God Hole

God Hole

“There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God. Sometimes I am there too. But more often stones and grit block the well, and God is buried beneath.” Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life, Daily Quote, Inwardoutward.org, Church of the Saviour, June 28, 2018.

Simon Migaj

Etty Hillesum was a young Jewish woman studying law in the Netherlands in the 1940’s who lived down the street from Anne Frank. She died at the age of 29 in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. She kept a diary of her inner life as well as describing the severe persecution of the Jews in Holland during those days, published after her death. Her transformation out of fear and hate to love and care and kindness and compassion for those suffering around her makes her an icon especially for us today. Through the help of her psychotherapist, she learned to see the God hole in people and situations during those amazingly difficult times and fill that God hole with the love she had known.

This is indeed our ministry as spiritual friends. Each of us has a hole in our mind, our heart, our body that only God can fill. Instead we try to fill it with relationships, food, alcohol, drugs, shopping work, sports, work, power, even family, writing, reading, and patriotism.  We can also fill it with hate, persecution, bigotry, self-centeredness, intimidation, cruelty, negativity, pessimism, hopelessness, despair, apathy, and indifference. As spiritual friends we are called to help each other find that God hole and fill it with the best unconditional love we can muster up. It begins with our presence with each other and listening.

I remember a dear friend who came into my office at the hospital early one morning about a relationship that had just broken up. He was depressed, sad, broken-hearted, in tears.  We talked for some time. Mostly I listened and tried to let him know how much I cared about him. Late in the conversation, I mentioned the God hole. Somehow, he intuitively realized that this relationship had completely filled his God hole. I only had to say very few words. A light bulb went on. I usually do not mention the God hole when someone is in so much suffering, but something told me to bring it up that early morning. Hopefully we both were being guided by the Holy Spirit.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Guest writer: Burton, Rachel Held Evans, Inspired

Guest Writer: Larry Burton

Rachel Held Evans newest book, Inspired

“How could I love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength while disengaging those very faculties every time I read the Bible?”  Rachel Held Evans, Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again. Thomas Nelson 2018.

At almost 75 years old, after 40 years of university teaching, and 50 years of ordination in a Christian denomination, and 50 years of marriage to a wonderful woman, I have fallen in love with Rachel Held Evans.  Now, don’t start worrying about my character.  Neither my dear spouse nor Ms. Evans are in the least bit threatened. 

I am in love with her writing, her journey, her honesty, and her new book, Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again.  The question of how we should read the Bible has plagued good people for at least a couple of centuries.  Do we read it as history, as fact, as metaphor, as faith, as inspired?  It is that last word that Evans uses as she delves into the fascinating, challenging, and sometimes bewildering world of the Bible.  Where scholars parse the Hebrew or Greek, seek to understand its social, cultural, and political context, and sometimes venture into the mine field of making truth claims, Evans approaches the Bible from the perspective of one who has suffered, questioned, and taken a faith journey, a pilgrimage, from certainty to faith.

Drawing on the insights of her own teachers, professors, clergy, friends, and her own questing spirit, Evans manages to invite the reader to share her journey.  Then, together author and reader discover the depths of wisdom, hope, and indeed, inspiration contained in these ancient texts.

Evans writes: “When God gave us the Bible, God did not give us an internally consistent book of answers.  God gave us an inspired library of diverse writings, rooted in a variety of contexts, that have stood the test of time, precisely because, together, they avoid simplistic solutions to complex problems.  It’s almost as though God trusts us to approach them with wisdom, to use discernment as we read and interpret, and to remain open to other points of view.”

This is not a text book.  It is not a book for anyone who holds a defensive and protective approach to this sacred book.  And Evans does not pretend to be a Biblical scholar.  Rather, it is an invitation to rediscover the wonders of what Christians call the Old and New Testaments.  Evans is an intelligent and loving explorer of a territory she once thought was closed and has now found to be full of hope-filled, living inspiration.

Maybe you will fall in love with her, too.  Don’t worry, it is OK.  I’m pretty sure she is used to it.

Larry Burton

Joanna joannaseibert.com

The Day after July 4th

 The Day after July 4, 2018

“America! America! God mend thine every flaw,

confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law.”

Katherine Lee Bates

The Sunday before the fourth of July we had a patriotic hymn sing along after church. One of my favorites is the music to Katherine Lee Bates poem, “America the Beautiful.” “O beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain.” Bates wrote the hymn after she arrived in a prairie wagon on top of the 14,000-foot Pike’s Peak near Colorado Springs in the summer of 1893.

 I became connected to the poem and the hymn when I helped plan a pediatric radiology meeting at nearby Colorado Springs in 1994. I took a sabbatical from Children’s Hospital for six months in order to plan the international pediatric radiology meeting. I had much help from people all over the world, but I also had a touch of what Parker Palmer calls “functional atheism,” believing I was the “only” one who needed to get most of the work done.

After a year of planning and everything was ready, I vividly remember sitting in a board meeting in May at the event hotel just before the conference was about to begin. I looked out of the adjacent large bay window, and saw to my horror, the beginning of the last snow of winter, in May! I had planned in detail a multitude of outdoor activities that now would never see the light of day. I now keep a beautiful picture of snow on the tulips in front of the hotel to remind me of how little in life I can control.

There were a multitude of other hiccups. We recorded speakers for a meeting video. One speaker did not like his recording and required us to redo his filming at least five times. I will always be indebted to Marilyn Goske whom I had casually asked to watch over the videoing of the speakers. She patiently stayed with the speakers and missed the whole meeting to get this done.  Another hiccup was our evening entertainment after dinner. We had scheduled the Air Force Academy Cadet Choir. Then without warning they were called to maneuvers. Our meeting planner booked a local children’s chorus. I was embarrassed that this would be amateurish and poorly performed. As you might expect, they were some of the most charming, talented and poised children performers I have ever seen. They ended their concert by going to individual members of the highly-educated, sophisticated audience and held their hands and sang directly to them. We all gave them a standing ovation through our tears, remembering that the children we serve as physicians can teach us so much about life as well as “American the Beautiful.”  

 I also learned from this meeting that no matter how hard I try, I am not in charge, that God provides amazing people around me who will take over situations that are overwhelming, and I especially learned after dinner that when a door unexpectedly closes, the next door that opens often is surprisingly magnificent.

Joanna joannaseibert.com