Individualism

I found an article about the marketing strategies that pushed bottled water into our lifestyle to the extent that now “an entire generation is growing up thinking that drinking water comes in plastic bottles.” The author has written an entire book about the topic, but the article focuses on our throw-away-mentality and hyper-individualism. Aha, a new qualifier! In my search to find out more about this new description of our changing community, I found a firm in Colorado that works with public schools. They have attributed four key forces that fuel hyper-individualism.

• Abundant Variety. We have more choices available to us than at any time in history. Abundance of choice creates an expectation that every individual’s unique interests can and should be satisfied.
• Access to Knowledge. The rise of the internet gives us access to unimaginable amounts of information – but information alone is of little value. It is when information is organized into knowledge that it becomes a powerful tool.
• Personal Influence. The desire to influence decisions that affect our lives is deeply ingrained in us all. The advent of abundant variety and access to knowledge enables people to exercise personal influence like never before. Over time, people will turn to those institutions that do the best at facilitating people’s desire to make informed choices about their lives.
• End of Geography. Geography is not the organizing principal it once was. People lead their lives without regard to traditional boundaries of time and space. Neither business nor individuals feels aligned with governing bodies such as school districts the way they once did.

They think public schools will move away from the Era of School Accountability (Good-bye Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills?) and move towards the Era of the Individual Child. They offer examples of how these new assumptions may apply to the schools and offer some strategies for the new era. Hmmm....This Era of the Individual Child brings many conflicting thoughts and concerns.

My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made! (Psalm 139:14) You have found a myriad of combinations to create unique individuals with unique gifts, needs and personalities. Only you can answer the cries of all. We have grown in importance to ourselves, and our world enables the facade to continue. We are allowed to insulate not only from our neighbors, but also from our families spending more time with headphones than in conversation. Yes we are wonderfully made but we are not the ultimate answer to perfection. We grow in community, learning to blend talents, respecting other viewpoints, and sharing in life's joys and sorrows. Help us to continue to learn about our changing world and how we can help shape it into the cast of your dream and not our own will. Amen

First Line Response

Jane and other PDA team members will be traveling to Houma, Louisiana on Saturday to evaluate the damages caused by hurricane Gustav. Her camp in New Orleans is fine but Houma was closest to the center of the destruction. We know Gustav could have been much worse, but for those lives in Houma, it’s hard to be comforted by “how worse it could have been” when they are coping with “it came to my home.” Jane’s concerned with knowing how to help without the enormity of the situation and the lives affected overwhelming her senses, because she has connection with this community. They are not just faces on TV. She has shared meals with them. Over the past three years she’s been helping with rebuilding in the gulf, but this time she is close to the recovery and was a part of the preparation, landfall and aftermath of Gustav. Medical triage assessors must use their knowledge and skill sets to quickly evaluate and administer aide to patients acting on a kind of superficial level, knowing if they really allowed themselves to sink into the reality of the situation and the consequences that they could become so distraught that they could not help the next person who is someone’s brother, mother, daughter, or grandfather. It’s an aptitude to see without recognition, to touch without sensation, and to temporarily postpone the impact on them. Jane recalled asking our previous minister if he ever got used to making emergency visits to the hospital and consoling families. “He said he hasn't and if he did, he would know it was time to get out of the ministry.”

My prayer for the larger congregation?

Mighty God, We are in need of your strength, your power, and your wisdom. Give our first-line responders the energy they need to continue meeting need after need. Reinforce their skills and allow these gifts of service to offer hope and a sense of stability to the residents of the gulf area. Allow the responders to be treated and attended, knowing that their own lives are in need of restoration and healing. Never allow us to reach a point where we completely turn off our senses, coping as we must but never wholly abandoning or disengaging. As more hurricanes are approaching the coasts, let our country not become overwhelmed by the extent and helplessness of natural disasters instead focusing on what we can do to help. From person to person contact or by prayers where we stand, we can help. Dear God, you are the great comforter and supplier of hope. We trust in you. Amen.

Eureka!

When I walked out with the dogs this evening it was surprisingly pleasant. I had the resourceful idea of using my laptop to do some work outside and enjoy the weather. As I set up my work space outside I positioned myself so that I could see the crescent moon slowly rising in the sky with the evening colors beginning to fade. Brilliant! It was conducive to creativeness. I was like Monet, not just prepared to express impressions of nature, but actually witnessing the colors, feeling the breeze and listening to the sounds of faint wind chimes in the distance. Why hadn’t I thought of using the laptop in this way before? This new approach would surely become a new standard of practice. I was prepared to begin a masterpiece! Ready, set… WAIT! The first thing I noticed was the small flying insects being attracted to the light and my heat. Mosquitoes! Well, they didn’t seem to be landing, just investigating like sharks around a raft. Then the neighborhood dogs could sense that someone was outside and began barking. Hey, I’m a dog person, but even when I called to them and tried to assure them, they just couldn’t rest. Then I started worrying about the neighbors who aren’t dog people. And yes, the insects decided to start testing the feeding trough so I had to pack it up. I tried moving to a screened area but then I couldn’t see the moon and the breeze wasn’t as accessible. The moment had passed. No magnum opus today. I had to chalk it up to another idea in need of revision and reworking.

My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, You are the source of all energy, thoughts, and creativity! On our own we may be able to express a second-hand interpretation of your kingdom, but if we are present in the kingdom, we are part of your masterpiece. We can feel the surge of power when we are tapped into your revelation and we are encouraged to proceed. Sometimes, our first tries don’t fit into practice as we imagined. Give us the wisdom, imagination and stamina to regroup, reevaluate and retry. Let us draw our dreams and ideas from your will and your vision. Amen

Pendulum of Routine

In most things I practice moderation. I think it’s one of the core values our dad practices and one that he finds important to pass along. Don’t get caught up in extreme diets, excessive spending, severe fads, unrestrained power or radical ___(fill in the blank). Keep a routine of hours, a pattern of work and rest. One area that I can find particularly hard to maintain is a standard for sleep; for the past few days it’s been a pendulum of extremes. Sometimes it has to do with worry or anxiety, but usually it’s simply waking up for one reason and not being able to fall back asleep, or finding the quiet time of night an excellent time for e-mail, planning, etc., or being like Goldilocks trying out different sleeping locations trying to find the one with just the right temperature, noise level and light sensitivity. It could be the couch, the floor, or our bed – I’m really not picky, but I hate lying in bed if I can’t sleep, so then I start wandering. And there is a special quietness and suspense of reality when the rest of the house and the neighborhood is asleep that facilitates my thinking and creativity. Afterwards it can be hard to quiet the brain even though you know work and real life is just a few hours away. But with an annoying alarm clock out of my direct reach, I can still get up and continue with my daytime work routine and for the most part maintain a moderate composure. This week the sleep got a little too unbalanced and I’ve gotten off schedule.

My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, You provide a constant bearing when we are wandering and distracted. Like a metronome you provide a steady rhythm that calls us to follow in beat. Help us to maintain a routine of prayer, study, worship and work. Let our daily routine begin and end in thanksgivings to you. Sometimes we are called to step out of routine when our help is needed and normal standards aren’t enough. Remind us not to be so attached to habits that we can’t break away when opportunity dictates. We are called to be radical by practicing the example of love offered through Jesus. And in our base, we feel your steady rhythm keeping us in practice with your pulse. Amen

Reading Glasses

It’s happening. I don’t even try to hide the gray; it comes back faster and brings extra strands with the arrogance of a bully showing who has the more powerful friends. There is a pair of reading glasses on almost every flat surface in each room of our house but they are not all mine. It’s often like a game of aging musical chairs, but instead of rushing to find an open chair we are grabbing for the open pair of glasses left on the table. I realized that it’s just downright dangerous not being able to read whether a switch says “on” or “off,” whether a price tag says “$10” or “18,” or whether the menu says “squash” or “squid.” I’ve wondered if we should offer extra reading glasses in the same manner we provide assisted listening devices for worship services. “Why would you want lisping devices???” Yep, the hearing is making for some creative conversations. Even though my friend and I still use the stairs at work as much as we can, there’s a certain amount of wincing and stiffness as we lumber up the flights or plod down. I was on the floor today organizing computer cables and I tried to show my co-worker how I used to prefer to sit on the floor with my knees together and each ankle at the outside of the hip. Well that position lasted about 2 seconds and then I had to unfold, never gracefully, back to side-saddle. For 20 years time left me alone, and now it thinks we’re BFF.
"You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea." – Pearl S. Buck

My prayer for the congregation?

Eternal God, You are as old as creation and as young as the next breath. You are revealed through ancient crooks and bends of river erosion and you are as spontaneous as the flicker of the breeze. Help us to keep our minds supple and yielding to your will, and mindful of actual shifting limitations that surprise even ourselves. May the circle of life be evident in our community filled with youthful wonder and learned elders, energetic activities and calming motions, spontaneous growth and staged planning, each enriching each other. Let us celebrate the uniqueness of each person and rejoice as each melds within a collective community responding to your call. Sometimes we may need glasses of discernment to see more clearly what is out of focus. Supply a healing balm for the aches and soreness as we exercise the body of our congregation to keep agile for your mission. Let our ideas be shaped by your dreams and truthful to your direction. Amen.

Caring Enough

If we want to go deeper, however, desiring that as God’s people
we will grow together toward maturity,
we must care enough to confront.
Isabelo Magalit, Filipina theologian

Today's prayer won't be so much for the congregation. What's the saying? If you point a finger at someone else you're pointing three at yourself. When I opened this e-mail devotional from Sojourners it hit me like a slap in the face. “…we must care enough to confront.” Luckily I'm pretty good about turning the other cheek and letting bygones be bygones! No need to get all worked up over something that could more easily be ignored. Another of my great super powers besides indecisiveness is conflict avoidance. "A cat likes fish, but doesn't like to get his paws wet." Who needs fish??? There might be bones, it will make the house smell, and I don’t know how to cook fish anyway. “We must care enough to confront.” I like to think I have cared enough to confront my kids when they needed correction, or that I have cared enough about a friendship to make amends, but sadly the percentages show I have an underdeveloped understanding of confrontation. I can read inspiring quotes, and I know the benefits not just for myself but for all of those involved, but when it comes to opening my mouth the words get swallowed up and I turn heel to hope that the next time my back bone isn’t pure jelly. “We must care enough to confront.” Of course by the time I do work up any courage, my words sounds more like an apology rather than constructive language working towards a measure of accountability. The final impediment is that whenever my stress level gets too high my crowning defacement is impulsive, unfounded tears. Egads! It would be rather touching if the tears came from a passion of conviction, but more often they come from incapacity to cope. How practical is that? Talk about losing leverage. “We must care enough to confront.”

My prayer?

Dear God, You so loved the world that you gave your son, confronting our salvation through his life. When I think about how meager my own attempts at reconciliation and partnership are I am filled with disgrace. I’m not even sure what to ask for God. Is it courage? Is it confidence? Is it being open to care deeply, passionately? It is so much easier to live at an arm’s stretch away; a protective distance between my world and my neighbor’s rather than being intimately connected with others. That might require my time, my heart, my involvement. It might mean disagreements along with collaboration; times of confrontations along with times of jubilation. It might mean we were maturing into your grace. We must care, O God. We must care deeply. Amen.

In All Things, Love

I stumbled across the Moravian Church during a Sunday School lesson which looked at the connection between the Wesleys and Moravian missionaries. Since I love to go off course, instead of focusing on the Wesleys as was the focus of the lesson, I decided to find out more about the Moravians. The Moravian Church is a reformed tradition started in the 14th century when there was a call to return the churches in the Moravia and Bohemia region (Czech) to simpler acts of early Christianity. One of their communities that settled in Germany in the 18th century experienced a transformation, where they “learned to love one another.” They attributed the transformation to a visit by the Holy Spirit, similar to the visitation in Acts. A few unique achievements attributed to the Moravian church during this time or renewal are:

• Setting up a watch of continuous prayer which ran uninterrupted, 24 hours a day, for 100 years.
• The origination of the Daily Watchwords – started as an attempt to keep the fire of Christian zeal burning by sharing a daily text with each member in the community. Now it is an ecumenical devotional reaching 1.5 million daily.
• The formation of many hundreds of small renewal groups operating within the existing churches of Europe, known as "diaspora societies". These groups did not intend to convert people to the Moravian Church but to awaken the hearts of believers and make them better members of the churches to which they already belonged through encouraged personal prayer and worship, bible study, confession of sins and mutual accountability

One of the things that first caught my eye as I was researching this community is their motto: “In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, love." The Canadians expands on the motto on their website:

• In Essentials, Unity: The reality of God’s love offered in Christ is what our life of faith is all about. Our faith in Christ and our commitments to live as his followers are what really matter. Christ is the ground and source of our unity.
• In Non-Essentials, Liberty: Tolerance is too easy; acceptance is our real challenge.
• In All Things, Love: Love affirms our unity rather than our divisions. Love has the power to make of our differences no difference. We believe we all have much more in common than we will ever have in difference. Love not only brings us together in God’s family but keeps us together as a community of faith

I have been receiving the watchword through daily e-mails for almost a year. Each week there is a common theme, and then two scriptures and a prayer are sent daily to re-enforce that theme. I preferred their prayer for the start of the school year much more than my own, so the prayer for the congregation will not be my own today, but will come from the prayers of the Moravian church.

My prayer for the congregation?

God of wisdom and understanding, many of us are gearing up for school -wondering, anticipating, and curious. Thank you for the gift of learning as we develop our intelligence and compassion. Thank you for those who are foolish enough to teach, strong enough to ask questions, humble enough to learn, angry enough to want to bring change, focused enough to care effectively, and wise enough to pray. Amen.