Archive for the ‘Richard Rohr’ Tag
The Christian Art of Detachment
Filed under: By Nan Kuhlman, Christian Living, Trinity | Tags: contemplative prayer, detachment, Richard Rohr, the presence of God
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cartoon courtesy of dissenttheblog.blogspot.com
If you’ve ever attended a Christian church, you’ve probably heard an opening prayer or a worship song that goes something like this: “Father, please be here with us.” It seems like a simple, honest request, one that God would want to honor. Guess what? He already has, even before we ask.
If God dwells in each one of us through the Holy Spirit (“Christ in you, the hope of glory” – Col. 1:27 NIV), then asking for the Father, Son, and Spirit to be with us doesn’t really make sense. God is ALWAYS with us, each one of us. The problem is that we don’t recognize it. Why not?
The explanation is our “old man,” our ego that keeps us wrapped up in our own stories, retelling events, conversations, and hurt feelings over and over in our minds. If you ever stop to think about what you’re thinking about, you will realize that much of the time, you are either worrying about something in the future or agonizing over something in the past. Me, too. This preoccupation with our feelings and our perceived stories makes it difficult (maybe even impossible) to recognize the gentle presence of the Holy Spirit as we move throughout our day.
Ecumenical teacher Richard Rohr offers this solution:
We need forms of prayer that free us from fixating on our own egos and from identifying with our own thoughts and feelings… If we are filled with ourselves, there is no room for another, and certainly not God. We need contemplative prayer, in which we simply let go of our passing ego needs, which change from moment to moment, so Something Eternal can take over.
What Rohr is talking about is contemplative prayer where we talk less and ask less. Instead, we listen more. We soak up the calm assurance that we are loved, that certainty communicated without words and without need of words. By detaching ourselves from our ego/old man stories, we are able to sense, and even better, to know with confidence, that the Father, Son, and Spirit have our backs.
We are not alone, whether we remembered to ask for God’s presence or not. We have never been alone, and we will never be alone. By recognizing our feelings for what they are and by seeing our proclivity to construct stories and be consumed by them, we can make space to see and feel the presence of God with us always.
~by Nan Kuhlman
Right Where You Are
Filed under: By Nan Kuhlman, Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Love, Relationships | Tags: Richard Rohr, We Are Cherished Ohio
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Lynn Stevens was a stripper for almost twenty years. But because of the organization We Are Cherished (founded in 2010 by another ex-stripper in Texas), Stevens came to realize she was loved and valued by the group’s volunteers, and ultimately, by God.
As a way to give back, Stevens started the We Are Cherished Ohio group to reach out to women employed at strip clubs in the Columbus, Ohio, area. Each month, Stevens and other volunteers take gift bags containing lip gloss, hand sanitizer, earrings, and handwritten notes to the women. The notes are particularly meaningful: “You are valued,” “Praying for you,” and “You are loved.”
The group provides the gift bags to the women (and home-baked brownies and Starbucks gift cards to the bouncers) without asking them to leave their jobs. Stevens says, “If we take away their choice, we take away love.” Even if the women remain strippers, Stevens and the group insist that “we’re going to love you right where you are.”
I find this story compelling, and I’m especially drawn to the practice that the group loves the strippers right where they are, without requiring or expecting change. For many of us, accepting and loving others without seeking to change them (even when it would be for their own good) is a difficult task. It seems plain that if a person is engaged in a behavior that is hurting them (or demeaning them), he or she would want to change – at least, that is what we might think. This creates a paradox for most believers, who are happy to share the good news of God’s love but at the same time find it nearly impossible to share this love without expecting changed behavior from the recipient.
We first need to recognize this tension at work as we take part in sharing God’s love with those who happen to cross our paths or with those we interact with intentionally. By communicating any expectation of a reciprocal change for our efforts, we “take away love,” as Stevens says.
Being able to hold the sometimes opposing values of loving people and accepting them where they’re at is clearly a work of the Holy Spirit and not something we are naturally inclined to do. Ecumenical teacher Richard Rohr says that
It is not something you can merely attain by practice, although that is necessary, too. All you can do is abide in God, and then God holds the tensions in you and through you and with you – and largely in spite of you! Such a way of living is a participation in the very life of God, who holds all things in unity and compassion. (Holding the Tension: The Power of Paradox)
The example set by Lynn Stevens and the volunteers at We Are Cherished Ohio should inspire us as we participate with God in ministry wherever we are and wherever we go. Letting go of our need to judge and our desire to be “successful” in ministry will allow the Holy Spirit to create the spaciousness we must have in our hearts to love people right where they are. Stevens says, “Jesus loves strippers, too.” So should we.
~by Nan Kuhlman
For more information, see We Are Cherished .
Special thanks to the Associated Press for their article featuring Lynn Stevens and We Are Cherished Ohio