tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82673653399882700742024-02-07T14:19:44.134-08:00The Orchard CommunitySpiritual Life & Growth
in The Way of JesusHippie Chickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15885370866046165870noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-90786567053291275002016-09-26T15:54:00.002-07:002017-11-10T16:56:06.887-08:00The Orchard in Hibernation ModeMuch has happened in our lives since the last post.<br />
<br />
For all who come to read here, please know this website will stay active and we may continue to post from time to time, but The Orchard Community itself is no longer meeting. Our gatherings were always in fits and starts, small groups of 2-5 people for brief seasons that never lasted long.<br />
<br />
And while "that's all it ever was" makes it sound like there was 'failure' involved, since it didn't grow and become what we thought it should, what we hoped it could, what we dreamed it would -- nothing could be further from the truth.<br />
<br />
God met us and sustained us, and still is. We are different people now, in more dependent relation to God than ever before, even if our paths are diverged from what we once saw.<br />
<br />
And we trust that God will continue to uphold us as we walk into the future. But for now, The Orchard is in hibernation for however long this beautiful but uncertain winter wilderness lasts<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU5uIHjKPgBKYjHgxPkbMpAXxq_zvXzgXtCYU37X_3Uw_WPrJfrnZKZ7vaYf2tvAzqE4zjEqf2Lkxik_3rzJ9X8R4WU51TvBrKfVN05Hw9ayuTrX-r_aWL9FH3SRElEhqJGKQdFxk461s/s1600/orchard+hibernation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU5uIHjKPgBKYjHgxPkbMpAXxq_zvXzgXtCYU37X_3Uw_WPrJfrnZKZ7vaYf2tvAzqE4zjEqf2Lkxik_3rzJ9X8R4WU51TvBrKfVN05Hw9ayuTrX-r_aWL9FH3SRElEhqJGKQdFxk461s/s400/orchard+hibernation.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
For now, here is a parting thought to remind us all:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.aholyexperience.com/2016/09/the-powerful-reason-why-we-all-have-to-keep-getting-out-of-bed-that-changes-a-broken-world" style="font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">The Powerful Reason Why We All Have To Keep Getting Out of Bed -- That Changes a Broken World</span></a><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">Go read the full post -- you'll be glad you did. And here's an excerpt to whet your appetite...</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nothing is more necessary than finding God and falling in love and deeper into Him.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Love decides.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Love decides everything. </span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What you are in love with decides what you live for.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What you are in love with decides what decides what you get out of bed for.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fall in love with the Hands that shaped your heart, that cup your face, that trace your scars, that caress you with grac</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">e. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fall in love with His face in a thousand faces</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, in </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the baby that meets you at the crib rail</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and the teenager that doesn’t want to budge and man that find that never fails to put feet to</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the floor and find his Levis and the back door to brave the world for Love.</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fall in love with the One who fills your lungs with this breath and all these people and this sky and all this light, all this glorious light.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You have to fall in love because this will get you up and keep you going every day. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Because —-</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Love decides.</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Go fall in love with grace and mercy and the only One who has ever loved you to death and back to the realest life —-</span><span style="background-color: white; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> because </span><span style="background-color: white; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the world is begging us all to get out of bed and sacrifice for someone hurting</span><span style="background-color: white; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, for </span><span style="background-color: white; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">someone different, for someone forgotten or marginalized</span><span style="background-color: white; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to hold the hand of someone who doesn’t look like us, to lean in and listen to someone angry and grieving and doubting the likes of us,</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to give a bit of ourselves to those who feel like they aren’t given much real space at the table.</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fall in love, stay in love, stay sacrificing, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and you live the most satisfied.</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What you are in love with in your life — </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">decides everything about your life.</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Love decides everything.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The sun can rise, and we all could rise, falling around each other, falling all around, healing rising.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-41582121142612385182015-12-11T12:15:00.000-08:002015-12-11T12:24:14.864-08:00The God Who Fell From Heaven<div style="text-align: center;">
I first posted this a few years ago, and it is so wonderfully<br />
compelling and poignant, I had to share it again:</div>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixhqv0lfggpCjRtXLCoZID9IiXKrDBXQA1EIqNZgx4YttkIVEknvfLNnO0AgdUOvXU2MejtDSkD4citsh46FpDOkji24nz0I7T_LlyD2S5L8d7m5cyFD_DYzu8zTp1qROcPXFT1qd3QBw/s1600/Shooting20star.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406665617477239778" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixhqv0lfggpCjRtXLCoZID9IiXKrDBXQA1EIqNZgx4YttkIVEknvfLNnO0AgdUOvXU2MejtDSkD4citsh46FpDOkji24nz0I7T_LlyD2S5L8d7m5cyFD_DYzu8zTp1qROcPXFT1qd3QBw/s400/Shooting20star.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 294px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<center>
A PRAYER TO THE GOD WHO FELL FROM HEAVEN<br />~ By John Shea<br /><br />If you had stayed<br />tightfisted in the sky<br />and watched us thrash<br />with all the patience of a pipe smoker,<br />I would pray like a golden bullet<br />aimed at your heart.<br /><br />But the story says you cried<br />and so heavy was the tear<br />you fell with it to earth<br />where like a baritone in a bar<br />it is never time to go home.<br /><br />So you move among us<br />twisting every straight line into Picasso,<br />stealing kisses from pinched lips,<br />holding our hand in the dark.<br /><br />So now when I pray<br />I sit and turn my mind like a television knob<br />till you are there with your large, open hands<br />spreading my life before me<br />like a Sunday tablecloth<br />and pulling up a chair for yourself<br />for by now<br />the secret is out.<br /><br />You are home.</center>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-50690684647235551252015-10-23T15:08:00.000-07:002015-10-23T15:08:32.506-07:00The Peace of Wild ThingsThe Peace of Wild Things<br />
<br />
When despair for the world grows in me<br />
and I wake in the night at the least sound<br />
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,<br />
I go and lie down where the wood drake<br />
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.<br />
I come into the peace of wild things<br />
who do not tax their lives with forethought<br />
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.<br />
And I feel above me the day-blind stars<br />
waiting with their light. For a time<br />
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.<br />
<br />
— Wendell BerryUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-24780954630446472562013-12-10T15:27:00.000-08:002013-12-10T15:37:12.623-08:00Winter WaitingIt has been some time since we've posted anything here.<br />
<br />
This came our way today, & seems fitting to share as we approach the solstice.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpgHeSBuzZPVxqSA5pa_raJE8dV8EUxScbfFbkXppbdPLyiO_xB7RcUpYWY_eD9Aa8cSuedJz9y1XGpAglOgSeaU3He3Y-T9C2Smelv5XPIdBVXDheJusAISEDGsQ1EtZ9adlW0AdmfJs/s1600/winter+waiting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpgHeSBuzZPVxqSA5pa_raJE8dV8EUxScbfFbkXppbdPLyiO_xB7RcUpYWY_eD9Aa8cSuedJz9y1XGpAglOgSeaU3He3Y-T9C2Smelv5XPIdBVXDheJusAISEDGsQ1EtZ9adlW0AdmfJs/s320/winter+waiting.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
You keep us waiting. <br />
You, the God of all time, want us to wait for the right time <br />
in which to discover who we are, where we must go, <br />
who will be with us, and what we must do. <br />
<br />
So thank you … for the waiting time. <br />
<br />
<span align="left" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-weight: bold;">- From the <em>Iona Community Worship Book</em></span></blockquote>
<br />
<br />
Expectantly,<br />
<br />
~ KeithUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-27502554973232688572013-03-29T17:39:00.003-07:002013-03-29T17:41:52.033-07:00Disillusion Meets DissolutionThis month The Orchard passed a new milestone. We are no longer an incorporated non-profit in the state of Oregon. In that legal business sense, The Orchard has been dissolved.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh23p6NYaO6G3K6SHTNus-1NwHkElcipO__n9uUCKgIyJnYKuQt4xL-c2cgvDC0_zv4zWCk9w4N13y8bdGNws2JUYYoKDIGF9FTSx-DAaZWipTcu2djSQo4NR5g4FQ9rXsm3QFyq58t3Rc/s1600/dissolve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh23p6NYaO6G3K6SHTNus-1NwHkElcipO__n9uUCKgIyJnYKuQt4xL-c2cgvDC0_zv4zWCk9w4N13y8bdGNws2JUYYoKDIGF9FTSx-DAaZWipTcu2djSQo4NR5g4FQ9rXsm3QFyq58t3Rc/s320/dissolve.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
The reason we originally incorporated was so we could take donations and allow people to claim a tax deduction. Our goal was never to make money for ourselves; I never planned to have a salary or to "be the Pastor". Rather, we wanted to collectively pool resources and give those funds away to the people in our lives who we knew needed the money.<br />
<br />
As I referenced in <a href="http://orchardcommunity.blogspot.com/2010/09/bend-in-road.html" target="_blank">A Bend In The Road</a>, we were originally a "church plant" within the Association of Vineyard Churches. As such, we had some funds in our account as a start-up which had been a gift from our "sending church". So, over time, we simply gave all that money away.<br />
<br />
One great example is a single mother whose minivan broke down. It would cost $1500 to fix it, or she could try and buy a used one for $2500+. She had about $1000 she could scrape up if she really scrimped, but either way she didn't have enough money. So, The Orchard wrote her a check for $1500, no strings attached. We didn't write the check to a mechanic or a used car lot. We wrote it to her personally and she got to decide what to do with it -- whether she used it toward a car or not wasn't the point. Expressing God's love to someone in need was the point. She was in tears and didn't really know what to say.<br />
<br />
THAT's the kind of thing we wanted to do more of -- and so if people wanted to donate and help us decide where that money could best be donated, then at least all those who gave to The Orchard could get a deduction on their taxes.<br />
<br />
Here's the deal though: no one ever gave us any money. No one. Ever. (not even us -- we didn't donate to our own non-profit!).<br />
<br />
As the money in our account dwindled and ran out, we realized that we (Cathy & I, as a couple) would still be giving away money (and time and love, etc) to people around us who were in need, with or without a tax deduction, since that is not the point. And therefore we had no need to maintain a non-profit corporation. In fact, doing so sort of went against the basic essence of the last directive we really received from God about this whole journey we've been on here at The Orchard when The Orchard Master said to us:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Don't build anything. Just love people"</blockquote>
So as of this month, according to the State of Oregon, "The Orchard Community" does not exist as an official entity. We've been dissolved.<br />
<br />
Dissolved. Un-solved. I like that, since there are no easy answers.<br />
<br />
And we're also now more disillusioned than ever.<br />
<br />
But don't get me wrong: disillusionment is a good thing!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEDEf6rTk9nPXWli008bmQAOWA5StB6CIPjtP4cCt0nTVHbfhtAGcTPwnItLz-2EIA4bU1LXJEPOt5MTXWmZn7aATArSEplHlkhSVgqk6DEsehLBAPVIQ1r-08OgQg6Ozrmkyyz72Y-18/s1600/i_love_disillusionment_t_shirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEDEf6rTk9nPXWli008bmQAOWA5StB6CIPjtP4cCt0nTVHbfhtAGcTPwnItLz-2EIA4bU1LXJEPOt5MTXWmZn7aATArSEplHlkhSVgqk6DEsehLBAPVIQ1r-08OgQg6Ozrmkyyz72Y-18/s1600/i_love_disillusionment_t_shirt.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Being more and more disillusioned means we have fewer and fewer illusions; less deceptions and false visions in our sight as we look at the people in our lives and in the world around us, as we look at ourselves, and as we look to The Orchard Master for where we are all headed together on this crazy mixed up journey.<br />
<br />
In our early days here in Oregon and just before we moved, I described what we were seeing like driving on a foggy road out in the country. We were not sure what we would look like or how we would function and "be" the church. We had some ideas of course, but they were vague and nebulous -- like looking out into the fog and seeing a general outline of a house. We knew there was "something" up ahead, but we were not sure what it was. I thought as we moved closer we would see it more and more clearly. Instead, quite the opposite has happened. The longer we are here, the more we realize what we <em>thought</em> we were seeing was not what it was at all. There were a lot of illusions as our eyes and our hearts played tricks on us.<br />
<br />
So this month as we celebrate the arrival of another Spring,<br />
And we consider the timing and wisdom behind the dissolution of our non-profit corporation,<br />
And we enjoy the journey of dis-illusion-ment, we might just be starting to see some things more clearly.<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://orchardcommunity.blogspot.com/p/whats-in-name.html" target="_blank">imagery and symbolism of an orchard</a> still makes a lot of sense. But if all we ever look at is the orchard itself, we miss so much around us. As we begin to look around us as the fog clears a bit, <br />
maybe when it is all said and done and disllusion meets dissolution there really is no house up ahead in the fog; no "place" for us to inhabit and "do things".<br />
<br />
Perhaps instead we're seeing a natural playground, a wide expanse to explore and enjoy with whoever we encounter along the way. That sounds relaxing and fun; daring and adventurous and exciting: full of possibilities and new life and growth as we experience, enjoy, reciprocate and express Creator's great and marvelous ever-expansive love.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJ7Ku_oXqxNhxWREqc_pmZefx-h0MMEIbWhrAblRS_ArMAjf1DAD5txXijkjtXZRyvAEdlGvw-9zntwj9NyC72cTCl9NaUnfO_VBVqTinZtXRfZfZ54Ayq-gebY4d3apGzsHc3M1jQB0/s1600/seeing+clearly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJ7Ku_oXqxNhxWREqc_pmZefx-h0MMEIbWhrAblRS_ArMAjf1DAD5txXijkjtXZRyvAEdlGvw-9zntwj9NyC72cTCl9NaUnfO_VBVqTinZtXRfZfZ54Ayq-gebY4d3apGzsHc3M1jQB0/s320/seeing+clearly.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><em>(click for larger version)</em></span></div>
<br />
Peace,<br />
<br />
~ KeithUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-90669694663008803192012-12-23T15:07:00.000-08:002012-12-23T15:25:03.420-08:00To Know The Dark<div style="text-align: center;">
Winter in Oregon includes a lot of dark.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
It has been somewhat dark at The Orchard for a number of seasons now:</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
We're not sure where we're going or what we are to be doing.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
As they say: "Old orders are good orders"</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
and so we rest in what we heard from Creator a few years back:</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
"Don't try to build anything. Just love people"</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
Beyond that we don't know much at all.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Walking in the dark is something we are getting to know.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiccezEKA6PJRE1XiRxQdMj9mQAoFb8pDfbcnjrRoms9qV117DmC8k9-teXSSCnUgq42Sk-hnqUapVCV1EuiLRpCqfGcpaUU5lae5qwgYdEELWUdGd5LY7EklHZ4CY_B_mjey_4OmzuTCQ/s1600/winter+dark.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiccezEKA6PJRE1XiRxQdMj9mQAoFb8pDfbcnjrRoms9qV117DmC8k9-teXSSCnUgq42Sk-hnqUapVCV1EuiLRpCqfGcpaUU5lae5qwgYdEELWUdGd5LY7EklHZ4CY_B_mjey_4OmzuTCQ/s320/winter+dark.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e443c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #3e443c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;">
<span style="color: #3e443c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"></span></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #3e443c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #3e443c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">
</span><span style="color: #3e443c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.</div>
</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #3e443c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e443c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">~ Wendell Berry </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-14305228958084924802012-07-31T12:49:00.004-07:002012-07-31T12:54:00.732-07:00No Matter The Season<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiCGwWOVLIFjjSjVqc5wAHQ6npN6dxL4imj6ioKejh17EpSeVOAE2VOgnmWDqjv6CCG9lzgbxXzixOWkRbkUU34xzu7GhsoCUYk6Mn77LXxLVaBwAM_AvIPK5o7vWMJuH2n8DpgoC6hAY/s1600/4+seasons+large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiCGwWOVLIFjjSjVqc5wAHQ6npN6dxL4imj6ioKejh17EpSeVOAE2VOgnmWDqjv6CCG9lzgbxXzixOWkRbkUU34xzu7GhsoCUYk6Mn77LXxLVaBwAM_AvIPK5o7vWMJuH2n8DpgoC6hAY/s320/4+seasons+large.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
As Summer comes into it's fullness here in Oregon,<br />
we remember how long Winter lasted; how rainy Spring seemed.<br />
We also begin to sense just the faintest chill in the evening air.<br />
Daylight begins to shorten, and we know<br />
the Autumnal changes are not far away.<br />
<br />
In this time-between-the-times<br />
<em>liminality</em><br />
we cherish the goodness of what and who<br />
is here and now; with us.<br />
And we bask in The Orchard Master's faithfullness<br />
to us and to all<br />
no matter the season...<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://southwood.typepad.com/southwoodlutheran/2010/04/o-blessed-spring.html" target="_blank" title="Blog post where I found this poem, with more info..."><strong>O Blessed Spring</strong></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
(the gift of love)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em>by Susan Palo Cherwien </em><br />
<br />
O blessed spring, where Word and sign</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Embrace us into Christ the Vine:<br />
Here Christ enjoins each one to be<br />
A branch of this life-giving Tree. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Through summer heat of youthful years,<br />
Uncertain faith, rebellious tears,<br />
Sustained by Christ's infusing rain,<br />
The boughs will shout for joy again.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
When autumn cools and youth is cold,<br />
When limbs their heavy harvest hold,<br />
Then through us, warm, the Christ will move<br />
With gifts of beauty, wisdom, love.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
As winter comes, as winters must,<br />
We breathe our last, return to dust;<br />
Still held in Christ, our souls take wing<br />
And trust the promise of the spring.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Christ, holy Vine, Christ, living Tree,<br />
Be praised for this blest mystery:<br />
That Word and water thus revive<br />
And join us to your Tree of Life. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-77212058851920943422012-06-08T11:24:00.000-07:002012-06-08T11:28:59.888-07:00Blest Community<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSywu6pmri2ZGGebYM8TvlPT1992jzGYUcbGr37Ya4NippavFva8-2PtJ8RokexzK00moAhvEcnaHonb-JSXi4WFyKXLIngpWwbDINdhZ_0b_Uk0ZAC-jAB0u2CYZtBDLnakyUPa_NesY/s1600/Trinity.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSywu6pmri2ZGGebYM8TvlPT1992jzGYUcbGr37Ya4NippavFva8-2PtJ8RokexzK00moAhvEcnaHonb-JSXi4WFyKXLIngpWwbDINdhZ_0b_Uk0ZAC-jAB0u2CYZtBDLnakyUPa_NesY/s320/Trinity.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Blest Community</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em>by Loretta F. Ross</em></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
O Most Holy Trinity<br />
Undivided Unity,<br />
teach us the gentle deference<br />
of your dance of surrendered love<br />
how with infinite tenderness<br />
and utmost esteem<br />
you so gently<br />
adoringly<br />
are present<br />
to one another. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Teach us your perichoresis, </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
your grand circle dance,</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
where you eternally birth joy</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
from the womb of reverence.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Teach us your unending, </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
enfolding regard</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
for the pure holiness</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
you hold and behold.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
You,</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
sweet breath and the lungs of creation, </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
eternally giving,</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
empty</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
and eternally receiving</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
are filled.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
You release and bind, </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
but never push nor pull.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
You hold accountable,</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
but never blame.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
You incline yourselves to one another </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
as a grove of green willows</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
bending in the breeze</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
bowing to each other's grace</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
known and cherished</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
on the broad plain of mutuality.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Deepen our trust, O Blest Community, </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
that we may enter such intimacy.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqqFwdsX4KcdKiXHYFIeh5FfNcWtMx0qxkIl8KYsI4p23zi47XW78MPEfGWT2ikpc3d4VxZUVOPFEy9rhuoAGYos92v01wG0JsxXCMYn4PX2qbNHm90RPM6MNp8yT1tGL9HyZ3U2kASAE/s1600/trinitydance.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqqFwdsX4KcdKiXHYFIeh5FfNcWtMx0qxkIl8KYsI4p23zi47XW78MPEfGWT2ikpc3d4VxZUVOPFEy9rhuoAGYos92v01wG0JsxXCMYn4PX2qbNHm90RPM6MNp8yT1tGL9HyZ3U2kASAE/s1600/trinitydance.png" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-37233601079231081932011-04-16T08:49:00.000-07:002011-04-16T08:53:29.199-07:00One Vine, One BranchFor lent I gave up facebook. It hasn't been as hard as I thought it might be -- not really much of a sacrifice. But I suppose the sacrifice is not what it is about. For me, it is about making space for something else; creating an emptiness and then stepping back and allowing God to fill it.<br />
<br />
He filled it...with an awareness of my emptiness; how stark it is & how right & good it is.<br />
<br />
As per my usual, I began to see and think in terms of some comparative imagery. This is what my life is like right now:<br />
<br />
I'm realizing the story of the three little pigs is not just a faery tale! Houses made of straw and twigs -- the trappings I've always felt protected by are really not sufficient shelter from the rains & winds which are bound to come in all lives. I want a house made of brick -- set firmly on the foundation of Jesus' Kingdom. The house He is building (Psalm 127:1) is the one I want to live in. But first the houses I've built (and the ones given to me which I've stepped into and tried to live in) must be left behind. There are three ways for this to happen:<br />
<ol><li>Build brick re-inforcements around the current house. Valid option, but not what I am called to (think traditional churches adding contemporary services, and morphing over time into a contemporary church).</li>
<li>The old house of straw can come crashing down in one fell swoop, and I can go running like the first little pig into the house of my brother which looks A LOT stronger...and he and I can laugh and feel safe there, until the big bad wolf comes again -- and then he and I can both run away to the house of our brother who built with bricks, and find refuge there. Thank God <i>that's</i> not what we've experienced!</li>
Neither of these really felt right to us. Instead, we've felt called to something different:
<li>We've stepped away from the hard work we'd put into the other houses, and have begun to build a brick house.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjfp3rmmN-GGRwA-8T_2H0mm_p1zgZdnZPALEklFBybDW6F36Z5502qlwlvuAlIbxMuaCSn1JXVGJjXC8OjeaCRewfouqitlr6V1xEx0ejUikHPjXWoIQOuwdLGggpZ-PrZrJFsD94vKc/s1600/bricks-and-mortar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="290" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjfp3rmmN-GGRwA-8T_2H0mm_p1zgZdnZPALEklFBybDW6F36Z5502qlwlvuAlIbxMuaCSn1JXVGJjXC8OjeaCRewfouqitlr6V1xEx0ejUikHPjXWoIQOuwdLGggpZ-PrZrJFsD94vKc/s400/bricks-and-mortar.jpg" /></a></div>This takes time and energy and during the building, it feels very vulnerable...the wolf may happen along at any time and what if my house is not yet finished?</li>
</ol>Plus, the most difficult piece is simply stepping *out* of the old house. We thought we'd done that but at every next season, it seems we are being called again and again to step out and leave the old behind. <br />
<br />
And it seems more and more that the "building" is not so much a house being constructed as artificial support structures being demolished. Michelangelo was once asked how he could possibly sculpt something as magnificent as David. He replied "All I do is chip away what does not belong". That is what God is doing in me as He removes the shell. It is not so much about building a brick house as it is getting rid of the shell so that I can be free.<br />
<br />
With Easter right around the corner, I'm realizing what a baby chick must feel.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7tT5k6o3lDNBqujlEZGIeGcNiHW8w_QS-J4Fqy9rGO0XqKnOMu2Z8uaAYvijLaJStFjmSUsVlejvut4qKUOzbaZGjS6P2R8B964hKjFL0GpQGF6Lcml-bw9_QbTQXJYjDLA-DujOziFs/s1600/hatchling1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7tT5k6o3lDNBqujlEZGIeGcNiHW8w_QS-J4Fqy9rGO0XqKnOMu2Z8uaAYvijLaJStFjmSUsVlejvut4qKUOzbaZGjS6P2R8B964hKjFL0GpQGF6Lcml-bw9_QbTQXJYjDLA-DujOziFs/s400/hatchling1.jpg" /></a></div>emerging from the shell of religion into a new world of freedom is at first exhilerating: new light streams in, and there's fresh air. New sounds, etc. But once the majority of the shell is gone, it can be a bit frightening, cold, with no more shelter.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7kbTxJMI6FYBnzDzCnSVdk5yWvzQrzukUWkeaAD8dcLk5-uh0E1HJ0P_xge7CYPp6Lsl2lNFvyWy27jJB5x6pKRRCLC2BGM_WjDKSsdM1n3A_lB_CBDV_iul2YmzzeP-gKTo0waQA1-A/s1600/hatchling2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="272" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7kbTxJMI6FYBnzDzCnSVdk5yWvzQrzukUWkeaAD8dcLk5-uh0E1HJ0P_xge7CYPp6Lsl2lNFvyWy27jJB5x6pKRRCLC2BGM_WjDKSsdM1n3A_lB_CBDV_iul2YmzzeP-gKTo0waQA1-A/s400/hatchling2.jpg" /></a></div>And I'm realizing how flimsy the shell is now that I'm on the outside looking back at it.<blockquote>"Really? That is all that was protecting & feeding me?"</blockquote>I'm starting to (just <i>starting</i> mind you) to understand Psalm 127:1 and the other Psalms which refer to Him as my Refuge, my Strong Tower, my Place of Shelter, my Rock.<br />
<br />
In this place of emptiness there is work to do; I am not spiritually idle. But the work I do feels different. I feel like a member of a crew team<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4FM9-Ml4WZ6k9jUG1ZU8ZgPaM-RTixvcXV-ZulX0VLFre4ZwVtkjWhr8F2o8D5Bdzd6NUyVexHIwIWg2IVX96pzZ-nGF_q484bOwpknBISoko5-tIzNXIhyyVXwr-SMHW6N3s5MpD4vY/s1600/crew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="262" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4FM9-Ml4WZ6k9jUG1ZU8ZgPaM-RTixvcXV-ZulX0VLFre4ZwVtkjWhr8F2o8D5Bdzd6NUyVexHIwIWg2IVX96pzZ-nGF_q484bOwpknBISoko5-tIzNXIhyyVXwr-SMHW6N3s5MpD4vY/s400/crew.jpg" /></a></div>See that little dude at the far left, that's the coxswain. That's Jesus. I'm a crew member. I'm facing away from the destination, and have to trust the coxswain. All my hard effort is absent of seeing the prize, but with my ears and eyes and heart fixed on the one who *can* see the destination. He directs my strength; my rhythms of work and rest.<br />
<br />
But this is all so new, and strange. What He's telling me is so freeing and life-giving, but so different from what I've ever known. It is like being pruned.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8H6IbEkAzfS185a8WKhHrJNvGItpR2iZu3UkriPeGH-JhONfRiHytBAjXvcD7AeGS3tDrc8Q1r3Af4VSZo_TVd1gJV5VTeCK2EoJpk395XD3y83gsmMt8VlpsnDOh-D90n0IOevmsXoo/s1600/pruning.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="249" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8H6IbEkAzfS185a8WKhHrJNvGItpR2iZu3UkriPeGH-JhONfRiHytBAjXvcD7AeGS3tDrc8Q1r3Af4VSZo_TVd1gJV5VTeCK2EoJpk395XD3y83gsmMt8VlpsnDOh-D90n0IOevmsXoo/s400/pruning.png" /></a></div>Bearing fruit is the goal, and if that means cutting away pieces that appeared fruitful, but were not as fruitful as the final result will be -- then trusting the Master Vintner's experience for what to cut and how far back, etc is a good thing...but is still difficult -- since to my relatively inexperienced eye, I'm thinking "But that piece <b>was</b> bearing some fruit..." or "You're cutting away too much! There's nothing left but a single solitary branch cut back to the beginning!"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOiqMbOwF2F7EQ4A5BlhAivNuHbKc6sB-NHAMnibw-hgznOMR1SZbJ3i7Ir7gD7TAg_H62spyANeYtVK1TC39y6BR_pPdyg08uuRyvN-JGu1HMSVKXXNT4WEbvJDyxz755xWyYkkvlicc/s1600/bud_break.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="267" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOiqMbOwF2F7EQ4A5BlhAivNuHbKc6sB-NHAMnibw-hgznOMR1SZbJ3i7Ir7gD7TAg_H62spyANeYtVK1TC39y6BR_pPdyg08uuRyvN-JGu1HMSVKXXNT4WEbvJDyxz755xWyYkkvlicc/s400/bud_break.jpg" /></a></div>And He says<blockquote>"Yes, Keith but do you see that bud?..."</blockquote>I do see it.<br />
<br />
It is so small. It is so fragile; so vulnerable.<br />
<br />
And it is so beautiful. It represents the beginnings of new life.<br />
<br />
And while it still seems so stark and empty; so barren...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMREyGoSDNW6w5DaKsUtctweWXiDJREE4DtlX08hmdy9Sj-K0jHk00GPXUd6QktnqtDs5QArqypQkW2LB0mNWvJfBg3kblKHySXnBwy3yac_B-yEPEaf_zBOPr9nzbB455NKxv1EM9tBQ/s1600/branch+and+vine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="302" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMREyGoSDNW6w5DaKsUtctweWXiDJREE4DtlX08hmdy9Sj-K0jHk00GPXUd6QktnqtDs5QArqypQkW2LB0mNWvJfBg3kblKHySXnBwy3yac_B-yEPEaf_zBOPr9nzbB455NKxv1EM9tBQ/s400/branch+and+vine.jpg" /></a></div><blockquote>"You are The Vine. I am a single branch.<br />
One vine. One branch.<br />
I need nothing else.<br />
That is enough for me."</blockquote>~ KeithUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-83766679063080113292011-01-23T06:59:00.000-08:002011-01-23T06:59:57.116-08:00A Prayer of AbandonmentI recently spent a week at an <a href="http://www.mountangelabbey.org/retreat-house/index.html" target="_blank" title="Retreat House">Abbey in Mt. Angel, OR</a>.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih8FExkALt6wlIhepFoQsgmH2DQ1d2o5vaJ4MfAtkX06D4b-Bu6BXLuG7FToI08Kz0MChjXlI-NJPS9J1h9_yN5HZ9A7Ym4LNVzJn30eBtlvhgBTIaKxcIKBtQU9Gv3LTSf2NPJYPbWpCN/s1600/arail-51-700px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="266" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih8FExkALt6wlIhepFoQsgmH2DQ1d2o5vaJ4MfAtkX06D4b-Bu6BXLuG7FToI08Kz0MChjXlI-NJPS9J1h9_yN5HZ9A7Ym4LNVzJn30eBtlvhgBTIaKxcIKBtQU9Gv3LTSf2NPJYPbWpCN/s400/arail-51-700px.jpg" /></a></div>A Monk's room is sometimes referred to as a cell -- and it has been said<blockquote><center>Go into your cell,<br />
and your cell will teach you<br />
everything you need to know</center></blockquote>There is a lot I learned, from my cell and other sources. One was a cool prayer:<blockquote><center><b>A Prayer of Abandonment</b><br />
<i>by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_foucauld" target="_blank" title="Wiki">Br. Charles de Foucald</a></i><br />
<br />
Father, I abandon myself into Your hands; <br />
do with me what You will. <br />
Whatever You do I thank You. <br />
I am ready for all, I accept all. <br />
Let only Your will be done in me, <br />
as in all Your creatures, <br />
I ask no more than this, my Lord. <br />
Into Your hands I commend my soul; <br />
I offer it to You, O Lord, <br />
with all the love of my heart, <br />
for I love You, my God, and so need to give myself-- <br />
to surrender myself into Your hands, <br />
without reserve and with total confidence,<br />
for You are my Father.</center></blockquote>In looking around at info on him, I found a cool podcast to use as a daily devotional, called "<a href="http://www.pray-as-you-go.org/index.htm" target="_blank" title="it's done by Jesuits but you don't have to be Catholic">Pray As You Go</a>". I know, I know, a canned podcast? As a <b><i>devotional</i></b>? Well, I listened to one and really liked it, so I'm sharing it here.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-72461946815992113182010-12-25T00:00:00.000-08:002012-12-23T14:55:11.336-08:00The God Who Fell From Heaven<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixhqv0lfggpCjRtXLCoZID9IiXKrDBXQA1EIqNZgx4YttkIVEknvfLNnO0AgdUOvXU2MejtDSkD4citsh46FpDOkji24nz0I7T_LlyD2S5L8d7m5cyFD_DYzu8zTp1qROcPXFT1qd3QBw/s1600/Shooting20star.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406665617477239778" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixhqv0lfggpCjRtXLCoZID9IiXKrDBXQA1EIqNZgx4YttkIVEknvfLNnO0AgdUOvXU2MejtDSkD4citsh46FpDOkji24nz0I7T_LlyD2S5L8d7m5cyFD_DYzu8zTp1qROcPXFT1qd3QBw/s400/Shooting20star.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 294px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<center>
A PRAYER TO THE GOD WHO FELL FROM HEAVEN<br />
~ By John Shea<br />
<br />
If you had stayed<br />
tightfisted in the sky<br />
and watched us thrash<br />
with all the patience of a pipe smoker,<br />
I would pray like a golden bullet<br />
aimed at your heart.<br />
But the story says you cried<br />
and so heavy was the tear<br />
you fell with it to earth<br />
where like a baritone in a bar<br />
it is never time to go home.<br />
So you move among us<br />
twisting every straight line into Picasso,<br />
stealing kisses from pinched lips,<br />
holding our hand in the dark.<br />
So now when I pray<br />
I sit and turn my mind like a television knob<br />
till you are there with your large, open hands<br />
spreading my life before me<br />
like a Sunday tablecloth<br />
and pulling up a chair for yourself<br />
for by now<br />
the secret is out.<br />
You are home.</center>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-5599081604345254942010-11-13T07:29:00.000-08:002010-11-13T07:29:02.970-08:00Living LovedSometimes I wake up earlier than I need to and instead of falling back asleep I think and pray. This happened the other night. I've been pondering the idea of "<a href="http://thegodjourney.com/2010/09/24/its-the-living-loved-thats-important/" target="_blank" title="The God Journey">living loved</a>" recently and I was asking God what that means for me. I've been trying to figure out how to <b><i>do</b></i> that -- how to live loved -- but I'm at a loss sometimes. Over the past 5 years I've gone through some drastic changes, all good. But somewhere deep inside my heart I don't believe I'm fully loved just the way I am.<br />
<br />
Many years ago in college I wrestled with the same stuff, and experienced a bit of healing when (of all things!) I saw a bumper sticker that said: "God loves you just the way you are, but He loves you too much to let you stay that way". That helped, but as I lay there in the dark, I realized there's still a hurt place in my heart, like an old splinter or shard of glass caught in a wound, that says "You need to be better before you can be loved".<br />
<br />
I had finished telling God what I wanted help with and was trying to drift back to sleep, but a song started running through my head. It was a challenge to make it go away so I could fall back asleep. Then it dawned on me, as I lay there connecting with The Eternal One: I realized The Music Maker was trying to speak to my heart through that song if I would just listen! Wow -- it was like prayer really was a conversation, and not just me talking and never hearing a response! I've had similar experiences while running, and while riding my motorcycle, which I blogged about <a href="http://orchardcommunity.blogspot.com/2010/06/bamboo-songs.html" target="_blank">here</a>. This time it was different though, because I was in bed, safe and warm and it was still very dark outside, and the house was very quiet. This meant that, in contrast to the other times, my senses were <b>not</b> being fully stimulated, so I could concentrate more fully on what was being said to my soul. I realize the lyrics below are incomplete, and not in the exact order Billy Joel wrote them, but this is what I heard in my heart, over and over until I realized it was from God, for me:<blockquote><center>I would not leave you, in times of trouble,<br />
I've never let you down before,<br />
I just want someone, that I can talk to,<br />
I want you just the way you are.<br />
<br />
I need to know that you will always be<br />
The same old someone that I knew,<br />
What will it take till you believe in me,<br />
The way that I believe in you?<br />
<br />
I said I love you, and that's forever,<br />
And this I promise from the heart,<br />
I couldn't love you, any better,<br />
I love you just the way you are.</center></blockquote>Wow. I did finally drift back to sleep, and experienced a real peace. I guess "living loved" is not something I have to "try" and "do" as much as something I need to receive and allow.<br />
<br />
Writing this brings tears back to my eyes as I ponder how richly I am loved by God. And the idea of having to be different before I can be loved made me remember a post I did <a href="http://canopenerboy.blogspot.com/2006/02/road-to-heartchange-road-to-lifebeing.html" target="_blank" title="The Big Switch">here</a> on the profound truth God spoke to me through a simple story about a velveteen rabbit:<blockquote><center>I don't have to be real to be loved.<br />
I have to be loved to be real.</center></blockquote>That post was from early 2006, but reminded me that this journey I've been on goes back to late 2003 -- that is when God first began nudging my heart in the direction I am still pointed. Only it took me until just this moment to connect all the dots and see how His hand has been on me this entire time. His love for me shines through the fact that He has brought me full circle in some ways -- this journey has not been just a bunch of random moves here and there (theologically, ecclesiastically, and geographically). It is all part of the same thing in my heart as He loves me into realness.<br />
<br />
I guess Paul knew what he was talking about when he told the folks in Philippi that it was God who was at work in them -- both to give them the desires <b>and</b> to give them the abilities to walk out the life He'd called them to. And that same God is doing the same thing in me.<br />
<br />
Living loved is easier and harder than I've ever thought, but that's OK. It's a good thing!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-26514735930251855082010-09-27T20:16:00.000-07:002010-09-27T20:16:47.224-07:00A Bend in the RoadThe journey God has had us on since moving to Oregon a little over three years ago has been mostly exciting, and also very mysterious at times. In the past six months or so God's Spirit has been communicating to us and guiding us in wonderfully loving ways and we’re writing this post to share some of that with you. The big news is this: We believe God has been leading us to voluntarily withdraw our official affiliation with <a href="http://www.vineyardusa.org" target="_blank" title="Association of Vineyard Churches">The Vineyard</a>, and no longer be considered a Vineyard Church Plant.<br />
<br />
We've been part of the Vineyard Movement for 20+ years. It has been our home, so this has not been an easy decision. Since before moving to Oregon, we have felt welcomed and loved by all Vineyard pastors in the Northwest with whom we've interacted. Therefore, we want to be very clear our decision to de-affiliate with the Vineyard is in no way a reflection of any bad feelings or conflicts. Instead it is a willful laying down of our lives to follow Jesus the best we know how in this season. While this is a bittersweet decision, it also brings with it a sense of relief and rightness. As we've discussed this with local and regional Vineyard leadership in early September, we received their understanding and affirmation of our decision. <br />
<br />
Over the last 9 months, it has become clear what we are doing and who we are becoming is further outside the Vineyard’s current scope and model of church-planting than we or anyone in Vineyard originally expected when we began discussions and then were ultimately released as an official Vineyard church plant. In retrospect, if any label applies, we see ourselves more as missionaries and we are still in the process of getting to know the culture of this area. Therefore we need not be dismayed that “nothing has happened yet” and neither do we sense any urgency from God for us to “make something happen”.<br />
<br />
We’ve been asking God what He is up to with us, and have been blessed by some silence and solitude where we’ve begun hearing Him speak some clarity to us. He has been tying things together; showing us a pattern we had not been able to see before. It has been sobering, yet at the same time has been exciting and hope-producing -- we are eager to discover more about the plans He has here in Salem!<br />
<br />
Perhaps the best way to communicate the highlights of our journey over the past few months as we've prayed and pondered; dreamt and talked is to share a couple stories, and some word-pictures God has painted for us. This post will be somewhat lengthy since we value being able to share our story in some detail, to fully communicate from our hearts.<br />
<br />
The First story has to do with our connection to the other pastors in the local Vineyard Pastor's group. Our work schedules and paucity of vacation time have made it difficult for us to regularly attend these meetings. Despite this, the leaders of the group and the other pastors have been very warm and inviting, and we’ve felt truly blessed. Since before our official release as a church plant, we’ve felt included and truly welcomed and encouraged by everyone. It has been wonderful and we’ve loved getting to know everyone better! But around the end of 2009, we noticed feeling somewhat disconnected from the group. This has not been a change in anyone else, but instead an awareness God has been bringing us that the topics of informal discussions often revolve around issues we do not deal with:<ul><li>One pastor is struggling because of losing the lease on his building -- but we don’t ever plan to have a building.</li>
<li>Another is wrestling with needing to find a new full-time Worship Pastor -- but we don’t foresee ever having any paid staff.</li>
<li>Someone has great plans for a Youth Conference -- but we don’t know that we will ever have a “Youth Ministry” per se.</li>
</ul>We’ve been in church leadership long enough to empathize with these things, and yet they have become foreign to us at this point in our process. The first word picture God gave us was this:<blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx7CU4rQcI6_A_o7GZGsE2mlqU28H-4gDG-H2cf2xRQtC_TuOxTARqh-6jZsfVKRTg9Rp64xF84GIpe0RqL0EF6uU8ja6HHitP7etzybgS87siiUqq3jjhUCRI1QI-d7meCuDFirzoTlU/s1600/square+pegs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx7CU4rQcI6_A_o7GZGsE2mlqU28H-4gDG-H2cf2xRQtC_TuOxTARqh-6jZsfVKRTg9Rp64xF84GIpe0RqL0EF6uU8ja6HHitP7etzybgS87siiUqq3jjhUCRI1QI-d7meCuDFirzoTlU/s320/square+pegs.jpg" /></a></div><i>It is as if we are in a room full of round pegs who fit very well into the round holes God has for them, but we are square pegs, fitting well into the square holes He has for us -- so we find ourselves no longer fitting in.</i></blockquote>When most other pastors in the area ask us about the priorities and practices in which we are engaging, the disconnect is just as clearly apparent there. Questions asked and discussions which follow indicate they don’t really know what to do with us, or how to understand the model of ministry and kingdom life we’re trying to embody. We explain and share our vision, but still don’t feel heard or understood. As just a couple examples:<br />
<ul><li>We had a 20 minute conversation where the other pastor couldn’t seem to understand why, as a church plant, we would not be interested in receiving a full copy of their children’s ministry curriculum. We tried to explain that we don’t now have, nor would we probably ever have anything as formal as a “Children’s Ministry” and the disconnect was further evidenced when he asked “But couldn’t you use it in a VBS setting?”</li>
<li>Someone else asked “So when you meet together, who does worship?” We replied by clarifying that we all “do worship”, but if he was asking who played an instrument and facilitated singing, we were not doing that at our meetings, at least not yet. When asked why, we explained that the folks we were meeting with are at such a pre-Christian place that doing worship songs would be so culturally outside their paradigm as to actually build walls, rather than draw us all closer. The response was sort of a head-tilt and an eyebrow lift and he said “But how can you have a meeting and not do worship!??!?”.</li>
</ul>This led us to the second word-picture from God:<br />
<blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTiNRjDSgw3GNZLk4OB3OYyE29MkhB0rlcJ0aO6xEMT1PErWcbHIxqJFeY9thAtH7MQySSPDhhXbsI4fd9NAxV0bSmGIbjQWfn9OGBhdAp8YybbXrXMRFZW7SaltlOM_aXMizswGxFhfI/s1600/football.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTiNRjDSgw3GNZLk4OB3OYyE29MkhB0rlcJ0aO6xEMT1PErWcbHIxqJFeY9thAtH7MQySSPDhhXbsI4fd9NAxV0bSmGIbjQWfn9OGBhdAp8YybbXrXMRFZW7SaltlOM_aXMizswGxFhfI/s320/football.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqK6kX30k4UKib0VZjMN95f0gFtheInMyDeWZla3Ev2Vj3__Y9H8irmdgINQtgNyLwOsA4cZYpL_JOtJlMM_gt336RVrM3f33w9l9HbwJwMExs5r0rvSH08-uKynErCbbzz4pWlBq3INQ/s1600/scrum2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqK6kX30k4UKib0VZjMN95f0gFtheInMyDeWZla3Ev2Vj3__Y9H8irmdgINQtgNyLwOsA4cZYpL_JOtJlMM_gt336RVrM3f33w9l9HbwJwMExs5r0rvSH08-uKynErCbbzz4pWlBq3INQ/s320/scrum2.jpg" /></a></div><i>It is as if we are player-coaches on a small rugby team, and we are hanging out with player-coaches from a large football league. The ball we all use is similar enough, and there is a process of keeping score, but the football player-coaches don’t seem to understand why we don’t wear helmets, why we aren’t trying to score any touchdowns...and what the heck is a ‘scrum’ anyway?</i></blockquote>As we spent time with God these last few months, pondering and praying about all these things, He brought us back time & again to two particular pieces of our original call:<br />
<ol><li>Cathy’s earliest sense was that, while God was certainly calling us to “plant a church”, there was something deeper. He gave her a word picture: <i>it was more like He was calling us to the Northwest to plant ourselves, and we’d see over time what He would grow.</i> At the time I interpreted this simply as us being <a href="http://orchardcommunity.blogspot.com/2007/07/two-saplings-are-planted.html" target="_blank" title="original post">two saplings</a> God was “transplanting” to Salem to start The Orchard.</li>
<li>When we began conversations with our pastor in California about God’s calling for us, back in early 2005, he asked us two insightful questions:<br />
<ul><li>Is God calling you to start something new, and to do that you need to move away? -- or -- is God calling you to move away, and since you are doing that you might as well start something new?</li>
<li>Is God calling you to plant a Vineyard, and you’d sort of like to do it in this organic simple-church-network way? -- or -- Is God calling you to start an organic simple-church-network and you hope it can be a Vineyard, but if it can’t for some reason, you’re still going to go do this thing God is calling you to do?</li>
</ul>We had not thought of either question, but as soon as he asked we knew the answer to both: God was calling us to start something new, and to do that we needed to move away, and God was calling us to start an organic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_church" target="_blank" title="Wikipedia">simple-church</a>-network, and we knew we had to do it whether or not it fit within a Vineyard framework.</li>
</ol>Given the recent things God has been showing us, we’ve re-asked ourselves those original questions, and were not surprised to find we still feel just as clear and passionate in our calling as ever before -- this much has not changed. But as we’ve revisited Cathy’s early word-picture about us being planted as opposed to us doing the planting, I’ve realized that my original interpretation of two saplings being transplanted was not quite accurate. He has been speaking to us recently that the deeper truth behind his word to Cathy was this:<blockquote><center><i>We are two seeds which He has planted and the lack of obvious growth<br />
is not an indication anything is ‘wrong’ it is just part of His plan for us<br />
since He’s already told us what must happen<br />
to planted seeds before real growth appears:<br />
First the seeds must die (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2012:24-25&version=NASB" target="_blank" title="Bible Verse">John 12:24-25</a>).</i></center></blockquote>I wrote about this paradigm shift <a href="http://orchardcommunity.blogspot.com/2010/07/dying-to-live.html" target="_blank" title="Dying to Live">here</a>.<br />
<br />
As we’ve prayed through the things God has been saying to us it seems clear He is not calling us to “pull the plug” or stop what we are doing in any way. Rather, it seems He is calling us to continue trusting Him to build the house He has planned (Ps 127:1), and we’re excited about building with Him. While we realize and value the need for intentionality, we feel no call from God to go and “gather people” to ourselves. Rather, He is calling us to watch & listen to see what The Father is doing, and then intentionally partner with Him as He draws people to Himself; sharing that journey with them.<br />
<br />
All of the above then led us to a third word picture: <br />
<blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghnDS957qhZHO-2HLeGJIQFTerZ-N4yfpXtXdZm0dVgHy6DU9uvF1MeD62HHWJJphL6QqPGg1FvFSqm1nQuGglmvdO-iWURzKTRJgsfEsC0Vc-0or_cvR2uke_vzMOzMFZF6qtg7mHlFg/s1600/root+bound.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghnDS957qhZHO-2HLeGJIQFTerZ-N4yfpXtXdZm0dVgHy6DU9uvF1MeD62HHWJJphL6QqPGg1FvFSqm1nQuGglmvdO-iWURzKTRJgsfEsC0Vc-0or_cvR2uke_vzMOzMFZF6qtg7mHlFg/s320/root+bound.JPG" /></a></div><i>a small potted tree which is currently fruitless. It has become root-bound in its current pot. At best it is surviving, but at worst it is actually withering -- it is in need of being removed from the pot so that it can be planted in the earth and allowed to grow without the current restraints.</i></blockquote><br />
The topsy-turvy nature of the Kingdom sure can be unsettling at times. We lose our lives to save them, give up families to gain new ones -- and, of course, Jesus says we must die in order to really live. Our decision to withdraw our affiliation with Vineyard was a difficult one, but we know that as He holds us in the hollow of His hand and takes us through whatever deaths are yet to come, there will be tremendous life breaking forth and so we have great hope.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-73488261383239334812010-09-26T12:44:00.000-07:002015-10-23T16:06:28.121-07:00Two Autumnal PoemsI love seasonal changes. Especially the switch from Summer into Autumn, then into Winter. The emotional range is part of what makes these changes so endearing to me. These two poems help express that range.<br />
<br />
<center>
<b>Autumn Movement</b><br />
<i>by Carl Sandburg</i><br />
<br />
I CRIED over beautiful things<br />
knowing no beautiful thing lasts.<br />
<br />
The field of cornflower yellow is<br />
a scarf at the neck of the copper sunburned woman,<br />
the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.<br />
<br />
The northwest wind comes and the yellow is<br />
torn full of holes, new beautiful things come<br />
in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind,<br />
and the old things go, not one lasts.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Autumn Song</b><br />
<i>by Katherine Mansfield</i><br />
<br />
Now's the time when children's noses<br />
All become as red as roses<br />
And the colour of their faces<br />
Makes me think of orchard places<br />
Where the juicy apples grow,<br />
And tomatoes in a row.<br />
<br />
And to-day the hardened sinner<br />
Never could be late for dinner,<br />
But will jump up to the table<br />
Just as soon as he is able,<br />
Ask for three times hot roast mutton--<br />
Oh! the shocking little glutton.<br />
<br />
Come then, find your ball and racket,<br />
Pop into your winter jacket,<br />
With the lovely bear-skin lining.<br />
While the sun is brightly shining,<br />
Let us run and play together<br />
And just love the autumn weather.</center>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-81992806809229791782010-07-08T18:12:00.000-07:002010-09-08T11:00:06.983-07:00Dying to LiveI'm reading <a href="http://www.henrinouwen.org/henri/about/" target="_blank" title="About Henri">Henri Nouwen</a>'s book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Our-Greatest-Gift-Meditation-Caring/dp/0060663553" target="_blank" title="Amazon">Our Greatest Gift: A Meditation on Dying and Caring</a></i>. One of his main points speaks to learning how to die well. We all will face death one day, and we get only one shot at it. What does it mean to die well? Nouwen says that one part of this is to become like children; have a second childhood. He clarifies by explaining this has nothing to do with weakness or immaturity, but with a newfound freedom and strength.<br />
<blockquote> This is not the voice of a small, timid child. This is the voice of a spiritually mature person who knows he is in the presence of God and for whom complete dependence on God has become the source of strength, the basis of courage, and the secret of true inner freedom.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;"> Recently, a friend told me a story about twins talking to each other in the womb. The sister said to the brother, "I believe there is life after birth." Her brother protested vehemently, "No, no, this is all there is. This is a dark and cozy place, and we have nothing else to do but to cling to the cord that feeds us." The little girl insisted, "There must be something else, a place with light where there is freedom to move." Still, she could not convince her twin brother.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> After some silence, the sister said hesitantly, "I have something else to say, and I'm afraid you won't believe that, either, but I think there is a mother." Her brother became furious. "A mother!" he shouted. "What are you talking about? I have never seen a mother, and neither have you. Who put that idea in your head? As I told you, this place is all we have. Why do you always want more? This is not such a bad place, after all. We have all we need, so let's be content."</div><div style="text-align: left;"> The sister was quite overwhelmed by her brother's response and for awhile didn't dare say anything more. But she couldn't let go of her thoughts, and since she had only her twin brother to speak to, she finally said, "Don't you feel these squeezes every once in awhile? They're quite unpleasant and sometimes even painful." "Yes," he answered. "What's special about that?" "Well," the sister said, "I think that these squeezes are there to get us ready for another place, much more beautiful than this. where we will see our mother face-to-face. Don't you think that's exciting?"</div><div style="text-align: left;"> The brother didn't answer. He was fed up with the foolish talk of his sister and felt that the best thing would be simply to ignore her and hope that she would leave him alone.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div> This story may help us think about death in a new way. We can live as if this life were all we had, as if death were absurd and we had better not talk about it; or we can choose to claim our divine childhood and trust that death is the painful but blessed passage that will bring us face-to-face with our God.</blockquote>This made me think about our life at present here in The Orchard. I've posted a couple of times about putting roots down like bamboo (<a href="http://orchardcommunity.blogspot.com/2007/09/we-more-like-bamboo-than-ferns.html" target="_blank" title="Bamboo & Ferns">here</a> and <a href="http://orchardcommunity.blogspot.com/2010/06/bamboo-songs.html" target="_blank" title="Bamboo Songs">here</a>), and I do still believe that, while we appear somewhat dormant right now, there will come a season of growth and flowering. But before that, I wonder -- is it really just root-putting-down that is happening?<br />
<br />
In this blog's very first post, I said Cathy & I were not really thinking of ourselves as planting a church -- instead we were <a href="http://orchardcommunity.blogspot.com/2007/07/two-saplings-are-planted.html" target="_blank" title="Two Saplings">planting <i>ourselves</i></a><i></i> and seeing what God would grow.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfo4M8Sp_DKgRfNl65sC_z4B1qJz_GncfOeYK6UH4NXmCS5OK7dSk_wzL4OySz7A7Bbef8_AdXiVAL_JPGTGmGmdwSKrnoO9u5qiAW8nHsXAOsNKCjUdGx66Glh3ZlgOyBwF5W6EpE0yQ/s1600/twosaplings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfo4M8Sp_DKgRfNl65sC_z4B1qJz_GncfOeYK6UH4NXmCS5OK7dSk_wzL4OySz7A7Bbef8_AdXiVAL_JPGTGmGmdwSKrnoO9u5qiAW8nHsXAOsNKCjUdGx66Glh3ZlgOyBwF5W6EpE0yQ/s320/twosaplings.jpg" /></a></div><br />
In light of Nouwen's words, I'm wondering if, instead of saplings being transplanted we're more like seeds being planted. And we all know <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2012:24&version=MSG" target="_blank" title="John 12:24-25 -- The Message">what it takes for seeds to grow</a>...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL-CYVpKMfIDLp0BTf_Qf_P63oGw5dU4NAiANqQVMIP9djKW8Lgj4IMlTwAwTeMZKr3UIHJDCcVM5cAyQgRVg7iXFXvFuycSsxKJWb0Ohu9A7Jb9TScZXvMPmNrQ54AScWj5MhTctsPLk/s1600/twoseeds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL-CYVpKMfIDLp0BTf_Qf_P63oGw5dU4NAiANqQVMIP9djKW8Lgj4IMlTwAwTeMZKr3UIHJDCcVM5cAyQgRVg7iXFXvFuycSsxKJWb0Ohu9A7Jb9TScZXvMPmNrQ54AScWj5MhTctsPLk/s320/twoseeds.jpg" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-29613126322857071532010-06-01T20:23:00.000-07:002010-06-01T20:23:10.800-07:00Bamboo SongsIn Autumn of 2007, I posted <a href="http://orchardcommunity.blogspot.com/2007/09/we-more-like-bamboo-than-ferns.html" target="_blank">here</a> about us being more like bamboo than ferns. In that post I referenced that it might be 18 months or more until we had any official meetings. It is now Summer 2010 and, while we've had a couple brief seasons of meeting with a few folks, at this writing we have no "official meetings". This past weekend I had some time to ponder and pray about things and was comforted by some perspective I gained.<br />
<br />
As I ran and then later as I rode my motorcycle two songs kept running through my head. The first was <i>Power of Love</i> by Huey Lewis & The News:<br />
<blockquote>The Power of love is a curious thing<br />
Make'a one man weep, make another man sing<br />
Change a hawk to a little white Dove<br />
More than a feelin'<br />
That's the Power of Love<br />
<br />
You'll be glad baby when you've found<br />
that's the power makes the world go 'round</blockquote>These lyrics were freeing to me, remembering that <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Zechariah%204:6&version=NASB" target="_blank" title="Zech 4:6">The Spirit of The Master is in charge</a> of what we are doing here, and there are no results we can work up, or hype. Instead, everything rests on God's promises of love.<br />
<br />
And as I reflected on this, that's when lyrics from <i>Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow</i> by Fleetwood Mac came to my mind, as if God were encouraging me to relax, enjoy myself in the now, and quit worrying about stuff that I don't need to hang onto -- that I can just look forward, and trust The Love that empowers and directs us:<blockquote>All I want is to see you smile,<br />
If it takes just a little while,<br />
Open your eyes and look at the day,<br />
You'll see things in a different way.<br />
<br />
Don't stop, thinking about tomorrow,<br />
Don't stop, it'll soon be here,<br />
It'll be, better than before,<br />
Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone.</blockquote>This was all very encouraging to me as I pondered the "not yet-ness" of what we are doing. You see, it is sometimes tempting to think "nothing is happening -- we've got to <i>do<b></b></i> something!" but the truth is, there <i>is<b></b></i> phenomenal work going on...it is just not visible work.<br />
<br />
And as I re-read the above referenced post while writing this one, I was even further encouraged by reading on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo" target="_blank" title="Wiki">Wikipedia</a> that bamboo grows in 3-7 year cycles of harvesting, so in our analogue, it is OK that now, at the 2-3 year point, there is nothing viable which is visible to anyone else.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy-nW6znZmog2x3GOEZuzAlt7QvQyhwLMfu9ezFTq8Z9s13cGt1Rv17w6isl1RxtBbkUhJuaobc-j7PBYqOiw4b0La7zB2FlMK181nTs8rVaRy9s5WbCwt7rPhLN7jApw0LmYShJIYAW0/s1600/bamboo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy-nW6znZmog2x3GOEZuzAlt7QvQyhwLMfu9ezFTq8Z9s13cGt1Rv17w6isl1RxtBbkUhJuaobc-j7PBYqOiw4b0La7zB2FlMK181nTs8rVaRy9s5WbCwt7rPhLN7jApw0LmYShJIYAW0/s320/bamboo.jpg" /></a></div>So, there is no rush for us. We do not have to <i>make</i> anything happen. We couldn't if we tried, and <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%20127:1-2&version=MSG" target="_blank"" title="Psalm 127:1-2 The Message">wouldn't want to</a> even if we could...<br />
<br />
It is very stabilizing to remember that one of the founding ideas of what we are doing here in the first place is that we don't believe our calling has anything to do with trying to <i>make</i> anything happen.<br />
<br />
So here we are, continuing to rest and cultivate roots.<br />
<br />
~ KeithUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-56123323893526172742010-04-30T07:59:00.000-07:002010-04-30T08:05:44.078-07:00Variable Seasons, Variable WeatherIt's springtime in Oregon. March came in like a lamb and went out like a lion. April has been it's usual erratic-weather self, with sun, hail, rain and wind -- back-to-back all in one day.<br />
<br />
I'm in St. Louis, MO this morning as I type this. My uncle died and went to be with Jesus on Saturday. The weather here has been warm and breezy; feels like almost-summer. The forecast for tonight and over the weekend is for thunderstorms. I'm excited for a good Missouri thunder & lightning show.<br />
<br />
Being with family as we mourn our loss together, and seeing the difference in weather patterns helped me realize: Seasons in life don't necessarily follow seasons in weather. It is highly variable depending on "where you are at", and the net realization I've had this week is this:<br />
<blockquote>We're OK</blockquote>Why wouldn't we be OK? To answer that you need a little back-story.<br />
<br />
We uprooted ourselves from California and planted ourselves in Oregon in August 2007, about a month before my father died. The Orchard Community was sprouted (on paper anyway) in December 2008 when we became an "official" Vineyard Church Plant. According to our two-year plan there are goals to meet by the end of this year -- goals that center around numbers of people. Our official agreed-upon goal was to gather 36 people, in approx 3 separate house-church groups, by December 2010. It's almost May 2010 and currently we have Cathy & me, and one other person who's personal life's schedule just created a conflict so we have not been able to meet together for around a month.<br />
<br />
Many eyes have been on us as this idea of a Vineyard House-Church Plant is sort of an R&D experiment for the Vineyard. We've had a warm welcome, encouraging support, and have felt loved and cared-for in many ways. But we've also felt somewhat awkward; misfits in the literal sense of the word.<br />
<br />
The Vineyard pastors in our state with whom we relate all face very different challenges than we do. They speak of hiring new staff or needing to lay people off; of adding Sunday morning services or paring back. They send their youth groups to conferences and sponsor short-term trips to other countries to do humanitarian work and share God's love with people in other cultures. They relate the challenges of running ministry teams and managing the financial responsibilities of owning or renting (or losing a lease on) a building. Coming from the church culture we left behind in California, we know these challenges and joys very well. We understand them and can laugh and cry along with these other pastors. But there's one thing we no longer seem to be able to do: relate to them. Yes we still have relationship and are very thankful for that. But the challenges and joys they face are difficult for us to relate to since they are very different from our own and, for the most part, it will always be that way since we have no plans to ever have a building or a staff or ministry teams or Sunday morning meetings, etc.<br />
<br />
It's like they are round pegs, neatly fitting their round holes. They have their niche, and we're glad for them. But we feel like we're pegs of an undetermined shape, trying to figure out what-shaped hole we fit. We catch glimpses of it now and again, and while we think we know the shape to be sort-of squarish, all we are very sure of is that the shape is simply "not round". There's a tension just from that -- from the still-not-knowing. But there's an added tension which comes from an extended time of hanging out with round pegs, hearing about the round-holed joys and challenges, and knowing more and more "That's not us."<br />
<br />
So here we are 7 months away from our 36-people, 3-group, December 2010 deadline...with no real deep understanding of what our ultimate plan will look like or how we'll fit in with the greater group of round peg/round hole folks -- or even <b><i>if</i></b> we'll fit.<br />
<br />
That's why we sometimes don't feel OK.<br />
<br />
But to repeat what I wrote above, being with my Seckel family as we mourn our loss together, and seeing the differences in the weather patterns of mid-Spring Missouri compared to mid-Spring Oregon helped me realize that the seasons in our life don't necessarily follow seasons in the year and the expected weather patterns. It is all highly variable depending on "where you are at", and so the net realization I've had this week is this:<br />
<blockquote>We're OK</blockquote>I don't know what December will hold for us, but I'm comforted in the assurance that the love and welcome and encouragement will continue from the pastors here in Oregon. I'm also comforted to know that the growth we experience, both internal and external, is not our responsibility. Yes, there are efforts we are called to make, but the ultimate responsibility does not rest on our shoulders. We do not have to somehow make ourselves figure out who we're supposed to be, and we're certainly not responsible for making ourselves into something we're not!<br />
<br />
Rather, like plants growing in season, we can rest in the love The Orchard Master has for us; in the dreams He has had for us all along: the dreams He has had not just <i><b>for</b></i> us, but for the world around us, <b><i>through</i></b> us -- and the plans He has <b><i>in</i></b> us through the world around us.<br />
<br />
We're very much like the farmer Jesus spoke of, as recorded by His follower named Mark:<blockquote>"The kingdom of God is like someone who spreads seed on the ground. He goes to sleep and gets up, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. By itself the soil produces a crop, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. And when the grain is ripe, he sends in the sickle because the harvest has come.”</blockquote>We plant seeds in the soil around us. We allow seeds to be planted within us in the soil of our hearts. Watering happens as a collaborative effort. But the growth? That's <i>His</i> work, <i>His</i> labor of love, <i>His</i> dreams for the world coming true in and through us.<br />
<br />
We're walking through The Orchard together with The Orchard Master; our hand in His. And although the weather up ahead looks like we might be in for a storm or two, we're OK.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4W0L8zUQUMmil9e5OzqhPuMZAdZDRTadkdRp4wDcOae0DHQEwXRWpfXmGPaImPBGdOjP1MORlz6e0uOUA7Jtx3os-fYiWaCMTDML9ky79hnOFo5X_Y6vM5n2H16MtTTckOdM2rSOCLsE/s1600/orchard+storm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4W0L8zUQUMmil9e5OzqhPuMZAdZDRTadkdRp4wDcOae0DHQEwXRWpfXmGPaImPBGdOjP1MORlz6e0uOUA7Jtx3os-fYiWaCMTDML9ky79hnOFo5X_Y6vM5n2H16MtTTckOdM2rSOCLsE/s320/orchard+storm.jpg" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-32933333148082188742010-04-04T06:10:00.000-07:002010-04-04T06:10:35.190-07:00Baked Ham in ParadiseToday is Easter. I like to think of this as "Christian New Year" -- the first Easter, when the first followers first discovered Jesus' tomb was empty was the first day in a new chapter in a bigger story than any of us can imagine; a story worth living in.<br />
<br />
For many people, Jesus-Followers or not, it is also a wonderful feast day, filled with chocolate and other candy, eggs and treats of all sorts; and families gathering to share a meal. Winn Griffin shared this today and I thought it was worth passing along:<br />
<br />
"There are eight meal scenes in the story of Luke. The seventh one was what we traditionally call the Last Supper. The eighth one was on the day of resurrection with the husband and wife that Jesus met on the Road to Emmaus.<br />
<br />
Think of the first meal in the Garden. The moment is heavy with significance. “The woman took some of the fruit, and ate it, she gave it to her husband, and he ate it; then the eyes of the both were opened, and they knew that they were naked (Gen 3.6-7). This first meal of the new creation was celebrated with a male and female. One shouldn’t pass to quickly by in the reading of the Luke 24 text without noticing the echoes of the first meal in the Garden. Describing the first meal of the new creation, Luke says, “He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, then the eyes of them both were opened, and they recognized him” (Luke 24.31).<br />
<br />
The first couple’s eyes were opened and they saw themselves naked. At the beginning of the new creation, this couple’s eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus. They recognized him in the breaking of the bread.<br />
<br />
If you have an opportunity to receive communion as you celebrate the Resurrection, the beginning of the new creation in this present evil age, do so and let your eyes be opened to all the new creation in Jesus offers. It’s a story worth living in."<br />
<br />
A story worth living in, indeed.<br />
<br />
And I wonder, in the final chapter, what that first meal will be like in the New Orchard when we all gather with eternally-opened eyes and share together in the celebration feast? I'm hungry!<br />
<br />
Happy Easter everyone...may all your best hungers be satisfied today and in this new year.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-2131828543265715382010-03-28T07:58:00.000-07:002010-03-28T08:06:35.506-07:00The Donkey was a CommaToday is "Palm Sunday" -- the Sunday before Easter when Christians traditionally celebrate Jesus' "Triumphal entry" into Jerusalem -- the "City of Peace".<br />
<br />
His entry is called "triumphal" because the crowds lay their cloaks and palm branches at his feet, or rather the feet of the donkey he rode. In the culture of that day this gesture was a sign that they were recognizing him as king. They were shouting "Hosanna!" which means "Save us!" and yet in this context it was more like "Hurray! You're here to save us!!!". They were also shouting about Jesus being "Son of David" (their last great military king) and "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." Essentially they were saying "You da man!!!! You're the ambassador -- the personal representative -- of God himself, and you're here to take over the place and then YOU will rule over us instead of us being ruled by these oppressive Romans or all the other people groups that have kept us down! Thank you! You rock!"<br />
<br />
But they missed something. Just. Didn't. See it.<br />
<br />
It's like punctuation. There's a big difference between:<br />
<blockquote>"How are you my friend?"</blockquote>and<br />
<blockquote>"How are you, my friend?"</blockquote>That one little comma makes a huge difference in the meaning of the phrase being communicated.<br />
<br />
The donkey was a comma, and the people missed it. That one little crucial detail turned the whole thing around. And they Just. Didn't. See it.<br />
<br />
Because they didn't want to. The donkey was a symbol of lowliness, humility. A triumphant king entering a city he had just conquered would have ridden the biggest strongest most impressive stallion in his stables.<br />
<br />
Jesus rode a borrowed donkey.<br />
<br />
Jesus wasn't conquering anything with military might or power. He was coming in peace, riding a symbol of humility. He let the people say what they were saying because it was right and true -- they just didn't see the whole picture -- didn't understand the sense of timing.<br />
<br />
Less than a week later that same crowd would be angry -- likely feeling like the victims of some great cosmic bait & switch. The same crowds that shouted "Hosanna!" would be shouting "CRUCIFY HIM!!!" I wonder if the ones who were really gung-ho about staging a military coup (they called themselves "Zealots") went out and killed the donkey?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtsgLFtOsKzCqgrCoDp8C_JeNLsLf7hBfbWuiW98rQu3G2ZZ5oqTf37Dr887tew_v_cahnLg4VPIohsQdRfh2wyMAn6s_EgSLS9HWfdyuPNAw8TGaTuDwh01MesV6y3cmbc50U7elQEUs/s1600/donkey+fire%21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtsgLFtOsKzCqgrCoDp8C_JeNLsLf7hBfbWuiW98rQu3G2ZZ5oqTf37Dr887tew_v_cahnLg4VPIohsQdRfh2wyMAn6s_EgSLS9HWfdyuPNAw8TGaTuDwh01MesV6y3cmbc50U7elQEUs/s320/donkey+fire%21.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Today is Palm Sunday. Jesus is still riding a borrowed donkey as he enters my town of Salem, OR (a city called Peace). Will I let myself see the donkey?<br />
<br />
I wonder how much I miss today when I look at Jesus riding into my life? What do I not see because I don't want to see it? What are my expectations on him? What do I shout when I first see him? What do I shout later this week when my expectations aren't realized, and I'm left to face the truth that he was on a donkey the whole time?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-47747163170481412052010-02-17T11:40:00.000-08:002010-02-18T11:40:57.555-08:00Lenten Feasting and Fasting<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">This is from the Friday morning eucharistic ceremony @ <a href="http://www.mount-calvary.org/" target="_blank" title="St. Mary's Benedictine Retreat House and Monastery, Santa Barbara CA">Mount Calvary</a> (courtesy of our good friend Fran -- blessings on your head!)</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqa1JuotN3yzkE3B5g22KrRk_vC6GrELwReDP1lGCba4WHo0vD3-zCcJXltNXgyIWUukO7pb9wyAWB5N0hPxuQYmBGluBRKt3lNO6PRpDxE4bNFyz4U-L9JFka7BEN-4WI_AfYlhZONe0/s1600-h/Girl-ashes-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqa1JuotN3yzkE3B5g22KrRk_vC6GrELwReDP1lGCba4WHo0vD3-zCcJXltNXgyIWUukO7pb9wyAWB5N0hPxuQYmBGluBRKt3lNO6PRpDxE4bNFyz4U-L9JFka7BEN-4WI_AfYlhZONe0/s320/Girl-ashes-3.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><strong>Lenten Feasting and Fasting:</strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;">Lent is more than a time of fasting;<br />
it can also be a joyous season of feasting. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;">Lent is a time to fast from certain things,<br />
and to feast on others.</div><br />
<br />
Fast from judging others<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on the Christ dwelling in them</div>Fast from emphasis on differences<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on the unity of life</div>Fast from apparent darkness<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on the reality of light</div><br />
<br />
Fast from thoughts of illness<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on the healing power of God</div>Fast from words that pollute<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on words of purity</div>Fast from discontent<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on gratitude</div><br />
<br />
Fast from anger<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on patience</div>Fast from pessimism<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on optimism</div>Fast from worry<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on Divine Providence</div><br />
<br />
Fast from complaining<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on appreciation</div>Fast from negatives<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on affirmatives</div>Fast from unrelenting pressures<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on unceasing prayer</div><br />
<br />
Fast from hostility<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on peace </div>Fast from bitterness<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on forgiveness</div>Fast from self-concern<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on compassion for others</div><br />
<br />
Fast from personal anxiety<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on trust</div>Fast from discouragement<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on hope</div>Fast from acts that tear down<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on acts which build up</div><br />
<br />
Fast from thoughts that weaken<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on promises that inspire</div>Fast from idle gossip<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on purposeful silence</div>Fast from problems which overwhelm<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">Feast on prayer that undergirds</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-90457921026966597872009-10-10T13:11:00.000-07:002009-10-10T13:21:39.811-07:00What Kind of Fruit Will We Bear<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2oxifABTF8346gXYCq_9l7y_8PtkDh260ATC2ZBDAeWjsS13x00m0dghWSn3uHpqutDi6ibUvvO9RZc3UJaOSq3w44-eA_p-6pHx4-eXedn86IdpcqAUg4vj0qq3HkqN1tgTjfjRhlhM/s1600-h/peach+on+tree.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2oxifABTF8346gXYCq_9l7y_8PtkDh260ATC2ZBDAeWjsS13x00m0dghWSn3uHpqutDi6ibUvvO9RZc3UJaOSq3w44-eA_p-6pHx4-eXedn86IdpcqAUg4vj0qq3HkqN1tgTjfjRhlhM/s400/peach+on+tree.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391067723324264290" /></a>This is the question we are asking ourselves these days.<br /><br />If a peach tree is planted in Georgia, the peaches will taste somewhat different than if that same tree is planted in California. The soil and the air, and the trace minerals in the water, all will contribute to the unique taste of the fruit.<br /><br />But is is still a peach.<br /><br />We believe there may be <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+22:2&version=NIV" title="Rev 22:2" target="_blank">a variety of fruits we bear over the months</a> of each year.<br /><br />So as we look to The Orchard Master, we are wondering how our context will influence our "taste", but on a deeper level we are wondering "What kind of fruit will we bear in this current Autumn season?"<br /><br />How about you?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-81877579788680195202009-09-12T08:34:00.000-07:002009-09-12T08:35:28.594-07:00Off the GridWe'll be away for a couple weeks.<br /><br />See you in October!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-62807187835248845342009-08-15T18:43:00.000-07:002009-08-22T19:02:44.119-07:00New Sprouts<center>On Sat 15th August The Orchard Community had the wonderful honor of celebrating the dedication of Catherine Marie "Cate" O'Connor<br /><br />Cate!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCZ25OoSdntIG_ILsBhNH2ebZFkZ3zqqPvN64iQ1e6Ag9SHYdiVtJIIGOTUrmTNdlTWLXsK6z7AJS7RU-0cI_SGQfOjozeiesKJMK22IBFgvIPUt-TqGOkzA28w9lb9rO6dmnHfn5yO2g/s1600-h/cate+in+dress.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCZ25OoSdntIG_ILsBhNH2ebZFkZ3zqqPvN64iQ1e6Ag9SHYdiVtJIIGOTUrmTNdlTWLXsK6z7AJS7RU-0cI_SGQfOjozeiesKJMK22IBFgvIPUt-TqGOkzA28w9lb9rO6dmnHfn5yO2g/s400/cate+in+dress.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372970723883237730" /></a><br />Cate & Grandma<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPVQU962TNiQoSetgqTVJvmwdRPJ-JvbL7pNajOjnlqEa3pZe_rQMRxkNn7ZFE3TaHL38aY8nfjgl7GUqpaIE-9U1CWfgAUgcuCNjcfYCyuwO4Fs1jVW51tw2xxOLNpuRrpcGyfHjpVzg/s1600-h/DSCN3374.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPVQU962TNiQoSetgqTVJvmwdRPJ-JvbL7pNajOjnlqEa3pZe_rQMRxkNn7ZFE3TaHL38aY8nfjgl7GUqpaIE-9U1CWfgAUgcuCNjcfYCyuwO4Fs1jVW51tw2xxOLNpuRrpcGyfHjpVzg/s400/DSCN3374.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372970731309920226" /></a><br />Cate & Great Grandpa<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguJl7eFLEPtQruzuIX3p9lDsZ-aPrhlIEnB3yhFtCJFfCmSRdhKaOPATLyI-1S49tyAYAG46qlF8mWlrj_SpQ2HkQEyNLKzkBKPY1hSdX7UB-uOJdC3z7JmGQ3ufr_sPjuynZVE-rAZDA/s1600-h/of=50,590,442-10.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguJl7eFLEPtQruzuIX3p9lDsZ-aPrhlIEnB3yhFtCJFfCmSRdhKaOPATLyI-1S49tyAYAG46qlF8mWlrj_SpQ2HkQEyNLKzkBKPY1hSdX7UB-uOJdC3z7JmGQ3ufr_sPjuynZVE-rAZDA/s400/of=50,590,442-10.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372970739805081314" /></a><br />Cate & Grandma<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs0wNbueF_usDROceyAngE39Cp6_MFI6__6A38A9NFaErI4stp1SxBrxam1s1zlM9Svn8tJTqPgixH6mUGb8mgt0qlP6urd6gCwCeM8dCrwzyMAAUq_NOJiJoRHkcXXK9sywHkm4URP9g/s1600-h/of=50,590,442-11.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs0wNbueF_usDROceyAngE39Cp6_MFI6__6A38A9NFaErI4stp1SxBrxam1s1zlM9Svn8tJTqPgixH6mUGb8mgt0qlP6urd6gCwCeM8dCrwzyMAAUq_NOJiJoRHkcXXK9sywHkm4URP9g/s400/of=50,590,442-11.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372973284277395410" /></a><br />Dedicating Cate<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCeJ5mC0HwtyVxgwYZ0Z-R8EWwlm70gbjXYiTi_7Ro6U9HbvYEHCQy_PffGBYwcP_Bv8cyH1qLK7rcC273Mf6lk5IQhSeNaoM0Evn4Yugfyt36SBsbiqmNVeg42Q2QNdyul6SjvOxOgzY/s1600-h/of=50,590,442-9.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCeJ5mC0HwtyVxgwYZ0Z-R8EWwlm70gbjXYiTi_7Ro6U9HbvYEHCQy_PffGBYwcP_Bv8cyH1qLK7rcC273Mf6lk5IQhSeNaoM0Evn4Yugfyt36SBsbiqmNVeg42Q2QNdyul6SjvOxOgzY/s400/of=50,590,442-9.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372970746476992562" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkltFYgYKk9EZ22TBJ5gpBGT4hKthyt1RHkovZ7y6Z8OKPxHF49dPKcjsLZt1qsZL2Q84vlkVGQJjwbm4skbHfBXOMlOtP034QKKK2rX-p4nwx6zqlAt2ina28pRpNyIm3ikaYRAeRFhI/s1600-h/of=50,590,442-8.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkltFYgYKk9EZ22TBJ5gpBGT4hKthyt1RHkovZ7y6Z8OKPxHF49dPKcjsLZt1qsZL2Q84vlkVGQJjwbm4skbHfBXOMlOtP034QKKK2rX-p4nwx6zqlAt2ina28pRpNyIm3ikaYRAeRFhI/s400/of=50,590,442-8.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372970758184394130" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIERwVxEo0iVYKpyo6euF6b2w7-2YEeas6q9gtd8XerjALfi3t7rJHBo_XWdA84qAu97nzZjbRX1nyRGttc_O81C7ABFrqkCMVQi5MmjA4J8umV_gQPZnMdHHJdkulRnZ4yzCRFSOXLaM/s1600-h/of=50,590,442-5.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIERwVxEo0iVYKpyo6euF6b2w7-2YEeas6q9gtd8XerjALfi3t7rJHBo_XWdA84qAu97nzZjbRX1nyRGttc_O81C7ABFrqkCMVQi5MmjA4J8umV_gQPZnMdHHJdkulRnZ4yzCRFSOXLaM/s400/of=50,590,442-5.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372971595669236450" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEmokfYAKpXjRvzR0wiKHglPmYPRfrUiUbr9BYRCArCclrN-wHwmIlU7iKKaeP6eX4pHqnwi5FQA5yrqHZzpnsQ8htVaGcC01DjHOx9zuzogDYW3FuxkK4TfAIKbC7C40wLky604dCeko/s1600-h/of=50,590,442-3.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEmokfYAKpXjRvzR0wiKHglPmYPRfrUiUbr9BYRCArCclrN-wHwmIlU7iKKaeP6eX4pHqnwi5FQA5yrqHZzpnsQ8htVaGcC01DjHOx9zuzogDYW3FuxkK4TfAIKbC7C40wLky604dCeko/s400/of=50,590,442-3.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372971604218172770" /></a><br />Hanging out with family!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIHWlBsMV9qlsnsnvxHnqj8LmkKgrOwCVg2W591L1xn4v5a9fjTZUTCd-5phpxDxzqQvrJj8OGa3rbsdyY98JpkjMimln-b5IKFPU34orSl99l8pQJsZs6ZoCjl48NQ3NNf4RNMP7SPyo/s1600-h/DSCN3375.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIHWlBsMV9qlsnsnvxHnqj8LmkKgrOwCVg2W591L1xn4v5a9fjTZUTCd-5phpxDxzqQvrJj8OGa3rbsdyY98JpkjMimln-b5IKFPU34orSl99l8pQJsZs6ZoCjl48NQ3NNf4RNMP7SPyo/s400/DSCN3375.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372971610883394386" /></a></center>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-77113134420340522802009-06-21T12:02:00.000-07:002010-07-08T18:14:49.043-07:00Time To StopToday is the Summer Solstice -- literally "Sun Stands Still". The following is unashamedly cut/pasted from <a href="http://www.inwardoutward.org/?p=1078" target="_blank" title="Original Post">Inward/Outward</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">By Barbara Brown Taylor</span><br />
<br />
For years I had kept hoping that intimacy with God would blossom as soon as I got everything done, got everyone settled, got my environment just right and my calendar cleared. I counted on it to come as a reward for how hard I had worked, or at least as the built-in consequence of a life of service, but even when I managed to meet all of my conditions for a day or two, I was so exhausted from the effort that I could not keep my eyes open. Slumber spirituality took over, and when I woke up I was right back where I started with miles to go toward the home I never quite reached.<br />
<br />
Soon after I moved to the country, a friend from the city set out to see me and got seriously lost. These were the days before cell phones, so she was on her own with nothing but my directions and a badly out-of-date map. Already an hour later than she wanted to be, she was speeding through a little town when she saw the blue lights in her rearview mirror.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmpk0T8EagTpJJsjxhX-UmntfVpLjZD1MvEgabv4WA6ti1w8xaoZYEUcPKry-3_nbNODmopqqvZo50QPtiTaREzFlHa2WiOOX5cuA2sJVLK8Tw_m2d9VvJdiWzlBXl3JZeiY_xApPn2rI/s1600-h/slowdown.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmpk0T8EagTpJJsjxhX-UmntfVpLjZD1MvEgabv4WA6ti1w8xaoZYEUcPKry-3_nbNODmopqqvZo50QPtiTaREzFlHa2WiOOX5cuA2sJVLK8Tw_m2d9VvJdiWzlBXl3JZeiY_xApPn2rI/s400/slowdown.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349858595374657426" border="0" /></a>I forgot to warn her that it was a speed trap. Busted, she pulled over on the shoulder of the road and had her license ready when the officer arrived at her window.<br />
<br />
“I am so sorry,” she said, handing it to him along with her registration. “I know I was speeding, but I’ve been lost for the last forty minutes and I cannot find Tower Terrace anywhere on this map.”<br />
<br />
“Well, I’m sorry about that too, ma’am,” he said, writing up her citation, “but what made you think that hurrying would help you find your way?”<blockquote><center>what made you think that<br />
hurrying<br />
would help you<br />
find your way?</center></blockquote>What made any of us think that the place we are trying to reach is far, far ahead of us somewhere and that the only way to get there is to run until we drop? For Christians, at least part of the answer is that many of us have been taught to think of God’s kingdom as something outside ourselves, for which we must search as a merchant searches for the pearl of great price.<br />
<br />
But even that points to a larger and more enduring human problem, which is the problem of mortality. With a limited number of years to do whatever it is that we are supposed to be doing here, who has time to stop?<br />
<br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">Barbara Brown Taylor is a writer and teacher at Piedmont College in Georgia. She was ordained an Episcopal priest and writes about the life of the church—and the church of life. This excerpt is from her book called Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith.</span><br />
<br />
I think the real question is not "How can I afford to take time to stop?" but instead "If The Master has ordained the sun two times every year to stand still, how can I afford <b><i>not</i></b> to follow the example set in the heavens for all to see?"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8267365339988270074.post-87409211203105138062009-04-30T12:47:00.001-07:002009-04-30T13:29:02.902-07:00Resting<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ-shyH9SzhLBLoD4M-Wmt5CmnYA_SaRgkUulFwWTwmp1Z_Uly_Vf_91k1_rBnScJyjyOG-_mC-FgHQ9bEwRPjA0fiZiJ1EaqwUP-30OqDAfoM3lr5Nf899vCjIjzaMQRzR8p-j7Xbx84/s1600-h/resting.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330573678570784418" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ-shyH9SzhLBLoD4M-Wmt5CmnYA_SaRgkUulFwWTwmp1Z_Uly_Vf_91k1_rBnScJyjyOG-_mC-FgHQ9bEwRPjA0fiZiJ1EaqwUP-30OqDAfoM3lr5Nf899vCjIjzaMQRzR8p-j7Xbx84/s400/resting.jpg" border="0" /></a>It is Springtime in The Orchard and as the dreary grey days move away and brother sun shows himself more (more frequently <i>and</i> more hours per day!) it is tempting to make lists of things to do. It is easy to think that with Winter gone, activity should become paramount. While it is true there are things to be done, the deeper truth is that any action must spring (pun intended) from a deep place of rest in our beings.<br /><br />The following is taken from a letter dated March 4, 1968, about seven months before Thomas Merton’s untimely death. The recipient is Sister J. a young nun who wrote to Merton about her order’s experiment of living in groups of five. <blockquote>The idea of community really needs reviving: it has got lost in the idea of institution. Community and person are correlative. No community without persons; no persons without community. Too organized an institutional life tends to stifle both community and personality. Primacy tends to be given to an organizational task. Community is an end in itself, not a means to carry out tasks. Community is ordered to life, as a good in its own right. It is life-centered, person-centered. Hence we should not get too anxious about “getting anywhere” with community, except that community itself should “be” and celebrate itself in love. Probably one of the things about it is that it is too simple. We have forgotten how to be that simple. But I am glad your generation is finding out about it again, and maybe the rest of us can learn from you.</blockquote><b><i>What stood out to me:</i></b> <blockquote><center>No community without persons;<br />no persons without community.</center></blockquote>I understood “no community without persons” intuitively. It is like saying “no silverware without forks, knives, and spoons” But the 2nd half grabbed me. “No persons without community” -- to be fully myself, I must be a part of something greater than myself. In the story <i><a title="Official Movie Site" href="http://www.intothewild.com/" target="_blank">Into the Wild</a></i> the main character learns much too late that living alone is not the best situation for a person – because there is no one with whom to share. In fact, he dies because he is alone. <blockquote><center>Community is an end in itself,<br />not a means to carry out tasks.<br /><br />Community is ordered to life,<br />as a good in its own right.<br />It is life-centered, person-centered.<br /><br />Hence we should not get too anxious about<br />“getting anywhere” with community,<br />except that community itself should “be”<br />and celebrate itself in love.</center></blockquote>If there is a correlation between community and personhood, then the importance of a person learning to “be” naturally fits into community life as well. I’d never thought of that. I think of the church as the <i>spiritual</i> "nation of Israel", which the Bible says is – “<a title="Gen 12:2-3, The Message" href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen%2012:2;&version=65;" target="_blank">blessed in order to be a blessing</a>” – but I always thought of that in terms of activity: food given away, cars washed, money donated, moving boxes hauled – all the practical ways a community can “give” to others. But this idea that somehow the world is made a better place simply by the community “being” – just by the community “celebrating itself in love” is foreign to me. Refreshing, but foreign. So if Cathy & I and some others get together and have dinner and enjoy one another and celebrate together the wonder of God’s sovereignty in bringing us together as a community…this is “enough”? Only? Ever?<br /><br />In personhood, there is a time for “be”ing and a time for “do”ing – as long as “do”ing flows out of “be”ing. So likewise with community. Anything we “do” must flow out of who we “are” and are “becoming” and that only happens as we dwell together.<br /><br />King David wrote about this in <a title="I paraphrased for emphasis" href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%20133;&version=65;" target="_blank">Psalm 133:1-3</a> when he began: <blockquote><center>Behold how good and pleasant it is<br />when brothers and sisters dwell together in unity</center></blockquote><b><i>What I hear God saying in this:</i></b><br /><br /><i>I made you with an innate appreciation for being alone but, at a deeper level, I made you for community. I made you to be with others: you <b>*need*</b> them in order to <b>*become*</b> completely you. I’ve called you out to individuate, yes -- but a part of that leaving home and family is joining to a new home and family –- a new community I am building around you. The Orchard is a part of that but there is more/other besides that.<br /><br />Before anything was created, I AM community. Out of me -- out of community -- springs all life and all personhood; all blessing.</i><br /><br /><b><i>Prayer:</i></b><br /><br /><b>Teach me my need for others. Teach me to seek them out and then allow them to be used by You to help me become who You’ve called me to be. May we gather together and learn to “be” as a community – that You may be shown to be a God of love and togetherness and peace in this busy and fast-paced world.</b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0