Today’s post is written by MSA summer intern Amanda Stevens. Amanda is a graduate of Seattle Pacific University and works as an Applied Behavioural Analyst doing in-home tutoring for children with autism.
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When I met Christine for the time, our conversation meandered from getting to know each other and the story of how the Mustard Seed Associates began to eventually the topic of spiritual practices. As Christine talked about the importance of adapting spiritual practices to a changing world, I started having flash backs to my time studying abroad for a semester in India.
When I woke up each morning, I made my way quietly up to the roof of our apartment building, it was completely white and lines of laundry floated like banners beneath a flock of pigeons making their unified rounds over the city. This roof is where I came to meet God. Not long after my arrival in India, I learned that in order for my emotional and spiritual well-being to stay intact, I had to find ways to interweave communion with God throughout my day.
I remember the first day in Coimbatore, India so vividly. We rode around the city in a bus, the comfort of chai and Indian sweets finding their homes in our stomachs, the garland of jasmine wrapped in our hair assuring with a sweet scent, and Bollywood music dancing from the radio as we drove around the city. It was a sensory overload that left me feeling an excitement high. It wasn’t long before this new country started to wear on me though, as I found that every day I could go from an emotional high to a despairing low in less than an hour. There would be days where we would drive in our bus through the country and I would be filled with hopelessness that there was this much darkness in the world as I saw children, adults, and animals all with starved bodies, streets caked with garbage, a group of elderly women pick pocketing, and then, that same day, find myself at a joyous wedding or a local community dance or religious festival. I was being pulled in both extremes with no firm foundation to center myself.
The landscape of India was completely different from the landscape of my home and, as a result, the ways in which I encountered and interacted with God were reshaped. I began claiming time in the mornings to awake in God’s presence; this is how I found myself on the roof every morning. I would walk the perimeter of the roof very slowly and chant a prayer to myself “Give me peace like a river, give me joy like a fountain, give me love like an ocean.” Some mornings if there was a particular concern on my heart, I went and sat on the veranda breathing in the incense from the courtyard and simply waited for God to speak to me, and he did. It would have been easy to get carried away by all the events happening each day but making that space to meet God each morning was my way of arming myself for the day.
Every other weekend, our group would travel to a neighboring city or state and so again I had to adjust my spiritual practices; this usually involved journaling which I practiced everyday as a way to remain insightful of how God might be speaking to me. But I would also carry a verse or an image God had placed in my heart. In particular, I remember one weekend trip in which I woke up the night before with a severe stomach illness but chose to go on the trip the next morning anyways. It so happened that our bus ride involved speeding up a windy hill while dodging monkeys, other travelers, and broken down buses that couldn’t quite make it; this did not help the state of my stomach. But I held on to the verse Psalm 139:5-10 “you both precede and follow me”, knowing that God was there to meet me around every corner, and somehow my stomach sickness remained under control and rather than ride in worry, I rode in wonder witnessing some of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen.
I ended my days in the same way I started them, by heading up to the roof, but my cue was actually the local Muslim call to prayer. India is packed with so many different religions, and for most Indians, religion interweaves and connects into every aspect of their lives and culture. In my adjustment, I found myself letting the local traditions and culture direct and open new ways of engaging with Christ. So whenever I heard the call to prayer, I let it be a reminder to me as well and I would go up to the roof and sing God’s praises over the city; letting my praises to God reinvigorate me with strength while also establishing a connection with the land that God had placed me in.
Whether we realize it or not, the landscape of where we are at in our lives is changing. Now that I am home, my spiritual practices have readapted again, though some things have remained and my heart remains open to new ways that the Lord wants to connect with me.
What are some of the ways that God has been creatively inspiring you to reshape your spiritual practices according to your changing landscape?
Over the weekend I read an interesting article in Scientific American Mind entitled Ready for Anything about enhancing your resilience. The article talks about rethinking adversity with a positive emphasis, encouraging optimism, taking on novel challenges getting plenty of physical exercise and developing strong social support systems and friendships.
The article soon had me reflecting on my spiritual life and what makes for resilient spirituality. How do we maintain and grow our faith through the ups and downs of life? In previous posts The Stability of Practice . and Have You Taken A Spiritual Audit Recently? I have talked about some of what I think is important here. Here is what I find makes a difference.
1. Maintain regular spiritual practices. This has been the key to my spiritual resilience. I know that many today are afraid of regular practices because they can become stale and legalistic, but if we don’t have these regular disciplines then our spiritual life soon dries up.
In my book Godspace I talked about the need for regular routines and rituals, practices that enhance our lives without overwhelming us. I suggest that we need four types of practices – those that intentionally deepen our relationship to God, those that move us towards wholeness and maturity, those that empower us to see beyond our own needs to the hurting world of which we are a part, and those that draw us into the rest and celebration of God’s kingdom. I still think that these are all important and intentionally thinking about the purpose of our spiritual practices is one way to keep them fresh and alive.
2.Establishing regular physical exercise regimes. Like the article in Scientific American Mind, I find that regular physical exercise increases my spiritual awareness and wellbeing. It is no wonder that many people feel closest to God when running, walking and hiking. Intentionally combining exercise with spiritual practices like prayer walks or labyrinth walking may be even more effective for some.
3. The practice of gratitude. This practice revolutionized my life several years ago. Thanking God for the good things God has done is at the heart of a resilient faith. I particularly love the way that Sue Duby practices this as she describes in her post What Do We Hunger and Thirst For?
4.Going on Retreat. I am sure that many of you get sick of me talking about this, but I feel I cannot emphasize this practice enough. Regular 3 monthly retreats have become the mainstay of Tom’s and my spiritual life. I outline the process we follow in this post Retreat, Renew, Refresh.
5. Discerning as a Group. The article I mentioned above talks about the importance of social networks and relationships for developing resilience, the group discernment process that we embarked on in MSA several years ago has enhanced and strengthened our relationships in ways that I think is unique to a spiritual community.
So what practices have you found provide spiritual resilience for your life? If you have other suggestions to add to this list we would love to hear from you.
This morning’s post is a prayer that I adapted from one posted on Facebook last week. I am fascinated by the power of breathing prayers, especially combined with scenes of tranquility, to quiet my soul and draw me closer to God.
Each week, as many of you know I blog the prayers that have been contributed to the Light for the Journey Facebook page. If you have not already seen it, you may also like to check out the special prayer posted for July 4th – A Prayer for America on Independence Day.
labyrinth in the St Servaas Basilica at Maastricht in the Netherlands via https://www.facebook.com/LabyrinthosUK
Read this in the New Zealand Prayer Book this morning:
God our creator,
yours is the morning and yours is the evening.
Let Christ the sun of righteousness
shine for ever in our hearts
and draw us to that light
where you live in radiant glory.
We ask this for the sake of Jesus Christ our Redeemer.
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Breathe in peace,
Let it fill every fibre of your being.
Breathe in love,
Let it fill your heart and soothe your soul.
Breathe in life,
Let if fil your spirit and bring you wholeness.
Breathe in all that is of God,
Let it encircle you.
Behind, before, above, beneath, on right and left,
Let God’s embrace fill you and keep you,
This day and through all eternity.
Amen
Christine Sine https://godspacelight.com/
Lord your redemption overflows.
Like streams in a sun scorched land,
It soaks into our souls.
Like water that cascades in the mountains,
It quenches our thirst.
It blesses our lives,
with your unfailing love and righteousness,
and stirs our passion for justice and mercy.
May we bathe in its never ending flow.
And be washed clean by its holiness.
Christine Sine https://godspacelight.com/
Creator God, who loves us
more than we can know,
who has chosen us
to be family,
we praise your holy name.
Jesus Christ, Son of God,
Word become flesh
dwelling among us,
sacrificed for us,
we praise your holy name.
Holy Spirit, breath of Life,
power within us
from the moment
we first believed,
we praise your holy name.
(http://www.facebook.com/faithandworship?
God you have called us into freedom,
May we use it to follow you with our whole hearts,
May we use it to serve one another in love,
May we use it to grow your eternal world of peace and wholeness for all.
Christine Sine https://godspacelight.com/
Lord Jesus Christ
our joy and our salvation,
our strength and our song,
lead us into your ways.
Let your words bubble up from within us,
Let them overflow in praise and worship,
Let them reach out to touch our neighbours.
Fill us with grace,
Fill us with mercy,
Fill us with justice.
Amen
Christine Sine https://godspacelight.com/
Today’s post is another written by Gary Heard, pastor of The Eighth Day – A baptist community on the edge of West Melbourne. It was first posted on Gary’s new blog Heard the Whispers which he writes with his wife Ev Heard. Gary and Ev have been part of the international core of Mustard Seed Associates for over many years.
It is reposted as part of the series Creating Sacred Spaces Do We Really Need Churches.
The beach has never held much attraction for me as a place of recreation. Salt, sand, and seaweed clinging to my body has never seemed a relaxing way to spend an afternoon. Nor does the idea of heading down to an unprotected stretch of scorching sand on an already taxing day. I have occasionally been coaxed by my children to the coast where, sometimes in spite of myself, I find myself enjoying the water. But it has not taken a tsunami to warn me of the power and the perils of the ocean, knowing that below the surface lie powerful and hidden forces with the capacity to overwhelm.
Paradoxically, I love the beach as a place of contemplation. Sitting in a comfortable space (preferably away from the sand), I contemplate the intersection of two very different spheres of life interacting with one another as I watch the waves lapping the shore and retreating – an incessant rhythm with its own enchantment. I am drawn to contemplate another world below the surface – out of sight – one which I have occasionally explored with snorkel or scuba gear, but more regularly through the camera lens provided by Jacques Cousteau. In this contemplation, the beach is a border into another world, one in which there is an ill-defined partnership with those of us who live on the land.
The ocean is a vast expanse of life, operating by different rules and bringing different experiences. We have learnt some of the ways in which it feeds our own life above the surface, but much remains a mystery. We sail upon it, fly over it, swim in it, and sometimes dive through it, but we are never really part of it. It is much more mystery than knowledge, with forces at work visible only to the experienced eye, and then some more. I find my contemplation moving from the waves, with their indefatigable movement towards and retreat from the shore, to be a reminder of the love of God, never giving up on us, at times reaching further into our lives, at other times more distant. But as my thoughts move to the depths, I contemplate the life and secrets contained within. We have an uneasy relationship with the sea, never truly mastered, never fully appreciated.
It has intrigued me that Gospel stories record Jesus teaching the crowds while standing on a boat on the sea. Beyond the words of Jesus’ teaching, I wonder at the symbolism – Jesus upon the ocean, filled as it is with a richness of life partially revealed, yet largely unknown to us, and a power we barely appreciate. Learning to explore that mystery remains a daily challenge.
Check out the other posts in the series:
Creating Sacred Space Do We Really Need Churches
Every Garden Needs A Sacred Space
Reclaiming a Sacred Space – Cheasty Greenspace: A Place of Goodness and Grace by Mary De Jong
Creating a Sacred Space – Stir the Senses
A Garden of Inspiration – A Story of Leo Tolstoy
Symbols and Elements that Weave Together a Sacred Space
Why Being Spiritual may be More Important Than Being Religious by Rob Rynders
Celtic Spirituality – What Is The Attraction?
In the Barren Places: Finding Sacred Space for the First Time – James Rempt
A Tree My Most Sacred Space by Ryan Harrison
Sacred Buildings by Lynne Baab
Sacred Space – Listening to the Trees by Richard Dahlstrom
Garden day at the Mustard Seed House
Last week I was part of an exciting collaborative meeting. The Food and Faith Initiative of Seattle Tilth and the Interreligious Initiative of Seattle University School of Theology and Ministry drew together a group of local organizations to explore how we can inspire and educate our religious communities to better care for our environment and our communities by growing food to feed ourselves and neighbors. Many gardens on the grounds of religious communities already provide food for homeless/underprivileged meal programs, for example, while at the same time offering congregants, young and old, opportunities to cultivate their souls as they do the soil. However there is much more that we could do.
There are already a number of organizations here in the Seattle area that help to connect, educate and create gardens. Though many of them work only in the local area, their ideas and resources are wonderful for those concerned about these issues both across the U.S. and in fact around the world.
Seattle Tilth is one of the most inspirational organizations I know of for organic garden resources and education. Their Just Garden project helps build gardens, and educate gardeners in low income areas increasing access to fresh produce and improving health in the community. I love the way they engage youth in their work and nurture a culture of gardening for the generations to come.
I also love The Garden Hotline and the very useful leaflets they produce. Their new one – Growing Food in the City is great. Check out the others which can be downloaded for free from Seattle Utilities. Be sure to follow the links to brochures on rain water harvesting and composting.
Lettuce Links creates access to fresh produce, seed and gardens for low income families. They co-ordinate 64 P-patches around Seattle, harvest backyard fruit and help distribute it to food banks. Check out their great resource on giving gardens.
Earth Ministry works to educate individuals and congregations about lifestyle change and the need for environmental advocacy.
It was great to hear about some of the churches that already host community gardens often providing food for congregational meetings and homeless ministries. St Luke’s Ballard, St Columba’s Kent, Epiphany Episcopal, University Presbyterian and St James Cathedral are but a few of the churches that were represented.
July 4th is Independence Day here in the U.S. I know its coming because I keep receiving emails that tell me I need to buy this, go there, eat and drink something else.
This is a celebration I struggle with and not just because it once again focuses on consumption. I particularly struggle with the ways in which this celebration is linked to Christian faith with songs of praise to the nation of America being sung in church. Independence means we don’t need anyone else. Independence means we can do it alone, be self sufficient, live in isolation from the rest of the world. Hidden in the midst is an assumption that this type of living means freedom too. I talked about this last year in my post The Call to True Freedom. The values of independence are so counter to the values of the kingdom of God.
None of this is true and I think it is time we both recognized and celebrated the fact. My freedom often comes at the cost of oppression for others. My disconnect from responsibility to God’s world wide community and to the earth on which we live can mean suffering, pollution and destruction.
Last year I linked to this great article by Chris Smith Celebrating Interdependence Day with 40 suggestions on how to celebrate interdependence. This year I have come across a number of other suggestions on how to celebrate our interdependence.
Justin Mayfield sent me an invite to the Front Yard BBQ movement encouraging us to celebrate in our front yards not our back yards and even invite a few neighbours in. It reminded me of the first Easter I spent in Greece over 30 years ago. The open invitation to come and enjoy the feast still stirs my soul with wonderful memories of Godly hospitality.
Whitney Standefer sent me a link to the 3rd Annual Inter-Dependence Day celebration in Chimacum WA with food, fun and even a talent night.
There is even an Interdependence Day movement that we can join – not celebrating on July 4th but a world wide celebration in September – this year in Dublin Ireland.
This year we are celebrating with an international day – Celebrate the Americas. We will share fun, food and celebrations from all over the Americas… and with my nephew and his wife here from Australia even a little contribution (pavlova) from Down Under.
So how are you planning to celebrate our interdependence this week? Perhaps we can put together a resource list for next year and incorporate your suggestions.
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