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  November 2009
In This Issue
Training and Education
Poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke
Join us for a Dialogue Session
When is change a gift?
 
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Dear Reader,
    
     Change is difficult. But I believe it is our calling and our vocation as persons of faith. I invite you to read, reflect and join us for our feedback session next week. For those unable to attend, please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas via email or by phone. We always appreciate your gifts of reflection!
 
Shalom.
John Adams signature
John B. Adams, M.Div.    
Co-Director, Turner Ministry Resource Center
jadams@pilink.org 
John Adams 0509
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Poetry by German Poet 
Rainer Maria Rilke
 
How surely gravity's law,
strong as an ocean current,
takes hold of even the smallest thing
and pulls it toward the heart of the world.
 
Each thing -
each stone, blossom, child -
is held in place.
 
Only we, in our arrogance,
push out beyond what we each belong to
for some empty freedom.
 
If we surrendered
to earth's intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.
 
Instead we entangle ourselves
in knots of our own making
and struggle, lonely and confused.
 
So, like children, we begin again
to learn from the things,
because they are in God's heart:
they have never left him.
 
This is what the things can teach us:
to fall,
patiently to trust our heaviness.
even a bird has to do that
before he can fly.
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John Adams 0509Join us for a Dialogue Session
with John Adams
Bring your lunch and join us from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 19th for a dialogue session with John Adams to discuss his article "When is Change a Gift?" We'll meet in the classroom of the Community Services building of the Pastoral Institute, 2022 15th Avenue, Columbus. Please RSVP by emailing Margie Watson at mwatson@pilink.org or call her at 706-649-6360, ext. 1207. Drinks will be provided. We hope you'll join us!
When is Change a Gift?
Change equals some type of death
by John B. Adams, M.Div. 
 
     "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; REPENT (change your mind) and believe in the gospel." Mark 1:15
 
     "Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life - even though invisible to spectators - is with Christ in God. He is your life." Col. 3:3
 
     Many authors have written on change. Most of us probably don't like change. Calls for change generally cause us to try hard to get things 'back to normal' as quickly as possible. Many admit they much prefer the comfort of old habits and old rituals. 
 
     I am painfully aware I am not the first to ponder change and death as two sides of the same coin, yet I would like to reflect on this 'coin' as we enter the last chapter of 2009. We are about to celebrate THANKSGIVING and then move into ADVENT. The first is truly an American contribution to a long list of annual holidays and the latter is the traditional beginning of the church year. 
 
     Some of us enter the Thanksgiving season with sadness. We may have lost significant people in our lives. Grandpa will not be sitting at the head of the table to carve the turkey. Aunt Elizabeth's disease finally took its toll and she will not be with the children and grandchildren for this annual family gathering. Some families may have lost younger members too - a child, a spouse, maybe a sibling...

     Loss takes many forms. It might be health which may entail chronic physical pain. A host of people in America have lost jobs. Due to economic stressors, others have lost their homes over the past twelve months. Some have experienced 'natural' disasters forcing them from home and livelihood. 
 
     In the midst of all this loss can we say any of this is 'gift'?   
 
     If you have lost a significant person in your life or if you have ever lost a job through downsizing or if you have been struck by an unexpected disaster, then you know the magnitude of these questions. Nothing about such changes feels like 'gift!' It is nothing anyone would desire or consciously seek. In the midst of such pain, it does not feel like 'gift'!
 
     Probably all of us have met the proverbial POLLYANNA who always puts on a HAPPY FACE and smiles, denying not only their own emotions, but the trauma others might be experiencing. Often we can hear one saying some glib statement like 'God is in control' or 'God took her because He needed her' or 'you have other blessings to be thankful for....' All of these statements deny true feelings and honest questions in a time of grief and sadness!
     A recent five-day retreat on Male Spirituality in the Hill Country of Texas reminded me that life is not about fairness, it is about letting go. Often we are asked to hold two extremes, often a paradox, in tension as we move forward.
 
     Several years ago I was introduced to the idea of 'Cradle Episcopalians' - meaning the person was born and reared in that particular denomination. I sorta chuckled and with some degree of pride thought to myself how thankful I was I had not been 'born' into any church. I was a Baptist and at the ripe old age of 11, I had made my own decision regarding church membership. 
 
     As ludicrous as this might sound to me today there was a time when I had to change my understanding of just what a free choice I had made. In all actuality I, too, was born on a denominational pew like most others attending church. My pew just happened to be a Baptist pew and it was the only faith tradition I had ever known. So the thought of making my own decision regarding church membership was almost laughable. I chose to be Baptist in large part because that was where my parents attended and I wanted to 'belong' too.
 
     Now as an adult I find I am called to change (to die) to lots of old understandings. In her recent book "An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith," Barbara Brown Taylor talks about the benefits of going through loss. She suggests that we stick to predictable routes through life, preferring what is efficient and safe to that which is dangerous, unknown or wild. 
 
     "And yet," she writes, "if someone asked us to pinpoint the times in our lives that changed us for the better, a lot of those times would be wilderness times."  She cites times like divorce, a move, illness or a career change as times when change (death) forces us to put on new glasses, to see though different lenses. 
 
     Many of the above mentioned examples are unexpected or even unwanted changes. But when was the last time you (and I) actually risked to change - risked to die to the old way of doing something? When did we change some thoughts about a long-held belief or even question some idea we have just accepted as truth? When did we seek out change? 
 
     Have we read a book we knew would actually be a challenge to our understanding of God or our faith journey? Do we seek out times to talk with someone with a different view of life or walk of faith? When did we risk not knowing where the path might lead?
 
     "The Greek word metanoia, usually translated "repent," quite literally means to "change your mind," to turn around and operate differently. Given that, it is rather amazing that Christian history has largely become a protection of the status quo...  You would have thought Jesus had said 'stay the same' instead of 'change!'" (Richard Rohr)
 
     My denominational home base traditionally denied any place for icons or the arts, particularly in the sacred sanctuary. We never talked about contemplation and quiet reflection. Church fathers and mothers of long ago were never taught or discussed regarding their life and legacy... with the exception of one or two missionaries within the past hundred years. Candles and incense were not even considered. Even a cross depicting the crucified Christ was thought to be unacceptable; only an empty cross was appropriate. We didn't want to be confused with Catholics. 
 
     Recently my journey has begun to shift and I have been challenged to consider other ways of looking into the Mystery we call GOD. 
 
     As we enter these two special seasons of the year - one secular and the other very sacred territory - I invite all of us to embrace this time as seasons for change to happen. Some new considerations might cause us to die to some items in our life that may have served their function. Maybe it is time to let them go. Stand and risk a new idea, a new way of being embraced by the Mystery and possibly a GOOD NEWS way of seeing things might arrive as a gift. It will not be easy. But it will be a gift if we dare to follow!
 
AMEN 

contact John Adams at jadams@pilink.org 

 
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In December's issue of The Bridge - Holiday Hope
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