Feng Shui, Being in Relationship with the World Around Us

Schmidt: Feng Shui, The Order God Intended For Our Lives

Guest Writer Frederick Schmidt

“Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul.”—Alice Walker.

Not everyone who identifies as spiritual necessarily considers that a more significant responsibility. Most of us are taught that spirituality is about getting God involved in our lives, fixing our problems, comforting us when we are down, and showing us the way. Our culture has taught us to think that way, and some spiritualities are devoted to that understanding of the spiritual life.

love thy neighbor interfaith service

Now, at one level, I’m all for God being involved in my life. I don’t relish having problems. When God seems particularly close, I enjoy the palpable sense of peace that goes along with such moments, and I never mind knowing what to do next. But, at the same time, I don’t think that is the purpose of the spiritual life. 

love thy neighbor interfaith service

We have a more significant responsibility. Feng shui doesn’t quite capture that responsibility, but it hints at a concept found in the Torah, the prophets, and the teaching of Jesus—pretty much in the entire Bible. It’s called the righteousness of God—the order God intended, to put it in more accessible terms. Put another way, we are called into partnership with Jesus to care about how the world around us does or does not conform to God’s design. 

friendship camp

Contributing to the righteousness of God won’t be as easy as rearranging the furniture in a room. Doing that in our world is a much bigger job. Not everyone will agree with God’s opinion on where the furniture should go. We won’t even agree among ourselves on where it should be all the time. And on this side of eternity, the furniture will never be where all of it should be.

friendship interfaith camp

But we can witness to making God’s righteousness a reality. We can make personal choices and relate to one another in ways that reflect the presence of God in our lives. Those may not be sizeable pieces of furniture, but it’s an excellent place to start. 

Frederick Schmidt 

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

Schmidt: Dys-Feng Shui 1

Schmidt: Dys-Feng Shui 1

Guest Writer Frederick Schmidt

people behind each other

“To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.”—Mahatma Gandhi.

I don’t know much about feng shui (pronounced fung shwee), but as I understand it, it is a Chinese concept of aesthetics that applies “the laws of heaven and earth” to create harmony and order. It teaches how to maximize life’s energy to be in sync with the world around us.

Today, interior decorators use it in a somewhat more trivialized and commercial fashion. They may not know much about ancient Chinese philosophy, but they know an exotic way to sell their services when they see one!

In the middle of a rather lengthy business meeting some years ago, those around the table found a way to kill a few free moments by joking about the rather strange table arrangement we had been given for our meeting. The worst was that people were sitting at tables behind us. They were forced to face the backs of our heads, and we were positioned with our backs to them.

Thus, one of the funnier “you had to be there to understand” moments was when we critiqued the arrangement as a product of “dys-feng shui.”

Whether you find that funny or not, I think it is true that the more we live into the spiritual life, the more we take responsibility for the world around us. We notice feng shui and dys-feng shui—or to turn the vocabulary in a direction that is more familiar to me; we see where the Spirit of God is at work and where the Spirit of God is marginalized.

I am not talking about some kind of soft social consciousness, never mind a body of political beliefs. Instead, I am referring to the capacity to look at the world around us through the eyes of God.

Frederick Schmidt

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

Hope From the Good News of the Gospel

Hope from the Fresh Air of the Gospel

Deacon Gay Romack Arizona

“When the fresh air of the Gospel becomes our oxygen, the collective sin of the world will burn our sensitized lungs like toxic fumes. We will notice injustice everywhere we turn, and our powerlessness will crucify our hearts. Then, we will know the hope of the Resurrection from the inside. God’s power to raise, to heal, and to save will flow through us because God will be our only lasting hope.”—Br. Keith Nelson, SSJE

I try to remember and say this prayer as I stand to read the Gospel each Sunday. Gospel means Good News. Each year, I learn more and more that this is a weekly privilege, and one of our diaconal missions is to concentrate on reading the Gospel to the best of our abilities.

St. Taddeus Aiken SC

That means practicing it out loud until it becomes part of our being. Not overacting or underacting. Trying to surrender to the message. I have learned that we can only deliver the Word if we are connected to the Christ within. We strive to sense the Spirit within us and the presence of Christ in each member of the congregation, particularly those who may be struggling.

When this happens, healing electricity flows from the Word to the people and back to the Gospel. Truly hearing the Word can then move our hearts to action. The message of Christ in the Gospel leads us to share the presence of Christ in each other, as the Gospel message permeates the nave of the church. This healing presence gives us peace and promise for the day, healing for the past, and hope for the future.

Christ Church Winnetka. Deacon newly ordained

Those who study dreams believe every dream has a promise and a warning. This may also be true in many gospel passages we read and hear each Sunday. Looking for the warning and the promise, as we do in dreamwork, as we read and hear the Sunday Gospel message, might give us new hope in the Good News and God’s message.

Joanna joannseibert.com