Sarah Arthur's Blog, page 6

Just a note about my book-signing this Friday, June 8–which happens to be the same date as my husband’s ordination as an elder (pastor) in the United Methodist Church. The events are part of the West Michigan Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, at the same location in Grand Rapids, Michigan but at different times of the day. My book-signing will be in the Cokesbury bookstore in the lobby of Van Noord Arena on the campus of Calvin College from 12:30-1:30 PM; Tom’s ordination will be at 7 PM in the arena (woohoo!). Even if you are not part of the conference or even a United Methodist, you are welcome to come to the book-signing (you don’t have to be registered to enter the lobby).

I’ll be signing copies of At the Still Point (Paraclete Press), The God-Hungry Imagination (Upper Room Books) and Generation Rising (Abingdon). I’d love to see you there!

Many thanks to all the women who attended my breakout sessions for the women’s retreats at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island (May 15-18). Our topic was “Calm in the Storm: Daily Devotions for Resting in God,” and the description went like this:

“For many of us women, the moment we wake up the storm begins. Family issues, health problems, work, too many commitments–it’s hard to find a moment to breathe, much less spend time with God. In this breakout session we will explore the art of daily devotions and brainstorm hands-on ideas. We will find that spending time with God is not one more thing to fit into our busy lives but the calm center that helps us rest so we can face the storm.”

I’ll be honest: I needed this session perhaps more than many of the attendees. As a write-at-home mom of a very busy toddler and a pastor’s wife of a very busy church my life feels like chaos most of the time. And of course God’s divine joke is that I write devotional books so that other people–people like you–can have their quiet time. Yes, God’s funny like that.

Maybe it was the gracious atmosphere of the Grand Hotel, or maybe it was the weather, which was sparkling. Or spending a whole week toddler-free with my husband, who made a vacation of it. But the whole thing felt like one long quiet time. Even the fact that I gave the same talk six times in four days and was surrounded by thousands of women–many of whom recognized me around the hotel and wanted to chat–none of that seemed overwhelming. It was such a total break from my ordinary life that I emerged from the week with a greater sense of God’s grace in the midst of time. I was able, as C. S. Lewis says, to come in out of the wind:

“The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back, in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

That’s the sort of calm I want to have all of the time. Not just after a week of “vacation”. Not just when the weather is perfect. Not just when an unexpected “quiet time” presents itself on a leisurely morning. But in the midst of daily life, the moment I open my eyes, on those days when I feel–as the disciples did in Mark 6–like my boat is “already being swamped.” I want to practice mindfulness, being aware of that other “larger, stronger, quieter life” in the midst of the menial tasks of my day.

Many of the women who attended my sessions could relate, so we discussed some ways to practice mindfulness. Below is the list of ideas–plus some resources that might help–from the handout I gave them. And don’t miss the closing thoughts at the very end. Feel free to add your own ideas in the comments section below!

Ideas for Daily Devotions:

Practice simple prayers: “breath prayers” (“In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Holy Spirit, Amen.”); the Lord’s Prayer; the Kyrie Eleison (“Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy”); or the Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner”).
Mindfulness while performing daily tasks: praying for people you love or for your church’s prayer requests with each dish you wash, each potato you scrub.
Accountability! Get a prayer partner or devotional partner; join a Bible study or small group at your church. You are more likely to take time to be in God’s Word every day if someone else is counting on you.
Create a craft or work of art while listening to a spiritual audio book or to worshipful music.
While you’re performing menial household tasks or driving a long commute, listen to online podcasts, sermons, or apps for your smart phone: I like “Pray as You Go.” Some of our favorite preachers: Adam Hamilton, Andy Stanley.
Devotional apps for your smart phone, including the YouVersion Bible, The Upper Room devotional and Our Daily Bread (not all of the apps are free). One mom told me she sits in her car every day for about 10-15 minutes waiting for her daughter to get out of school, but it never occurred to her to use that time for personal devotions. She said she probably would forget to bring her Bible and devotional books, but she always has her phone–so an app would be perfect.
Family devotions. My husband and I pray the Lord’s Prayer with Micah before bed every night.
Praying in community (with spouses, grown children, roommates, aging parents). Morning and evening prayer from The Book of Common Prayer or other resources.

Resources for Daily Devotions:

The One Year Coffee With God: 365 Devotions to Perk Up Your Day by Sarah Arthur (Tyndale House Publishers, 2010)
At the Still Point: A Literary Guide to Prayer in Ordinary Time by Sarah Arthur (Paraclete Press, 2011)
The Book of Common Prayer – the official prayer book of the worldwide Anglican church; used by many other denominations. Available in Kindle and other e-book formats.
Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals – daily prayer for Christian communities and families, compiled by Shane Clairborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and Enuma Okoro (Zondervan).
One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp (Zondervan, 2011)
Coming in 2013: Mommy Time: 90 Devotions for New Moms, by Sarah Arthur (Tyndale).
For teens & young adults: Walking with Bilbo: A Devotional Adventure through The Hobbit by Sarah Arthur. The long-awaited Hobbit movie (first of two) premieres this Christmas, and this award-winning companion book explores spiritual themes in J.R.R. Tolkien’s story.

When it came to the part in my session in which I discussed the practice of mindfulness in the midst of daily life, I shared how my husband prays for our son Micah while Micah takes his morning bottle. Tom prays for the different parts of Micah’s body as symbols of what Tom hopes Micah will become–e.g., for his legs, that he will stand strong in the Lord; for Micah’s knees, that he will be the sort of person who kneels in prayer; for his tummy, that he will feed on God’s Word; etc. Many women were quite moved by this and thanked me for sharing it. One in particular said, “I’m a hospice volunteer, and I’m going to practice that prayer with the patients now.” What a beautiful commitment to mindfulness in the midst of not just daily–but difficult–tasks!

So, what are your stories? What are the ways you have sought or experienced God in daily life? What are ways that you have prayed for or with your family? What ideas did this post spark in you? What new commitments have you made to seek God more intentionally? Please feel free to share your comments below. Let’s keep the conversation going!

We closed with this prayer/sonnet by the nineteenth-century preacher George MacDonald, which I included in the week entitled “Cry From the Depths” in At the Still Point: A Literary Guide to Prayer in Ordinary Time:

Lord, I would have me love thee from the deeps—

Of troubled thought, of pain, of weariness.

Through seething wastes below, billows above,

My soul should rise in eager, hungering leaps;

Through thorny [thickets], through sands unstable press—

Out of my dream to him who slumbers not nor sleeps.

Many thanks to all who attended my Confirmation elective at the Princeton Youth Ministry Forum last month. It was great to share that time with you, despite my sleep deprivation. (Kenda Creasy Dean was jet-lagged from her trip to Africa and STILL pulled off one of the best sermons I’ve ever heard, so I have no excuse! “You’ll never go down, never go down, never go down…”) I ran out of time to explore  everything I wanted to, including great confirmation resources out there. So below are some links that highlight the fine work that folks at Cokesbury and Sparkhouse are doing, and the correct link to the Duke Youth Academy for Christian Formation.

I’ve also included a link to Vibrant Faith Ministries, which produces some excellent resources for faith-formation in the home–great stuff for parents & guardians of confirmands. I especially like the FaithTalk cards and the Milestones.

I’d love to hear what you all are doing for confirmation in your churches. If you have a moment, please share a comment below about your programs and what creative ideas God may have sparked in you through the Princeton forum. And feel free to email me any questions, ideas, suggestions, etc: [email protected].

Promo video for the new CREDO Confirmation resources from Cokesbury. I just finished writing the older youth & young adult component (I’ll keep you posted about the publication date)
Sample video from the Re:Form curriculum by Sparkhouse
Info about the Duke Youth Academy for Christian Formation (for rising juniors and seniors)
Resources from Vibrant Faith Ministries
Read my chapter about confirmation in the collection Generation Rising: A Future With Hope for the United Methodist Church (Abingdon Press), edited by Andrew Thompson

Blessings,

 

Last month I served as a “theologian-in-residence” at the Princeton Youth Ministry Forum, a biannual event that feels like home to me. If Princeton Theological Seminary was a gym class and captains stood up to select teams, I’d be in front yelling “Oo-oo-pick me! Pick me!” Yep, that pretty-much sums up how much I love it. Plus, you can’t beat Princeton NJ in April. Stunning old architecture, blooming trees, birdsong, Nassau Street…don’t get me started.

Anyway, I had the great fun of leading an extended seminar entitled “Once Upon a Story: Narrative, Poetry, and the Youth Pastor as Bard.” Twenty-three (or so) of us gathered every morning to explore how stories are events that happen to us, like births, tragedies, illnesses, and milestones. Stories have the power to transform, to push us in new directions, shift our perspective, launch us on new adventures. And not just metaphorically: many of us have really, truly been changed by a story. And of course the church tells and lives the best of all stories.

The funny thing is, we don’t teach our youth that way. We use stories–including Bible stories–as mere illustrations, as if the REAL point is something else. But what if the story IS the point? What if we dared to be bards like Jesus, who trusted the Holy Spirit to work through the imaginations of his hearers without having to explain every parable away?

We spent some time with the book of Job, considering not what we could do with it (i.e., use it on a youth retreat to illustrate some other point about theodicy or suffering) but what it could do with us. We also spent some time with poetry and explored our roles as bards within faith communities that have almost forgotten the beauty of words well said. You can’t beat spoken-word poet Sarah Kay for reminding us that poetry, at its best, (including–or possibly even especially–liturgy) is performative and therefore communal; it can be free of irony without being humorless; and it can be well-crafted without being self-obsessed. This is liturgy: spoken-word performance by the people of God who know the power of words and yet hold them loosely, with joyful, open hands. (To watch Sarah Kay in action, see my previous post “A Bardic Moment.”)

Our final activity was a creative writing exercise that I’ve used in the past as an artist-in-residence with youth at the Duke Youth Academy for Christian Formation. We spent a few minutes on our own in silence simply observing a work of art (in this case participants chose an online image from the St. Johns Bible or from Makoto Fujimura’s illustrations of the Gospels–both of which were featured at the forum) and then wrote our reflections in any genre that seemed to fit the piece or the moment. Our time was limited, but I was amazed by what the participants came up with. Bards abound in the church, praise God!

I promised my seminar participants that I would post my humble little haiku (not the traditional 5,7,5) , which I wrote in haste as a kind of mental discipline. The work of art was Psalm 1 from the St. John’s Bible, which depicts–in bright primary colors–something like five scrolls (for the five books of Torah?) with seven flames above them and dust or chaff blowing off the sides.  The effect is that of a menorah caught in a gust of wind.

psalm 1: a haiku

seven points of light

bent in a mighty wind:

chaff blows away

–Sarah Arthur, 4/26/12

Here’s the spoken-word performance by Sarah Kay that I showed during my seminar on narrative & poetry at the Princeton Youth Ministry Forum last month.

I’m on a roll: here’s another new page “On Reading Literature Devotionally” using material from the Festival Circle that I recently led at the Calvin College Festival of Faith & Writing in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Thanks to a fun group of folks for wonderful discussions and reflections! We practiced “lectio sacra” with the poem “Nativity” by Li-Young Lee (from Book of My Nights) and journaled our reflections about an excerpt from Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Both writers were festival speakers, and both excerpts were things I had wanted to include in At the Still Point: A Literary Guide to Prayer in Ordinary Time but was unable to due to reprint costs. So it was fun experimenting with the material.

Feel free to visit the new page and leave your thoughts on reading literature devotionally.

People ask me all the time, “How did you get published?” “What should I do to get published?” I finally created a page on my website about the business of writing. The one thing it fails to mention is the element of magic that I can never explain–why and how an editor hears about you or notices you, or why some books turn into instant homeruns, or how an otherwise perfectly normal life becomes the crucible for creative material that other people actually want to read. This is where God comes in, the mysterious Stage Manager who seems to know exactly when to raise the curtain. There it is now: the backstage whispering, the quiet prompts about the next line, the next move. Can you hear it?

It’s here! And I can’t wait. The Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, kicks off this Thursday, April 19, ending on Saturday, April 21. In addition to seeing my friend Enuma Okoro (author of the spiritual memoir Reluctant Pilgrim) and other colleagues, I get to stalk my favorite authors and poets, plus lead a festival circle on “Reading Literature Devotionally.” Let the geek fest begin!