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January 2017Dear Friends in the Journey,Happy New Year! I am not sure how your life went, but I know a lot of people who are happy to see 2016 close. Especially in this country, it was a contentious year with our political election season. In the circles I move in, there was a sense that we had not reached “lows” like this in a long time. We saw a spike in hate crimes after election day, and polarization seems pervasive. That added with whatever personal crisis and/or situations one goes through – and, of course, there’s an eagerness to see 2016 end.The new year is often a time of expectation and promise for us. We hope that by end of this year, the changes we seek or the things that we hope for will come to pass. We might find ourselves saying aloud and in our hearts, “Maybe this year…” If you do new year’s resolutions, you may find yourself engaged with great fervor in some kind of self-improvement project (losing weight, changing a habit, praying more often, etc.) hoping to sustain that energy beyond February! And we also know that the new year holds surprises for us that we cannot imagine right now. Some of these will be good things. Some will be very difficult. The new year is always an exercise in stepping into the unknown.For me, embracing the new year is a lot like out discipleship journey. We do not know what is going to come our way, but we step forward in faith. It is risky business for sure. And yet it seems that only when we are truly open can something new emerge for us. That’s what we will take up in these reflections.Every year in my December or January reflections every year, I like to highlight the following passage from African-American theologian Howard Thurman called, “Now the Real Work of Christmas Begins.” Once we have gotten past all of the presents and hoopla that accompany so much of the cultural celebrations, we do well to focus in on much deeper meanings of the season….When the song of the angels is stilled,when the star in the sky is gone,when the kings and princes are home,when the shepherds are back with their flocks,the work of Christmas begins:to find the lost,to heal the broken,to feed the hungry,to release the prisoner,to rebuild the nations,to bring peace among the people,to make music in the heart.Blessings,Mike Bouchermichaelcboucher@I. Fire-Starter Questions1. Have you ever taken a risk without truly knowing what might happen? What was that like and how did you decide to go forward?2. What is one thing you’d hope for in the upcoming year? What does this hope require of you?II. Some Scripture Passages for ReflectionMatthew 14: 28-29“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,”?he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.?Ecclesiates 11: 1-2; 6Be generous: Invest in acts of charity. Charity yields high returns.Don’t hoard your goods; spread them around. Be a blessing to others. This could be your last night. Go to work in the morning and stick to it until evening without watching the clock. You never know from moment to moment how your work will turn out in the end.Hebrews 11:1 – 2The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.?III. Some Questions for Reflection1. What kind of risk did Peter have to take in order to take his step? What do you think he had to confront in himself? What do you have to confront in order to take a risk?2. Ecclesiastes might be suggesting that charity, generosity, being a blessing to others or sticking with our work are something of a risk. Would you agree? What are some of the everyday risks that you take that might fit with what is spoken of here?3. What is a risk that you have taken that made your life more worth living? What is a risk you might need to take in order to make life more worth living?IV. CommentaryI saw a Facebook meme the other day that said (and I’m paraphrasing it a little): When you want something that you haven’t had (or haven’t had as fully as you want it), you have to do something you have not done (or have not done as fully as you could have).To me there’s a lot of truth in this statement (there are also some serious limitations to it which I speak about briefly in the footnote) and seems to be a corollary of the common, “If you keep on doing what you have done, you’re gonna keep getting what you have gotten…” This rings true for me these days as I am in a period of some change in my life, and it is becoming clear that I must do something different/more fully than I have been doing. This requires risk.In some ways, just getting up each day is a risk. We have no idea what is going to come our way, and many of us know from experience that life can change in an instant with no preparation. One of my poet heroes, David Whyte, has a few lines from a poem that read, “Revelation must be terrible with no time left to say goodbye. Imagine that moment staring at the still waters with only the brief tremor of your body to say you are leaving everything and everyone you know behind.” Change is like that. Everything we know is being left behind for an unknown and possibly uncertain future. No more control, just a difficult surrender. And then, of course, once the new normal emerges, we go right back to our old ways in the new setting…Of course I am saying this somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but risking to do or be something new seems to require a lot of us and is often hard to do voluntarily.When I think about it, every day is like a portal to the unknown. What was true yesterday may not be true at day’s end. Just like at the new year, we enter in not knowing what will be true at the end of the year.And apart from the risk of getting up every day or living into the new year, we all might take big and small risks that propel us into some new territory. What I like about the reading from Ecclesiastes is that, in my mind, it frames something like charity as a risk – or even our every day work as a risk. Charity, for example, could be a monetary gift but it could also be some form of kindness or hospitality. Maybe we pay attention to someone, host someone or listen to them. Maybe we even try to forgive someone or offer a second chance. And what’s the risk in this? The way I see it, it’s a risk because the person or group that we give it to might not do with it what we want. Or they might not appreciate it. Or they might not change their ways. Or it just doesn’t turn out the way that we thought it would.Just recently I heard a man named Dominic Barter speak. He is a practitioner of Restorative Justice from Rio, and I was blown away by his presence and work. In his talk he spoke about something so simple as our response to the question, “How are you?” as being a risk that we might want to step into more fully. He suggested that maybe we risk speaking more truthfully and letting the reality of what we are really feeling emerge. But, he says, in a time starved world, we end up opting for “I’m good,” or “I’m fine,” when in fact there is so much more we need to be saying and so much more we need to be hearing.Then, of course, if we’re talking about risk, there’s the famous story of Peter on the water. Jesus says, “Come!” And Peter steps out.I just want to pause for a moment here for reflection. To what degree is this “Peter moment” true in your life these days? Are there invitations that are being made to you to step out into something? Is there a risk that you suspect that you need to take?What I like about this story is that Peter was the one who first made the request. Peter says, “Call me and I will come.” So Jesus does! Reminds me of the old phrase, “Be careful what you pray for….” Some of the change that I am going through right now I think is a direct result of my prayers to be more fully alive. I just did not expect that the invitation to be more alive might come through such a difficult route! I have always loved the story of a man fell down a cliff, but before falling to his certain death, he was able to grab hold of a limb protruding from the side of the cliff. As he grips the limb with all his might, he hears a voice from the top of the cliff. Hello the voice says. The man hanging on for his dear life frantically yells to a figure that he cannot quite make out. The man says, “Yes, please help me. I am losing my grip. Please help me. A calm voice comes from the top of the cliff, “Do not worry my child. It is God. All you have to do is let go.” There is a long pause. The man looks down and the 200 feet drop and the raging river below…takes a deep breath…and yells back, “Is there anyone else up there?”If your life is like mine, I can feel like this on the spiritual journey. I have prayed for a change of some kind, or help or strength or assistance and what comes my way could not seem more of the opposite. I might look up at the heavens and think, “Really? This is your answer?”In so many very real ways, faith and prayer and the discipleship journey are risks themselves. Yet Hebrews offers a perspective that this risk of faith becomes the foundation for living a transformational life. It is the handle that then begins to guide us along the way. And in my estimation it becomes the force that encourages (from the old understanding of giving us more heart) to take the risks that we need to take to love ourselves and this world more deeply. It is the force that then enables us to do what Howard Thurman suggests is the real work of Christmas in a culture that moves us in another direction.So as we move through the new year, I would encourage you (and I will work to do this too) to think about some of the risks that you would like to take or take more of this year. Some of these could be very simple risks for you and some could be very profound. And what is a “simple” risk for one person might be a profound one for another – so there’s no need to compare, just decide on some risks that challenge you. A few categories of risks that you might want to consider would be:Having a conversation with someone that you know you need to haveMeeting someone that you have wanted to connect withTelling someone how you really feelGoing somewhere that you have wanted to goLetting go of something that you have held on toSpeaking a truth to powerInvolving yourself with a group of people that you do not knowParticipating in acts of resistance, service or justiceNot doing somethingBeing stillOf course the list can go on and on. One reflection I have on risk, however, is that if it doesn’t not scare you to some degree or make you feel uncomfortable, it’s probably not going to help you grow all that much. In my experience, when we do something where we have to, like Peter, lick our lips, shake our shoulders and tell ourselves, “You can do this…,” then we’re taking a risk that can move us forward somehow.I wish you well on the journey!V. Action StepOne action I will take from these reflections is…. ................
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