Author: gracesmuggler

On Tuesday, I wrote a piece about the two cottontail rabbits who have lived with us over the last three years.

Well, I need to update that because there’s a new, third bunny! Lita had a baby, and her little one emerged out of the nest yesterday.

This baby is tiny and remarkably unafraid of us. Last night, we sat on our deck, and she (they’ve been shes so far, so I’m just going with that) kept hopping closer and closer to us. At one point, she jumped right next to Ian’s shoe. We kept talking to her, and she was totally cool with us.

So welcome Lou into the world, short for Litalou.

And remember this too: Though the world may feel heavy at times, there are joys, surprises, and new life that cause us to feel a great sense of wonder.

Keep seeking those out.

Much love and many bunnies,

Renee

I love to ponder this question: Who is present in your spiritual DNA?

Have you ever asked yourself this? I invite us to reflect upon it.

A multitude of people have shaped our deepest sense of meaning, belonging, and discovery. If we ask this question — who is present in my spiritual DNA? — I imagine that names people will quickly come to mind. . . Folks with whom we’ve had proximity. . . People who have loved us into being and invited us toward the Great Love in whom we live, and move, and have our being. . .

As we call them to mind, we easily feel gratitude.

And that gratitude can grow even larger when we ask this question: Who shaped these people? Who loved them into being, taught them that they have worth and value, and sent them in the direction of spiritual discovery? Because those people are in our Spiritual DNA too. Their presence is alive in us, even if we never met them.

I can think of a few people right away who are present in my life, perhaps in ways I am not always fully aware, because they shaped people who shaped me. Some died long before I could ever have the occasion to know them, but I feel that they directly impacted my life. I have deep gratitude for them.

And of course, there are so many names we will never know. A great mystery.

They way these people lived their lives. . . reached us. That’s pretty miraculous. And they couldn’t have predicted it either. That’s also miraculous. When they embarked upon meaning, belonging, and discovery, they opened a whole world of meaning, belonging, and discovery.

And we get to carry it on.

– Renee Roederer

For three summers in a row, a bunny has taken up residence in our yard. Simply put, she delights us.

She started living among us when she took up residence under our deck during the Winter of 2015. When spring arrived, she emerged more often, and of course, she ate our grass to her fill. That entire spring and summer, we loved watching her. We took pictures of her. We talked to her. She became a bit of a character on Facebook.

This bunny loved to spend time under our rose of sharon bushes, so we named her Rosa. And though we seemed silly with our smitten love for a pet yard bunny, I will tell you honestly that she gave us so much joy.

For a few months during next the Fall and Winter, she left us for a bit. But that next spring, she returned. At first, we decided she was “the same bunny.” But after watching her behaviors and interaction with the yard, it became pretty clear that this was really Rosa. After her return, she gave us another surprise too (though with cottontail rabbits, is this really surprising?) She had a baby. Smitten weirdos that we are, we named this bunny Rosalita and started calling her Lita for short.

Well, here we are three summers later, and our bunny is still with us. Truth be told, we don’t know if this is Rosa or Lita this time, but she is not very nervous around us, so she’s very likely one of the originals. We’ve decided she’s Lita.

And guess what? We take pictures of her. We talk to her. Occasionally, I put her on Facebook.

And from time to time, I occasionally think about this too:

This bunny has no idea about our lives. She recognizes us visually and knows our voices, but she has no earthly clue about the larger picture of our lives. She doesn’t know that we have names, work rhythms, or larger community connections. She doesn’t know that there is such a thing as Facebook.

But we delight in her, and I think that somehow matters.

She gives us delight, and we send that energy of delight back to her. Does it affect her? I like to think so. Deep down, in a way I don’t understand, I think it probably does.

And that makes me wonder. . . ? Who or what delights in us? Perhaps in ways that we can barely understand? Perhaps from a larger reality that we can barely intuit?

And who do we actually know with names and work rhythms and larger community connections — people who delight in us? Even across distance?

What a gift that delight must be. It must affect us somehow, even if it’s outside of our awareness.

How much more if we bring it into our awareness?

– Renee Roederer

Many people are familiar with Fred Rogers’ opening song on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.

Won’t you please?
Won’t you please?
Please won’t you be my neighbor?

But are you also familiar with his closing song?

If it’s been a while, I invite you to have a watch: It’s Such a Good Feeling. Every single day, Fred Rogers closed his show by saying words like these:

“You always make each day so special. You know how? By just you’re being you. Only one person in the whole world like you! That’s you yourself. I’ll be back next time!”

I know we’re all adults, but maybe we need to hear that again. Frankly, I think we always need to hear such encouraging words, experiencing our value as it is mirrored and modeled to us in relationships. Plus, it’s flat out true. You are the only person in the whole world just like you, and honestly, that’s pretty incredible.

So here we are on a new day.

When we begin a new day, we can dedicate ourselves to it. Likewise, we can dedicate that day toward ourselves and others, prepared to live it in community and learn from what it reveals. And we can commit to sharing the truth of the worth and value found within our neighbors.

Now maybe all of this seems remarkably trite or just too simple in a world that feels particularly fraught right now. I don’t doubt that the world and its challenges are quite complicated. But even though it may be more complex than this, it’s also never not about this:

You matter.
Our neighbors matter.

So how will you live this day?

– Renee Roederer

 

[I found this tattoo image here.]

Over time, particularly in Western cultures, the word believe has become quite narrowed in its meaning. For instance, when people hear the word believe used in the context of Christianity —

. . . I believe in God.

. . . Do you believe in Jesus?

. . . I believe what the Bible says.

. . . Do you believe in heaven? —

people typically understand the word believe to mean “intellectual assent to a propositional idea.” In that framework, people consider these statements and questions, and then choose to affirm or reject them as logical possibilities.

But what if that’s too narrow a definition of the word believe?

The English word believe has been shaped greatly by the frameworks of the Enlightenment and Modernism. The words of the Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament, however, speak of something quite different in their original languages.

These are words of the heart. . . words of will. . . and words of action. The words that often get translated into the English word believe are actually verbs of love, devotion, trust, purpose, and action.

Recently, I was reading Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening by Diana Butler-Bass. (Great book. Check it out.) She suggests that if we want to best translate these verbs into English, it would be better to use a word like Belove. . .

. . . I belove God.

. . . Do you belove from Jesus?

. . . I belove the way of love that the Bible reveals.

. . . Do you belove toward the Transformation of All Things?

Of course, these sentences I’ve created are remarkably clunky. But they cast a different vision entirely, don’t they?

The life of faith is not some intellectual, get-it-right-or-else game, working to conform the intellect (and in some instances, stretch it to incredulity) toward a set of particular propositional affirmations. It is not an endeavor to complete a holy, ‘check yes’ list and thus secure a key to a distant, heavenly future – the ultimate fire insurance.

The life of faith is much deeper.

It is love of God — Love itself, revealed among us,

– and –

It is love of Neighbor — Love itself, enacted between us.

This I belove.

– Renee Roederer

 

“I can do that right now. . . Straight from the vine.”

This thought suddenly emerged in my mind. So with a skip in my step, I just went and did it.

Without a second thought, I stepped out my back door, walked right up next to the plant, and received a new tomato. Straight off the vine. I held it in my hands, tenderly touching the texture of its skin – smooth with a thin layer of dirt. I breathed in its scent, smelling the perfect blend of summer and soil.

I stepped back inside, washed it, and then. . .

I tasted it.

I. tasted. it. 

And it was glorious. The vibrancy of its flavor. The immediacy of its availability. The connection to the earth. The recognition of life.

And that’s honestly how I felt in a tiny, summer gesture: Alive.

This made me wonder. . . how many other moments of life might be cultivated today? Straight off the vine?

Laughter with a friend . . .
straight to the source of connection.

Tears shed for others . . .
straight to the source of solidarity.

The emergence of a new question. . .
straight to the source of calling.

The refusal to be a bystander. . .
straight to the source of communal action.

The determination to choose aliveness. . .
straight to the Source of Life,
The Ground of Being.

All of these. . . and more.

What else? What might we cultivate on this day?

– Renee Roederer

 

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night, I ended up taking walks in downtown Ann Arbor. It was a small thing, but it transformed my whole weekend.

As Friday evening arrived, I realized it was time for me to step away from the smartphone for a while. Perhaps you were following along. . . The news was wild last week. Every single day, there seemed to be some sort of bombshell; some outrageously inappropriate, dangerous speech; or some person voted off of a White House island. I shouldn’t even say or. I should say and. Each day had multiple iterations of these.

After following all of that, I put the news away for a while. I decided to take a walk downtown and on the University of Michigan campus. That truly transformed my weekend.

People were walking along the sidewalks and eating in outdoor cafés. Folks were laughing. All ages were present. People were talking to each other, including complete strangers. That first night, I ended up having four conversations with people I had never met. The energy was alive. It really filled me.

And my town is no paragon of perfection. People struggle here too. In fact, half of the conversations I had Friday night were precisely about that. The occasion of being present downtown and on campus allowed us to talk openly about this. These realities need to be shared and shifted.

Present among it all, recognizing its gifts and its challenges, I realized how deeply I feel called to Ann Arbor as a place. I feel so alive when I am in the presence of the people who live in this place.

It is a gift when place calls us. 

How often do we let ourselves feel this — deep, rich connection to a place? How often do we seek it out?

Perhaps too often, place can become a dull backdrop to the rat race we run. Gotta be here. . . Gotta be there. . . I have this deadline. . . And that deadline. At times, it fades as we get stuck in our own heads, ruminating about the news, anxious about our inner conflicts — unaware of our bodies, unaware of nature, unaware of each other.

But when we are awake to it,
A place can call us to gratitude.
A place can call us to collective action.
A place can summon us toward one another.

And there are times when we need it to transform us.

– Renee Roederer

 

Have you heard of the Fresh Start Effect? It’s the idea that smaller markers of time can serve as openings to ask new questions, initiate new practices, or work toward new goals. Many people set aims like these when they make New Year’s Resolutions, but these can often be even more life-giving on smaller scales – days, weeks, and months.

Today is a new month.

Would you like to sit with a new question, try a practice for 31 days, or perhaps name August as the template for completing a step toward a larger goal? We have such an opening today.

This month, I am going to ask myself these three questions quite often:

1) What do I need to release to be grounded in this moment? 

In the midst of national chaos, we can easily lose awareness of our connection to what’s larger. If I set purposeful intention to recognize connections to the bigger picture — God, often called the Ground of Being. . . Community. . . Calling. . . Purpose. . . Vision. . . I feel less limited by the chaos and more equipped to respond to it.

We may need moments of silence to come into grounding, a practice to recognize these larger connections. We certainly need moments where we can step away from our cerebral rumination of anxieties. When we step away, we initiate different ways of thinking which allow us to gain intuition. Intuition is a gift that strengthens us and our larger communities.

2) What do I need to release to enjoy this moment?

I also want to be present to the moment. The same types of chaos can pull us away from the enjoyment of everyday activities and the presence of people right in front of us. These moments are gifts, and they can connect us to the sense of what’s larger too.

The release question is also a good one. . .  If we ask this, we may discover that we can’t feel enjoyment right now, and that’s okay. There are moments when we naturally feel sadness, anger, confusion, and more. When we release these, we choose to feel our emotions and express them. We may invite moments and people to share in them as well. And this opens up space to feel joy again.

3) What do I need to release in order to be alive toward others in this moment?

Aware of the larger connections, how do I then act from this grounding? I want to be more alive toward others. The life we receive can inform the life we give.

In a time of chaos, we want to choose action over inaction. But what kind of action? To quote Richard Rohr, I find that I am best empowered to act when my actions are aligned with contemplation — that is, when I am engaging intentional processes to tap into connections with the larger picture. I need to release all the things that act as barriers to this.

After all, I best act alongside my neighbors when I am aware of my deeper connection to my neighbors  — when I prioritize the recognition of who they are along with the intrinsic value and worth they have as people.

These are my questions for the month. Do you have guiding questions?

Here is a hymn text I love quite a bit. The words are written by Shirley Erena Murray, and here’s a recording. Perhaps these words are a good guide.

Come and Find the Quiet Center

Come and find the quiet center
in the crowded life we lead,
find the room for hope to enter,
find the frame where we are freed:
Clear the chaos and the clutter,
clear our eyes that we can see
all the things that really matter,
be at peace, and simply be.

Silence is a friend who claims us,
cools the heat and slows the pace,
God it is who speaks and names us,
knows our being, touches base,
making space within our thinking,
lifting shades to show the sun,
raising courage when we’re shrinking,
finding scope for faith begun.

In the Spirit let us travel,
open to each other’s pain,
let our loves and fears unravel,
celebrate the space we gain:
There’s a place for deepest dreaming,
there’s a time for heart to care,
in the Spirit’s lively scheming
there is always room to spare.

– Renee Roederer

You are valuable.

It’s that simple.
It’s that profound.

It is Truer than True.
You have worth that cannot be diminished.

No matter
any of the words that have stung in the past,

No matter
any of the dismissals people have thrown your way,

No matter
any of the failings that keep you up at night,

No matter
any of the items left unchecked on your to-do list,

No matter
any of the unkind comments said to your own reflection,

No matter
any of the the stigma people associate with the diagnosis,

No matter
any of the “gaps” on your resume,

No matter
any of the things pundits have said about you,

No matter
any of the fears you carry inside your living cells.

No matter
anything
anything
anything.

You are valuable.
Full stop.

With a love that can’t be lost.
With a life that can be lived.

– Renee Roederer

Today, we conclude a series that has explored the central findings of the book Church Refugees: Sociologists Reveal Why People are DONE with Church But Not Their Faith by Joshua Packard and Ashleigh Hope. This book gave us the term “the Dones” as a descriptor for an increasing number of Christians who left have traditional, institutional churches yet continue to practice their faith.

Packard and Hope, both sociologists, conducted interviews with Christians to learn more about their departures from organized churches.

Interviewees revealed that,

They wanted community. . . and got judgment.

They wanted to affect the life of the church. . . and got bureaucracy.

They wanted conversation. . . and got doctrine.

They wanted meaningful engagement with the world. . . and got moral prescription. 

In other posts this week (see below), we explored the first three themes. Today, let’s look at the last one.

Meaningful Ministry and Moral Prescription

As I mentioned earlier this week, Packard and Hope write that their interviewees are “doers.” They want to engage faith in an active way. They care about their neighbors, and they want the ministries of the church to have meaningful impacts in their larger contexts.

But so often, the interviewees reported that their congregations made very little impact beyond their own membership. These churches did not address crucial needs beyond their own sanctuary walls, even as they made all kinds of moral pronouncements. Interviewees believed that church leaders and members should teach about morality and ethics, but they wanted teachings to be paired with communal action. The Church Refugees interviewees perceived their congregations to be “hypocritical and unconcerned with the world” and “increasingly incongruent” with lives “outside of the church walls.”

And this cannot be overstated: Church pronouncements and debates around sexuality and gender — particularly, same-sex marriage and gender identity — added deep pain to the lives of interviewees. Christians from the Church Refugees study held a variety of theological and social perspectives in the midst of these debates, but many carried deep pain on behalf of LGBTQ+ loved ones. Church pronouncements often functioned to shame, judge, and scapegoat LGBTQ+ people. Interviewees believed such teachings were emphasized frequently and harshly.

Finally, Christians from the Church Refugees study voiced a correlation: The more their congregations discussed morality without action, the more likely it became that church offerings would stay within the confines of their own membership. Interviewees were frustrated by this.

For all of these reasons and for the reasons mentioned earlier in the week, these Christians stepped away from institutional church communities.

It makes me wonder,

How do we confess and apologize for the ways we’ve harmed transgender, bisexual, lesbian, gay, and queer people, including fellow Christians?

How do we broaden the ways we talk about morality, and how do we prioritize that with action?

How do we listen to the witness of those who have left our congregations?

How might we hear their convictions and follow their lead?

– Renee Roederer

This post is a part of a series. Feel free to check out the other posts from this week as well:

Christianity: Is It Good. . .?
Themes of Church Departure: 1) Community and Judgment
Themes of Church Departure: 2) Activity and Bureaucracy
Themes of Church Departure: 3) Conversation and Doctrine