April, 2010

I recently attended a workshop hosted at Redlands United Church of Christ, called Writing the Sacred: A Psalm-Inspired path to Appreciating and Writing Sacred Poetry. The workshop leader was Ray McGinnis of Vancouver, British Columbia, who has written a book by the same title. He led about twelve of us in an inspiring evening of exploration of poetry, psalms, and prayer, as a means of making a connection to our spirituality.

One of my observations about the workshop was the balance of three different perspectives. We sampled the works of others such as Rumi, Mary Oliver, Hillel Schwartz, A.A. Milne, and of course, the Biblical Psalms. We did individual writing prompted by random phrases from Psalms: “Trees turn,” “Consider everything,” “Freed from my chains,” “Shall not be moved,” “Bones grow weak,” etc. Finally, according to each person’s wishes, we read aloud what we had written, expressed feelings about what we had heard, and articulated reactions to the process.

I believe these three balanced perspectives are important to our everyday spiritual life as well. We look outward and learn from others by reading, watching TV and movies, listening to the radio, etc. This outside information brings in new perspectives and helps us stay connected to the wider world. We also look inward and see what ideas and feelings come from within our own hearts and minds. Finally, we look around to our families, communities, church, work, etc. This kind of information comes through relationship as well as facts, figures and opinions.

In my view, these three perspectives: Outward, inward, and around, form the basis for how God works in our lives. God is the common thread that runs through them all. That’s also the reason it’s important not to neglect any of these important pathways, since the Holy Spirit is moving in and out and around us each day. If we cut ourselves off from any of the three, we will not feel complete and will feel more distant from the Holy.

At one of our study sessions on Celtic Christianity, we learned the prayer:

Christ before me
Christ within me
Christ above me
Christ below me
Christ behind me
Christ to the right of me
Christ to the left of me

Let us all feel the presence of God in every aspect of our lives as we give honor and praise to all the pathways along which God travels.

With optimism and hope,
Loring Fiske-Phillips