seabury Press, 1979.
Chittister, Joan. “What Kind of People Are These?” National Catholic Reporter, 9 Oct. 2006, www.ncronline.org/blogs/where-i-stand/what-kind-people-are-these.
Kraybill, Donald B, Steven M. Nolt, and David Weaver-Zercher. Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2007.
by Christine Sine
This has been a powerful week of healing for me.
I began the week in Victoria B.C. where Tom and I spent a day on one of our quarterly retreats. I spent most of the day writing poetry. Then I delved into Parker Palmer’s latest book On the Brink of Everything, where he shares about the power of poetry in his life. I was particularly struck by his words I write poetry as well as read it because it’s one of the best forms of self-therapy I know. I have never consciously sought healing through my reading and writing of poetry yet as I reflected on these words I realized that healing has come as I crafted my words into poems and prayers, many of which I have shared on this blog. It is indeed a powerful form of self-therapy for me and I suspect for many of us.
On Thursday evening we had a local poet, Vicky Edmonds in our home. She shared about the work she does with children encouraging them to find healing in the writing of poetry. She expressed the belief that the most beautiful part of each of us is invisible and invited us to name one of our invisible beauties and make a poem about it. We started by naming the beauty and then identifying a color we associated with it. She then asked “how is this helping you and the world?” It was a profound and inspiring process.
The invisible beauty I named was love. This was partly because my week has been spent pondering the question “What did God breathe into us to give us life?” I came to the conclusion that as God is love, it was love that gave us life and I surmised that God’s breath is love incarnate – simple words to describe what has been profound experience for me. The prayer I shared above was my expression of this process.
Why Did David Write Poetry?
As I continued to reflect on this today, another thought came to me: “I wonder if David wrote poetry because he too found healing in it. I wonder too if we enjoy the psalms so much because this record of David’s poetry gives us healing too?”
Have you ever thought about what a damaged person David must have been? When Samuel came to anoint to his family to anoint the son he thought would one day be king, it was as though his parents had forgotten all about him. He was away with the sheep, maybe an unwanted last child. And as he grows, even with Samuel’s anointing, there seems to be little acceptance. When he goes to visit his brothers in the army they seem to despise him. Saul accepts and embraces him originally, but ends up hating and trying to kill him. He flees for his life and seems to spend much of his adulthood swinging between a hero’s welcome and despised rejection. Not only does Saul end up despising him, but his wife and sons do too. I suspect that after his adultery with Bathsheba he thinks God despises him too.
There must have been lots of healing necessary in David’s life and I wonder if the writing of poetry brought him some of that healing. Maybe this is why he could endure through all these hardships. Maybe this is why even at the end of his life he could cling to God. Maybe this is why God described him as “A man after my own heart” (Acts 13:22) It certainly wasn’t because he had led a blameless life. Maybe to be a person after God’s own heart means to be willing to repent and keep moving towards wholeness no matter what we face in life. And maybe poetry, or I suspect any form of creative expression, is part of the way we get there.
What Is Your response?
Have you ever written or read a poem that profoundly impacted you and brought healing and wholeness to your spirit? Read through your favourite psalm. Allow its words to sink deep into your soul. How does it touch you today? Is there a poem that wells up in you as a response? Write it down. Perhaps you want to rewrite the psalm in your own words. Or like my experience with Vicky Edmonds you might like to write down one of your “invisible beauties” and allow it to lead you into poetic expression.
What other form of creative expression brings you healing and draws you closer to the wholeness God intends for you? Prayerfully consider this question and commit to spend time in self-therapy, soul-care today, allowing the healing balm of God’s creative spirit welling up within you to bring you wholeness.
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