stability

I recently finished reading "Wisdom of Stability" by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. (I had read parts of it a few months ago when I wasn't really ready to read it.) I picked it up again and was finally able to appreciate his message of the importance of stability, of commitment to a people and place, of choosing to stay and stick it out.

I learned that there are reasons -- besides a general restlessness and wanderlust in me at all times -- for my desire to go and do something meaningful with my life elsewhere, and experience life away from what I've known as "home". Namely, we live in a hyper-mobile culture, and paces of life are only getting faster and we are far more connected to and dependent on technology and have more access to opportunities than ever before. While technology and what we call "progress" present a convincing argument that they are good things for us, I'm starting to think that we are not fully calculating the loss, and how restless and impatient we are becoming because of it.

"Wisdom of Stability" offers an interesting perspective on staying and committing to a community, driving a deliberate spoke in the wheel of constant motion we individually and collectively experience as victims of and participants in unsustainable ways of living that govern our hyper-mobile culture (in North America). (Longest sentence ever??)

These are some excerpts I pulled from the book. Enjoy these morsels of food for thought --

"Stability is a commitment to trust God not in an ideal world, but in the battered and bruised world we know. Community is always a risk. We cannot know beforehand who will stay and who will leave. But each decision to stay -- every prayer lifted up from our half-born condition -- can be seen as an act of faith that our God will give us what we need."

"Stability of heart does not come naturally. But the simple rhythms of tending to body and soul -- making oatmeal and saying prayers, keeping house and singing songs -- bring me back to a center, to a still point that is fixed in this place."

"In whatever place you find yourself, do not easily leave it." - Abba Anthony

"Your.... community is for you a grace, a gift from God, and a mission, a task to accomplish." - Augustine Roberts.

"What we hardly ever want to admit is that we are limited creatures. Subject to the confines of time and space, we cannot be anywhere, anytime. As a matter of fact, we can only be in this place, now."

"The practice of stability, then, is an exercise in putting down roots. A good tree bears good fruit, we know, and the fruit of the Spirit begins with love. But we are product-oriented people, eager to skip over the process and enjoy the apple without attending to the soil and sun and roots that help it grow. All of us would love to be more loving, but we spend precious little time establishing roots of love. Without them, though, the tree withers and there is neither fruit nor shade nor a branch to tie a swing on and enjoy a summer evening."

"Stay put and pay attention -- learn to trust God in the place where you are -- and you will have a front seat for the revolution that Christian tradition calls conversion. Stability transforms us along with the place where we are."

"To grow in the practice of stability is to learn how to discern when we are called to stay and when God wants us to go."

"Maybe none of us are safe to respond to God's call until we've stayed put long enough to face our demons."