What I learned at VBS

“Help me slow down, Jesus.

Hheellpp mmee ssllooww ddoowwnn JJEEUUSS.

Hhheeelllppp mmmeee ssslllooowww dddoowwwnnn, JJJEEEUUUSSS.

Hhhheeeellllpppp, mmmmeeee,sssslllloooowwww ddddoooowwwwnnnn, JJJJEEEEUUUUSSSS.”

—“Bible Story Teller” in Rolling River Rampage: Experience the Ride of a Lifetime with God! (Cokesbury VBS, 2018).

My friend, Mary Manning, and I were the storytellers at St. Mark’s Vacation Bible School (VBS) last summer. I have been the storyteller at VBS at the other churches I served, but I always did it alone. It was so amazing to have a partner. Mary is a retired schoolteacher. I am a retired teacher of medical school students and residents and fellows; but Mary had a lot to teach me. I had decided how to tell the story for each group. At our first meeting, Mary suggested we do it another way. She was so right. I keep thinking what it would have been like if she had not been there with me. It could have been a disaster.

Now I know why Jesus sent the disciples out two by two. At my late stage of life I am learning that almost any ministry is better with a partner, if possible. We learn so much from each other’s experience and expertise.

This prayer for today about slowing down was our favorite one in connection with the story of Mary and Martha. I try to say it sometime during my day, every day.

I learned one more thing at VBS. Mary and I were with each group of children for only twenty minutes. We told stories about Jesus calling the disciples; Mary and Martha; Zacchaeus; the Last Supper; and Jesus sending his disciples out with the assurance that he would be with them always. Each day before telling the new story, we would review the story from the previous day. I was amazed that the children in each group, even the four-year-olds, remembered so much of yesterday’s story. Of course, each story was reinforced through crafts and music and games.

VBS taught me that what we teach and what we say can be like seeds planted in order to germinate in children’s hearts at some later date. I am reminded of teachers I had at VBS who taught me about the love of God through stories. I want to be like them.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Release party!!!!!!!!!!!

Come and get a signed copy of the new book

Just in time for the holidays

A Spiritual Rx for Advent Christmas, and Epiphany

The Sequel to A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter

Both are $18

All Money from sale of the books goes either to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of Central Gulf Coast

Seibert’s, 27 River Ridge Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72227

10 to noon, Saturday September 14, 2019

RSVP joannaseibert@me.com

I Look for God When I Do the Dishes

“I search for the Spirit as I take out the trash. The sacred is revealed in brilliant light only rarely, in the flash of some great insight unexpected, but much more than this the holy is to be discovered in our daily lives, in the moments when we are simply being ourselves. Putting the kids to bed, working in the garden, sitting on the porch in the evening: the beauty of eternity is that it hides in plain sight all around us. We are all prophets of the predictable pattern, witnesses to the wonder of the average day.” —Bishop Steven Charleston, Daily Facebook post.

joanna campbell

The God of my understanding uses every bit of our lives to call us to God’s love. I remember one morning walk around my block when I took notice of all the trash bins out in front of houses. I suddenly realized on this walk that many of the spiritual disciplines we practice are simply to clear our minds—literally taking out the trash so that we can hear God speak to our lives.

Bishop Charleston is reminding us of Brother Lawrence’s experience in Practicing the Presence of God, seeking and seeing God in every aspect of our life. He is telling us we don’t have to live in a monastery to find and live this kind of life. He believes we can know God’s presence more in our daily routine rather than in some St. Paul-like, blinding, falling-off-our-horse, spectacular event.

Bishop Charleston is also practicing the family systems axiom of trying to live a less anxious presence in the world around him. He is looking around with awe at the ever-changing beauty of God’s immanence in the vastness of nature, and being transformed by what he sees. He is actively seeking Christ in every place and every person he encounters. This is the spiritual discipline of living in the present moment.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Release party!!!!!!!!!!!

Come and get a signed copy of the new book

Just in time for the holidays

A Spiritual Rx for Advent Christmas, and Epiphany

The Sequel to A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter

Both are $18

All Money from sale of the books goes either to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of Central Gulf Coast

Seibert’s, 27 River Ridge Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72227

10 to noon, Saturday September 14, 2019

RSVP joannaseibert@me.com

Nouwen, Lawrence, Fiddler: Unceasing Prayer

“Our minds are always active. Do we have to become victims of our unceasing thought? No, we can convert our unceasing thinking into unceasing prayer by making our inner monologue into a continuing dialogue with our God, who is the source of all love.” —Henri Nouwen in Bread for the Journey (HarperSanFrancisco, 1997).

The book to turn to first, to begin to understand unceasing prayer, is Practicing the Presence of God. It is a very small collection of the teachings and experiences of Brother Lawrence, a French Carmelite monk who was the cook for his community in Paris in the 17th century. The book was compiled by Father Joseph Beaufort from letters and four conversations with Brother Lawrence, as he described his walk with God—not from the head, but within his heart. He saw God in every aspect, in every second of his life as he washed pots and pans, purchased wine, or cooked the meals—continually conversing with God. He never became weary of doing small things for the love of God—believing that intervals of prayer should not be different from other times; seeing God as a friend he would not want to be estranged from; feeling God’s presence more acutely in sickness than in good health.

My favorite fictional role model for continually being in conversation with God is Tevye in the 1971 American dramatic musical, Fiddler on the Roof.

I try to watch the movie several times a year and go to see the play whenever it comes close to Little Rock.. It is long but so worth journeying with Tevye in his persistent conversations with God through many trials.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Release party!!!!!!!!!!!

Come and get a signed copy of the new book

Just in time for the holidays

A Spiritual Rx for Advent Christmas, and Epiphany

The Sequel to A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter

Both are $18

All Money from sale of the books goes either to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of Central Gulf Coast

Seibert’s, 27 River Ridge Road, Little Rock, Arkansas 72227

10 to noon, Saturday September 14, 2019

RSVP joannaseibert@me.com