Pray for Rick Meig’s Recovery

Rick Meigs, a good friend from Missional Tribe, was in a head-on motorcycle accident in mid-June. He is still in the hospital, and it looks like recovery will take a significant amount of time and effort. Please pray for Rick and his family, and consider donating to his recovery fund. Rick is self-employed, so this accident has created hardship for their finances. You’ll find the PayPal donation button and updates on Brother Maynard’s blog post. The PayPal button is posted several places, beginning with the June 23rd update in that post.

 

Road Trip to the Roundtable-03. “Right-Angle Horizon Lines”

Well, it’s been a very odd week of actions and reflections. My storyline of the “No Bread” wallet has taken unexpected turns in the two months since posting Part 1 of Road Trip to the Roundtable. As I said earlier this week in Part 2, I’ve had to cancel my participation at the Global Roundtable event … at least in terms of in-person presence.

It would be easy to dive into melodramatic details. But rather than that route, how about just the big picture:

Things ended up still on empty, both in terms of money and energy. I took actions to get basic assistance through the local “social safety net” so I can survive this relapse of chronic illness and hopefully get it into remission. And, although things haven’t work out as hoped for going to Poland, there are still providential things to do, though on a different horizon.

It looks like I’ve got quite a different road trip to take instead, and I’ll have to dedicate the summer months to recuperation – working to turn around underemployment by first regaining more stamina. It’s one thing to feel well and not be able to find work, like the first few months of this year. Versus now, which is not feeling well so I can’t even handle the demands of any extensive work I am able to find.

In the midst of this frustration, it’d be easy to give in to feelings of utter resignation. Why bother? What difference does it make? Wouldn’t it just be easier to give up, bottom out, go nowhere, do nothing?

Well, actually … no. Somehow it serves the purposes of growth activation to embrace the troughs in life and slog through them, instead of only seeking for spiritual highs of self-actualization and climb up them. At least, that’s what I think I realized this week from my Ozzie friend, Matt Stone. In his recent blog post on the book, The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism, he notes:

Reading the introduction I think I am now hooked too. Unlike some books on Christian mysticism, this book acknowledges that life transformation is more important for the Christian mystic than the peak experiences.

So, the mystical disciple embraces the paradox that suffering leads to an uncomfortable but ultimately better quality life, versus the consumerist Christian who pursues constant comfort and probably can’t distinguish heights from hype. Guess I’m a mystic, then. Hope that doesn’t sound like promoting masochism, and hey, I’d rather have comfortability as much as the next person. But I haven’t found the me-me-me narcissism version to be-be-be particularly helpful.

Could it be that maybe how we handle darkness shows how much we live in the light?

Speaking of which, as an intriguing (though seemingly out of place) “bright spot” in the midst of this darkness, it has again popped into mind that I am “wired” to be a futurist, and that I have an enormous amount of background studies already done in this field. If I were well healthwise, I should probably pursue further training in studies of the future because it would be wise stewardship. And in fact, wouldn’t it be cool to connect with an organization that’s interested in developing next generation leaders as culture readers and futurists and social change catalysts? And to work on a Masters in Strategic Foresight while applying all my school assignments to this agency’s organizational systems and consulting issues? Who knows. That kind of thought keeps cropping up at the least expected times … usually when there is no humanly possible way for it to happen. Hmm …

Is formal training as a futurist my own preferable future? (That certainly sounds ironic!) I’m not really sure, partly because I’m not sure I’ve ever really had any “high horizons” to aim for. During college, when I would typically be exercising hopeful imagination to explore dreams for my future, I was struggling instead to cope with an insidious depletion of stamina that became chronic. By graduation at age 23, my “exciting” first summer in the workaday world was actually spent in 10-12 hours or more per day sleeping and resting – working hard to recuperate. Then, despite a degree in linguistics with honors, I could only handle part-time work, and the only doable work I could manage was data entry. (In my value system, no work is below our dignity, but not all work ultimately represents the best stewardship of our destiny. And yet, given my situation, I had to make due and I did, since we couldn’t figure out what was causing this condition and do anything about it at that time.)

So, in the 30 years since college graduation, somehow I’ve found alternative horizons to pursue. As I said earlier, this has been an odd week of actions and reflections. One of those reflections had to do with horizons. I don’t know what else to call them except “right-angle horizon lines.” Here’s the gist of it, which I learned in Boy Scouts during middle school.

Problem: Suppose you have to measure a raging river at a place where there is no bridge, and that you can’t measure it by boating or swimming across with a rope and then calculating the length of rope used. How do you safely figure out how far it is across the river?

Solution: Put one hand over your eyebrows, as if shielding your eyes from the sun’s glare. Then fix your gaze on a point directly across from you on the opposite shore. Lower the angle of your hand gradually until your sight just meets that point at the horizon line underneath your hand. Holding your hand steady, turn your stance slowly at a right angle and find the equivalent horizon point on your own shoreline. That process should give you the same distance, but it’s a workable and safer place to measure.

And the application? Perhaps for people with normal health, they have higher horizons than just the opposite shore and can actually have the energy to cross the “raging river” in front of them to achieve their destiny. For those like me with a chronic health concern (or any other “life-dominating issue”), it’s not that we have no destiny or hope, but that we may have to find it at a right angle to what would otherwise be directly in front of us if we were well. We do have a providential line of sight available, but it’s on the shore where we already stand rather than across from us where we’d like to be. Our current task may involve slogging through the muddy shoreline on this side of the river.

Looping back to the Christian mystic emphasis on gradual whole-life transformation instead of conquering peak experiences, the future on this shoreline may not be fun, but it will ultimately be fulfilling of God’s plan. And there is hope hidden deep within in this thought, if we will perceive it and let our trek on this side of the river capture our imagination as much as the vision of crossing the river might have in other circumstances or for other people.

After thinking and thanking about that, I remembered a poem I wrote a long time back, about not-quite-there situations brought to completion, and changing our perception of blockages into challenges:

.

eleven/eleven transformed to twelves

© 2001 Brad Sargent

.

Harsh nature pounds on imperfections

but walls in life are no sure prison

and wounded hearts need not thwart hope

if we reintegrate decisions

and view our current circumstances

as trajectory points for powering vision

.

for imagination fuels our futures

and lets us look beyond our “now”

it challenges to stretch our gazes

teaches to invert our frowns

and transform them into scoops

whereby we can bring stars down

.

I don’t mean the sentiments in this poem to be sickly sweet. But sometimes I need something relatively positive as an intentional antidotation to what is most likely my default orientation about my own situation, which is relatively negativistic, if not downright nihilistic. (You know us nihilists … we’re the ones who believe that the pessimist is too optimistic!)

And then, if that poem weren’t enough, I recalled the theme of a support group book my friend Jonathan Hunter wrote in the late 1990s: Embracing Life. I met Jonathan during the 1980s when I served as a volunteer in ministry to people infected or affected by HIV disease. He originally designed The Embracing Life Series: Healing Transformation in Christ for people in life-threatening stages of HIV disease, to help them:

1. Process how terminal illness was negatively affecting their view of self in Christ.
2. Embrace life instead of succumb to a “spirit of death.”
3. Take their rightful place in the Body of Christ as a family member with something to offer – not simply someone who needs to receive.

But these themes are far more universal. How many of us with chronic conditions – and other difficult life situations –deal with similar issues? We lower our horizons about who we think we are in Christ. We don’t embrace the creative possibilities in the life circumstances we have. We fail to step forward into our true identity – full siblings in the Body of Christ. With life-dominating situations, it’s just too easy for our “radar” to turn into orbiting around a negative integration point instead of at least moving forward with some positive actions. But a static state is no better. Unless we move spiritually – even if we cannot move physically – how can we have a living hope to share, as we experience Christ sustaining us?

Let me wrap up by bringing the topics of suffering and mysticism and transformation and embracing life back full circle to the Global Roundtable. We who have been called to serve as salt and light in emerging cultures and underground ministries need to find God’s horizon for us in the Kingdom. Whether we work in regions where people of our faith are reviled or revered, where gatherings are in the open or underground, there is still an integration point on this very shoreline for us to pursue – even if it is at a right angle from a destination we might have preferred. There is no shame in this providential place, and does it really matter that there is probably no glory or accolades on this side of the river? But faithfulness has it rewards as we “take no bread” with us and experience how Christ is the Bread of Life for us.

So, those were some of the swirls of thoughts in my world this week. Still wish I were going to the Global Roundtable in a few weeks. But I still have a hopeful horizon here … and would appreciate your prayers for a summer of recuperation and re-destinization.

This is cross-posted on my Missional Tribe blog.

 

Road Trip to the Roundtable-02. Grace to Stay

Sad news – as it turns out, I won’t be able to attend the Slot Festival and the Global Roundtable for Emerging and Underground Ministries. Illness prevents me from traveling.

This is one time when the circumstances I have to deal with are particularly disappointing. Maybe I’ll eventually discover providential purpose lurking in their midst. But at the moment, I’m quite grieved that I won’t be at these events in person, though I’ll certainly be praying for those at the Roundtable and look forward to reports. There is still a need for scholarships for the 2009 Global Roundtable - please contact Andrew Jones if you are interested in contributing (his contact information is in the post just linked to).

And, once recuperated, hopefully I’ll be able to complete my series on Basic Questions on Cultures and Kingdom at Missional Tribe, as an online resource on cultures and contextualization. (I only got through about a quarter of the planned posts before illness slowed me down.)

Meanwhile, I’d surely appreciate your prayers for a recovery of health, stamina, and joy. Thanks …

This is cross-posted on my Missional Tribe blog.

 

Contextualization as Customization by Providential Design NOT Customer-ization by Personal Desire

Well, this is one time where I think the title just about says it all.

I’ve been coaching a doctoral student on the intersections among learning style theories, generational differences and dynamics, and spiritual formation systems. After reflection on yesterday’s session, it occurred to me that part of what makes so-called contextualization a very different product is the paradigm of the contextualizer:

• In my observation, older generations and pragmatic-paradigm people in church leadership roles make changes to meet the felt needs of their audience, to match their programs to the desires of their “customers,” for maximum comfortability.
• Younger generations and holistic-paradigm people in Kingdom leader-developer roles adjust to meet the ways that those they work with are designed by God to participate at their best and most productive.

If this is anywhere near accurate, I think I’ll go with customization according to God’s providential design for a person’s productivity, not customer-ization according to personal desires for consumption, thanks. I’ll also skip on the consumerization on demand.

(For more on pragmatic versus holistic paradigms, see the category on Paradigm Profiling.)

 

Dr. Barb Orlowski’s Dissertation on Recovery from Spiritual Abuse to be Published

Dr. Barb Orlowski let me know that her dissertation on recovery from spiritual abuse will soon be published in book form. This is great news – congratulations Dr. Barb! Your research has helped many on their journey to recovery!

This also means her extensive doctoral research cannot stay in full form on her website: www.churchexiters.com.

So – if you want to read the full dissertation online, be sure to do so now. Once the edited manuscript goes to the publisher, Dr. Barb will only be able to leave excerpts on her website.

Meanwhile, please pray for the publishing and distribution process, especially that this very insightful and practical material finds its way into the hands of those who need help and those who train others.