Nature as Healer

Nature as Healer

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.”—John Muir.

A Forward Day by Day writer today reminds us of this quote from John Muir, one of our country’s most famous naturalists and conservationists. Muir was instrumental in forming the National Park Service and the Sierra Club. In spiritual direction, we ask, “Where do you find meaning or feel closest to God?” The most frequent answer is “outdoors in nature.”

In photosynthesis, trees transform light energy into chemical energy. I believe the trees, the sun, the sky, the ocean, and the mountains also convert some energy inside of us when we are outdoors among them. As a result, we see beauty alive and well, whereas before, we could only see ugliness. We realize that there is something greater than ourselves, something that transcends our own problems. It is there for us. We do not have to pay for it. It is a gift.

My experience is that when I have difficulty sleeping because of physical, mental, or spiritual pain, it helps to go outside or sit by a window and watch the sunrise in the morning, even on a cloudy day. The sunrise, the world outside, can be a constant reminder of a new opening, a new beginning—the dawning of a fresh way to look at things. Always We Begin Again, as McQuiston titles his book about a modern version of the Rule of Benedict.

Muir stands out as someone poised to make us aware of the marvel of nature, particularly the wilderness, but he also reminds us of our stewardship of this gift.

Consider the experience of viewing nature, the outdoors, as one of our most crucial lifesaving, life-renewing spiritual practices, and remedies—better than drugs. But nature, like our own soul, also needs care and love.

Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Flexible Bible

Flexible Bible

“Mary Cosby used to begin her New Testament class by bending her soft-cover Bible and saying she preferred a Bible that was flexible. Then she would say, ‘The Bible is not a manual for morality, but a mirror for identity.”’—Carol Martin, Bread of Life Church, “A Mirror for Identity” at InwardOutward.org, Church of the Saviour, July 15, 2018.

My first introduction to this more profound flexible Bible study was with a small group at St. Mark’s in Little Rock in the 1980s, with a leader named Dick Moore in a room above the children’s classrooms that we called “the upper room.” As we studied the books of the Bible, Dick reminded us that the Bible was a roadmap, not the destination. 

I think of old friends like Carole and Gary Kimmel, who were in our class and now live on the Outer Banks in North Carolina. I remember Betty and Brady Anderson, who went on to be Bible translators in Africa in Tanzania, and how Brady later was appointed by President Bill Clinton to become the American Ambassador to that country. They taught me so much. Together, we uncovered new Bible insights that had never occurred to us.

As we saw God present in the lives of people in the Bible who were like us—with gifts and faults—we also became more aware of God, the Holy Spirit, at work in our own and others’ lives. We saw that the relationship of the Holy Spirit did not end with first- and second-century Christians; instead, the Spirit still leads us today. If we believe only a strict, literal translation of the Bible, we deny the continued presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives today that will bring us more good news.

I remember the Bible I received from my Bishop twenty-two years ago at my ordination. It, as well, is flexible.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/daily

Psalm 23 and Shepherds

Psalm 23 and Who Are the Shepherds?

“The Lord is my shepherd.”—Psalm 23.

Malinda Elizabeth Berry reminds us in an article, “Who Is My Shepherd?” in ChristianCentury.org (7/19/2018), of a frequent misconception about the gender of shepherds. In biblical times, young girls often were shepherds, as well as boys and men. For example, Berry reminds us that beautiful Rachel was tending her father Laban’s sheep when Jacob first saw her and fell in love with her (Genesis 29:9-10). Likewise, Zipporah and her sisters were trying to water their father’s sheep when Moses drove away some other shepherds bothering them (Exodus 2:16-17).

We may also infer that these young, fair maidens were just as masterful with a slingshot as young David!

Berry asks us if we have seen Bible story pictures or paintings with girls as shepherds. Indeed, I could only find a few, including one by Hungarian painter Marko Andrea (1887) called Shepherd Girl. Berry then challenges us to consider having girls and boys dress up as shepherds in this year’s Christmas pageant! (At our staff meeting, Luke, our Family Ministries Coordinator at St. Mark’s, reminded me that, unknown to me, St. Mark’s has been including girl shepherds for years!)

This is another example of a tradition that doesn’t align with historical facts: that shepherds should only be boys or men. It makes me wonder why I didn’t think of girls as shepherds, even after reading the stories of Rachel and Zipporah more times than I can remember. Now it is so apparent.

I hope you can share my excitement with Berry’s new information about stories we thought we knew so well. It reminds us not to gloss over old Bible stories, but to hope to see new insights each time we read them. This also encourages us to continue researching what others are discovering in their study of the Bible. Finally, it reminds us that the Holy Spirit is alive and well, and continually teaches us new insights from old stories.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/