Word Power

Someone who recently retired shared with me that one of his ambitions in retirement was to 'read more poetry.' That got me to thinking about how long it's been since I actually read a little poetry, and about how some of the poetry that I've learned along the way flows through my thinking and attitudes. Some examples: 

You are a child of the universe,

no less than the trees and the stars;

you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,

no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

                                                      Desiderata

                                                      Max Ehrmann 

I remember how that fell on my ears when I first heard it in 7^th grade or so.  I was (and am!) a child of the universe – not just of the small town I inhabited at that time - but of the whole universe. Wherever I go, I belong – not only belong but have a right to be there, and everything is unfolding according to a plan. It seems a little trite now. I wasn't very worldly back then – but I embraced my place in the universe and it helped shape me.

A second poem also resonates throughout my life in a pattern that everyone who knows me will recognize:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

                                                     The Road Less Traveled

                                                      Robert Frost

Thank you Robert Frost for helping me understand that there are decision points along the way and sometimes all we can do is choose – we can't foresee how “way leads on to way” and we can't go back for a do-over. So I have followed the poet down the less traveled roads and indeed, it “has made all the difference.”

So parents – I challenge you to dig around in your memory banks and see if there is poetry that has shaped you. It may have come to you in song lyrics or bumper stickers but there are words that have shaped you into the parent you have become. And you are, probably, reading things to your children that are shaping them. If you think you aren't, may I suggest: 

Listen to the Mustn'ts,child,
Listen to the Don'ts
Listen to the Shouldn'ts
The Impossibles, the Won'ts
Listen to the Never Haves,
Then listen close to me --
Anything can happen, child,
Anything can be.

                                                    Anything Can Happen

                                                    Shel Silverstein

Bless your children with the promise of the future, not the restraints of fear. Share your formative poetry and tell them how it has shaped you. And, by the way, read it aloud! That's the only way they can really recognize good poetry.

What is Church Anyway?

Recently I watched a documentary on PBS about drive-in movie theaters.  I was sentimentally remembering going to the movies in my pajamas with my mom and dad and a big paper sack full of popcorn when, just before the end of the program, they started talking about Robert Schuller conducting drive-in worship services out in California.  It all came flooding back: going to drive-in church with my grandparents and my little sister in Watertown, SD in the early 1960s.  We went to church in our summer shorts and tops instead of dresses and frilly socks, and Laurie and I thought it was the best idea ever!  We sat in the back seat of Grandpa's giant car.  There wasn't much to see, just some very small figures in front of a huge screen.  The speaker hung on the driver side window and was scratchy sounding but plenty loud.  I know we had coloring books and crayons and probably a few snacks in the back seat but we were in "church"!  We knew we were in church because there were familiar words: "in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" and there was music (Holy, Holy, Holy and other songs we could sing without hymnals). There were readings from the Bible.  And every so often Grandma's hand would reach back from the front seat and gently settle us because it was time to pray.  And we stopped what we were doing, bowed our heads, and waited for it to be time to say Amen. 

There weren't any candles, stained glass windows, hymnals, altar, communion, organ, or flowers. There wasn't a baptismal font. We weren't dressed in our Sunday best.  It didn't smell like church. (It smelled like Grandpa, like pipe tobacco and peppermints.) Still, it was "church."

So what makes something "church"?  I've been to worship services where I left feeling like I had been to a concert, but not "church."  I've been to churches where I've felt like I'd been at a political rally.  I've also been to church at a campsite with kids wearing face paint and attended worship in a library where we sat on the floor and shared the Lord's Supper. Why was it church at the campsite but a political rally at the church building?

What makes church feel like "church"?  Most of us probably define the "church" experience in fairly specific terms.  For me, church is kind of like a birthday party.  I go and gather with people I know, and people I don't know, to celebrate the One we all love.  We say familiar things and sing familiar songs - sometimes in a park, sometimes in a restaurant.  At the center is the One we all know (some of us have known the Guest of Honor all our lives and some have only recently met, some of us are hoping to curry favor, and some are just fans; but we are all gathered around the same table to eat the same food!)

What has to be there to make it "church" for you?  This is a great question to explore with your kids.  What did your kids say? Tell me your stories - I really want to know.

I've changed the settings to make it easier for people to comment.  I hope you will - we can all learn from each other!

Efficiency

This week, in some devotional reading, I came across a sentence that I have been rolling over in my mind for several days: "I realized that, when it comes to faith, I spend most of my energy trying to make God fit into my life, rather than making room in my life for God to take root and grow." (Jeremy Langford in Seeds of Faith)

AS IF!!! As if I could somehow shape and mold God into something that would fit into my helter-skelter-never-stopping-to-smell-the roses-life!Talk about wasted energy. God can morph into any shape God wishes but I have no power to control that whatsoever. Yet this is what we all try to do - we want to domesticate God . We want to reduce God to an item on our to-do list: “OK, said my prayers at bedtime and wrote a check to the church. I'm good to go and nice of you to stop by, Lord!”

This approach to God is akin to the "Quality Time" parenting myths that were so pervasive when my children were small. The theory was that if you made the time you spent with your child meaningful, a little bit would go a long way. The problem (well, ONE of the problems) was, children weren't always in the mood for meaningful activities when you had them in your Daytimer. The fact that a parent had scheduled a 4-hour block to take a child to the zoo didn't mean the child was going to be in the mood ,or feeling well, or that the weather would cooperate. Parenting by the calendar - the most efficient way raise your child. Are you laughing? I know you are - nothing is less efficient than hanging out with a child, except maybe hanging out with God. . .

God doesn't want your quality time either. Like your child, God wants all of you: the good, the bad, the inefficient. Efficiency is a human priority. God created plants that would be pollinated at the whim of bees and butterflies. Plants proliferated everywhere: vines climbing up the trees, birds pecking at the fruit, flowers and weeds indistinguishable. Humans created fields with straight rows of corn or cotton, carefully weeded and watered when the rain doesn't come.

God comes in like a child and fills up your life. You can try to limit the space you give to God, but if you share your space, you will find that faith and love expand and take root.  Faith and love will last through all the bumps along the way; all the joys and sorrows of being a parent, a child, a person. . . I'm sure you had ideas of how you would fit a child into your life, or another child into your family. I am equally sure it didn't work quite the way you had planned. Along the way you let go of a lot of things to make space for your children – and I'll bet most of them seemed like small sacrifices, in retrospect. Look around for the not-so-important thing that is occupying space that God could use; as God grows in your life, you won't miss it!