- Today is Discussion Group (after church) with our adults and youth; feel welcome
- Next Sunday, November 17th, join us at the Orange Central Congregations Church for services together with our community at 10:15am (there will be No Services at CCNOT)
- November 30th is our Annual Holly Fair from 9-1; Santa will be joining us at 10am
- Celebrate the Blessing of the Tree on December 1st at 5pm with carols and cookies
- If you won a pie at the Village Fair UnFair 5K, pies will be available for pick up on Wednesday November 27th.
- Next Death Cafe is on December 13th at 4pm
- Watch the recoding of today’s Reflection HERE
Giver of peace, I pray for an end to war, but there can be none without living for peace. I pray for peace in the world, but there can be none without peace in the nations. I pray for peace in the nations, but there can be none without peace in the communities. I pray for peace in the communities, but there can be none without peace between neighbors. I pray for peace between neighbors, but there can be none with peace in the home. I pray for peace in the home, but there can be none without peace in the heart. Give peace to my heart this day O God and when the fighting of this world overwhelms me, let me know that peace begins with me. –Tess Ward
I love this prayer. It is a prayer of balance. It is a reminder that all the pieces have to be healed in order for the whole big picture to be healed. Sometimes, we get stuck in the bigger pieces of the prayer: the wars, the world, and the nations. Sometimes, we get stuck in the smaller pieces of the prayer: our own homes and our own families.
Our picture is either too big and we’re trying to fix big, giant things without fixing the middle or bottom pieces and we become unbalanced.
Or our picture is too small. We are so focused on taking care of ourselves and ours, that we’ve forgotten there’s a big world out there of other people: our neighbors, our communities, our nations, the world beyond ourselves.
How do we cultivate balance? We might start with what’s speaking the loudest. Or, maybe we start with what we have influence over. When we heal something, anything, or begin to heal something, anything, there is a natural influence that begins to heal the next layers. Nothing lives, or happens, in isolation. It’s all connected…like a web, perhaps.
We like to think big, but we can’t start at the top if our very foundation is broken. We see this, sadly and too often, in leaders and advocates and activists and missionaries who burn themselves out in all the work that needs to be done. We see it in those doing big work, but ineffectively because their very foundation is unstable.
We must be well in order to do well. A balance of prayer/quiet and self tending with the work of our hands and our voices. Faith and the practice of being faith-full. Rest, contemplation, and doing. We cannot forget the doing part of our faith.
We must start with the closer stuff that’s broken. It’s sometimes the place we least want to dig into and yet it’s where the deepest healing is possible and the greatest hope begins to unfold and yes…ripple. We have the most influence over those things nearest to us.
Perhaps there is something broken in our own hearts? How do we heal that?
Perhaps we have a relationship that’s broken in friend and neighbor or work (I count these as our neighbors). How do we heal that?
Perhaps we have a community that has broken pieces. How do we heal that?
Nations and the world? I’ll admit that I find that is beyond my reach. But it’s not beyond the reach of everyone.
Maybe, just maybe, my small rippling work can reach and hearten those who have the bigger influence I don’t have. I might remind myself that those small works are just as vital for healing a world. It’s all interconnected. We just might be part of the foundations stones for others, often without even knowing it.
It is so easy to feel small and meek. It’s so easy to give up and feel hopeless in this seeming mess of the world. Faith-full. Jesus was one single man in one small place in time and changed everything. Mary was one single woman in one small place in time and changed everything. Rippling hundreds and hundreds (thousands) of years in time.
We have hundreds, thousands, of examples of one single person making the ripple that changes and heals. It’s why I love the stories of people, saints and healers and survivors. It’s why I love the stories…the big stories and the small stories. Stories remind us that though we are small, we can do big things. And in most of the stories, we find that we don’t truly do it alone. We have helpers, friends, neighbors, communities. Even the seemingly “bad guy” often in some way is a part of the change toward healing. Be not quick to judge. We’re all in this together.
We heal the nation and the world by supporting community and people, and that work ripples out to others and more others and more others, becoming bigger work. We do big work by doing small work. In our hearts. In our homes. In our neighborhoods (a pot luck, a supper, a fair, a planting of daffodils, a community giving thanks together, a listening, a small gift…). Where we are alone and where we gather. If we are broken, the world is broken. If someone around us is broken, the world is broken.
We do and support those doing the bigger work by continuing to heal where we are able. To offer kindness and truth in the world around us. Quote this week (Robert Brault): Yesterday I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regrets because I am more sure of what is kind than what is true. Building a good foundation where we are. There are a lot MORE of bottom pieces and they make up the bigger pieces. Imagine if we were all healed in heart and soul? All of us. The rest would just fall into place. Why wouldn’t we start close to home? And spread it?
The other thing about this prayer is that you cannot be whole with broken pieces. For one part to be well, all parts must be well. It’s like the heart and lungs and bones and body and mind…you can’t be whole in one place while the others is/are broken. It’s all interconnected. Like a web, perhaps.
Just as our world is interconnected. Like a web, perhaps.
It’s impossible to have real peace in your neighborhood when your home is broken. It’s impossible to have a peaceful community in a fighting neighborhood. This prayer invites us to fix the pieces where we are able to and trust, have faith, that it spreads from there. It might be an invitation to trust one another.
Healthy homes spread to the neighborhood.
Healthy neighborhoods make up healthy communities.
Heathy communities make up a healthy nation. Healthy nations. A healthy world. A world without war. A world without war. It seems unattainable, but we believe in peace and follow a peaceful “influencer”. We can, and are charged to, practice peace and have faith and trust that that peace will spread.
We can do good work at home and it matters. It really, really matters.
We may not know what to do about nations and the world and war, but we can start with being kind and loving. We can start with the need around us. We can start with looking for those who are doing other Good Work, with and for us. We can support those working to sustain the hope of a future. We can nurture our children who have big dreams. We can help them to launch to do good big great work. We can support one another near and far. Starting with what’s right before us.
And still. We have to do our own work. It it not enough to only support others. We have to heal ourselves. Our hearts. Our homes. Our neighborhoods. Our communities. Our nation…
Healing begins near and spreads far. We have influence. Maybe only in our homes, but it spreads. Maybe only in our classrooms, but it spreads. Maybe only in our community, but it spreads. Maybe only in our small gatherings, but it spreads. Maybe we have far reaching arms…spread our wings. Support those that spread their wings. Don’t clip wings. Keep building, one foundation stone at a time, the ever widening circle of Love.
Heal, where you can.
Support, where you can.
Prayer, where you can.
And trust in the ever unfolding of Original Goodness.
Community Church of North Orange & Tully 