Dec 9 2019 Ephesians 4:1-3

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
I am taking a 40 day break from writing about Morning Prayer. I’m not taking a break from conducting Morning Prayer, thinking and musing about it. With sunrise nearing 8:00, and sunset before 5:00pm, I will be on the bus for the next few weeks, during which time I’ll gladly listen to Morning Prayer from Mission St. Clare, as I used to do commuting in Seattle. I’ll also have the luxury of repeating Morning Prayer at work. This is all good for my soul.

Instead, for the next 40 days, I’ll be musing on reading from the book, Before you Go, by Jack Hempfling. In mid-January, I have the opportunity to join a short-term mission trip to Guatemala, with Orphan Resources International. This is a very tender time for me. I get to spend 10 days with people of faith, in action. I get to spend 10 days with my ‘oldest friend’ (or so I told my babysitter at age 3), and I get to return to Spanish-speaking America. My husband and I honeymooned in Peru and Bolivia, and then spent over two years in an unsuccessful attempt to adopt a little girl from Ecuador. All of this, plus my household is very unsettled now, so fleeing for this trip is very very good for me.

This book, Before you Go, was suggested by one of the team leaders. It contains scripture readings, prayers and the author’s musings. Similar to my practice for Morning Prayer, I will read over the material, and reflect on what strikes me for that morning. It may or may not be related to the author’s notions, but this is the Living Word, after all. God speaks through scripture, to where we are at that moment. So here goes.

Walk worthy of the calling to which you are called. That is tough, right? How are we to know what walk we are called to take? I believe this takes lots of listening to God alone, and listening to God in community. Often our life companions can hear or see God’s actions in our lives better than we can. We need to make time and space to be in community with God, to explore God’s action in our lives in community, and be able to listen to one another about what we see.

Paul goes on to say talk about how we are to walk that walk. We need to walk with lowliness, gentleness, longsuffering, and bearing with one another in love. This reiterates for me the fact that we need to be in community, in order to discern God’s call. All of these traits listed by Paul are things that are needed in community, when we’re in that crucible of human interaction. It doesn’t matter if it’s a family, or work colleagues, or church group. Human group dynamics are real, and we need to always walk gently and bearing with one another in love.  

This morning, I’m thinking about groups of disparate people, gathered for a common purpose. When I was in a group of fellow discerners, we went through many of those storming-norming-forming stages common to groups. After a particularly long weekend with the group, I returned to work to recount the struggles. A wise co-worker smiled, and simply said, “It sounds like you are just like Jesus’ disciples”. Jesus’ disciples were dissimilar, held together by their response to Jesus’ call. They survived together with love, longsuffering, and keeping the unity of the Spirit. And they struggled. It’s all part of being in a group.

Today, I pray that I remember that all groups of God’s disciples are better off remembering that group dynamics happen, and with this list of traits – humility, lowliness, gentleness, bearing with one another in Love, and keeping the unity of the Spirit central, we can focus on God’s work, not ourselves. 

I always welcome comments and reflections on these musings, either on the Facebook page, or the blog itself.