Stillness

Finding rest in stillness

Play

I chuckled as I ran by the local elementary school on a hot sunny day in late June. I don’t typically laugh when I’m running; I’m usually too busy gasping for air to even think about laughing. But this particular day, my heart laughed as I jogged by. 

It was sports day. Various stations were set up in readiness for the day’s events. The stations looked fun and I felt a childlike desire for play.

A few years ago, educators in the United Kingdom undertook an experiential study on play. A number of concerns prompted the study: high stress levels and depression in young children, poor academic performance, poor behavior, and inadequate social skills.

The educators made some remarkable discoveries when they equipped the playground with simple, everyday objects suitable for imaginative play. Student creativity increased. Playground fights decreased. Academic performance improved. Self-esteem rose; students took more risks academically and socially. Children were happier and less stressed when they had time for unstructured play.

That morning as I ran, I considered that as adults we either do not play enough, or our play fails to provide any measurable benefits. 

There are obvious reasons why adults ignore the importance of play. Family commitments, work, chores, and deadlines take priority over recreational activities. The expectations we impose on our self, or those that others impose on us, dominate our time.

When we do engage in leisure activities, we may not feel rested or refreshed. That round of golf was frustrating, the motor on the boat malfunctioned, or the kids were fighting. Despite all the money and time we spend on recreation, we often remain dissatisfied. 

Something, it seems, is lacking in our attitude towards leisure.

Sabbatical living

We can liken leisure to the biblical concept of the Sabbath. The Biblical explanation for the Sabbath goes back to the creation myth of Genesis. God created the earth in six days, and rested on the seventh. If rest was good for God, it was also good for people.

Initially, the Sabbath was a day of rest for everyone, including beasts of burden. Over time, a concept of sabbatical living evolved. The concept encompassed rest and relaxation, celebration with others, and sharing in God’s divine life. Periods of worship gave the individual and the community opportunities to pause, reflect, and connect with God. Attitudes of joy and thankfulness permeate sabbatical living.

The concept of sabbatical living reaches its fullness in the example and teaching of Jesus. When the Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking Sabbath laws, Jesus replied, “The Sabbath was made for humankind” (Mark 2.27). Work and rest both have a purpose and fulfill a need in human life.

The Gospels record instances of Jesus working hard, going off for a meal and a glass of wine with his buddies, and withdrawing to a remote place to pray. Jesus balanced work, recreation, and leisure as a spiritual discipline. As a spiritual discipline, leisure was a form of personal re-creation that energized Jesus to return to his ministry with vigor and passion.

Leisure nourishes spirituality

Leisure can be for us a practice that nourishes spirituality, but it demands a shift in our attitude towards time. In a culture that often judges a person’s worth by the activity of their smart phone, leisure teaches that constant availability and activity is detrimental. In a society that makes a competition of busyness, leisure says to slow down.

In today’s social environment, we may feel compelled to buy into the busyness, even with our leisure time. Our vacations sometimes become such a swirl of activity that we return   home needing a rest.

Leisure encourages us to seek rest for our souls, to listen to the sounds outside of our self, and to see the world beyond our self.

Leisure asks that we stop running so that we might breath in deeply of the stillness that makes us receptive to God. In stillness, we encounter the presence of God in our self, in others, in our activities, and in the world around us. In stillness, we temporarily transcend our concerns. We re-emerge with new vision and energy.

If we approached leisure as a spiritual discipline that nourished stillness, I suspect that we would experience benefits similar to those that the children in the study experienced from play. If we could learn to rest our weary self in God, we would become more creative, productive, self-possessed, selfless, joyful and holy.

Landscapes of love

Landscapes of love


Road trips and landscapes:

Road trips and summer vacation are synonymous for many families. Over the years, our family has made many road trips. We derived numerous benefits from our road trips. We made lifetime memories, found creative solutions to unexpected problems, rediscovered the joys of simple pleasures, experienced new places, and learned new things about the people, and world around us.

Longer road trips exposed us to a variety of unfamiliar landscapes. Recalling some of our road trips, I see in my mind’s eye a diversity of Canadian landscapes.

Lake Louise

Coast off Tofino BC
Louise McEwan photo

A full moon over the snow capped mountains surrounding Lake Louise, the brilliant yellow fields of flowering rapeseed in eastern Saskatchewan, the tide crashing into the craggy coastline off Botanical Beach on Vancouver Island are just three of the memorable landscapes etched in my mind. Each of these landscapes had a unique beauty that touched my heart.

What we see in a landscape is only a fraction of the diversity and life that abounds there. We catch a glimpse of the promise of the landscape. Snow capped mountains hold the promise of life giving waters that will eventually tumble to the sea, and return to the land in the form of the rain that nourishes. The crops in the fields speak of the cooperation between human hands and nature, and hold the promise of grains and oils for food preparation. The diverse life of the ocean lies invisible beneath the waves.

Landscapes reveal something about God:

Landscapes can be spiritually charged environments that provide a glimpse into the nature of God. To the receptive individual, these environments reveal something of the divine personality.

Love is the chief trait of this personality. The evangelist, John, repeatedly defines God as love. Over and over, John reiterates, “God is love,” and reminds us that “whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” (1 John 4:16).

Landscapes can be symbolic of God’s abundant and sustaining love for humanity. As we view a landscape, we know rather than see, that it supports an amazing array of plants, animals and insects, and that all of these are interconnected. We glimpse God’s sustaining love in the landscape’s ability to sustain its diverse life forms.

We encounter God’s abundant love in our lives, through those things we refer to as blessings. In times when we do not feel blessed, God’s love sustains us through the barrenness of our personal landscape. We know this through faith, even though we may not perceive it at the time.

The variety of landscapes throughout the world speaks of God’s creativity. Mountain peaks, plains, beaches, rain forests, and deserts speak of God’s imagination and artistry. God’s creativity is reflected in human endeavors as successive generations conceive new ideas and bring them to fruition. Human settlements, architecture, the arts, and technology are some of the ways we share in God’s creative imagination.

Landscapes as metaphor for relationship:

Our appreciation of landscapes can be a metaphor for our relationship to God.

 Old Glory - Rossland Range
Photo by Louise McEwan

We might treat this relationship like a landscape on the road trip, viewing it as a source of inspiration for our life, or simply glancing at it as we zoom by. We might stop at the viewpoint, look around, and say “Ah, how beautiful,” snap a photo and then drive off. In these cases, we have briefly seen, but not experienced the landscape. Our encounter with the landscape has been superficial. Or, we might become more engaged with the landscape. We pitch our tent, remain awhile, and experience the promise of the place.

We zoom by God, glancing briefly, when we let the busyness of life take precedence over the activation of our spirituality. God is in the background of our personal landscape; we believe but we do not engage.

Clipart from Clipartheaven.com

When we think about God only on Sunday, it is like stopping at the viewpoint to enjoy a stretch and the scenery. We go to church. We emerge feeling good. We have stretched our souls. But then we fall back into the rhythm of the week, and God is once again in the background of our personal landscape. We have taken the photo, but some time passes before we look at it again.

Photo by Louise McEwan 

Our relationship with God is a landscape full of promise. God invites us to pitch our tent and to put our self in the photo. We can drive by or become part of God’s landscape of love.

Summer reading selections

Visiting the local library at the start of summer holidays was a ritual when our children were little. We’d scour the shelves, make our selections, and sign out armfuls of books. A few days later, we’d be off to the lake, books in tow.

If the summer was a scorcher, we could retreat to the coolness of the cottage to read. If it rained, books helped to wait out the bad weather.

Those years are long past, but I still look forward to summer as a time to indulge in reading. Even if I'm not at the cottage, sitting under the gazebo with a good book makes an ordinary day into a holiday.

If you are heading off to your equivalent of cottage country, and are looking for something to read, I offer a few suggestions.

Fiction:

Lydia Davis’s new translation of Madame Bovary brings Gustave Flaubert’s classic to life. On the book's dust jacket, Emma Bovary is described as “the original desperate housewife.” Smart and pretty with refined sensibilities, Emma struggles to accept her situation as a married woman with limited opportunities for self-actualization. Married to a mediocre doctor, and living in a small provincial town, Emma gradually loses touch with reality. She inhabits a delusional world of romance, indulging her senses with expensive goods and her sexuality with a series of doomed affairs.

Originally published in 1856 in six installments in a periodical, the story quickly became notorious. Flaubert and his editors were tried and acquitted for offenses against public immorality and religion.

A family chronicle:

My favorite read this year, without a doubt, was Rain of Gold by Victor Villasenor. Rain of Gold walks the line between fiction and non-fiction. Villasenor masterfully incorporates elements of myth, magical realism, Catholicism, indigenous Mexican spirituality, and history in the retelling of his family history. There are scenes in this chronicle that will have you laughing, crying or cringing. In an amusing scene, Villasenor describes his grandmother sitting in the outhouse with her cigar and whiskey, “gossiping with the Virgin.”

Non-fiction, spirituality:

If you are looking for something to nourish your soul, you might enjoy one of the following.

Maria Boulding’s translation of Saint Augustine’s The Confessions, published by New City Press is very readable. I have tried to read other translations of The Confessions in the past without a great deal of success. Translated from Latin, the language always seemed stilted and inaccessible. 

Boulding’s translation captures Augustine’s voice, including his sense of humor. The edition includes an informative introduction, useful notes and a comprehensive index. Parts of The Confessions are so beautiful; they will make your heart ache with the desire to know God as Augustine came to know God.

In one of his essays, Francis Bacon, a literary figure of the 17th century, divided books into three types. One type of book is to be tasted or read only in parts. Another type is to be swallowed or read superficially. These types of books are common. The third type of book is rare. It is to be chewed and digested, read “wholly and with diligence and attention.” The Confessions is one of those rare books that deserves to be chewed slowly and ruminated over.

The Prodigal God, by Timothy Keller is easy to read and challenges the reader on a personal level. This in-depth look at the parable of the prodigal son, found in The Gospel of Luke 15:11-32, provides new insight into the parable. Keller focuses on the limitations that the sons place on their love for their father and on the father’s loving response to each. Keller challenges readers to evaluate their actions and motivations, to make changes, and to accept the father’s invitation to the banquet.

The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life, edited by Wendy Wilson Greer, is a compilation of some of the writings of Henri Nouwen. 

Although noted as a man who was faithful to prayer, Nouwen was no stranger to the demands of a busy schedule or the intrusions that an active mind have on solitude and time with God. His humanness gives authenticity to his writings. The compilation is not an academic treatment of prayer, but a resource for nourishing a prayerful life.

The Only Necessary Thing is a series of short passages on a variety of topics, all relating to prayer in some way. The passages average around a page each, making this little book perfect for daily reflection.

Whether you prefer to taste, swallow, or chew and digest your summer reading, your local library or bookseller is certain to have something to please your palate.

Happy reading!

Be your own person

Following the crowd

Growing up in my family, we were encouraged to exercise wise judgment. Whenever we were begging for permission to follow the crowd, instead of saying “No,” my mother would ask us, “If everyone jumped off the bridge, would you?” 

Trail BC bridge crossing the Columbia River

Since we lived near the fast flowing Columbia River with its dangerous undercurrents, jumping off the bridge was paramount to suicide.

My mother’s metaphor was clear. Sometimes bad things happen when you run with the pack. Be your own person.

My mother was very clever. Her question was annoying because our answer determined the outcome. Our impatient reply was always, “Of course not.” With that answer, we had sealed our fate; it meant that we did not have a good argument for our case. There was no need for Mom to say no. We had said no to ourselves. We had monitored our behavior before we had any opportunity to get into mischief.

Some of the young people involved in the recent Vancouver riot could have benefitted from repeated exposure to my mother’s question. If they had the self-control to monitor their behavior, they could have saved themselves and their families the heartache of their bad choices and the consequences of their criminal acts.

A scene from the Vancouver riot 2011

An unfortunate example

Take the unfortunate example of one rioter. A 17-year-old elite athlete, he was poised to attend university on a scholarship for water polo. He was captured on camera in what appears to be an attempt to ignite a police car on fire.

This young man turned himself into police, asked the court’s permission to waive his right as a minor to keep his identity anonymous, and made a remorseful public apology. He apologized first to his parents, saying that his actions do not reflect the lessons and values they have taught him. He accepts responsibility and is anxious to restore his reputation.

This rioter said that he was caught up in the moment. After having jumped off the bridge, he is trying to swim back to shore.

He is feeling some very unpleasant consequences because of his poor judgment. He has been publicly shamed and threatened on social media sites to such an extreme degree that his family had to leave their home. He has been provisionally suspended from the national water polo team. He missed his high school graduation.

Missing a high school graduation may not sound like much of a consequence, but high school graduation is a milestone in the lives of almost every young adult. It marks the passage from childhood to adulthood, and is a time of recognition and celebration.

The young rioter and his family had a lot to celebrate. He had a particular set of skills that had put him on a path towards the Olympics. Not many graduates can say that.

What's in the toolbox?

All graduates, though, have a set of skills that they have developed over the years. They leave high school with an impressive set of tools designed to help them achieve success in the world. All will have basic skills in literacy, numeracy, and technology. Some will have tailored their skills according to their interests and abilities. They may have specialized skills in athletics, the arts, and leadership. The toolbox of skills that the graduates have assembled will help them build the future of their imagination.

In today’s competitive environment, it is easy to become overly focused on the skill set because the quality of the skills in the toolbox has an influence on success. Parents are understandably anxious to provide opportunities for their children that might give them a bit of an edge in the world. Graduates are naturally focused on their future goals and strive hard to achieve them.

With society’s emphasis on fame and fortune, some may overlook the importance of a strong moral-ethical character, placing greater emphasis on a person’s marketable skills. But character matters in life. All the tools in the box need to be branded with personal integrity. An individual’s toolbox is incomplete if it lacks traits like self-control, honesty, faithfulness, respect, and good judgment.

The situation of the young rioter in the example above illustrates the point that my mother tried to impress on my sisters and me as teens. Choices have consequences. Let your choices reflect who you are, and not the character of the crowd. If you get caught up in the moment, you might regret jumping off the bridge. It’s a long fall, the water’s cold, and the swim back to shore, against the current of negative consequence, is exhausting.

Evidence for God

Ads ruffle feathers 

A recent ‘No God’ campaign ruffled some feathers in Kelowna, BC. ‘No God’ campaign ads read, “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” The ads are installed on the sides of city buses.

The ‘No God’ campaign originated in London, England in 2009, and spread throughout Europe and North America. The campaign has been repeated periodically since then in various cities around the world.

Reactions

Some Christians feel threatened with the ‘No God’ campaign. Two of the Kelowna ads vanished into thin air. Maybe the vanishing act was an act of God, a divine attempt to prove God’s existence. More likely, it was an act of vandalism perpetrated by an annoyed Christian.

Other Christians like the campaign. The ads promote discussion around kitchen tables, in lunchrooms, and over a beer in the local pub. The ads get people talking because they raise good questions.


“There’s probably no God,” suggests some uncertainty. “Stop worrying,” suggests a particular image of God. “Enjoy your life” focuses attention on values and happiness.

"There's probably no God"

“There’s probably no God.” Here is a point of connection between theists and atheists. The connection is doubt about beliefs. Neither the theist nor the atheist can definitively prove their position according to scientific method.

Both will use their own version of apologetics, or reasoned argument, to prove their position. Apologetics are unlikely to convert either a staunch theist or atheist, although a carefully crafted argument may influence someone who is undecided, searching, or disillusioned. The ‘No God’ ad campaign is a sort of apologetic tweet.

The Christian evidence for God is experiential. We encounter God personally in the events and people of our lives, historically in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and traditionally through the witness of the past. We also encounter God’s presence in the complexity, interdependence and beauty of creation and in the marvels that science continues to reveal.

Blaise Pascal (b.1623- d.1622)

None of this is hard evidence for the existence of God. My experience of God will not prove God’s existence to someone else. Belief depends on faith experience, and on choice. In his famous piece on the existence of God, the French philosopher and mathematician Pascal concluded that belief is a wager between two choices. Belief is a wager for the proposition, “There probably is a God.”

"Stop worrying"

“Stop worrying.” The image we have of God influences our relationship to God, to other, and to the environment. Often humanity’s image of God is androcentric. God becomes like man, instead of man becoming holy like God. God becomes a powerful and tyrannical male ruler. God is the tough taskmaster, waiting to crack the whip every time humans mess up.

If this is our image of God, our relationships are diminished as we seek to lord it over others. The environment becomes a source for personal gain and is no longer treated as a life-giving source for the common good.

If we relate to God as a tough taskmaster, then we have a lot to worry about. When we see God as a loving creator who nurtures humanity, and who calls every individual to holiness, there is no need for worry; our only need is to make ourselves more like this God. So, “stop worrying.”

"And enjoy your life"

“And enjoy your life.” What makes people happy? Is the purpose of life essentially pleasure? Is belief in God incompatible with happiness and the enjoyment of life?

Psychologists have come to some conclusions about happiness. The hedonistic pursuit of pleasure, wealth, or power does not ensure happiness. Happiness comes from being connected with family, friends and community, from having enough financial means to live with dignity, and from a sense of self, values and purpose.

There is a transcendent element to happiness, a spiritual element that takes the individual beyond the self and its every whim. The way to enjoy life is to get beyond one’s ego.

If people connect belief in God with unhappiness, Christians may be responsible. Maybe we are Christian in name but not in practice; we talk the talk, but do not walk the walk. Maybe our lives fail to reflect the love that comes from Christ.

The most convincing evidence for the existence of God is an authentic believer whose life proclaims God with fidelity and joy.

“There’s probably no God.” “There’s probably a God.” Place your wager.