“We are, all of us, engaged in priestly work, the work of transformation. But it may be work that is deemed useless by the standards of the world.” Kathleen Norris
How do we decide what is useful?
Transforming
Webbings
“The greatest capacity of spiders, I have come to believe, is their intuition about space, their knack for seeing and understanding the nature of their environment, the contours and potentialities of a given place. Spiders must think strategically about space, how to cover it and how to create cross-linkages that stitch locations together into a net. And they must do this time and again, always at considerable risk and vulnerability to themselves.“ John Paul Lederach, Moral Imagination
What can we learn as we navigate current spaces?
Questions
Jesus asked 307 questions, was asked 186 and answered three of them.
“ We live by revelation, as Christians, as artists, which means that we must be careful never to get set into rigid molds. The minute we begin to think we know all the answers, we forget the questions, and we become smug like the Pharisee who listed all his considerable virtues and thanked God that he was not like other men.” Madeleine l’Engle
What questions are burning within you?
Driftwood
Augustin once described the lifesaving quality of beauty as “a plank amidst the waves of the sea”.
What does lifesaving beauty look like? What images come to your mind? How is beauty lifesaving?
How we spend our life…
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our life.” Annie Dillard
What items would a still-life of your day include? What items speak of who you are? Is it the morning cup of coffee, the dirty dishes in the sink or the pile of books you keep meaning to read? What items would you like to get rid off? What items would you like to add?
Digging ones heels…
“America does not honor the quiet work that develops spiritual root systems and community stability. To avoid being swept along by the winds of change and conducting a ministry that is mostly improvisation, one must stubbornly dig one’s heels into the ground”. Eugene Peterson, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work
I highlighted this quote years ago. Somehow it still speaks to me, yet I yearn for the winds of change and currently ministry is much improvisation.
How does this quote sit with you?
With the Eyes of the Heart 