This week, during a rather flow-style stretch session, I found myself sweating profusely. The room was stuffy and the temperature high in the late afternoon. Sweat.  A sign of success. The result of my effort to work hard and to remain focused on the instructions from the teacher.

So, what if perspiration is like a spiritual practice—not attractive but a sign of cleansing and reaching a place of release. We have to work hard if we want our inner core – the spiritual one – to become strong and able to hold up in times of stress. We maintain our spiritual practices of prayer and bible study to train our spirits and, of course, to worship.  To worship in order to love better, to fend off the diseases of anger and greed and jealousy. Perhaps a good session of prayer effectively releases the toxins that are harboured in a weak human system.

I snuck a line into that Lamentations verse ' we perspire in our effort to follow him'.  Sometimes it's tough to maintain a spiritual posture. But the results are worth it. It pays off.

In other words, as I stand at the bus stop and wait, after my class, I feel damn good. Feeling it – those beads of kindness running down my back.

Just finished reading Romeo Dallaire’s Waiting For First Light: My Ongoing Battle with PTSD and I can recommend it as a good and interesting read.  It’s such a desperately human book leading us through the despair and anger that Romeo feels as he carries the baggage of war in the form of crippling PTSD through decades of his highly publicized life.  It is as much a politically charged plea for government to care better for returning vets as an exercise in social finger pointing. ‘PTSD has a terminal side to it that demands more urgency’, says Dallaire.

Here is a retired Senator and General writing about his secret life – the one spent so often in total despair and inner torment. He seems to have lost so much of what we would think of as a normal life. His PTSD was left untreated – unrecognized - for too long.  Dallaire says it’s permanent now.  He still takes medication, has nightmares, goes to therapy, and has episodes of terror. I met him a few years ago when he was our keynote speaker at the annual BC Leadership Prayer Breakfast hosted by City in Focus. Although he spoke of his illness at the event, it is only now that I realize the severity and intensity of the illness. It was disguised in a business suit and an intelligent mind.

Spirituality leads us to peer closely at the unseen. Our faith encourages us to notice what is happening underneath the skin.  Surely God wants us to be a people equipped and ready to help those around us.

So often the unknown in others terrifies us. Yesterday as I waited for a bus an older woman ‘came unstuck’ emotionally. The dozen or people acted as if nothing was happening.  I was sitting next to her and began to engage – quite cautiously I might add.  She immediately softened and calmed down.  Just needed to be heard by someone – anyone.

Who is around us and suffering from depression, PTSD, loneliness, mental anguish?

If you do suspect a friend or loved one is experiencing a crisis, then reaching out in a sensitive way is the first step to providing help. Staying calm and doing more listening than talking might be a beginning. Demonstrate that you can be trusted and that you are able to offer support without passing judgement.

I’m flicking through a great little book by Bill Hybels entitled ‘Just Walk across the Room’.  It is yet another ‘How to’ book on evangelism. I like the section called ‘Living in 3D’ which points us to the direction and pace that evangelism should take. 

First, develop friendships. 

Next, discover stories.

Finally, discern steps. 

I like.  Seems like we are so ready to take someone through some steps in their faith without cultivating a genuine friendship or listening to their story. Let’s kill off the arrogance of the evangelical bully and, instead, become champions of love. Now there’s a Christmas thought. 

After six weeks away from my desk I choose to offer you a delicious podcast for your listening pleasure.

Krista Tippett , host of 'On Being' podcast, interviews poet Marie Howe. Her talk has had an effect upon me. It causes me to recognize my own thirst for the creative.  Everyone is creative and we have been hardwired with a DNA that longs to have the power unleashed.

Marie Howe appears to stumble upon the key to unlocking the power of her words. This leads her to a life devoted to poetry.  Kunitz,  from the American Academy of Poets, observed, “Her long, deep-breathing lines address the mysteries of flesh and spirit, in terms accessible only to a woman who is very much of our time and yet still in touch with the sacred.”  Howe composes the poem below as an elergy to her brother, John, who died of HIV Aids in the eighties. It also serves as a reminder to push ourselves to live in the present moment and to find the sacred in the ordinary things.

LISTEN HERE TO THE PODCAST 

Go to the place where your imagination lives.

The child spot.

 The dreamer place.

Experiences of life can stifle and numb this part of ourselves.  As Westerners we live in a culture increasingly interested in what is ‘right’.  What is just?  What is the tribal definition of justice?

In an increasingly   fearful community we endlessly analyse events and behaviours and place them up against the mirror of judgement in order to maintain a grip on order.

We have lost our glasses through which we see glory and are then free to imagine what a life without constant judgement looks like.

I am working on retrieving some of my lost functionality – my lost imagination.

To dream of pure friendships,  of mountain walks, of witnessing miracles, of beauty, of sleep…..

I draw your attention to an excellent cultural piece written by author and journalist, David Brooks as published in the New York Times last week. The moral dance the church, politics and secularism plays is every evolving and heating up.

Read the article HERE

An excerpt from Les Murray's poem, An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow 

and many weep for sheer acceptance, and more
refuse to weep for fear of all acceptance,
but the weeping man, like the earth, requires nothing,
the man who weeps ignores us, and cries out
of his writhen face and ordinary body

not words, but grief, not messages, but sorrow,
hard as the earth, sheer, present as the sea—
and when he stops, he simply walks between us
mopping his face with the dignity of one
man who has wept, and now has finished weeping.

Evading believers, he hurries off down Pitt Street.

Someone once said that when we get pre-occupied with just knowing stuff about God our spiritual lives become a bit like trying to view the galaxies through a pair of $5 binoculars.  In subtle ways convention wants to teach the 'believer/seeker' what to look for instead of how to look.  We put ourselves in spaces that speaks things into our ears instead of teaching us how to hear.  We are shown the best place to buy a new pair of glasses, instead of being led somewhere so that we can take in a view for ourselves.  The motives are good and are birthed from a hierarchical system that wants to pass on knowledge and experience.  The church likes to work out of this father/son model.  The majority are happy with this - they feel comfortable and safe with someone in leadership giving them all the answers.  We like the duality of good versus evil and black and white theology.  We want order, controlled order, even though we read the gospels and know that Jesus created havoc and social messes. We are praised when we know stuff and are seen to be reflecting back the words of our 'teachers'.  But the prophetic, instead creates futures that don’t seem ordered or sometimes sensible. We often aren't meant to tread in the steps of our forefathers.  We all long for the mentors, the fathers, the elders who will encourage, listen and promote rather than only to teach and direct. 

I went to a Writers Festival a few years ago and learnt about the rather fragile relationships between author, editor, publisher and publicist. The sessions were chaired by national experts in all these fields. It is a tough business and many fail.  The writer has to be prepared for their precious work to be restructured,analysed and changed all for the sake of sales. Everyone wanted a bestseller.  God, instead is looking for the 'voice in the desert'. A new voice telling the story.  The world is looking for the new voice.  

New York Times - Julianna Brion

MARCH 3, 2017

New Yorkers, if not city dwellers everywhere, might acknowledge a debt to Pope Francis this week. He has offered a concrete, permanently useful prescription for dealing with panhandlers.

It’s this: Give them the money, and don’t worry about it.

The pope’s advice, from an interview with a Milan magazine published just before the beginning of Lent, is startlingly simple. It’s scripturally sound, yet possibly confounding, even subversive.

Living in the city — especially in metropolises where homelessness is an unsolved, unending crisis — means that at some point in your day, or week, a person seeming (or claiming) to be homeless, or suffering with a disability, will ask you for help.

You probably already have a panhandler policy.

You keep walking, or not. You give, or not. Loose coins, a dollar, or just a shake of the head. Your rule may be blanket, or case-by-case.

If it’s case by case, that means you have your own on-the-spot, individualized benefits program, with a bit of means-testing, mental health and character assessment, and criminal-background check — to the extent that any of this is possible from a second or two of looking someone up and down.

Francis’ solution eliminates that effort. But it is by no means effortless.

Speaking to the magazine Scarp de’ Tenis, which means Tennis Shoes, a monthly for and about the homeless and marginalized, the pope said that giving something to someone in need is “always right.” (We’re helped here by the translation in an article from Catholic News Service.)

But what if someone uses the money for, say, a glass of wine? (A perfectly Milanese question.) His answer: If “a glass of wine is the only happiness he has in life, that’s O.K. Instead, ask yourself, what do you do on the sly? What ‘happiness’ do you seek in secret?” Another way to look at it, he said, is to recognize how you are the “luckier” one, with a home, a spouse and children, and then ask why your responsibility to help should be pushed onto someone else.

Then he posed a greater challenge. He said the way of giving is as important as the gift. You should not simply drop a bill into a cup and walk away. You must stop, look the person in the eyes, and touch his or her hands.

This morning we went with some friends to a breakfast place. It is a very popular little restaurant and the Saturday morning line up was long.  As I have previously blogged, Canadians seem to thrive in queues…or rather lines. They are a patient people.  It was drizzling and so it was not a particularly fun time to be standing outside for 40 minutes. But time flew by as we chatted, caught up and discussed what we were going to eat. We were made to feel welcome in the line – umbrellas were offered and the restaurant hostess was warm and friendly.  Through good service they had already created an atmosphere of anticipation and welcome.

The church can adopt this very simple and savvy philosophy of service: treating everyone well whether they are already seated at our table or waiting to get in. We must spend ourselves caring for those outside as well as those who are already eating at the table. The table is laid out for all as we, in the church, like to point out but have we got our umbrellas and warm greeting for those outside the walls. If we treat those without any revelation of God as we were treated this morning, then God’s place will be full.  Bringing our communion to the street.  Sharing it with the waiting multitude.  Whetting their appetite for what is inside. 

Our vision at Soulkitchen is like that.  Too many have been turned away at the door and told that there is not a table available for them.  Ignored.  Not even given a decent sneak peek at the menu.  We have given many the impression that the Christian life only starts when you are seated and inside.

Many years ago, my experience with God began when I was waiting in the line and someone came out with communion to me.  They offered me love and compassion and understanding.  I wasn’t made to feel that I was an outsider.  The inside came out to serve me.

Of course, some will walk away no matter what.  Don’t be discouraged in your service – keep serving the queue with quality hospitality.

Today, we were won over before we even sat down.  They had won our hearts before we tasted the delicious food.  Perfect culinary evangelism.  We will be back.

Life gets complicated and, sadly, for many their lives spiral out of control. Soulkitchen wants to help get people back on track and give them hope and confidence for a better way ahead. 

So often our greedy intellect tries to make Christianity somehow fit cleverly into some psychological paradigm. Take the Maslow theory devised in 1943.  This theory, Abraham Maslow called Hierarchy of Needs,  suggests a triangle of life needs with the physical on the bottom rung and rising to self-actualization at the apex.  He makes the case that when people get their primal needs met they will be open for the spiritual. Like Maslow, Jesus was interested in the whole realm of the human condition.  He said, if someone has a need, meet it as you would like to have yours met.  We, instead, have created a complex human resources 'department'  to manage and compartmentalize needs. We find it simpler to separate off the spiritual need from the practical need. We have created neat boxes to deal with life matters. This fits in the gospel of words, this is a gospel of social justice need, and, if you are hungry we have a gospel of community assistance.  

The 'good' church meets all the needs through its various programs - a one-stop Maslow shop!  Evangelists have been so hell-bent (excuse the phrase) on meeting the need for conversion or self-actualization that sensitivity to the layers of need and the cultural context of their 'customers' has been sorely limited. Our community services leaders have put action and meeting of physiological needs as their personal favourite.  Too many words have been spoken and too many meals been cooked! Instead we were instructed to go to places where disciples can be made.  

So how does the Jesus's 'theory' fits  into each of Maslow’s levels of needs?  Jesus just crushes it.  He says in ALL things I have “come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

Go out and make room for the whole triangle of need. 

Age and experience seem to work in our favour with regards to spiritual and emotional health. The book of Titus gives the older women encouragement to train younger women to love their husband and children as if they might just know better.

I looked at a aged string of twisted barbed wire today.  It was rusty and weak - easy to break with a gloved hand. In comparison a freshly strung barb would be almost impossible to tear apart without help from work tools.

Healing comes sometimes with age and spiritual experiences.  The barbed wires that held us captive seem to become easier to break off ourselves.  We need less intervention from others.  We recognize that life is tough and that a life committed to be a disciple of Jesus is perhaps tougher - or brings with it a different set of wiring.

I pray today for awareness of  spiritual healing and joy at imparting life and wholeness to those who are caught in the sharp wires. 

I feel it - the pressure.  Is it just me or is this that last part of the 2016 marathon?  The time when you just feel like all is for naught and your energy is running down the sinkhole.

Advent is a time of waiting - AND DOING - it seems! 

Father give me the grace to know when to put things down and to rest. You said that tomorrow will take care of itself. You took care of tomorrow. You took care as demonstrated with the birth of a Saviour.

Thankyou

This week I was invited to a group gathering to talk about how and where neighbourhoods are thriving.  About twenty people gathered from all parts of this city and we were joined by our US guests, Paul Sparks, Tim Soerens and Dwight J. Friesen who co-authored the book, The New Parish.  Rather than hear their take on what God is doing on the neighbourhood level (which is in the book) we were able to hear from those of our Vancouver tribe.  Seems like many of us have the 'block' on our minds as our expression of acting out the gospel.  Whether acting on a small scale or larger initiatives it appears to be a 'hot spot'.

As we know through recent studies by the Vancouver Foundation, Vancouver Mental Health and the Angus Reid Institute it is alienation and loneliness that are the slow killers of community.  The church on the corner, the condo neighbour, the dog walker, the community gardener and the local business person and whoever  - all can be the agent of change.   Better neighbours. Better city.  Get passionate about those who surround you.