What a gift that God has given us, the capacity to be in intimate relationships. Peterson is very insightful when he points out that the gift of intimacy in the garden was prefaced by an assignment to name the animals. He talks about two friends who walk into a forest, and while one looks around and sees trees, brush, flying things, the other knows what each is specifically called and thus is "more alive" and more in relation to the life around them and more in relation to God. But then he continues on and says it's not enough to have a deep love of nature. We must have just as deep of an appreciation for other human beings, for they too are part of creation. "If we are going to enjoy and celebrate and live this gift of place in which the Lord God has placed us, we are going to have to embrace the people around us with the same delight as we do the hawks soaring above us and the violets blooming at our feet" (83-84). How true, yet how difficult at times!
Several years ago when I was working in youth ministry, one of the summer trips we offered was a week-long boat adventure on Lake Powell. I was asking one of the students what she had liked most about the trip--what most of the youth were impressed with was the incredible beauty of the location, the crystal-clear water, the stunning mountains surrounding the lake. Indeed, she reported how she was in such awe of God's creation and how close she felt to God in such a beautiful setting. But then she said that she realized how easy it was for her to admire God's beauty in nature and yet so discount God's people whom he had also created. She told me that her week on Lake Powell convicted her that she needed to view her friends and even the difficult people in her life the same way she viewed the rest of God's creation. If she could see God in nature and worship God more fully because of her setting, how much more should she be in awe of God because of the people in her life, even those difficult to love? Her goal after that trip was to see and embrace God more fully in the people around her. Pretty amazing!
One of Austin Seminary's College of Pastoral Leaders cohorts, we are a group of seven women PC(USA) pastors who love to laugh, pray, play, and study together. And of course, drink margaritas. Here are our musings on Eugene Peterson's books about spiritual theology.
Spirited Women
The Reverends
Tracie Bullis,
Esther Choi,
Ashley Griffith,
Faith Jongewaard,
Donna McClellan,
Laurel Neal,
Shannon Weisenfels
Books
- Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places
- Eat This Book
- The Jesus Way
Reading Schedule
Eat This Book
Week of Nov. 4 - pp. x-11
Week of Nov. 11 - pp. 15-22
Week of Nov. 18 - pp. 23-36
Week of Nov. 25 - pp. 37-58
Week of Dec. 2 - pp. 59-77
Week of Nov. 4 - pp. x-11
Week of Nov. 11 - pp. 15-22
Week of Nov. 18 - pp. 23-36
Week of Nov. 25 - pp. 37-58
Week of Dec. 2 - pp. 59-77
Conference Calls
- December 6, 2007 1:30 p.m. ET
- January 10, 2008 1:30 p.m. ET
- February 7, 2008 1:30 p.m. ET
- March 3, 2008 1:30 p.m. ET
5 comments:
A grand story of insight from a teenager. Thanks.
I find myself longing for intimacy but having the pastor-congregant line to deal with. I think about how much I want to love well, until I'm called to love someone who I'm out of sync with relationally. And yet, when it's all said and done, it will be the relationships that matter most.
This section was challenging in a positive way for me.
I'm still trying to send a comment... I love your writing, Esther...I'll write more if this actually gets through...
Ah ha! It got through! I had to reopen an account to get that last message sent...Oh, I hate technology! Anyway...I've been trying to say how much I've loved your reflections, Esther! You have a real gift with words.
I'm simply loving the Peterson text--I revel in his ability to write also.
Tracie, I appreciated your comment about intimacy in relatin to the whole pastor-congregant thing. I had a wonderful group of women in my church in Iowa with whom I had a spiritual formation group, and yet I was aware that I was their pastor--and my husband was their pastor--so some of my life (and his) needed to be hidden from them. I need friends outside my congregation for a more complete intimacy.
Yay, Faith, I'm glad you've gotten it to work. I love your insights, too!
Yes, I totally agree with Tracie and Faith about the pastor-congregant relationships. It's been particularly challenging for my husband because we are friends with a few couples in our church, but I always have to remind him that I am still their pastor and that he's the pastor's spouse! I'm very thankful for the relationships we're building in our cohort because it is precisely these kind of intimate relationships OUTSIDE of my context that I need to stay sane and not feeling lonely in ministry.
And Tracie, I'm with you...it's a challenge to love someone with whom you're not "in sync" relationally. I tend not to pursue those people or remain as connected, but that's probably what these people need most.
I, too, long for intimacy--with God and others who love God. For over a year I've either looked in the wrong place(s) to find/fulfill that intimacy, or lived in a kind of fog as I relocate geographically, attempting to relocate and re-place myself in a new "garden" (to use Peterson's image which has been so helpful to me). What is my garden right now if not the church where I previously pastored? Is it primarily my family relationships? How do I see and share Christ's love in that garden?
I found it hard to find meaningful and appropriate and joy-filled intimacy as a pastor.
I do know that our basic desire as beings created by God and in His image is to be known intimately, to be heard and understood. That is my own heart's cry, and I've observed it from so many others as well.
I long for friendships with those who also desire to be intimate with God and with me. . .thus, I'm thankful for you Charlenes. . . even so, intimacy is something I desire so deeply but it's hard to come by. I love that worship song "True Intimacy"--"Here I am, waiting Lord, touch me now, like never before" (singer, Eoghan Easlip, pronounced "Owen")and I'm grateful for the pockets in my life and places and people in whom I find it!
HOW DO YOU FOSTER INTIMACY WITH GOD?
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