Circle of Hope

I had some funny moments a couple of days ago, in which I was reminded of the importance of planning, and the folly of my lack thereof.

I have this friend who is recovering from a major cancer surgery and will be basically bed-ridden for a few months. Some other friends and I were trying to clean up and create a little recovery room in her house so she could rest comfortably. I got excited about making some curtains and a tapestry wall hanging to cover a hole in the wall, all with some beautiful fabrics I was collecting from our thrift store. So I let the creative juices flow and got to work on my housemate’s sewing machine. After a few late nights, I had put together some things I thought were kinda nice, especially for a novice sewer like myself.

When I went to my friends’ house to put the finishing touches on the room, I ran into a few setbacks. This is embarrassing, but my curtains didn’t fit on the rods, they were too short for the windows, and the tapestry didn’t fully cover the hole in the wall. One could assume that one would measure things carefully before a little project like this, but I did not. I had lots of creativity and enthusiasm, but no preparation process. As a result, I spent the rest of the day and night (in between public meetings and other stuff) trying to alter my creations and go back to hang the stuff up. Of course this is not such a huge loss, but maybe with some careful planning ahead of time, things could have been simpler.

It makes me think about our mapping process. We are trying to plan and prepare for what’s next, as a community of truth-seekers (and finders). We know that God is speaking to us, so it seems like a good idea to recognize that and dialogue about it together. Our thought is that it’s important to be conscious of ourselves and our God, to measure and evaluate our past and present and let God’s voice guide us into the future. If you are like me, this process might seem a little unnecessary (we could just wing it, and good things might happen) or scary (now I’ll actually have to do the stuff that we say we do) or you might feel like you’re setting yourself up for failure. But how much beauty and goodness might we be with-holding from ourselves and others by not taking the risk? This intentional planning, combined with all of our enthusiasm and creative energy, could yield amazing results. What does God want us to do in this next year? What does it mean to be a Christian in our time and place? What has God been showing me? In what direction is God nudging you these days? What new growth is already springing up in our lives together? It seems that if we prepare for God to show up and do great things in us and among us, then we create the space for that to happen.

If we don’t plan, we might run around in circles. I can personally attest to this. More and more, I’m seeing a law of diminishing returns in and around me when things are left to their own devices. Usually good things don’t just “happen”on their own. I think that God is all about making good things happen, but our own creative energies and prayerful preparations seem pretty important to the process, and I’ve learned that from my friends here at Circle who have taken risks to plan and do stuff that God puts on their hearts.

I’m really thankful that the Spirit continues to work in spite of our abilities and intentions, but it does seem to matter what we do or don’t do. I guess we are really that important. Planning ahead hasn’t always been my strong suit, but I plan to jump into the process with you all this season. We’ll see what God can do with us.