Skip to main content

Restorative solitude for strength

In today’s reflection, author Havercamp writes about Howard Thurmon and his writings about withstanding violence with strength. Thurmon’s writing influenced Martin Luther King Jr., so much so that he kept a copy of Thurmon’s book with him during the Montgomery bus strike.
I was struck today by the image of Thurmon as a boy watching a giant oak (I am imagining one of those huge Live Oak trees found in the South) during a storm, where the tree was able to withstand the toss of the wind.
Withstanding storms is not the same as being a doormat and allowing violence within one's life. There is a line between abuse and strength. Thurmon is writing about strength of character and spiritual backbone and being able to stand up to the forces of society.  
Thurmon’s concept of strength to withstand storms, especially in today’s political climate resonated with me today. If one watches the news too much, we can get tossed around in the mental wind, not knowing what to believe, unsure of whom we should believe. It is in time away from the world in quiet reflection and prayer, that God can restore us to him and strengthen us for the journey ahead, so we can indeed withstand the storms that life brings.
Poet and artist Jan Richardson offered some words in her reflection regarding the coming Holy Week:
It can be challenging enough to walk with intention into a future that is unknown. But to move with purpose toward a destination that is known, and fearsome? That is quite a different path, one that requires grace and courage we cannot conjure on our own.
Such a path offers a curious freedom, too, because it invites us to enter our future not as victims, helpless before our fate, but with intention and discernment, knowing that the path we choose will hold its occasions of dying and rising. When we can meet those occasions with courage and grace, the perils of the chosen path begin to lose their power over us.
Courage. Grace. As we round toward Palm Sunday and Holy Week, these are the words I’m noticing, the words I want to carry at this point in the path. © Jan Richardson. janrichardson.comhttp://paintedprayerbook.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pondering the journey

Betty Hollister writes Judi assured me this week would be easier—more about a journey, maybe even something as simple as a walk in nature.  Ok.  Maybe. I admitted to her that even though I didn’t “like” the week of “Solitude and Struggle,” it did make me think, and I liked that.  And, the thinking, of course, didn’t stop this week.   Monday’s lesson reminded us how Jesus sought solitude by walking away from the crowds after periods of “greatest exertion or emotional distress. ”  That made complete sense.  If Jesus, fully human, but also fully divine, needed time alone to talk to His father and renew his strength to heal the next in line or preach to the next crowd that made complete sense.  Even Tuesday’s suggestions about labyrinth walks to “get lost in God’s creation” made sense to me.  Then, I read about the “blue-gray-green monks” who turned that color due to hardship and fasting and Mary of Egypt who wandered for decades alone in th...
2 comments
Read more

Holy Saturday

From Rachel Matthews - Today I have been chopping, measuring, mixing, cooking, mixing some more, kneading, baking, waiting, waiting, tasting, arranging, cleaning, preparing.....and preparing....for guests. It is what you do at a funeral. Either you are preparing to serve and comfort the bereaved or, as the bereaved, you are preparing to receive the community, the family, the loved ones to walk with you to the grave and back again. Holy Saturday feels like the days before a funeral. Suspended between death and life, you just carry on. You work, as usual, but not. That's what the women who loved the Rabbi were doing: preparing the spices, arranging the body (Christ's body), wrapping, loving and weeping, and waiting, and waiting and preparing....for guests. I am giddy thinking about the surprise that awaited them - the Guest!! And, I am giddy waiting for our guests to come to our home. My boys won't be here, so there is grief. I miss them so much. But, the new Amer...
Post a Comment
Read more

Friday Fast #2

I have to admit that I have not been looking forward to this fast from sound from the moment I read about it. While I am an introvert, needing time to recharge by myself, I also really don’t like extended periods of silence. I often have the TV on around the house, listen to audiobooks and podcasts and amuse myself by watching videos at my desk over the lunch hour. I am going to do my best to avoid all of that today.   In fact, because we had invited some friends to go to the movies this evening, I started my fast from extraneous sounds last night. I felt a bit cheated, not getting to watch the Olympics and the US women win the gold in hockey, but really do they need another viewer? Why does missing something on TV bother me so? We don't have a DVR at home, so when I miss it I usually just end up skipping a show, but maybe I watch too much TV.  Am I way too caught up in other people’s lives and accomplishments? Do I need to watch the news every day? What could I be doing ...
2 comments
Read more