Tim's Sabbatical Journey and beyond: Sabbatical year - not just for farmers and pastors...

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Tim's Sabbatical Journey and beyond: Sabbatical year - not just for farmers and pastors...

Sabbatical year - not just for farmers and pastors anymore

I haven't blogged much this week since I have been at the Christian Leadership Alliance Conference in Dallas. Hope to pick up some of that content and merge it with some of the stuff running around in my head. 

This morning before checking out of the hotel, I watched the Royal Wedding highlights, I went downstairs and got breakfast and read the Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals scripture passage for the day. 

It was , Leviticus 25.1-17

 :3 "For six years you may plant your fields and prune your vineyards and harvest your crops, but during the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath year of complete rest. It is the Lord 's Sabbath. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards during that year. And don't store away the crops that grow on their own or gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. The land must have a year of complete rest. But you may eat whatever the land produces on its own during its Sabbath. This applies to you, your male and female servants, your hired workers, and the temporary residents who live with you. Your livestock and the wild animals in your land will also be allowed to eat what the land produces." (NLT)

Not sure why I had not hunted out this passage on sabbatical at the beginning of my sabbatical time, but here it is. 

What jumps out me is that this talks about a Sabbath for the LAND. 

But if you are not working the land, then that becomes a sabbath for the farmers, too. And this is extended to pretty much everyone else: their servants, employees, and visitors. And even their animals. 

This was every 7 years. Bible scholars say that the Israelites never really DID this nor the Year of Jubiliee every 50 years. That's too bad for them - and for us if we don't do it. What would the world be like if everyone lived out this Kingdom Sanctioned Rest?

Another thought - I had been thinking how privileged I was to have the opportunity to take a sabbath -and it IS a privilege to have that freedom in today's world, even for someone working in christian NGO/mission. But in this passage, the year of sabbath rest is not optional. It is not a suggestion but a command. (vs. 2)

Finally, note the element of faith involved. No sowing and reaping during that year. God will provide and you will eat what the land produces on its own. You are not allowed to save any of that for the 8th year. In fact, verses 18-22 answer the question of "what will we eat" saying that when you plant in the 6th year, you will harvest a triple harvest to allow you to live in years 7 and 8.

While in Kansas City, I met up with a guy there who felt that he should quit the corporate job he had recently taken elsewhere and move back to KC for a while. This involved living off his savings for several months and waiting on God. 

For me it is a bit easier, as I have ongoing financial support, but I do note that God provided graciously through my donors in December, January and February, to allow me to truly enjoy this time without nickel and diming myself. 

So is anyone game for taking a several months (a whole year?) off from your work, relying on God and enjoying his rest?All I can say is that God offers you this season of delight and rest.

Stations of the Cross

I went downtown to the Catholic cathedral today and did the "Stations of the Cross".

I don't think I had even heard of the Stations of the Cross until I went overseas. I recall seeing Stations of the Cross at the Basilica in Yamassoukro, Ivory Coast, and the term sounded odd to me - kind of like "feeding stations" you might find on a bike race, or battle stations.

In his book, "Monk Habits for everyday people: Benedictine spirituality for Protestants", Dennis Okholm points out that we Protestants have the idea that spiritual things are real only if they are spontaneous. He asks why we will practice various physical disciplines like flossing and exercise, if the doctor or dentist tells us to, but not spiritual ones?

Until very recently, I was in a similar place and had little place in my life for liturgy and prayers that were already written down, etc. I have been reading a book called "Common Prayer: a Liturgury for Ordinary Radicals" (Shane Claiborne) and have found it very helpful. Likewise, my time in N. Ireland last year gave me a taste for Celtic prayers.

So anyway, one day while cycling around downtown Kansas City, I saw a sign outside the beautiful Cathedral advertising the Stations of the Cross and was open to giving it a try.

The setting was beautiful - Good Friday at noon. A beautiful sanctuary with pretty impressive stained glass. The pews were maybe 2/3 filled with people of various ethnicity and ages and dress. I had the sudden realization that I was wearing my "Bob the Tomato" T-shirt and thought it was perhaps inappropriate, so I buttoned up my jacket.

There were two priests who advanced in a circle around the sanctuary, stopping at wooden panels representing the 14 stations of the cross.
At each one, the priest read a paragraph and then the congregation kneeled and read a paragraph in response.
There was a sort of stanza that went like this:

Priest: We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.

Congregation: Because by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.”

At the end of almost each station there was a part that read: "This is for me, so I express the feelings of my heart." I found this to be meaningful as it personalized Christ's action at that particular station for me, and then gave me time to respond in prayer. 

The Stations that we did are found online here. There are other versions that are perhaps better suited for protestants (see here), but I didn't have any troubles with the ones we did.

What struck me - and this should have not been a surprise really - was the big emphasis on Christ’s suffering: 

• his weakness, inability to even carry the cross alone. He understands my fatigue and defeats. In this he was “deprived of the satisfaction of carrying his burden alone”. He "enters the experience of all who must depend on others".(Stations 3 and 5)
• Jesus falls a second time: “I will never feel alone in my suffering or in my diminishment with this image of Jesus on the ground.”(7th station)\
• Jesus is stripped – the indignity of it, In this, Jesus shows the ultimate vulnerability of the defenseless. (10th station)
• Jesus experiences the pain and agony of the nails. Can there then be any pain or agony I would experience that he would not understand ?(11th station)
• The Tomb represents every tomb I stand before with fear, in defeat, struggling to believe it could ever be empty. (14th station)

I came away with the realization that the cross is not just about Jesus bearing our iniquities (which is so much the focus in Protestant circles), but also about Jesus enduring extreme suffering and pain and sorrow and weakness, and indignity and finally a cruel death and in so doing, identifying with us as we experience similar things and providing comfort to us as we walk through those things! Wow!

Looking at Isaiah 53, you certainly see all  of this. In verse 5, he is pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. The other side shows up in verse 3 where he takes our pain and bears our sorrows. The cross also brings healing (by his wounds we are healed). Our Western cultures are "guilt-based" so the first one speaks well to us, but for those from African and Asian "shame-based cultures", the fact that he was despised and held in low esteem (vs 3) speaks strongly to removing shame as well as guilt. 

Stand with me at Station 12, "at the foot of the cross, side by side with all humanity and behold our salvation."

Happy Good Friday and Happy Easter!

Glorified - That word you keep using, I don't think it means what you think it means.

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
27 “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.

28 Father, glorify your name!” (John 12:23, 27-28)

I've been reading in Eugene Peterson's "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places" (p. 100-103) where he writes about Christ reveal God's glory:  "the presence of God among us; the brightness radiating from God as he moves into our neighborhood".

But here Jesus is talking about being publicly humiliated, stripped, spat on, crucified and calls it being glorified.

Glorified?... That word you keep using, I don't think it means what you think it means.
Peterson says

"At the pivotal centerpoint of his Gospel, John gives us Jesus' most significant and critical, but also most disconcerting, statement on the glory. Jesus is anticipating his imminent death....

Glory, the brightness of God's presence right here on our home ground, clearly has something, maybe everything, to do with his approaching death and burial.

Jesus takes the brightest word in our vocabularies and plunges it into the darkest pit of experience, violent and excruciating death."

Picture I took yesterday at the Nelson-Atkins museum of Art. (didn't get the Artist's name).Note the blood that has fallen on the ground.

Oh, and the best part of Jesus' glory - he prays for his disciples (us included) that we will be glorified with the same glory! "The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one." (John 17:23)

Are you ready for that: "obscurity, rejection and humiliation, incomprehension, and misapprehension, a sacrificial life and an obedient death: the bright presence of God backlighting what the world despises or ignores"?
Am I?

Reading at Westport coffee

Sabbath. Coffee. Nuff said.

Ceramics - part 2

 On Thursdays I get to use the ceramics area and tools, so today I did two projects. the first was a Celtic Cross. I had a lot of fun with this. Finally gave up on doing any sort of "endless not" design in the center of the cross as it was just TOO HARD.

The other project (below) is a whimsical candle holder for those little "tea lights" or "votive candles".

Both still need to be fired and glazed.

Life in Community, Hospitality, the Body of Christ

I have been living in the Kansas City Boiler Room community for over 2 weeks now.
And it has been a really great experience even for someone who lives in a fairly small missions community in Mali, it is different to live day in and day out with people, to share living room, kitchen, washing machine, to rub shoulders in the morning when you just woke up or to see them at the end of the day when they are coming in from somewhere.

One of the things about the Boiler Room community is that they are intentional about living in community. Obviously this is great for singles and provides space for God to rub off the hard edges. But they also do it with married people and couples sharing the same house.

The Boiler Room Rule (not unlike the Benedictine Rule) says that
"At the heart of every Boiler Room is a living community committed to being:

1. Authentic: True to Christ
2. Relational: Kind to People
3. Missional: Taking the Gospel to the World. 

Dennis Okholm in his book "Monk Habits for Everyday People", which I have only just started, says that monastic communities demonstrate the significance of Christian community to an individualistic society. 

This is the same society that is focused on self  instead of soul. (see my blog post below on this).

I am finding that living in community gives me a chance to practice the spiritual gifts I may not be strong in. I was taught that we all have one or two spiritual gifts that we are gifted with, which will be motivational for us. Mine are serving and administration. But I was also taught that just because we have certain gifts, we are not absolved from practicing others: mercy, generosity, hospitality. . .
Living in community has given me a chance to do this.

• Lots of opportunities to serve but then that is a natural one for me.  
• Opportunities to share freely my food and other things - working on selfishness. 
• I see someone with a need that I have the financial resources that I can help with. So great to be on the giving end after receiving support from so many for so long. And this is different somehow from having random Malians come to my door and say "you are my only hope."
• Opportunities to practice hospitality. 

This last one is one of the Boiler room practices: "to offer simple hospitality to strangers wishing to stay and pray." In a sense, I am very much receiving this hospitality and it has been great to be welcomed with honor. But I have seen other examples.

1. We have a weekly "roommate meal" that everyone contributes to. And often outsiders are invited in. Afterwards we may sit and talk or might have a time of prayer.
2. We had two "couch surfers" come and stay on the couch in the prayer room for the night as they traveled following a band as 'groupies'.
3. The other day one of the guys here ran into two "travelers" on the street and invited them in for the night. They came with their guitars, and their dog "My Dog". And stayed for a few days. They are hitchhiking and riding on trains and dumpster-diving their way across the US. They "busk" to earn money (play guitar on the street) and also do odd jobs. Against all my preconceived notions, it ends up that they are Christians and pretty neat guys! I was honored to share food and conversation with them.

Part of hospitality is recognizing the Image of God in the other person and celebrating and honoring that.
Chesterton says: "It is because in the total stranger we perceive man himself; the image of God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of the wisdom of a mustache.

Living in community also expands your horizons and thinking about the body of Christ.
I keep meeting people who are very obviously are Christians but have tattoos and want to get more more, smoke clove cigarettes and pipes, hang out in bars, make very loud but awesome God-honoring "storm the castle rock" music, folks who do the whole vegan thing and even eat "raw" foods only.

Being in SIL and traveling widely, I already rub shoulders with a pretty wide diversity of people: folks from various christian traditions, different nations and ethnic groups, folks who drink wine and beer, folks who do advent and lent, charismatics and "smells and bells", those who don't watch TV, those with huge families, those who have no kids, those who have chosen singleness, those who are liberal democrats, those who are conservative republicans, the social justice folks...

The body of Christ is a wonderful family - even if I don't agree 100% with everyone, we have great fellowship together. So when you meet those folks our there who are different from you, look for the image of God in them before you judge and celebrate with them what God is doing in them and through them. And see what you can learn from that. 

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a Fox and a cute little Dog.

Grave or Hobbit house?

So in my wanderings today, I made my way after lunch today to the Union Cemetery, which was established in the 1850s, half-way between Westport and Kansas City (and now just a few blocks from downtown).

I had only just begun my wanderings through the cemetery, when I saw what I thought was a dog running across the lawn. On closer inspection, I realized it was not a dog but a fox. I've never really seen a fox before. (Why are there no foxes in zoos?) Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure it was not a dog, as all dogs were supposed to be on a leash. And this was so obviously wild and long and sleek like a fox.

It ran off when it saw me and I was only able to get the poor picture (below) of it running away. I thought I had lost it, but eventually saw it hiding behind a tombstone, staring at me. Then when it realized it had been spotted, it ran off to the fence.  The caretaker said it was actually a "she" that had had puppies last year.

It was SO AWESOME to see this fox, running wild through the tombstones two blocks from the skyscrapers of Kansas City.  I tried to get closer a few times but never could.

After the park closed, I headed downtown to mail my taxes, then blew out my front bike tire and headed further uptown to a bike store to get a new tire. There was a coffee shop next door and I had a coffee shop on my agenda so decided to just stay there and read outside.

A bit later a man with a very cute little dog came up and put its leash on the chair while he went inside to get his coffee. The dog whimpered a little at his master through the screen door and then just sat there wagging in anticipation of the return of his master. He was most happy to let me pat him.

A bit later another man went by with another cute little dog, which is apparently the sort of dog you have if you are in the arts-district of downtown Kansas City. This dog was happily tagging along behind his master.

What a contrast between the dog and the fox. The fox was aware of the man out on the edge of his existence but ran off fearfully and made sure to keep the man at a safe distance.
The dog was totally, blissfully centered on his master and waited attentively for him, finding joy in his presence.

How very like our different responses to God. Sometimes I feel Him out there but shy away in fear, keeping Him at a safe distance as He pursues me, too afraid to come near.
Other times, I am like the dog, tamed in God's presence centered on Him and at rest in his presence.

Lord, tame me in your presence.

Bread and Glitter Art Exposition

The Kansas City Boiler Room community (church) where I am staying hosts a large community of artists, many of whom have their art studios in the building.

On Friday, April 8, 2011, they had an art exhibit in the sanctuary area where the church meets. The art will stay on the walls for the next few weeks.


In addition to the art, there was also an art journal that accompanied it and several live musical performances.

Oh, and there was bread and glitter out on tables. The bread you could eat, and I guess the glitter as well, if you wanted to.

exhibit on how to make compost. There was also an article on this in the journal and a presentation to the group. The desire is to promote community gardens that feed back to the community and help the poor.

posters and t-shirts to raise awareness of the problems in Japan with the earthquake and tsunami. Order them at: http://lovesickclothing.storenvy.com/products/73681-help-japan

A video piece representing forgiveness. The woman is breathing on the glass which reveals the words "I forgive" etched on it. The flowing salt-water behind represents both water and salt which are symbols of forgiveness. 

Not pictured are some other art pieces including a hand-woven blanket, some sculptural pieces, and some cupcakes (very tasty).

All in all this was a pretty neat exhibit, especially since I have met many of the artists. It is a very cool thing for a church to do, I think.

ceramics

I a,m really stoked that I got to do some ceramics today here in the Boiler room. I had dreamed of maybe doing some pottery again during my sabbatical and was excited when I found out they have a studio here. It took a while to get permission from the right people but today they said I could.
I did pottery in high school and a bit in college and really enjoyed it. 

I went out on my bike to buy clay only to find out that they only sell it in 50 pound boxes - much too big for my backpack. So I had to come back and get my car. On the way back, it started raining and then I got a flat. But I eventually made it back, got the clay and got set up.

Worked for 3 hours or so. Made a sort of sculpture of some of the themes I have been learning.
Jeremiah 2:13 "For my people have done two evil things: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all."

Will try to get a picture when it is done but it is basically a well, with one side crumbled in. There is water springing up out of this broken well and flowing over the side. And next to it is a big pot like you might carry water in, but it is cracked. That is to represent the cracked cisterns we dig for ourselves.

Just added the un-kilned picture. 

Be Still my [Self]. Bless the Lord, o my [Self] - Self vs Soul

More on "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places" by Eugene Peterson - Page 36 and 37.

The word soul is one that has been abandoned in our culture and replaced by self.
Soul is an assertion of wholeness. We are each one-of-a kind creature made in the image of God. God-created, God-sustained, God-blessed.

Peterson goes into the Hebrew word for soul, which is "NEPHESH". This literally means neck and is a metaphor. In the body, the neck is what holds everything together. It connects the higher and lower functions. Everything flows through it: air, food, blood. And when God breathed the breath of life into us it went through the neck/soul.

Unfortunately, in our culture, we have replaced soul with self. 
SELF is the soul minus God. "Self is what is left of soul with all the transcendence and intimacy squeezed out, the self with little or no reference to God (transcendence) or others (intimacy).

Look at the words themselves and how they impact us.
Self: Selfish, self-absorbed, self-help, self-actualization, self-esteem.
"Self is a scarecrow word." It isolates us.
.
Soul:  soulmate, soul food, soul music, soulful eyes, that poor soul.
 Soul "reverberates with relationships: God-relationships, human-relationships, earth-relationships." It provides an affinity with whomever and whatever is at hand.

Peterson gives examples of depersonalization in our society. Every time depersonalization moves in, life leaks out."

1. We talk about people as resources. While initially this celebrates what they can bring, it still focuses on using people, what they can bring rather than on who they are. 
2. Dysfunctional family, leader, church, child - This is a mechanical word - for machines not people. Bicycles malfunction, not people!
3. Consumers - more and more society looks at us as consumers. 

 ----------------
Obviously this is resonating with me: less focus on the self, more on the soul - relationship with God and others. Be still my SOUL.

Christian Spirituality - Peterson

In my readings, I have finally dug into Eugene Peterson's Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. 

The title comes from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins:

For Christ plays in 10,000 places

Lovely in limbs and lovely in eyes not his

To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

Peterson says that plays in this context means an “exuberance of life lived beyond mere survival.” 

I think this may be what is missing in my life. I feel like I am just surviving. 

He dives into what he calls Spiritual Theology: spiritual (The way we live with God living out his revelation)

Theology (what we think about God. Effort to know God).

We need both sides of this equation. 

The Trinity is a framework for our work. Everything we do in life takes place in the country of the Trinity.

This lines up with a frequent teaching here at the Boiler room. Adam Cox says that the Kingdom really is just a big word for God's family: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and us thrown in as God's adopted sons and daughters. 

 Earlier this week, I read from 1 John 2:15 in my daily reading:  

In the fellowship of the Father and the Son, we enjoy the eternal life he promised us.

 Enjoy is in the present tense. The eternal life begins now living in family relationship within the kingdom. 

Spirituality in our culture has lost its meaning and has become vague. Peterson suggests we balance this with focus on Jesus, is tight and focused, and his life revealed keeps our focus on God.

“Jesus saves us from wasting our lives in the pursuit of cheap thrills and trivializing diversions. Jesus allows us to take seriously who we are and where we are without being seduced by the intimidating lies and illusions that fill the air, so that we needn’t be someone else or somewhere else. Jesus keeps our feet on the ground, attentive to children, in conversation with ordinary people, sharing meals with friends, and strangers, listening to the wind, observing the wildflowers, touching the sick and wounded, praying simply and unselfconsciously. Jesus insists that we deal with God right here and now, in the place we find ourselves and with the people we are with. Jesus is God here and now.”

Unplugged wells: Everybody Dance Now

Since God began working in my life last last spring, there have been two big metaphors he has used:

1. Coming back from exile
2. Refreshing Water of Life

Some of the water verses I have gotten into are:

Ps. 119:25 - I lie in the dust, completely discouraged; revive me by your word. (The water metaphor is implied)

Jeremiah 2:13 "For my people have done two evil things: they have forsaken me - the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all." (Turning your back on the joy and life that God provides and looking for it in alternative places).

John 7:37-38 "If you are thirsty, come to me! If you believe in me, come and drink! for the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water will flow out from within.

Fast forward to this weekend at the Boiler room annual weekend retreat.
There was a good time of worship and prayer in the morning and then we had the afternoon off by the lake (see previous post).

After supper, there was another time of worship led by an outside team - husband and wife, on guitar.
One of the songs he led us in was one he had written based on

Numbers 21:17 There the Israelites sang this song:
“Spring up, O well!
Yes, sing its praises!"

The image was of a well that had been filled in and no longer providing water. Apparently, enemies would fill in wells, to prevent others from using them. The Israelites sang to the well and it was unclogged and water flowed again. 
The song we sang based on this was "Open up the wellspring in my heart". We sang it first for ourselves and then turned and sang it for the person on our right and our left.  


Sunday morning we had an unpacking of what had happened the night before and people were coming forward and sharing. One guy shared how he really felt the Lord speaking to him about unclogging the wellspring in his heart. The leader asked people to stand who felt the same way. I stood along with about 15 other men (all men - very interesting. Later there was another issue shared and they asked people to stand and this time it was all women who stood).

The neatest part of this story for me was what came NEXT on Saturday night. Unbeknownst to me, there was a guy there named Cory who the Lord had told to give up drumming for a season. During the retreat, the Lord told him that the time was up and he was released to drum again. (He only shared this later). He was waiting for a time to drum but did not want to insert himself in worship led by an outside team, so told the Lord he would need to something overt.

About three minutes later, the worship leaders said, "If there are any drummers, Let them come forward". So this guy literally explodes onto the scene, accompanied by 3 or 4 others. He was WAILING on the djembe drum. They were playing several djembe, a drum set, snare and cymbal. Folks started dancing.

(This community is fairly charismatic in worship style but my impression is not that it is one where there is frequent dancing. I have not really seen any up until this point).

Okay, if you know me very well, you know where this is going. I have dance in my bones and it frequently comes out when most others are happy to just sit or stand. When this drumming started, let's just say the dancing sprang out of the well in my soul. And I danced like David for a good hour or so.

People saw me dancing and said, "You must dance like this in Africa" but I said, "No, not really. There is not a lot of dancing in church in Mali and in other settings it is normally the women who dance".
I was surprised to say that I had not really danced like that in 20 years or so. And it was a really great gift from God.

Prairie Star Ranch

Weekend Boiler Room retreat at a Catholic retreat center on two small ponds.
*The love of God expressed...
1 John 3:1
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
*New friends.
*Sitting in the sun at the pond's edge, listening to the wind, ducks and snatches of guitar music wafting acrossfrom the other side.
*Read some Petersen, and then read some of Thoreau's description of Walden's Pond - seemed almost obligatory.

'Nuff said.

A patchwork day in the sun.

What do you do on your sabbatical? I am still figuring that out.
There are some times that are just in between times, creating space for God to write, hanging out, being available, enjoying life - what is traditionally called "stopping and smelling the roses".

Today was a perfect day for that. The sun came out today for the first time in a long while and we got above 50 for the first time and even above 64F.

I got up and read some, had breakfast and did some stuff around the living space. I was looking forward to some bike riding if it ever got warm, but it was still only 43F at about 10 a.m.

Dayn mentioned that folks were going to do some gardening at 1 pm and I could join in. I had lunch, did some reading that turned into a nap. Managed to wake up just as Dayn was going out so I joined him.

We drove over to a big house were 5 or 6 women live together. Reminded me a lot of the Chataquau house I lived at in Norman with 5 other guys, only this was better decorated!

There is quite a lot of communal living in the Boiler room community, done intentionally and not just for economic reasons. The garden project is to provide some vegetables for the folks who live there but also to have food to share with the homeless and poor. Dayn and I joined Maggie and Jessica. I got the job of shifting the compost pile around - a good 2 or 3 cubic meters of compost in various stages of "stinkiness". I discovered the pitchfork, which left me singing the "Green Acres" theme song. (See pic below).

Loving the Pitchfork

It was fun to turn the soil over and feel it in my hands, plant a bit of spinach and lettuce, as well as beets, even if I will not see it come up. One plants, another waters. . .

I certainly thought of the verse we memorized in Singles' Bible study last year:
Hosea 10:12 "Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of my life. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness on you." 


Dayn went off to the prayer time for the team going to East Asia and after a bit more time in the garden, I walked home, passing this ODD, larger-than-life statue. At first glance, it is of someone kneeling in prayer, except that his face is turned INTO his right hand, which communicates what? Extreme remorse? Utter sadness or despair?

On the way home, I had time for a nice phone chat with Rod Davis, a friend from Mali who is in N. Carolina. Good to have time to catch up with him and his family.

Back at home, I suited up for a bike ride around 4 pm. I headed off toward downtown for a 16-km ride, interrupted by a flat tire. I  thoroughly enjoyed the downtown area, some great hills and interesting buildings: except for the frequent stop lights.

While out riding, I find it nice to review verses I am learning, but also try to make it NOT about "getting something done" but just riding.
I got a call from Dayn wondering if I couldn't cook West African Peanut Sauce after all for him and an out of town guest he had. So I changed my route, hit the very cool farmers' market they have and chinese grocery and then hightailed it back home. 16 km of sweet riding.

I had fun making the peanut sauce and sharing it with 4 others. Trying to learn to be more hospitable. Sharing is not one of my stronger suits. I'll help you until I am blue in the face, but need work on sharing. I suppose that is why "serving" and "hospitality" and "generosity" are different spiritual gifts.

Ater everyone left, I had a good time of listening to some music and playing djembe along to that.
As I wrote this, Beau came in with 2 girls who signed up to 'couch surf' at the Boiler room.  I had to google it. Apparently the Boiler room, which does have hospitality as one of its core values, has indicated on various couch surfing sites that it has couches available to share for free with travelers. These 2 folks are here for a concert tomorrow night.

So that has been my day - pretty open and varied - composting, cycling, calling friends, cooking, couch surfing -  and also a GOOD day.

Tomorrow we head off early for a 2-day weekend retreat for the whole community.  Should be fun.