Working class spirituality

Working class spirituality

“I think you have to put a little sweat equity into what you believe. You have to practice what you preach. Justice does not just happen. Compassion is not a spectator sport, but something I have to exercise as I roll up my sleeves to do my part in creating a better community. I need to put in my hours as a volunteer. I have to join the prayer crew and put my life on the line to make a difference. The world will not change by wishes, but by the labor of love we call faith. Spirituality is not a spa but a construction site where we build hope one heart at a time.”

Bishop Steven Charleston, Daily Facebook Post

Oh goodness! I love to sit and meditate and walk and write and read and sit in silence and go to weekly Eucharist. Bishop Charleston reminds us that being a Christian is not a spectator sport. Eventually all of our spiritual practices connecting us to God will be calling us to some action, reaching out of ourselves in some way. Even when we are homebound we can call or write or cook or knit or invite others in.

My experience is that we do not have to go out of our way to realize what we are called to do. It will present itself to us daily. A person will come to guide us or suggest something. Someone in need will appear. Suddenly we will see a situation that was always there that calls us to reach out. Often the problem is that there are so many needs that we now become aware of around us that we become overwhelmed. Buechner gives us a good formula to find our next step. We are called to the place where the world’s deep hunger and our deep gladness meet. We look for where our passion is, where we are energized by the ministry.

We will soon learn that we are not called to the ministry our parents or our friends or the world thinks we should do. We are called to the ministry that is our passion, that we would do for no compensation, where we begin to do things we never thought we were capable of doing, when we gain energy as we work in this ministry instead of losing energy.

When we find this calling, we start becoming the person God created us to be.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

3 Opportunities in next 2 weeks to purchase a signed copy of A Daily Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter
Wordsworth Books, Little Rock, Saturday March 2, 1-3 pm

St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Little Rock, Narthex after 8 and 10:30 services on March 3 and March 10

Proceeds from this book go for Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast

buechner: Spiritual Gifts

Buechner: Spiritual Gifts

The “place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

Frederick Buechner, originally published in Wishful Thinking. Frederick Buechner Quote of the Day, www.frederickbuechner.com

As usual, Frederick Buechner gives us the best advice about how to find our ministry in perhaps his most quoted phrase. We are given gifts from the Spirit for our ministry for the doing of God’s work. As with “the varieties of our gifts” mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12, there are a varieties of spiritual gifts inventories. I was reminded at a recent presentation by The Rev Dr. Kate Alexander that we must not just limit what we think our spiritual gifts might be to those gifts described in biblical times and not just think that every spiritual gift may seem “spiritual.” She gave the example of proofing the Sunday bulletin as a means of furthering the work of God and being an important ministry that is performed by people with a very detailed unique ministry.

We are to remember that the gifts are to further the work of God, not necessarily our work or our agenda or our goals.

Besides several inventories, material from the Stephen Ministry by Stephen Haugk, leads us through other clues to our spiritual gifts. The gifts we see in our most admired person may be ours. The gift we use to bring about our most fulfilling life event may be our gift. The actions of Jesus we most admire may be our gift. I also learned from Lloyd Edwards in his book, Discerning Your Spiritual Gifts, that significant gifts may come out of our woundedness. For example, those in recovery best stay in recovery by helping others find freedom from addictions. Those who have experienced the death of a significant person are often the ones who can later best help heal others who are grieving.

Parker Palmer’s, Let Your Life Speak, is another classic book about where and how God leads us into the servant ministry using our spiritual gifts..

My experience is I think I am using my gift when I am energized by the ministry in which I am involved. I put energy in and more comes out. The tried and true biblical fruit of the spirit can also be an indicator of when we are using our spiritual gifts. Galatians 5 tells us we will feel and know “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” when we are connected to or guided by the Spirit.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

3 Opportunities in next 2 weeks to purchase a signed copy of A Daily Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter
Wordsworth Books, Little Rock, Saturday March 2, 1-3 pm

St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Little Rock, Narthex after 8 and 10:30 services on March 3 and March 10

Proceeds from this book go for Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast

Guenther: At. Home in the World

Guenther: At Home in the World

“Inevitably, even if we are persistent and faithful, there will come a time when God seems not to be listening or speaking to us. We have entered a desert time. Maybe our icons-our windows to God- have turned into idols. That is, the form of our prayer has become more important than the prayer itself. We can find ourselves attributing almost magical power to our methods of centering prayer, Ignatian meditation, or reading the daily offices of Morning and Evening Prayer. We can become so preoccupied with following our rule of life that we can forget where we are going.”

Margaret Guenther, At Home in the World, A Rule of Life for the Rest of Us. Seabury Books 2006.

Will-known author and Episcopal priest Margaret Guenther reminds us that we do not come into the world equipped with a spiritual road map or owner’s manual, so we need to write our own. We cannot download from some celestial source a spiritual MapQuest with precise directions for turning each corner.

Guenther gives us an easily readable book about how to follow a rule of life and still live in the world. Our rule will be different at varying stages of our lives. She offers ways to live in the awareness of the preciousness of each day, living every day as if it were our last, constantly reminding ourselves that time is a gift from God. Each chapter discusses a distinctive aspect of our lives, our families, our solitude, or creativity, our money, our fear of abundance, our friends and enemies, our prayer, and our use of power.

The chapters are followed by questions for reflection, making the book an excellent choice for a small group study.

I keep reading At Home and still learn something new or a new practice whenever I pick up the book.. Guenther suggest that whenever a person comes to mind, we should call, visit, send a text, or prayer. I also learned this from my spiritual director in deacon training, Dan McKee.

Guenther discusses how Sabbath is not merely ceasing to work but to be celebrating something that makes us new, something that re-creates ourselves. She reminds us that an ongoing association with children, “who live closer to the ground” than we do can be a powerful source for re-creation, a new creation.

Guenther consoles me when forgiveness comes too slowly. She describes forgiveness as a great block of ice which melts slowly and cannot be hurried. “There is no spiritual equivalent of a microwave.”

Today she reminds us what may be going on when we feel spiritually dry.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

3 Opportunities in next 2 weeks to purchase a signed copy of A Daily Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter
Wordsworth Books, Little Rock, Saturday March 2, 1-3 pm

St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Little Rock, Narthex after 8 and 10:30 services on March 3 and March 10

Proceeds from this book go for Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast