Pastoral Thought--December 8

This morning, I found myself considering the wisdom of Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk. In The Missional Leader they write: 

Maturity means a life formed over the long journey by the narrative-shaping God. It is about the character of those who have allowed God to confront their shadows. Leaders [and Christians] who have not plumbed the depths of their own self-awareness have neither the resources nor security to cultivate an environment of awareness within the congregation [and world]. Personal maturity involves leaders in a narrative that gives their lives a center and direction.

In four sentences Roxburgh and Romanuk offer us a helpful lesson as we continue through advent. 

I regularly find myself addressing issues that in a normal year I would not have faced. And some of those issues make me feel I feel ill equipped to address them positively; like many others I want to pile on when I look outside. I want to attack practices that I feel are unhealthy or dangerous. Culturally we are bombarded with negativity. Social media posts that are negative in orientation garner more attention than those with a positive message. I find myself ignoring, or ‘turning off’ more posts than I do affirming other people. The nightly news is filled with rage-filled faces as they report to us the events of our day. As I walk through the nursery school I cannot even be sure that the children that I see, the ones who wave at me at times, even have a smile on their faces as they go through their days. There is such a distance created around us, and many of us fill that space, with criticism, negativity, and frustration.  

I wonder if the best way to address these issues and challenges that confront us in the pandemic, is to apply what Roxburgh and Romanuk speak about: a practice of narrative-sharing and self-awareness. 

Consider this example: this morning I arrived at CNS a few minutes early. While my computer booted up, I walked across the hall to greet the teachers and speak to them about their Christmas plans for the children (I read a Christmas story to the kids each year so I wanted to know when that was taking place). I did not take long before I realized that what was needed in that conversation was a dose of personal maturity on my part. 

And so I listened. . . I listen intently to the struggles of the day as our children address issues of sadness and loss because of school lived-out in quarantine. I listened for the place where God was at work—even if that place took some time to locate. By listening I found room to notice in myself where my anxieties and negativity was overwhelming my faith. I heard in their stories the struggles that I am dealing with and that gave me fuel to take back to God. As I took that new learning back to God, I recognized that these were things that God and I could work on.

All of this was possible because I allowed God to “confront my shadows” and negative moments. And so I wonder, how this practice might take shape in your life? Who can you listen to? Who can you sit with? Who can teach you something because you were willing to listen first? 

Blessings

Rev. Derek