GETTING ORIENTED, GROUNDED, AND INSPIRED

All new ideas take some getting used to... although I've known for months that I am headed to South Africa for a year of service, it finally took until this week for the idea to start to sink in.

We've spent the last few days of orientation talking about Accompaniment, Culture, Community, and Mission. We've talked about the logistics of airfare, personal security, and medical assistance. Essentially, we're doing lots of talking and sharing and building relationships. That's a lot of Doing. In fact, it's been mentioned in our sessions that as Americans, that's one of the things that we think is best. Doing.

Take a look at the current ELCA tagline: God's Work, Our Hands.
Take a look at the name of my blog: Our Handiwork.

We like to Do. I need to learn how to Be.

Pastor Jim Gonia, Global Mission Program Director for West Africa, Tanzania, and Madagascar, has been teaching us how to "Pack our Spiritual Backpack". He has been sharing different spiritual practices with us in the hope that they will be helpful to us during our year of service. Many of them focus on revealing our God-given essence through our Mind, Heart, and Body. The challenge lies in recognizing the Mind's control, letting go of the Heart's emotions, and sensing the Body's response. When we do that we will simply Be ourselves, as God intended.

Focused Meditation on an image or word is one spiritual practice that we've been, well, practicing. I find that the image of a tree is very meaningful to me during these exercises. A tree is a great example of Grace, the core Lutheran concept that can be defined as God's Rootedness And Christ's Expansiveness. (Get it? It spells G-R-A-C-E). A tree is rooted at it's base, while also being expansive and open to the world. We should also strive to be grounded in God's love and share that love with those around us. The image below resonates strongly with me because it shows how the tree is supporting life and new growth while continually drawing strength from its solid foundation.

Tree of Life II, Natasha Wescoat

I hope to learn how to Be through this YAGM experience. If nothing else, I'd like to learn to Be a tree. Have you tried focused meditation? What images or words help you? What would you like to Be?