A Strong and Steady Place

• CROP Walk is Sunday October 5th at 2pm in Northfield
• Mark your Calendars: A Spaghetti Supper is scheduled for October 18th at 5pm
• Next Death Cafes are November 15th, and December 13th at 4pm (join us for an informal conversation around death and dying that may include curiosities, living well, and managing grief–we provide the sweetness with snacks and coffee)
• Sunday Discussion Circle with Pastor Charlotte Sunday is on the last Sunday of each month after Church; in person and via Zoom–a fairly informal discussion around the themes of Sundays Reflections, Inspirations, and life
• Bible Study with Seth is on the 1st and 3rd Sundays after Church; in person and via Zoom

Watch the recording HERE. Recording posts after services are complete each Sunday (usually by noon).

Have you ever had one of those moments where you just rushed out and into something completely unprepared and it didn’t go well?  Don’t worry,  you’re not alone, we all have. It’s a good thing, a learning thing, a growing thing.  

I do like to think that in many ways, coming here and coming together is a way of building ourselves up to meet the world a little more prepared, even when we’re leaping in and rushing out.  And whatever might come our way.  

I’m reading Brene Brown’s new book Strong Ground. She is so good at putting concepts into words. It’s only a small piece of the book that inspired this reflection, but I wanted to give her credit.  

First, the phrase Strong Ground itself.  

Second, that we must be strong both individually and as groups.  

Of note, before we move on, “strong” is both courage and vulnerability.  Without both courage (doing things despite being afraid) and vulnerability, our strength is not real strength.  It’s just loud and/or defensive (armored up) versus a true and open strength.  

Without courage and vulnerability it’s more of “I’m strong” equaling “I’m strong” and “you’re not” or “I’m right” equaling “I’m right” and “you’re wrong”.  It’s more of an “I don’t have work to do, but you do.”  That’s exclusionary, not community oriented, and here, all are welcome.  Each and every one of us with our own ways of seeing, believing, and growing.  With our own unique gifts, skills and also our individual weaknesses.  Creating space for it to all fit together, even if it’s messy at times.  

That open hearted welcoming as a strength of grace.  The hard, courageous, vulnerable work that we are are called toward as a community of faith.  

We each have a part to play and we also have a part to play together.  

If I was to put it into words, I could call the “strong ground” here “safe, sacred space”. A place to grow and be vulnerable.  A place where we encourage vulnerability to help one another grow and not just one single way, but as unique spiritual beings on paths both similar and sometimes dissimilar.  A place to remind us that our call is toward kinda scary work, but we must do it anyway.  

To do that hard work, we must be steady.  Steady in ourselves.  Steady as a community.  THEN, we do the Work outside in the world.  

If we rush out without this steady strength, we bring with us instability.  We’re unreliable.  We armor up (when love requires an open heart).  We put up walls (when hope requires bridges).  We close doors (when faith is an opening). We give up (because it’s too hard).  We avoid because we are afraid.  We need stability for courage—that doesn’t mean we don’t shake and fear because courage is being afraid and doing the work anyway.  If we are unstable, our work is scattered and scattered work blows away in the wind.  It doesn’t have strong staying power.  

We must be steady and strong.  

We must be steady in ourselves (being in community grounded in steadiness supports us in becoming this).  We must be steady and strong as a group.  And it ebbs and flows and rises and falls.  Sometimes we fall…but together, we can help one another up when we fall.  Falling is not weakness…it’s learning and growing.  Falling makes us strong!  I have a friend who calls this “failing forward”.   

It may sound like I’m off on a tangent, so bear with me.  I think this is the allure of obstacle racing (and the like). There is the individual athlete and the group of athletes.  We each have our skills and gifts that make some obstacles quite easy and others so darn hard.  Others have different skills and gifts that make our easy obstacle so darn hard for them and our hard obstacle so easy for them. 

Someone’s absolute fear is another’s joy and exhilaration!  And vice versa.  

Obstacle racing teaches us that we’re not “wrong” or “weak”, but that each obstacle requires something different of us. We see, and work with, one another’s strengths and weaknesses. We see where we’re strong as individuals to face our obstacles and challenges.  We see where we’re strong as a group to help one another over the obstacles and challenges.  It’s training (AKA: learning and growing) to learn how to navigate obstacles and traverse our fears.  

It’s a bit like life.  

Sometimes, the obstacle is easy, but there’s a technique to learn and bruises to be earned along the way of learning.  

Sometimes, it’s technically easy, but it’s going to really hurt if we fall.  

Sometimes, we’re halfway across and there’s another obstacle within the obstacle.  

Sometimes, we choose the easy side but eventually it’s time to tackle the hard side.  

Sometimes, we must swing backwards to gain the momentum to move forward.  

Sometimes, there is no going back once you’ve committed.  

Sometimes, the obstacle must be faced alone.  In all honestly, eventually most obstacles are faced alone.  But…we learn and grow together in a supportive community. This is where community steadiness and strength come in.  

Sometimes, we fall.  We get muddy, bruised, and broken.  We sweat and cry and even swear.  Sometimes, we lie down completely defeated.  

The gift of community, is that with our diversity of skills and gifts, we usually aren’t all feeling completely defeated at the same time.  Sometimes, we’re the support (courage).  Sometimes, we’re in need of support (vulnerably).  

A good community, steady and strong, knows when to offer a hand to lift up or drag through.  A good community, steady and strong, knows when to stand at the sidelines to encourage and cheer.  

This place is our strong ground, our steady ground.  This is the place where our individual gifts come together to create a place of strength and steadiness. And every single one of us is needed.  Each individual strength and the fullness of our collective strength.  

Both need encouragement and growth, and love and tending.  

This is our place to be vulnerable together so that we can grow into the strongest and steadiest versions of ourselves.  We steady ourselves.  We steady our community. THEN, we go do the work of the world.  

This world needs our strong, steady work. It needs us to work together with love and kindness, despite (because of) our differences.  

We practice here when to lend a hand and nudge and carry each other through and when to stand back, watch, and encourage one another.  

And we are all of us learning and growing individually and collectively.  This is the place where we learn to be true to ourselves and true to one another.  We listen to one another and learn one another’s strength and weaknesses.  It’s true that we don’t like to share our weaknesses, but it is a part of us—a real and true version of who we are.  And we are loved for all of who we are…not just the part of ourselves we’d like to present to the world.  

And remember, we are known and still called to individual growth, community growth, and work.  God doesn’t ever call the “perfect”.  God calls us, imperfectly perfect.  

We are always growing and learning and becoming.  We are always facing obstacles and challenges.  

Here, we stand on faith.  We can do anything with God, however you see the divine force showing up for you in your life.  God knows when to lend a hand and nudge and carry us through.  God also knows when to stand back, watch, and encourage.  

I imagine God, just like someone who taught us the technique to get over The Obstacle, standing aside with held breath, palm against palm…hoping (maybe even more than we ourselves) for our success.