Good morning…
Developing resilience helps us to navigate life’s tumult. Wars. Grief. Divorce. Addictions. Betrayals. Disappointments. Mass shootings. Mental and physical illness. Political, racial, economic polarization. How do we, ordinary people who are trying to process life’s overwhelming experiences, how do we develop lifesaving resilience? I’m not asking a rhetorical question here. Really. Truly. How do we productively process the turmoil reshaping our lives?
A three-fold answer begins to dawn within me. First, we personally center down with God. Second, we widen our common ground with more and more people. Third, we are schooled by the Spirit in the nurturing ways of God as we negotiate the toxic ways of the world.
Our summertime book study on Wednesdays at 10:00 am is a resource that helps me annually to commit to these three things. Centering down with the God who loves us. Widening our common bond with each others. Being schooled by the Spirit as we walk daily in the ways of our Lord. Beginning next Wednesday at 10:00 am, we will Zoom again this summer, organized by our seasoned facilitator Caroline Smith. Caroline has chosen two fascinating books for June and July.
- Eat This Book: a conversation in the art of spiritual reading by Eugene Peterson. Peterson, the author of the Message translation of the Bible, helps us to invite God’s truths inside us,”…to live them as we read them, the living and reading reciprocal, body language and spoken words, the back-and-forthness assimilating the reading to the living, the living to the reading.” In Eat This Book, Peterson guides us in reading our sacred Scriptures like “letting a very slowly dissolving lozenge melt imperceptibly in your mouth,” “a dog-with-a-bone kind of reading,” “…we taste and savor, anticipate and take in the sweet and spicy, mouth-watering and soul-energizing morsel words – O taste and see that the LORD is good! (Ps.34:8).”
- The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton by Sophfronia Scott. The back of our book explains that “Sophronia Scott mines the extensive private journals of Thomas Merton, one of the most influential contemplative thinkers of the past, for guidance on how to live in fraught times. Race, ambition, faith, activism, nature, prayer, friendship, love: with intimacy and a refusal to settle for cliche. Scott invites readers into the themes that occupied Merton and that still command our attention today.” Ms. Scott has offered to join us for one of our discussions!
If you feel drawn to join our small group of Zoomers this summer, please email Caroline Smith at fitzco1@comcast.net. Purchase your own book. We will begin to unpacking our thoughts together next Wednesday, June 8th at 10:00 am, as we discuss Chapters 1-3 in Eat This Book.
Developing resilience. Devouring wisdom. Cleaning out the rubbish that clutters our minds. Don’t these sound like savory summertime servings?
Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up. You’re not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It’s the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith. The suffering won’t last forever. It won’t be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ—eternal and glorious plans they are!—will have you put together and on your feet for good. He gets the last word; yes, he does (1 Peter 5:8-11, MSG).
…Sue…
