At the beginning of February, I went to a retreat at Camp Christian near Columbus. It featured Carrie Newcomer, an amazing singer/song writer out of the Quaker tradition. I adore her new album A Great Wild Mercy. I was impatient with anything at the retreat that wasn’t Carrie.

I decided to go to a guided meditation. I sat down in a comfy rustic chair by a roaring fire. The leader invited us to deep breathing. Then the leader said, “Picture a garden…” and my eyes popped open, and my soul said, “Nope!”

I started walking. I walked around Camp Christian praying, “Lord, give me a message. What do I need to hear?” There was this stirring in my soul, a restlessness. I had to have been on my 5th lap around this little camp and was getting really chippy and more impatient. Then I remembered that Carrie had talked about the power of a 1” photo. Carrie advised us to take photos that are really close up of our subject, not the wide panoramas we often take. Focus on the small. For this to work, we have to notice our surroundings and look at the details because that’s what artists do.

Artists notice things. How the light comes through the leaves. How the stars swirl in the atmosphere and twinkle and shine. How a bridge over a pond can be the most gorgeous thing to try to capture. When we walk through art galleries or in shops, often something might stop us. The power of the artist noticing unlocks our power of noticing. We suddenly arrive in the moment. We are aware and present in a way that we weren’t before.

Musicians and poets do the same. Carrie spoke about how she has a little noticing journal. She’ll sit somewhere and write, “Daffodils in bloom: yellow against a grey sky.” Eight words, yet there’s an image.  She wrote a poem called “The Blue Umbrella”^[1] that eventually became the opening lines to “A Great Wild Mercy” the first track to her album.

“It was a summer storm that broke the heat
She had a blue umbrella as she stepped into the street
I saw her look up from beneath the brim
Thought better of it and closed it up again
The rain slipped down like unchecked tears
The way that miracles arrive and then disappear
I nodded as I watched her smile and walk away
Having just seen the finest prayer ever been prayed.”

That noticing… being present to what’s around you. Carrie captured a whole scene and found the divine right there.

Well, good for her. But I needed God right then and there about this stirring in my soul. What’s up with that? What would you have me do, God? Where should I go?! I’m restless and I need a sign from you, God.

Then I looked down. And I saw a stone that looked like an arrow. I laughed so hard. Imagine coming upon a 6’ man in the middle of the woods, kneeling down… laughing as he’s crying and fumbling for his iPhone to take the photo on the cover of your bulletin. I had to have stepped over that thing 5-6 times. The arrow pointed to a trail I hadn’t noticed before. So off I went.

How often we rush through life. We rush past the divine. We are only present for our tasks. Driven only by our list. Get this done. Get the kids here. Pick up groceries there. Work, cook, sleep, repeat.

“Few people are able to inhabit their present time because they are too stressed and rushed,” writes Irish poet and mystic John O’Donohue. He continues, “[Philosopher Blaise] Pascal said that many of our major problems derive from our inability to sit still in a room. Stillness is vital to the world of the soul… Stillness can be a great companion. The fragments of your life will have time to unify, and the places where your soul was wounded or broken will have time to knit and heal. You will be able to return to yourself.”^[2]

It is in stillness that the artist begins to create. It is in stillness and noticing the holiness of the small present, that the poet begins to write.

King David must have sat still in a room long enough to write Psalm 16. It is a wonderful poem. David who was a lowly shepherd, then a hero of a nation after defeating a giant, then a fugitive on the run from King Saul… yet also in love with the king’s son Jonathan. Then he became king and might have been the greatest Israel had ever seen, even with his faults and massive abuses of power. He wrote, “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. I have a goodly heritage.”

The author of Ephesians also writes about an inheritance in Christ. One scholar noticed that the author is seeking to give a message to the new Christians in Ephesus a sense of identity. “It can be inferred that the main problems are powerlessness, instability, and lack of resolve, and these are related to an insufficient sense of identity.”^[3]

The whole letter which is heavy on identity in Christ, begins with “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We’re so used to starting words, we might just blow by them. Yet these words are a variation of “Blessed be God” or “Blessed are you, Lord God” which are standard in Jewish prayers. In the Passover seder, the prayer that accompanies the lighting of the candles is, “Blessed are you, Lord, our God, who makes us holy with your commandments and commands us to light the festival lights.”^[4]

This opening line echoes so much: God’s rule over the universe, the identity and holiness of God’s people, a religious life shining in the darkness, the joy we take in salvation, and the joy of being one of God’s own.To receive such a letter and be reminded of your goodly heritage. To be gifted with a new salvation through Jesus! The small miracles of the moment.

Sometimes, I feel like a shark. I must keep in constant motion or I die. That’s what the job demands of me. There are people to visit, bible studies to plan, funerals with grieving people to attend to, and these sermons don’t write themselves. Yet to slow down and notice the words. Amazing things can happen.

Carrie introduced the spiritual practice of 1” photos… there’s a spiritual practice like it. It’s called the Lectio Divinia. That’s Latin for Divine Reading. You find some scripture and read through it. Just a first read to see what all is there. Then you stop… then you read through it again. This time you see what pops out. A line or a phrase. Notice how you feel. Notice what you think about.

I’ve read the Easter story a million times. Mark’s version is something special. Okay, there’s the women and the spices and the concern with the stone. There’s the empty tomb and a guy in white with a disturbing message. And then…. “They said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.” That line really hit me.

Maybe today, do a Lectio Divina on either of our passages we read. I’d be interested in what line pops out and what questions stories or insights you have on it. Pastors could use a sermon  from you now and again. Or maybe go on a hike and take some 1” photos. Hit an art gallery and take a photo of the painting that really spoke to you.

Whatever brings you out of your task list, of your swimming through life like a shark… and instead brings you to the miracle of the moment! That’s why we call it the present because it’s a gift. Let us savor it.

For when I was on my path back at the camp, I was looking for God and a path in my life, and I just had to stop and notice. This rock was pointing the way. And then suddenly, this cloudy grey day became beautiful. Filled with life and nuance and beauty. I took so many pictures, and these will more than likely be bulletin covers in this series.

I found myself right where I needed to be. I will remember that day for a long time because in the stillness, I came back to myself. Furthermore, I came upon another group and we talked and took pictures and ooh’d and awed over the sights we saw. Pointing things out to one another.

What started as a lonely exercise in frustration became a joyful celebration in community. That’s what being present can do.

I took Carrie’s advice in her song entitled, “Take more time, cover less ground.” May we do so and notice all the budding trees and blooming flowers. Spring is a gift from God. Let’s not miss it in our rush to summer. And if we keep on this path… maybe over time, our spirituality will be in and through everything. We’d see God in everything. This transforms even our daily task list into something holy we get to do. As the Buddhist koan goes, “Before Enlightenment: chop wood and carry water. After Enlightenment: chop wood and carry water.” Or like Carrie sings, “Folding laundry like folding hands, to pray as only laundry can.”^[5] May it be so. Amen.

Works Cited

[1] “The Blue Umbrella,” from A Permeable Life: Poems & Essays, Available Light Publishing 2013, page 13.

[2] Anam Cara: A book of Celtic Wisdom. Harper Perennial, 1998. Page 168.

[3] Pheme Perkins, The New Interpreter’s Bible, page 352 quoting Andrew Lincoln.

[4] Ibid, page 377.

[5] Holy as the Day is Spent, From the album “Kindred Spirits: A Collection.