MICAH NEWS - June 2008
by Trey Everett
I have always been a sucker for the unexplained, the supernatural, what teeters between logical explanation and the outright mysterious. I was just reading a book by Frederick Buechner the Presbyterian minister and novelist. In it he describes a dream he had of a friend who had recently died. Buechner’s dead friend came to his bedside and visited with him. His friend seemed so real that Buechner asked him if he was actually there in the room. His friend said yes and then, as if to confirm his actual presence, he handed Buechner a piece of wool from the blue sweater he was wearing. Buechner said the small piece of wool felt so real that he immediately woke up. At breakfast he told his wife the dream. She said, “I saw that piece of wool on the carpet of our bedroom this morning.” Beuchner hurried upstairs and there on the carpet was the blue piece of wool. Coincidence? I am intrigued by stories like this, stories that could be explained away as simple coincidence and wishful thinking or they could be explained as a real glimpse of God’s hand nudging us awake.
About two years ago while Corene and Zoe were on a walk Zoe
turned to Corene and said, “Mommy, do you have a baby boy in your tummy?” “No honey. Why do you ask?” was Corene’s surprised reply. “I just need a baby brother,” Zoe answered. Corene and I giggled about such a cute and innocent comment.
We had no plans of having a third child. Corene had actually given away all
of her maternity clothes a few weeks before. Zoe’s little question was so
amusing, but three days later we stopped giggling when we found out we actually were
expecting. Zoe got her little brother later that year. Did a four-year-old somehow catch a glimpse behind the mysterious ethereal curtain? Was she really somehow aware that her baby brother was growing and developing even before the world and even before the mother and father had an inkling? Or was it all just coincidence, chance, luck?
This brings me to a story that just happened at the MICAH site. A few weeks ago we began one of the first steps in the construction of the first MICAH building - drilling a well. We had established where the building would be and had also decided where a good spot was for the well in relation to the building. When the well drillers came they decided the original spot we had chosen wasn’t a good place to find water. What did we know anyway, we’re not professional well drillers, so another spot was decided upon by the professionals and then the drilling started. After 350 feet there was no water to be found and the drilling stopped. It was then that the professionals brought in an expert Water Witcher to decide were this elusive water could be found. A second spot was confidently chosen, drilling began, drilling stopped, and no water was found. In the midst of this second drilling Dan told me he had this ‘feeling’ that we should drill in the spot where we had wanted the well originally. He said he didn’t have any scientific evidence that water was there but we had spent a lot of time and prayer on that land and he had this sense that we should try there. A sense? But the professionals didn’t argue, their methods had failed anyway, and 141 feet later we had water. The professionals were pretty surprised. Coincidence or God?
I keep thinking to myself that if we really do believe God interacts with us then why are we so surprised with things like the dream, Zoe’s question, and the well happen? I wonder, if we really listened, listened to all parts of our selves not just what was scientific and logical and easily explained, I wonder if we might get more glimpses behind the veil. Not for the purpose of telling fantastic stories but because God is speaking and because our job is to pay attention.
[Return to top of page]
MICAH NEWS - May 2008
by Trey Everett
Last month we had our MICAH Building Kickoff. Around forty people came for a fun and relaxing evening of great food, conversation, discussion about the MICAH building and discernment. Everyone immediately understands words like “food,” “conversation,” and “discussion.” But when the word “discernment” is mentioned people aren’t so sure how that’s done or what it really is. Noticing God’s movements and promptings in our life, which is what discernment is about, is of great importance in the life of faith. How do we know where is God leading us? What does God want me to do in this situation? How can I notice God’s guidance? These are questions most of us ask but often don’t have a good answer for. The prayer of examen is an ancient Christian practice of discernment.
The examen is very simple. Look back over a period of time in your life (yesterday, last week, last year, etc) or look back over an event and prayerfully notice where you experienced the fruits of the Spirit. Where did you notice love, or joy, or peace? What are the longings or desires that arise in your heart? The idea is that where we notice the fruits is where God is, and where God is is where we want to be. Our job is to move in the direction of God. Practicing the prayer of examen can be a daily exercise. We begin noticing patterns in our lives. With practice we become more sensitive to God’s leading. I wonder how our lives might change as we notice and then respond to God’s desires for us? Where have you noticed love and joy and peace in the last week? What might God be saying to you?
[Return to top of page]
MICAH NEWS - March 2008
by Trey Everett
As I reflect back on 2007 I am first of all amazed that the year is already over. The swift passage of time has always been of great interest to me. It continues to perplex and concern me because I have a fear that one morning I will wake up to find 20 years have passed while I slept. I’ll wonder what happened with my life. Did I use it wisely? Did I do what God wanted? Did I even really exist the last 20 years or did I just move along in a drowsy state of mind eating and sleeping and accumulating and paying bills and so on and so forth as the days and weeks and years slipped by unnoticed?
The mysterious movement of time however, is just a part of what I notice about 2007. As I look back I am aware of the great fullness of the last 365 days. All of us, I believe, long to be part of something as well as to be someone who displays to others truth, compassion, and transformation. We want to see “fullness” in the lives of our loved ones and also experience it within our own lives. But this fullness we hope for, this life Jesus offers, often evades us. We become so easily distracted from looking for and following God’s calling in our life. We tend to be attracted to and chase after a life that is fast not full, secure rather than challenging, a life that is clearly planned out not mysterious. We live for self, crowded schedules, effectiveness, applause, material accumulation, how we appear to others and so on. To live a life to the full in our culture requires a different way to see, think, and live. This is extremely difficult because to follow God’s unique and freeing call in each of our lives requires, on our part, the willingness to turn away from all that the world offers us.
As I look back on this last year what comes to mind besides the mysterious passage of time is the deeply woven interplay with God and this ministry of MICAH. I have a deep sense that we are actually listening to whispers of Jesus, mimicking divine actions, and speaking lovely messages of truth and compassion. Don’t get me wrong, this lovely scene I describe is full of difficulty in that it is a life opposite of how I am used to responding and living. It is opposite our normal agenda of having everything more or less figured out. It is against our notion of progress and individualism and the American work ethic and the idea that bigger and faster is somehow more holy and pleasing to God. But as I reflect on the ministry of MICAH, a ministry in which I difficulty moved my family across two states to be part of, I see time and time again the life giving choices, the amazing transformations, the beauty coming forth. I continue to touch and taste and hear in an ever-deepening way the ‘life to the full’ Jesus offers each of us no matter what our job or age or place in life. And that is good.
[Return to top of page]
MICAH NEWS - February 2008
by Trey Everett
As I write this edition of the MICAH News it’s a balmy 18 degrees outside. When you experience double digits below zero for weeks on end 18 above almost makes you sweat. This morning I saw a mom wearing a short sleeve t-shirt as she walked her child into the school building. I felt a little wimpy bundled in my parka and arctic mittens. This being my second winter in the frigid and wind swept Red River Valley I’ve noticed that people still get out and about even with it’s 40 below. People still go to work, walk the dog, get groceries, run errands, and even ride their bikes. But I’ve also noticed there is a strong, if un-admitted, desire to slow down, to hibernate. Eating a huge meal and then crawling under your favorite down comforter for a six-week nap really sound nice to me. In a sense isn’t that what “snowbirds” do? When it starts to get cold suddenly your neighbor disappears and then when it starts to warm up poof, there they are. For all we know, except for a post card or two, those folks could be deep sleeping their way through winter never leaving their bed. Winter, if you take time to notice, causes everything to slow down. The natural world just sort of shifts into a lower gear and barely moves along. Sometimes it moves at such a slow pace it appears to be dead, but it is very much alive and it’s simply doing what it’s supposed to do. I’m tempted to do that too. When it’s 25 below I think twice about committing to some evening program or meeting. I double-check my errand list to make sure I only have to go out once. I can’t even just rush out the door like I can other times of the year because I have to put on my heavy coat, mittens, hat boots, and scarf, walk out to the van and start it up, walk back in and take off my heavy coat, mittens, hat, boots, and scarf, wait a fifteen minutes and then put back on my heavy coat, and well, you know. And imagine doing this with three kids! Winter just makes me little more thoughtful. I try to consider what’s really worth doing.
I feel like this is our mode of operation at MICAH not in winter but throughout the entire year. We work on what seems to be really worth doing. Right now we’re working on the new Health and Spirituality Program, we’re making plans for the summer, we’re working on an upcoming retreat in Grand Forks, and the Snow Shoe retreat on Feb 10. We’re praying, discussing, considering, reading, and having fun besides a list of other projects. With all that’s going on there is a calculated slowness. It’s like when the blizzard hits and the temperatures drop. You strategize what you will spend your precious energy on. You really don’t want to run around doing frivolous errands. That’s the life of faith. You consider what is really worth doing and then you pour your energies into that. And even though the rest of the world, or your neighbor, wags their finger at you because you don’t seem frantic and busy like everyone else you are unconcerned what they think because you’re not listening to them but to something deeper. So, if you feel like hibernating and slowing down this time of year, well, maybe you should listen to that.
[Return to top of page]
MICAH NEWS - January 2008
by Trey Everett
At the beginning of another new calendar year I think about the life of faith. God continues to move and change and transform us, His new year’s resolution. I think about how God opens our hearts and eyes and reveals to us the ways of God. These ways are mind blowing, painful, strange, terrifying, beautiful, joyful, dangerous, and holy all at the same time. Our Sunday school ideas of love and life and money and decisions and relationships and how it all interacts with God are one by one cast off the cliff of the brain into the sea of false ideas and forgetfulness. Some of these immature and false beliefs, what I call Sunday school ideas, I look back upon and laugh. I’m so grateful they have long ago been cast over the edge and have sank into the depths. But other ideas I don’t laugh at. They’re beliefs I have right now and I cling to these with passion. They bring me security, I identify with them and it’s difficult for me to even consider letting them out of my grip. In fact I can’t image it if these tightly held ideas were really false and that they would one day be cast into that sea. I guess I understand that this must have been the same way I felt with those Sunday school notions I once held so dearly but now am thankful they’re gone. The more I allow God to change me, the more I let my fingers loosen, the more I begin to realize I am truly in chains. And I am slowly becoming aware that God must toss all, not some, but all of those false ideas over the edge. As I gather courage to reluctantly give up what I possess I begin to shockingly understand that God is not so interested in throwing my false ideas of God into the sea. I begin to realize that God is not really interested in tossing my immature thoughts or naïve images over the edge. I see more and more that God is actually taking me to the edge. God’s plan is to toss me over that edge where I will disappear into the waves completely engulfed by God. That’s quiet a new year’s resolution.
I’m reminded of the poem by Christopher Logue:
Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It’s too high!
Come to the edge.
And they came
And we pushed
And they flew
[Return to top of page]
|
