Several days ago, I found myself walking down the sidewalk behind a young woman wearing a t-shirt with these special words- words that touched my heart:
Dear person behind me
you are worthy
you are loved
you are needed
you are enough
you matter
never forget that
What an encouraging and meaningful message to share as we pass through each other's lives, going our separate ways. Truly this is a message that should be shared! In a time when we give little thought to being kind to one another, to focusing on “feelings” and the importance of every individual knowing they are needed and worthy and loved, this is something each of us needs to know.
Years ago, I first heard the phrase “Let your life speak.” It’s an old Quaker saying that undergirds the importance of our actions speaking louder than our words. It’s not just what we say, but the way we live that expresses our firmest convictions and deepest beliefs. This saying has served me well through the years, as I’ve tried to be a good steward of the life God has given me.
Parker Palmer’s book, How to Let Your Life Speak focuses on vocation, but now, it seems to mean something more. I read this a few days ago. “Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen to what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent.”
Perhaps this is a life task to be undertaken in one’s later years, when vocation is seen more and more in the rearview mirror. “What does my life intend to do with me in the years to come? - an interesting new take on the question “What am I going to do with my life in the years to come?” Much of one’s task in living is to speak to one's life…. perhaps over time the task becomes allowing our lives to speak to us as well.
Theologian Frederick Buechner has this to say:
“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace…There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room to recognize him or not to recognize him.
So much thinking coming from those words on the back of a young woman’s t-shirt, as her life spoke to mine in passing. May my life speak such words of hope and encouragement and trigger such rich and meaningful thinking! “Lord, let my life speak,” is a meaningful daily prayer, as is “Lord, let my life/life speak to me.”
Elizabeth
A recent edition of The Presbyterian Outlook focused on “Innovation: Finding Faithful Ways to Do Church Differently.”
The story is told of a Caldwell Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, NC. The church almost closed in 2006, but has come back to life as a 350-member urban, missional, diverse, social justice-oriented community of faith. The church now serves as a teaching campus for seminarians and college students studying faith and social justice.
The church leads by example in striving to understand the forces behind the nation’s affordable housing crisis and, in particular, those experiencing homelessness. Within the year, Caldwell Presbyterian plans to complete the conversion of its former Christian Education Building into 21 units of affordable housing for the chronically homeless. The church is already praying for the 21 people soon to call the Caldwell campus home! What a joy to see the birth of this “teaching church”; what a gift to experience the re-birth of the Spirit in a place that was about to close!
Today’s church must make space for creatives and creative ideas! By attending to the transitions of our world and our religious landscape, the church can continue to be a conduit for the light of Christ. But we must rise to the occasion, encourage the creatives among us, and attend to the new ways the light can shine through us. (from the May 2023 Outlook, Vol 205 No. 05)
In “Christianity’s Shifting Structure”, Dr. Dustin Benac writes:
“Each of us, in different ways, builds the communities of faith God calls us to create. But the structure of Christianity for our children includes several features – let’s call them building blocks – that can create space where imagination can live. These seven blocks are resilience, a sense of place, partnership, the way of Jesus, public life, hope and friendship … When place becomes the organizing principle underpinning mission and ministry, a new social imagination becomes possible, one that invites all of us to encounter the mystery of God right where we are … Just as the life of faith becomes possible only because God first calls us friends, we can only begin imagining the structure of Christianity for our children in the company of friends.”
In “Innovating for Love”, Kenda Dean writes: “Love eclipses our need to succeed. Innovative ministries may flop, mutate, adapt, change, or fall away. But love never fails.” As one in the last few years of active ministry, these ideas are fresh and new, hopeful and encouraging!
Elizabeth
I’m thinking about “seeds” these days, and am enjoying hearing stories from my great-grandson about their family garden. His Daddy made a pallet fence to surround the area and they layered and prepared the soil for planting.
In some rows they sow seeds; in other rows they plant seedlings. He’s sad to see the little seeds covered up, yet he knows that’s what needs to happen for them to sprout and grow. He’s protective of the seedlings, because they look so weak and small in all the freshly turned earth. He’s reminded to keep in mind what will come as they grow, and to know that they have everything they need to grow- fertile soil, water, sunshine and his loving care of the garden.
I read a piece in Guideposts Daily Devotion that speaks to this experience. The author spoke of her young son feeling much like my great grandson. She tells of him speaking to the seedlings after watering them – “There you go, little one. You’re going to be okay.”
When my children were little, they enjoyed music and “Down by the Creekbank” was an all-time favorite! As I watch my great grandson go about gardening, I remember a children’s song from years ago, “He Plants me like a Seed” by Dottie Rambo, included in “Down By the Creekbank”:
He plants me like a seed, and watches as I grow.
He waters me with love and shields me from the cold.
My tender leaves may bend, beneath the storm and wind,
but comes the morning sun, I’m growing strong again.
He plants me like a seed beneath the fertile land.
My roots grow strong and deep while tended by his hand.
And soon the branch will bear, the harvest sweet and fair,
The Master smiles to see, the fruit from one small seed.
Gardening, great-grandsons and good memories – a special gift on this beautiful Spring Day!
Elizabeth