Abundance of Transitions
“You have chosen a path that is...outside the norm, to do things in a way that will not always be easy - like going off-road vs. driving on a highway. That is more consistent with who you are, but can make it seem like other people have it much easier and it makes it harder to find good role models and benchmarks, fewer ‘road signs.’”
Thank you. I appreciate that very much. :)
It's one I too have faith in, while also a formidable challenge. To stay faithful to the internal energy of "I want to do this" and intersect that with the needs in the world "something needs to be done about this but I'm not sure what" and combat the barriers of fear "oh, someone already has a great idea, what else could I contribute" and reclaiming every day the wisdom and practice of "I do this because I want to and it fuels me and it helps and I don't have to know how it helps totally or be the only one doing it", and break through the cultural narratives of "I should be doing all these other things." And continuing to figure out how to commit to that energy and discover and navigate the helpful intersections. AND THEN, handle car titles and taxes and bills and debt and responsibilities.
“What you’re doing (and how you’re doing it) are good and necessary, because we need to change our approach to how we do community and religion. Driving on the highway may get us there faster, but it may not get us where we need to go.”
Totally. And, I think I'm stretching the capacities of that imaginative and important energy. Every single area I'm about to list involves transition and the creative imaginative energy to pave that path, like walking through the jungle with a machete:
1) graduating with masters and determining what's next
2) being moved, moving twice
3) entering into residency and being commissioned
4) being in a denomination that isn't sure where it will land: together or somehow split,
5) a world where religious relationship is shifting, and I believe in its core while not agreeing with our definitions of discipleship all the time, and trying not to be combative for combat sake, but conflict for the sake of productive, loving, grace-filled help to the greater cause of justice and peace in the world.
6) getting divorced and all that transition: who will I decide to be in light of what has changed, what do I want to change, not wanting to take any assumptions for granted,
7) defining deacon vs elder to my board
8) working for a nonprofit instead of the local church as a pastoral presence
9) describing Missional Wisdom Foundation to almost anyone is a strange explanatory process
10) trying to contribute through writing rather than leading a congregation of sorts.
11) trying to be a healthy and helpful citizen in a world of social media, 24 hour news cycle, -- both systems that inspire a lot of embarrassment for what you don't know or aren't doing or are missing out on -- a disembodied country, politics and policy that feel so removed from the local context, all those infrastructures that feel overwhelming just to learn to navigate.
“Layer in a reframing of Faith - that Life, the Universe, and Everything is a process, an unfolding, that despite ripples and turbulence is moving is a positive direction and that your life and your energy are part of that flow. God is moving us in a positive direction and movement requires/generates a continual ‘change of scenery’. The people who resists (even ourselves) that flow toward greater community and greater love are people who are afraid for one reason or another, and the 24 hour news cycle feeds and exaggerates that fear. One of the strongest things we can do, for ourselves and others, is to help calm that fear, both with ‘evidence’ in the here and now and with faith in the movement forward.”
