In his explication of John 3:25-36 in yesterday's Illuminate study, Phil Smith reminds us that "humility does not consist in thinking badly about oneself or putting oneself down." Phil points to John the Baptist: "Rather than envy or jealousy" in the face of Jesus's growing reputation, John "feels joy." And this reaction is an example for Christians who "have not always shared John's humility." When we see the success that other Christian groups are experiencing in their work, for instance, instead of joy, "we feel threatened."
This is not the way of Jesus.
In her Friendly Perspective at the end of the Illuminate study, Aj Schwanz points to a key moment in John's exchange with his disciples, a moment that illustrates how Christian humility should work. John said of Jesus, "He must increase, but I must decrease," and Aj elaborates that this reality - "having to decrease in my own life" - can feel threatening, like loss. "But it's actually the opposite," Aj writes. "As I am decreasing, the road to recovery and healing and life and truth may continue to grow, and I may continue to be a part of it."
Why, then, aren't we humble? Phil writes that the problem might be "an interior world of shame . . . a lie in the heart: 'I am a worthless nobody unless I am better than others.'" Jesus offers us freedom from that lie, for "'whoever believes in the Son has eternal life'–not just when resurrection day comes, but now."
Eric Muhr
As we swim our laps of life
In this morning's Fruit of the Vine, Hank Helsabeck tells the story of a simple connection he made with his daughter: "I spent many late afternoons sitting in the aquatic center watching my grade school daughter, Amy, practice with her swim team." Every time Amy "completed a set of laps, she would look up from the poolside and find me in the bleachers. She would wave and smile at me." And every time it happened, Hank would wave and smile back.
These interactions between Hank and his daughter were small, almost automatic. But Hank writes that this "practice of connecting did more than I know in strengthening the relationship between the two of us." Hank likens this series of small interactions to the kinds of connections God creates in our own lives: "Whether you are driving across town, waiting in a checkout line, taking a short break from work, or actually swimming laps in a pool, just look up and smile at God."
I find myself wondering, as I read Hank's words, whether these might also be the kinds of interactions God longs for us to have with one another "as we swim our laps of life."
Hank leaves us with this prayer: "Abba, help me remember to pause many times a day to affirm your presence and to smile at you and with you." My prayer is that God might also help me to remember to pause at least once a day and to make a connection with whomever God brings into my life. If I see you, maybe I'll remember to smile and wave. If you see me, maybe you'll wave and smile back. And in the meantime, I am praying for you.
Eric Muhr
A language for the inward landscape
Brian Drayton writes about a weekend at Pendle Hill: "We were talking about the many passages in the old Quaker journals in which the writers described their inward states, using words and phrases that were both puzzling and full of implication." Drayton said that a friend, Bill Taber, called it "a language for the inward landscape," a kind of technical language for "Quaker spirituality that is too little known among Friends."
Bill passed away in 2005, but in a book released this month, A Language for the Inward Landscape: Spiritual Wisdom from the Quaker Movement, Brian uses Bill's work to introduce a uniquely Friend-ly way of doing theology experientially. "Friends refuse to subordinate spiritual experience, and the transformation of personality, to intellectual formulation" providing, instead, in their writings, a uniquely "Quaker theology of the narrative, pastoral, or prophetic."
Barclay Press produces guides for individual and small-group devotional experiences, and we publish a handful of books each year. We also sell books through our online bookstore - part of our work to help connect Friends to each other and to some of the best resources on what it means to be part of the Friends movement.
One of our ongoing projects is a study from T Vail Palmer on reading the Bible with empathy, a study whose first volume we hope to release later this year. In the meantime, this book from Brian helps to put into words why we do what we do at Barclay Press, why we do what we do as evangelical Friends, seeking to enter into "an encounter with the living God . . . [dwelling] in watchfulness, maintaining an inward attention on our condition, not far from the threshold of prayer, and becoming increasingly sensitive to the little hints and motions of the Spirit."
Eric Muhr