Not every conversation we have is---well, spiritual. While I believe that God is everywhere, that does not mean that God is in everything I talk about in the midst of my day. "What shall we get at the grocery store? What do you want for dinner? Would you like butter on your toast or not?" See what I mean?But in the course of life's seasons, we need to have spiritual conversations with people who are good listeners. Let me be clear here, most people are not good listeners. They listen for facts not feelings. The listen for what they hope to hear. They listen when it may not cost them something.A spiritual conversation is a reciprocal dialogue between two people where thoughts, opinions and feelings are share and received. It's two-way. Not one way.I wrote in The Jesus Life that spiritual conversations take place at the table where we eat our meals. They don't have to talk place in offices or on the phone. It's never an intent when you ask someone for lunch--to share protien, carbs and water with someone. No, when you ask someone for lunch, you're really meaning, "Hey, let's get together so we can share what's been going on in our lives. It's been too long. How about next Tuesday at noon at the deli?" That's the stuff of conversations where hearts connect and souls meet and people who are lonely become spiritual companions.Spiritual direction and soul care provide a way for people to engage in life-giving, journey altering, God-seeking and heart affirming conversations. A session might begin this way, "Where has God been in your life this week?" or "Where have you sensed God's presence in your life this week?" It might cause some pause and stopping to consider the question--which is good. Spiritual conversation is not run on sentences which have little or no meaning. Spiritual conversations are where the heart is engaged and is free to finally speak its mind! A good question is like an ice pick that jabs around in your frozen heart, picking at this, chipping away at that until--at last--you are finally free to say what you wanted to say all along but simply couldn't. You weren't ready. You didn't trust the listener yet. You didn't know if you'd be judged or not. When you feel safe, the heart will emerge and for some us, we have waited a long, long time to speak our minds---and to share our hearts.One pastor I have a monthly spiritual conversation with, was afraid of beginning spiritual direction. He wasn't too sure of what he might be getting into. But one of his church members gave him a gift of 10 sessions in soul care with me and now he would say, he's found a soul friend and a safe place he never really new existed.Dr. Curt Thompson has taught us that neurons are finally rewired and re-fired when a person is free to talk and feels safe to do so AND when the person who is talking senses that he is being listened to---that the person actually gives a damn about what you are saying. Too often, we intuitively surmise that no one really cares at all about what I'm saying. So we shut up. We clam down our shells and go inward. Yet, spiritual conversations are what frees the heart; enlivens the soul and makes a person feel healthy and whole.One of the new offerings at Potter's Inn will be SKYPE sessions where you can sign up for three soul care sessions with one of our staff and engage in meaningful conversations. If this is something that interest you, please contact us at [email protected] and we'll schedule a time to really talk. If you've never experienced spiritual direction or a soul care session, this could be a new beginning. It's our way of offering the heart of our life and ministry to people who live all over the world.Ready to talk? Give is some thought and let me know.
Why Beauty Matters to the Soul: Your help is needed!
God created human beings with five senses that absorb the world around them. With our eyes, we take in the world around us and see things are they are. With our nose, we are able to smell and discern the pleasant and the repulsive. With our ears, we are able to listen to birds sing and waves crash on the shore. With touch, we feel the world coming to us in soft and gentle ways or threatening and alarming ways.Every sense is a pipe line into the soul depositing God's creative design. Beauty by definition is this:
"the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color,sound etc.),"
Let's re-read what I just wrote...." the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction."
The Psalmist said, “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4) Also, “Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary” (Psalm 96:6). Beauty is something that is of God. The Creator Artist set before him on his palet of nothingness a sense of beauty that gives us pleasure to experience and also deep satisfaction.
It happens at a gorgeous sunset. Someone sighs and breaths deeply and breaths in the beauty that they are looking at. Earlier this week, Gwen and I went to the symphony. WE did not recognize one single piece of music played. But we fully enjoyed one particular piece that was loud with the brass instruments in one section while the strings made sounds like waterfalls upon waterfalls. We both looked at each other after the piece ended and said "That was so beautiful." We each recognized what the beautiful music had truly ministered to our souls.
At Potter's Inn, one of the three shaping values we have is "beauty." We want our retreat to be a place filled with beauty. Flowers abounding. Tables that call your name to sit down and enjoy and meals that are more than eating food. The food is beautifully presented and makes you feel at home---makes you feel comforted.
We have a place on the 35 acre retreat that I'm envisioning what you see in this beautiful image here. A garden--a meditative garden with a waterwheel flowing with the fresh spring water from our historic spring on site. The pump house is already there and has been used for scores of years for the cabin's residents to get their water. As I've walked the property many times, I've always wanted a water feature where the sounds of water falling could be heard. We need such things to help us escape from the noise we listen to on our TV's, Iphones, and music players. In quiet, the heart is arrested at silence not mega-decimals. The soul is quieted by still waters---the Hebrew prayer poet reminds us. It's going to be a beautiful, inviting and resting place for thousands of people in the future to come and enjoy.
So through the fall, I'm hoping we can make another beautiful spot at the retreat where people might come and sit in the shadows of Aspens and Colorado Blue Spruce. I "see" a couple of benches inviting you to come and sit and stay awhile where you might take off the shoes of hurry and worry. I'm seeing the waterwheel turn just as the Potter's wheel turns and with every turn unloading it's precious content of cool water cascading down over moss stones and into a small receiving pond.
It would be a place where men might pray and woman might weep. It may be a place where vows are heard joining a man to a a woman for a life long journey. It would be a place of solitude where we might find ourselves not alone at all but fully in the beautiful presence of the Lord.
We've dug the pond and thanks be to God--it's holding water. Now, we've found a place in South Carolina that makes waterwheels. We're going to have an 8 ft high waterwheel--large enough to capture your eyes and strong enough to carry the water needed and envisioned to fall and run into the receiving pond.
This is a project that will require some help--financial and labor wise. If it's something you felt you wanted to help with, please contact us.
I'm envisioning several clusters of Aspen Trees. Five Colorado Blue Spruce trees and rocks. We're going to make this a Legacy Garden where folks can help fund the project by buying a tree in someone's honor and we'll plant it. We are going to do this for our first grandson, Caleb. Gwen and I are going to buy a Blue Spruce and plant it near the pond this weekend when Caleb and his parents come to visit.
If you want to consider helping us, here's a price guideline of what the costs are:
Waterwheel: $2,000
Shipping of Waterwheel: $300
Aspen Tree: $50 each (we need 12).
Colorado Blue Spruce: $100 each (We need 5).
Benches: $150 (we need three)
Here's a link for you to help with a donation should you want to participate with us.. We will have a plaque made indicating the gifts that were madefor the trees and other gifts and have it present in the Garden.
As a visionary, one never really knows if something one "sees" will actually come to fruition. But in this case we've started it by the digging of the receiving pond and tested it to see if it can hold water. When the evidence came in this week that the water is holding, I decided to see what kind of response we might get and I hope many of you can and will help!
Blessings,
Steve
Sojourner
It matters to me to tell you how displaced I have been for months. Displaced. Let's define the word first.
dis·placed
adjective
1. lacking a home, country, etc.
2.moved or put out of the usual or proper place.
For several months, I have not recognized my life. I've been moving quickly. I've been displaced by a fire of epic proportions and moved away to root ourselves in the soil of our retreat. We've left our home and in some ways, we feel like we've left our country. I'm feeling like I am in a new place--defining a new home and carving out for myself a new life. I blogged yesterday on Living the Life you most want to live. That's a question that is nagging in me right now.
Even my roles have changed in recent months. I find myself being a grandfather which stirs feelings I never knew existed. I'm sitting in the small room of a log cabin used for washing and drying clothes and yesterday, found myself a small wooden desk in which I'm sitting here looking out a tattered window with a torn screen. This new exit from my old life to a new one I am trying to define is causing us to re-think nearly everything. A place for that. A cleansing of our acquired stuff because their are simply no closets--and now no closets even to my soul.
So, today I have finally taken the necessary time to put words to feelings and to put phrases to soulful longings. What came out is this-- a new poem. I will share it with you now.
Sojournerby Stephen W. SmithSeptember 7, 2012 I am a sojourner who has been for too long, away from home.Distant lands have beckoned me and I have heeded their voices.The names of the lands do not matter now but what matters more is the gap.I am a modern day prodigal and I have left the hands, which wait to bless me. Those hands I have wanted for so long upon my shoulder--upon my life.I have longed to be carried rather than toil this arduous journey so alone.Yet, now do I know that those hands have been underneath me all along.Sweet Presence-- though I did not want to be carried at times. I am moving towards home.To that place where I belong and where I am received without shame and blame.With tattered heart and ragged soul, I sense you now moving towards me.Please, my God find me and in your arms left me now fall. Receive my confession and hear my cry.Words pulling up my soul to tell you the truth.My tears are my baptism pool to be cleansed once again.Open wide the door to home and receive me unto yourself.
Living the Life You Want To Live
Does it sound selfish---I mean to ask yourself this kind of question: What kind of life do you want to live? Let's talk about this for a few moments today. Do I want my life to be driven by others? Steered by others? Fueled by busyness? Fulfilling lists and obligations? How can we move into living an intentional life ripe with longings fulfilled; living with no regret and challenged by living with a greater purpose than survival?I'm thinking through some categories of how I will answer this question. Categories are really helpful to help me break this question down and really try to answer the question.For example...my health will matter in the answer. I want to be healthy. So learning to choose and make healthy choices will be important in living the life I most want to live. I don't want to die early by making bad and unhealthy choices. So, health will be a category of how I want to live. I want to live in a healthy way will mean that I must eat in healthy ways. I must also choose to invest time in my body to exercise and to move more. So, to answer the question, of what is the life I want to live will mean facing this category straight on and make some adjustments.Here's another category I'm thinking through. I have had many roles in my life. I've been a pastor, author,counselor, spiritual director, husband, father, brother and son. What roles do I want to continue to serve in for my future which is both near and dear. Some of my roles, I need to give up and other roles I will want to assume. I noticed on Facebook that one of my friends changed their title of their Facebook page to Author John Doe. That was interesting to me to look at and figure out if I liked that for myself. I don't--even though I've authored six books now. I'm more than an author. In the life I want to live, what roles are the most important? What roles do I sense a calling--a voice telling me to "Do this...or do that..." What MUST I do with my one and ordinary life is the focus question.Place is another category. Where do I want to live my only life I will ever be given. I settled this question 12 years ago because I decided I wanted to live in the West...where there is drama in the panorama of what I look at. I was tired of heat, humidity and the Bible belt...so with this in mind, we moved. It was costly. We sacrificed family ties and traded them for geographical beauty. Place matters alot to many people. Where do you really WANT to live?Community is an important category. Who do you want to live out your life with in the next 5-10 years? I'm facing this question head on now. In our move to the retreat, we're leaving being spontaneous in calling a friend and saying "Let's meet for dinner." Now, it's an hour drive. It cost gas money now and it takes time to drive down. So, we are thinking our new community will be fostered, developed and nurtured in whole new ways. We will have to re-think some things. We're realized that every relationship that is NOT reciprocal is not a relationship we will choose to invest in for friendship sake. Reciprocal living is one of the greatest Biblical values---all the 5o plue "one another" statements in the Bible only underscores the longing to live life out with a few people who can love and be loved; touch and be touched; celebrate and be celebrated. So this category will force me to re-think what I will do about my groups, my dearest friends and even my church.Family is a category to think through carefully. Who really is our family? I now live 1500 miles from my sons, my mother, my sister and my only brother. Jesus said that "Whoever does the will of my Father is my sister and brother." That's a big statement to ponder. In my case, I have felt ties to family re-ignited. I've wanted to close old gaps. I've wanted old hurts healed. I've wanted the space between me and the ones I loved closed so that their are no longer huge emotional gaps and questions. What other categories would you suggest to think through in fostering the life you most want to live? What have I left out that seems blatantly obvious to you?