Each year I love falling in love with Fall. The autumn season in the Pacific Northwest is just my absolute favorite time of year. The air is crisp, clean and a little cooler. Indian Summer chases us deep into October and the sunsets and cloud formations are absolutely breathtaking. In the last couple of weeks, I have seen many facebook posts by Sanctuary family members like Steve Geelhood’s recent post of a sunset, captioned with, “and, I live here.” or something to that effect.
Fall is a time to shorten our days, deepen our normal rhythms of the year and put the summer’s folly and change of pace to rest for another nine months or so.
For me at least, the shorter days are welcome. I don’t know about you, but an earlier sunset leads to better sleep and offers a sort of blanket under which to pray and reflect and refocus. How about you? Same? Or, not?
My spirituality since sabbatical last winter has sharpened quite a bit. I have found myself taking longer to pray and practicing the presence of God and simply enjoying God’s company in prayer more than ever in my Christian journey. I also find myself yearning for discernment more than ever. Discernment is that sense of being able to see beyond and around the quickly perceived data of life and to dial into a deeper and more God-inspired perspective on life. I find myself yearning to know what God wants the Holy Spirit to convey to me and to our Sanctuary community as a whole where Christ longs to lead us in Greenwood through the church and through the Green Bean.
As the times of the seasons shift, I feel a deep and gentle shift in me and a good number of us in this church to become more and more discerning and less and less assuming that we know where to go and what to do and what to say at any given time. This sense of waiting for the Lord to speak to us collectively and give our team of leaders marching orders for the future is something I deeply desire in my life and in our life together.
Discerning requires us to arrive at a process of listening to input more than we formulate input and responses. This collective posture is one of listening, being curious, receiving wonders. It also requires what spiritual guides call a holy indifference. Holy indifference is that place where we don’t really have a “dog in this show”….In other words, a place where any outcome, wildly creative or simply mundane is good, real good, as long as it seems to be received from God and not from my or your predisposition.
I find indifference a hard discipline. I don’t know how it is for you. I have been trained to be creative, to lead, to work outside the box. My life and family upbringing and education have all revolved around me being an “Activator” who is loaded for bear and ready to get things going.
So, let’s help each other be discerning. Let’s ask each other what we are hearing in prayer. Let’s take a few of my strong opinions to the cross and let them die. Let’s wait on the Spirit for discernment as we move into and through this lovely autumn season. Watch the leaves change. Breath the cool air. Feel the shroud of early evening. Open up and receive the grace that is around us in Jesus Christ….and let’s listen deeply for the voice and movements of the Spirit,
Much Love,
Randy
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