dreams
dreaming & making what could be, be.
in honor of martin luther king, jr. day, i thought i would post a little excerpt about dreams from my book, down we go: living into the wild ways of Jesus. it was originally inspired by a post i wrote in 2007 for the refuge blog called “we have a dream”; then i modified it in 2009 for communitas collective & shared a re-dux in 2010 in honor of MLK day two years ago. last year, when i was writing the book, it went through another revision. each time i read it i am reminded that part of making what could be, be begins with dreaming.
however, the kingdom isn’t going to just drop out of the sky. we are going to have to be active participants in creating it. it is hard. it is uphill. it is against the grain. but it’s possible. and what Jesus challenges us to as his followers.
so here you go, some of my own little church-faith-life dreams, capital letters and all, from pages 85-87:
Making What Could Be, Be.
As a dreamer, I like to imagine what could be.
Despite some of my cynicism about church systems, I am still an idealist. Change is possible; otherwise I would have given up a long time ago. I am still foolish enough to think that our wild “God dreams” are possible. I think when Jesus said “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10), he meant that the Kingdom was possible now. I also know it’s possible because I see it every day in small and beautiful ways. I see the marginalized, forgotten, neglected and abused finding love and hope through healing community.
For a lot of us, it’s hard to dream. Almost every time I challenge people to dream it stirs up fear and trouble. We’ve hoped before and had many of our dreams dashed, mocked and called unrealistic or impractical. Many have tried to make their dreams a reality in systems that rejected them, and they’ve lost a lot of hope. The thought of opening hearts back up again is too scary. Others are in the midst of living out dreams and are finding how hard they can sometimes be. Often we can think of all the reasons our dreams won’t work, so why even try?
But here’s why I think we should try. These Kingdom ways aren’t supposed to be a pipe dream, or an elusive, unrealistic and unobtainable idea that we know will never happen. Jesus’ ways of upside down living require imagination and hope. They require crazy people willing to live out what’s embedded deep inside their hearts, regardless of the cost. They require courageous women and men who risk their money, time and pride to go against the flow of the powerful status quo and create little pockets of love that reflect Jesus, rather than the world. They require humble disciples, followers of Christ, who try as best they can to heal the sick, feed the hungry, care for the poor, love the unlovely, and pass on hope in places where there is none. Most of all, these Kingdom ways require people with eyes to see more beauty and hope in the often ugly, messy, downward journey than on the predictable, comfortable upwardly mobile path.
The other night I was with some Refuge friends at our house talking about dreaming. Even though I want people to dream big, I also want people to dream small. To value simple ways we can move toward more of Christ’s love, life and hope in this world. I shared with my friends how many years ago I dreamed of the kind of community I am now part of—one that was inclusive, authentic and healing, and valued generosity, equality and the practice of love, above all. In my dreams, it looked completely different. Trust me, it was a lot prettier, easier, bigger and brighter. Yet, even though my original picture was different, the flesh and bones of what I had hoped for has come true. I’m experiencing it in real life. I am grateful but also not afraid to keep dreaming for more. I want others to have a chance to taste and see, too.
So I keep dreaming, trying to play my small part in the bigger story.
When I stop and allow myself to really imagine, I dream that we’d be people who took Jesus’ words seriously. We can’t just talk about it, but we actually have to be forgiving, loving, sacrificing and humble. I hope we are people willing to give away our stuff, care for the widows and orphans, die to ourselves, hug lepers, love our neighbors, lay down power and make peace with our enemies.
I dream that all people would feel valued, regardless of our differences. I hope we become people who refuse to let color, socioeconomics, gender, theologies, shapes, sizes, or social abilities get in the way of seeing the image of God and respecting each other’s worth, value and contribution to this world. I hope we will continue to find ways for women, men, white, brown, poor and rich to work equally and fully alongside one other as brothers, sisters, leaders and friends.
I dream that the divide between “us and them” will continue to crumble.
I dream that Christ-followers will form into an underground army of advocates, that we will stand with the marginalized, oppressed, poor and unlovely, and will risk our pride, position and power so that someone with none could get a little.
I dream that damage from the past and present will not paralyze us from living out who God made us to be; instead, we’d use our story to help another person.
I dream a whole bunch of us will find ways to create little pockets of love in places that desperately need them so that we will be known by the world as “those crazy people who never give up on the hurting, the lost, the oppressed and the outcasts.”
Never be afraid to dream.
these are some of mine. what are some of your dreams, no matter how big or small?
the catch-up list
wednesday my four youngest kids went back to school after a great winter break. yesterday i dropped my oldest son off at the airport and sent him back to college on the east coast. now it’s catch up time! i have all kinds of posts swirling around in my head and january is going to be wrap-up-what-i-started month. here are a few things i wanted to share before i dive back into real life next week:
- one word – i decided to participate in this for 2012. in the past i’ve had five and end up never remembering any of them! here’s a post i wrote for the refuge blog that has some ideas if you haven’t already thought of one yet. my 2012 word is: focus. oh yeah, that’s the right word.
- honoring doubt – my monthly contribution to sheloves magazine is on one of my favorite topics from down we go: honoring doubt. i hope we can keep creating safe spaces to honor doubt.
- when Jesus met mary: a sacred friendship gathering – i am very excited to be part of this gathering–when Jesus met mary: a conference exploring friendship between men & women–in april in chicago centered on sacred cross-gender friendships hosted by my friend dan brennan. all of the details are on the website. let me know if you can come be part of this brave & much-needed conversation.
- unladylike – my friend pam hogeweide’s book unladylike: resisting the injustice of inequality in the church is being released at the end of the is month by civitas press. you can preorder a copy now if you want. it rocks!
- and the resignation of eve – my other northwest friend jim henderson is always stirring up some great stuff for us to consider. his new book the resignation of eve: what if adam’s rib is no longer willing to be the church’s backbone is coming out soon, too. i’m very glad this critical topic is getting some traction.
- convergence – i couldn’t go last year because of a family trip but am planning on being there this year, march 2-4 in portland. this year’s theme is: staying power–presence & possibility as leaders. if you haven’t been before, it’s a really wonderful gathering of strong & passionate women.
- synchroblog – we are starting off 2012 with a new teammate & a survey to help gather ideas for the upcoming year. if you are a blogger and want to be challenged to write on a variety of topics at the same time as other bloggers, all are welcome.
- with communities - my awesome friend john martinez created a log-in-so-there’s-greater-safety-and-connection site for incarnational community cultivators who could use some support, input, encouragement, and connection with other people who believe that prepositions matter and are trying crazy stuff, too. check it out here.
- walking wounded: hope for those hurt by the church – my friend phyllis mathis & i are hosting a 4 week online group for those of you out there who are painfully disillusioned by a faith or church experience. our october 2011 gathering in denver was great for those who could pull it off, but this is a chance for others to participate, too. because of some schedule conflicts, the date got moved to february 6th 2012. go to live it to the full to register & for all the details. if you or someone you know could use some healing, hope, laughter, and intention on getting unstuck, we’d love to have you join us. this little video is sort of serious (i promise we’ll laugh and have fun, too) but gives an idea of what we are doing. thanks for passing it on to friends who want to save some money on therapy and get some traction on healing in this new year.
i hope your year is getting off to a good start. i am looking forward to what’s ahead! peace, kathy
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rising up from below
* this post is part of the november synchroblog, different bloggers writing on the same subject. richard rohr says “the role of the prophets is to call us out of numbness.” right now there’s a strong sense of change brewing in the church, the world; people are rising up and calling individuals, communities, nations, and everything in between out of numbness and toward justice, mercy, equality, and love. bloggers this month are writing on where we are being stirred and challenged by prophetic voices. check out the links at the end of this post.
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“wake up, wake up, o zion!
clothe yourself with strength.
put on your beautiful clothes, o holy city of jerusalem..
rise from the dust…
sit in a place of honor.
remove the chains of slavery from your neck, o captive daughter of zion.”
isaiah 52:1-2
this scripture came to mind two weekends ago during our walking wounded gathering as i listened to two amazing women briefly sharing their painful church story of being silenced and unvalued in the church because they are female. honestly, in those moments, my heart physically hurts. i see their beauty, their power, their wisdom and wonder how in the $*!^$&^#%$ the church, the place that’s supposed to be Christ’s bride and a reflection of his image, could silence half its members so overtly (and somehow get away with it!).
the reality is that many other voices have been silenced by the church, far beyond only women. and because of this lack of voices, we have all suffered. we have missed the voices of the poor, the oppressed, the brown, the gay, the divorced, the orphaned, the young, the uneducated, the theologically incorrect, the tromped on, the forgotten. we have given our microphones and our pulpits and our programs over to the strong and the powerful and created a system where those on the margins are ignored and dismissed.
but something’s breaking out right now that can’t be squelched. we see it in the town squares that are filled with average people who are protesting wall street & starting to say “we’re tired of the powerful and greedy controlling our world, something’s got to change.” we see it in the mass exodus young people are making out of the church because it refuses to focus on issues they care about related to justice & mercy & equality. we see it in the long line of former-church-people who have deconstructed their faith & are finding something more real because they could no longer tolerate the deep inconsistencies between faith & practice. we see it in the groundswell of advocacy & support for equality and dignity for all regardless of sexual orientation.
in all kinds of places we are seeing it–a movement from below. a groundswell from the bottom. an uprising where little pockets of people are saying “we’re not going to do this anymore…..we’re tired of people’s dignity being stripped…it’s time for change.”
on the whole, the tops of systems aren’t changing. the hierarchy remains. the powerful and strong keep making rules & laws & policies & money. many are hunkering down, hoping they can weather this storm and eventually the unruly sheep will get back in line and start towing the line once again.
but it’s not going to happen. the sheep are getting tired of being jacked around by oppressive shepherds who don’t care about their well-being. who put their own self-interest above the common good. who allow others to be mistreated. who put chains around others necks instead of setting people free.
the sheep are rising up.
yeah, we’re rising up. not to rise up and away from problems and pain, but rather to have courage and strength to enter into it. all over the place, God is calling people to freedom, to living out the gospel instead of talking about it, to practice instead of theory. i call it a “holy stirring” and i think we will see it get stronger & wider & deeper over the upcoming years.
so many people i know are refusing to be part of oppressive systems anymore. they are finding their way outside of the traditional confines of religion & meeting God in unlikely places. they are renewing their passions and serving in all kinds of wild and beautiful ways that is viewed by the establishment as subversive even though it’s the closest thing to the gospel i’ve ever seen. artists are creating. silenced voices are speaking. young people are voting with their feet. chains are breaking. dignity is being slowly & painfully being restored in little pockets of love & freedom that are often unseen & unnoticed by the masses.
but it’s happening.
the prophets are emerging from below, from underneath, from unlikely places.
God is calling people out of numbness and complacency. and just like our hands feel when we warm them up after they freeze in the snow, it’s going to hurt. like really hurt. unfreezing our hearts, hands, feet, mouths, and brains is going to hurt as we thaw out and find our true identity created in the image of God. parts of us are going to come alive that were once left for dead. we’re going to have to use muscles that have atrophied. we’re going to feel things we haven’t felt before. we’re going to be more vulnerable and unprotected. we’re going to doubt our voices. we’re going to hear the critics tell us that we’re stupid & disgruntled & should quit complaining. we’re going to doubt ourselves and wonder if maybe “going back to egypt” will make it feel better.
some will go back to their “proper place” and feel safe again.
but far more others are going to keep waking up, rising up, and breaking free from the chains that once kept us captive. we are going to keep being set free and help others be set free, too. we are going to care about the things that Jesus cares about like justice & mercy & compassion & peace & hope & restoration. we are going to band together with others from below & form little armies of change that will shift laws & topple kingdoms & break down all kinds of walls that keep people stuck.
there’s a rising up from below, calling us out of numbness. calling us to freedom. calling us to justice. calling us to mercy. calling us to love.
God, keep thawing us out. we know it’s time.
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ps: i have a post up today at shelovesmagazine as part of a monthly column called sheloves God. this one is called leaving the ninety-nine for the one & is adapted from the chapter in down we go called extending love, mercy and compassion. sheloves is a prophetic voice calling us out of numbness in all kinds of ways.
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check out other bloggers writing about the prophets this month (i’ll add more links as they come in tonight):
- Joy Wilson at Solacetree- The Blessing of Losing Your Faith
- Jeremy Myers at Till He Comes – I Have a Dream
- Glenn Hager at Breathe – Uncomfortably Numb
- Linda at Kingdom Grace – On Earth as it is in Heaven
- Sally at Eternal Echoes – Where are the True Prophets?
- Tammy Carter at Blessing the Beloved – No Compromise
- Alan Knox at The Assembling of Church – My Word of Prophecy: Quit Listening to Prophetic Voices
- Liz at Gracerules – Listen
- Christine Sine at Godspace – Surrounded by Prophetic Voices: Clouds of Witnesses That Call Us Out of Numbness
- Amy Martin – The Window of Suffering, the Beginning of Hope
- Kathy Escobar at The Carnival in My Head- Rising Up From Below
- K.W. Leslie at More Christ – What is God Challenging You to Do?
- Katherine Gunn at A Voice in the Desert – Where is Your Heart?
- Steve Hayes at Khanya – Murder of the Cathedral
- Leah Chang at desertsspiritsfire – Wall Street, Our Street
- Bobby Aunder at Deconstructing Neverland – Shift
- Minnow at Minnowspeaks – Day of Dialogue
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a prayer for practice.
“practicing what we preach” is a lot easier said than done! like most everyone, i’d rather preach it than practice it. it’s fun to talk about community, to dream about community, to advocate for community. and to actually live it is a whole different story. i am very grateful to live in a community that challenges me in a place where everything i believe-in-the-depths-of-my-heart-when-it-comes-to-what-Jesus-meant-about-love-and-life-together intersects with my real life. i am always faced with a choice–will i see it through or run from it? trust me, “run, as fast you can!” often rattles through my head and i start fantasizing about ways to escape the messiness of it all. but then i feel this quiet, deep, and powerful pull to stay. to fight. to try. to practice. to show up. to love. to learn. listen. to humble myself. to be willing to let God work in the deeper thing that has nothing to do with what’s going on above the surface.
so that’s where i’m at this friday. thankful for the journey. tired that it is sometimes so hard. challenged to keep growing and learning and play my little part in the bigger story. hopeful that God never leaves me, never leaves us, and is always restoring and redeeming what is broken and showing us a better way.
this past wednesday at our house of refuge we wrapped up our summer journey through down we go: living into the wild ways of Jesus. the last chapter is called “born again and again and again” and it was what i needed to be reminded of this week. i want to be a person who is always being born again. and again. and again. this is the prayer that i read at the end of our group and sits at the end of the book, too. i cried when i read it because i needed the reminder of what i so deeply believe and why this downward journey is really worth it.
i thought i’d share it here, too, especially for any of you who might need a little extra reminder of why you may have chosen this path. have a good weekend!
God, may we continually humble ourselves and acknowledge our weakness, insufficiencies, and spiritual poverty. May our hearts be soft, open, willing to be changed even at great cost to our security and pride.
God, may we radically include the forgotten, the rejected, the marginalized, and the oppressed as a reflection of your love. May our tables be open and welcoming, with Christ’s spirit binding us all together, despite our differences. May men and women, black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight, educated and uneducated, single and married, and everything in between, live side-by-side and be equally loved, respected and included.
God, may we cultivate compassion in our hearts and our actions so that the hurting will feel your healing touch. May we never be too busy to love. May we be the people who stop, who care when no one else does, who listen, bandage wounds, carry folks to the hospital, and ooze mercy.
God, may we boldly enter into deep and challenging incarnational relationship with each other to keep practicing your ways of love. May we get tangled up with other people, sharing the good, bad and ugly. May we be dedicated to people who get on our nerves and drive us crazy. May we share resources, carry each other’s burdens, and pray intensely for each other, remembering that how we love each other is how we love the world.
God, keep showing us the way, guiding us as we stumble, practice and try.
Give us courage to keep following you down.
Amen.
dreamers, lovers, and status-quo rockers
this post is part of the july synchroblog – a bunch of bloggers writing on the same topic. this month is centered on the wild goose festival, a justice-arts-spirituality festival held the last week of june in north carolina. some of us weren’t able to make it to the festival (i would have loved to be there but my back is still healing and i just couldn’t do flying-across-the-country-camping-for-5-days-and-then-flying back). this synchroblog will include stories from the gathering as well as from those of us who couldn’t go, centered on what the wild goose (the celtic image of the Holy Spirit) is stirring up for us. all of the links are at the bottom of this post, with more to come as they get posted. its an awesome mix!
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when it comes to faith & life i am pretty eclectic. i wrote a post about this last year called why i am a postevangelical-missional-emerging-ancient future-social justice-progressive-conservative-12 stepping-christian mutt. for me, though, if i had to choose i’d say that the most defining part of my faith–the center of what i believe–is the love of people & redemptive community. the way i connect with God is through relationship with people. but for a long time one of the “mutt” parts of my spirituality has been celtic christianity. i love their value on the mysterious work of the holy spirit, inclusivity of women, and dedication to deep, intentional, authentic community.
the wild goose–the Holy Spirit–is alive and well, stirring up all kinds of amazing stuff around the world, in our cities, neighborhoods, and hearts. while the Spirit has always been on the move, i think something’s blowing stronger right now that can’t be contained–a groundswell of hope for change in the landscape of “the church”
here’s what i see happening:
dreamers are bravely walking into the passions of their heart in all kinds of wild and beautiful ways. many have left what’s comfortable, given up money & power & security, been deemed as crazy and over the edge by many, but have gone for it anyway because we know we couldn’t not do what God is stirring up in us. people are creating art, cultivating community, advocating for the marginalized, moving to new cities and countries, starting non-profits, building new surprising relationships, trying new ways of living.
lovers are putting people above programs and practicing the radical inclusivity of Jesus. love is prevailing. many are losing their jobs, churches, and all kinds of other things on behalf of love and finding that the cost is worth it. because love embodies Jesus. lovers of grace, redemption and hope are taking the bumpier road of loving-people-regardless-of-the-risk and rebuilding and restoring our image of God–not only in our own lives but for others, too. many are feeding the hungry, loving the lonely, and restoring dignity where it’s been lost.
status-quo rockers are shifting the power structures in important places. this one is coming more slowly, but it’s coming. many are mixing up leadership, refusing to keep playing the same old games that defer to power and comfort, and are using our voices, resources, and gifts on behalf of change. toppling long held power structures won’t come cheap or easy, but with the wild goose’s help, many are gaining courage and strength to stand on behalf of the undervalued, the marginalized, the oppressed and do what can be done to give others a voice.
yeah, that’s where i see the crazy beautiful wild goose at work–inspiring dreamers, lovers, and status-quo rockers to live out the wild ways of Jesus despite the hazards.
so many of you reading–many who attended the festival–are those dreamers, lovers, status-quo rockers. thank you for listening to God, for your courage & craziness. you help my faith grow.
i think i’ll end with this, a lovely wild-goose-ish poem called “for a new beginning” from the irish poet/philosopher john o’donohue:
for a new beginning
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
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other bloggers participating this month with reflections on the festival or on the wild-goose-on-the-move:
- Anna Snoeyenbos – Wild Goose Festival – A Spirit of Life Revival
- Lee Smith - Goose Bumps: Opportunities Everywhere for Offense. A Fair and Objective Review
- Ryan Hines – 30 Years Later – “Controversy” at Wild Goose
- Karyn Wiseman – Flying With the Goose
- Kyla Cofer – I went to the Wild Goose Fest and came back in love
- Brian Gerald Murphy – Born Again (Again) at Wild Goose
- Chris Lenshyn – Chasing the Wild Goose
- Cherie at Renaissance Garden – Wild Goose Return
- Deborah Wise – Wild Goose Chasing
- Custodianseed – “every day they eat boiled goose”
- Will Norman – Back from the Wild Goose Fest
- Martin at Exiles in NY – Greenbelt and the Wild Goose
- Kerri at Practicing Contemplative – Waterfowl in My Life
- Allison Leigh Lilley – Chasing the Wild Goose and Catching the Wild Goose: Thanks and First Thoughts
- Abbie Waters – Jessica: A Fable
- Steve Knight – Why Wild Goose Festival Was So Magical
- Tammy Carter – Visual Acuity and Flying
- Michelle Thorburg Hammond – I heart Jay Bakker and Peter Rollins
- Matthew Bolz-Weber – Remembering Wild Goose
- Paul Fromberg – Celebrating Interdependence Day
- David Zimmerman – Wild Goose Festival: A Recap
- Dan Brennan – U2, the Wild Goose, and Deep Freedom
- Mike Croghan – The Wild Goose is Not Safe
- John Martinez – The Table
- Callid Keefe-Perry – Gatekeeping the Goose
- Eric Elnes – The Inaugural Wild Goose Festival: Recovering Something Lost
- Shay Kearns – The Power of a T-Shirt, Apologizing to Over the Rhine, and Public vs. Private (Part One)
- Glen Reteif – Duck Duck Goose
- Peterson Toscano – I’ve Been Goosed, What I Carried Into Wild Goose, and What I Blurted Out at Wild Goose
- Seth Donovan – About More than “The Gays”
- TSmith – What I’ll Take From Wild Goose
- Dale Lature – Wild Goose Reflection
- Steve Hayes – Wild Goose Chase?
- Minnow – Grace Response
- Christine Sine – Encounters With A Thin Space
- Jeremy Myers – Giving Up the Wild Goose Chase
- Robert – Thoughts On the Inaugural Wild Goose
- Anna Woofenden – Slippery Slope Reflections
- Wendy McCaig – Loosing The Goose
- Joey Wahoo – Into The Wild
- Rachel Swan – goosed
- Patricia Burlison – I Called Life
- Jason Hess – While At the Goose
- The Bec Cranford – Wild Goose
- Anthony Ehrhardt – Chasing The Wild Goose on Independence Day
- Joel DeVyldere – So Lost at Last-(In the Woods)
- MK Anderson – Listening To The Wild Goose
- Jamie Arpin-Ricci – Wild Goose Fest
- Unfinished Symphony – #5 – The Last Post … for a while
the practice of the better
“the best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better”
- richard rohr
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i had an interesting conversation with a friend this past week who didn’t really know my story of the past 7+ years of the ups of working on a big church staff to the downs (in a good way, ha ha) of starting the refuge. stepping out of the path of ascent into one of descent started long before 7 years ago, but it wasn’t until i stepped out of “church-as-i-had-always-known-it” that my heart, practice, and the actual ministries i am in all lined up with greater integrity. before, i was always swimming against the tide, trying to change systems that honestly weren’t that interested in changing.
part of the conversation that arose with my friend is something that tends to be a fairly common one–many don’t understand why people who leave church have to be mad about it. “why can’t they just move on, quit looking back or being so angry, and just focus on something new?“ i always have a strong reaction to this because i know in my own life, i wish it were that easy. but grief, my friends, doesn’t look like that. grief is messy. grief is unpredictable. grief includes anger, sadness, depression, and disorientation. when we leave behind all that we once knew, we can’t help but grieve. but, we also all know that western culture sucks at grieving so we don’t really know what that looks like. so friends tell us to “move on”, we tell ourselves “it shouldn’t hurt that bad, geez, it was only a church for goodness sake” and we stall out our healing. we also forget that issues of injustice and oppression, which are a lot of major reasons people find themselves “out” aren’t ones we can just “get over” in a flash. they tap into something far deeper about our dignity & worth and do a number on our head and hearts.
the best thing i ever did was let myself be a mess five years ago for a long time. it was one of the hardest things i’ve ever done, too, because anger scares me (and people around me who weren’t used to me expressing it, either). but i kept on moving through, letting myself feel hurt, sadness, loss, and anger, and eventually, most of it has dissipated over time. sure, i have moments where it seeps through & different experiences trip that wire inside of me that touches on raw feelings of oppression & injustice & hurt. i’m human. but on the whole, i’m in a completely different place.
and really committed to looking forward with hope, while sometimes glancing backward sometimes so i remember why i’m doing what i’m doing.
one thing i am struck with more than ever is that “the best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better“. it’s the way we will ultimately change things. we also must remember we are human and sometimes we need to go through our raggy season of being critical and cynical and wounded for a while to learn “um, i don’t want to stay here forever because it’s really a drag.” and eventually we begin to get in touch with not “what was” and focus on “what could be”. we begin to see that we can, indeed, find all kinds of wild and beautiful ways to live out what we deeply believe.
that’s the season that i am in right now. life at the refuge is nutty, complicated, and hard. but i am also seeing “practice of the better” in real life. i am living in a culture that extends love mercy & compassion, welcomes pain, honors doubt, diffuses power, practices equality, pursues justice, expresses creativity & celebrates freedom in all kinds of simple, beautiful, unassuming, natural ways. to me, these are the core practices of downward mobility & part of my small contribution to “the practice of the better.” yesterday, i hit the final “send” button on down we go: living into the wild ways of Jesus back to the publisher. on june 1st it hits the streets. i’ve been a little weepy all day yesterday & today, thinking of how much i’ve been through, how much i’ve learned, and how grateful i am for the journey. the most important thing i’ve ever done is keep going instead of giving up and find ways to practice what has been embedded in my heart for many years.
this looks different for everyone reading. for me, the refuge & the muck and mire of pain and struggle in people’s real lives is where i like to live. but the challenge i pose in down we go and try to keep emphasizing in everything i write here is:
what does the practice of the better look like for each of us?
how can we nurture the practice of the better?
how can we participate in cultivating new ways of living out our faith that reflect freedom, hope, love, and peace outside of unhealthy systems?
i’d love to hear some of your experiences. how you are finding that the “best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better”?
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