"Love Passionately and Hold Lightly" ~Rebecca Hale
(This is the post for 3/1, but I had wi-fi issues where I am and couldn't upload it.)
I'm at a gathering of the eight regions of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the Southeast portion of the United States. The purpose of this gathering is for our regional pastors and our regional leadership (volunteers, elected, paid, etc.) to talk to and with one another about what it means to be in collaboration with one another.
This has been a night of collaboration.
It has been a night of hanging on and turning loose.
It's hard to be a church in transition.
It's hard to be church.
And it's hard to be region in a world that is changing faster than we are.
In these 8 regions, we have so many of the same things.
And we're asking the questions about how we could better be the church by being in relationship with one another instead of always trying to reinvent the wheel.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow when we will dig deeper into those questions. But tonight we held space for talking and getting to know each other.
When my friend Rebecca said that the best way to be in relationship with one another is to love passionately and hold lightly, it caught in my heart, my mind, and my throat.
What would our world look like if we lived our lives like this?
What if we loved passionately all the time?
And what if we held lightly to that which we think is "ours"?
And what if we held lightly to that which we think is "ours"?
What if we were willing to say, "Yes, I'm willing to let go of my favorite campsite because yours is in physically better shape?"
What if we were willing to say, "Please teach me how to be more racially inclusive; I would rather not invent something you have done so well!"
What if we were not so worried about paying our own bills and keeping our own stuff, but were more concerned about making sure the mission and ministry thrive?
What if ...?
What if ...?
This model can be spread across businesses, homes, churches, organizations, committees, boards, adn so many other places.
What if I turned loose of my parenting style?
What if I turned loose of my favorite pew in the sanctuary?
What if I turned loose of my intellectual convictions?
What if I turned loose of my passion for KY and opened my heart to the work of TN?
What if ...?
May you find new hopes and new possibilities.
And may you turn loose of that which you don't absolutely need to have.
So that we may all be better.
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