MU PROWL

Questions of Faith

2010-07-27T14:19:00.001-04:00

I'd like to try something new with the blog for this semester (Fall, 2010):

An online discussion about some of the so-called "big questions" of faith. We might also spend time in face-to-face conversation if we can find a time folks can meet. Some possible topics might include:

Who is God?
Why d0 bad things happen?
Is it OK to be "spiritual but not religious?"
What is the purpose of prayer?

Hope you'll join us to participate or just lurk! :-)
Dana

God Speaks to Each of Us (A Poem)

2010-02-15T10:26:00.002-05:00

"God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
Then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
Go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like flame
And make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand." Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

New Year/Semester/Perspective(?)

2010-01-12T19:02:00.000-05:00

Not sure how long it will take me to start putting "2010" on letters, checks, etc... seems like it takes longer each year!
Hopefully it won't take you that long to adapt to new classes and ideally those classes will be more interesting, compelling and challenging than last semester... or, if you're graduating, just easier :-)
I tend to be an optimist, I suppose. When I look at a new year/semester/etc. I imagine it full of possibilities. In theology, we call that "hope," which is another way of saying that even though you have no reason to expect that tomorrow will be better than today, you hope so anyway. Some people, by the way, call that "insanity" and insist that it makes more sense to be realistic (eg. "hopeless") about tomorrow. You tell me which makes more sense; or better yet, which one leads to more joy for you and others?
I hope you'll have a lot of joy this year/this semester. If PROWL is part of that, I'm glad we're here to share it. If you find other ways to experience God's gifts, peace be upon you! Because what we all need now and then is a new perspective on just how/where God is working in the world.
Just a heads-up; I'm hoping work with some students and others on multi-religious dialogue at MU this semester, so if that interests you, please let me know!
Faith, Hope, Love,
Dana

Office Clutter

2009-10-08T10:43:00.000-04:00

Spoiler alert: No strong religious guidance offered in this reflection. It's just me, folks!

Glancing around my office, the first thing someone would probably notice right now is the mountain of snacks and pop leftover from Tuesday night's PROWL meeting that won't fit in the plastic cabinet. Scanning toward my desk (NOOOOO!!! don't look... it's hideous!), there are piles of books, papers, pens of many colors (WARNING: Subtle biblical reference ahead), though no similar coat. Coat... many colors... got it?? Oh, well... moving on. Cups, gum, speakers, tape dispenser, a couple of dirty forks, Parthenons... wow, I didn't realize there was that much. I've always hung my hat on the saying that "a clean desk is a sign of an empty mind." (Of course, it's probably a sign that someone is more OCD than ADD). Whatever else it shows, you can tell that I like variety (the upside of being a packrat). And hopefully that I'm comfortable at my desk.

I also want others to be comfortable in my office. One thing I've noticed about this semester is that more folks have been hanging out in my office between classes, etc. and partaking of the aforementioned snacks and pop. So the question for me may be at what point hospitality and homey atmosphere cross over into clutter? I guess that's really up to visitors to decide... but I think I'll pick up a little bit, anyway!

Peace,

Dana

Broken World

2009-09-11T14:26:00.000-04:00

My memories of September 11, 2001 are probably different from those of most Americans. I watched the same videos, had the same images burned indelibly into my mind, and alternated between stunned silence and tears for a couple of days. But I did so while spending a year with my family living in Mexico. I remember walking into San Pablo Seminary that morning for worship and being told by a friend that something bad was happening in the U.S. My Spanish was only good enough at that point to pick up some of what the radio news was broadcasting, so I couldn't really tell how bad things were. I stayed for worship, where participants prayed for the situation in the U.S. Then I went back to our house and picked up my wife. We went to the house of an American friend who had CNN in English. That's where we watched the videos, where the horror became more clear.

But it wasn't until a few hours later when we went to the school where our boys had recently started that the immensity struck me; how could I explain to them what had happened? They were still pretty young - 6 and 8 - and had a fairly sheltered view of the world (as I wish 6 an 8 year olds could always have...). How could we explain that people did this to other people?

I guess you could say that for me, in some ways, this is where the "rubber meets the road" in theology. What we believe about God and how God is (or isn't) involved in the world become pretty important when we try to understand horrific events. Natural disasters are one thing; the fact that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast was a natural disaster, but the inadequate response of government was unnatural. Both resulted in suffering. Should we just chalk the whole thing up to the presence of evil in the world and be done with explaining and understanding? Somehow we have to take responsibility for some of the suffering. And with the events of 8 years ago, our theology was put to the test. Could we blame evil for twisting the minds of these men without seeing any connection between their brokenness and our own? Because the truth as Christians see it is that we are all broken in some way.

Yet while some branches of our faith tradition say this brokenness is permanent, the one in which I've been nurtured says that even now God is working to fix it, to reconcile things. And Jesus was what made the repair possible. You might say that Jesus is a kind of "suture," bringing the wounds together to enable healing.

I don't know how much healing has occurred since September 11, 2001. Some potential reconciliation was given up in favor of anger and violence, a kind of lashing-out. We're still paying the price for that response. One of the things I try to remember about that day was the response of our Mexican friends; they embraced us, cried with us, took care of us, suffered with us, even while they had long experienced such suffering themselves with little empathy from their northern neighbors. They allowed their brokenness to make them more caring, more deeply feeling, rather than less. That seems to me to be WWJD. Know what I mean?
Peace (Hopefully),
Dana

Taking Some Time

2009-09-01T10:31:00.004-04:00

Ever feel like your life is all in Russian? Rushin' to get to class, rushin' to get an assignment done... OK, I apologize for the bad pun. One of my weaknesses.

Seriously, though, I know what fall is like for me with coaching and playing soccer, PROWL starting anew, Christian Center meetings and concerns, kids going two directions all the time, and my wife and I trying to coordinate our work/transportation schedules. For college students, life can be equally crazy. For all of us, time can be at a premium and it seems like there are never enough hours in a day. Which makes what I'm about to say sound kind of unreasonable... but just bear with me!

I was reading a magazine editorial in which the author, whose office is across the street from the Art Institute of Chicago (THAT would be cool, no?) said, "Recently someone who knows a lot more about art than I do said that I ought to spend 15 minutes pondering a single painting. I wouldn't think about trying to hear a Beethoven symphony in a few minutes, he said. Fifteen minutes? I thought. I can see the entire Impressionist collection in 15 minutes. I have been trying to change my behavior, but it is not easy. My eyes stray to the next picture; everything in me wants to move on. But when I succeed in lingering, I see things that I would have missed, and I sometimes sense the deeper meaning of the work and the intent of the artist."

We are products of a culture that lives on the short sound-byte, debate by put-down, quick commercials, constant activity. We're not encouraged to linger... over much of anything. But maybe some things just take time. Friendships, for example. "Quality" time can't replace "quantity" of time.

I know this is asking a lot, but try to spend a little extra time appreciating something this week. A good meal, a sunny afternoon, an easy conversation with a friend, a song, a piece of art (great retrospective of Dr. Sporny's art in the Birke Art Gallery in Smith Hall). The way I see it, God is in the midst of those experiences. The Spirit is moving whenever we are moved, and I don't just mean deeply moved, but also when we have one of those warm feelings that things at the moment are somehow just right. So give that Spirit a little time to move this week!

Faith, Hope, Love,

Dana

Rest for Your Soul

2009-08-25T10:23:00.006-04:00

NOTE: This is the first of what I hope will be a weekly series of reflections. I'd love your input, and this blog format makes that easy, whether you write something in response or just check one of the little comment options at the bottom to let me know you stopped by... and cared!

New semester, new year, new life... welcome to it! Plenty of stuff to keep you busy, without a doubt: Social life, work, MU groups (PROWL, anyone?), not to mention classes and the various reading, writing, and agonizing that go along with them. So I have a question for you: Where you gonna find rest? I don't mean sleep (although that tends to get pushed to the bottom of the priority list, too!). In the Christian tradition, that's part of what the whole idea of "Sabbath" is about. Trouble is, we've tended to confine that to Sundays. It's really a much bigger concept, having to do with both something we offer to God and also something we receive. You might say in some ways it's really a "state of mind."

One of my favorite authors, Frederick Buechner described it this way: “The room is quiet. You're not feeling tired enough to sleep or energetic enough to go out. For the moment there is nowhere else you'd rather go, no one else you'd rather be. You feel at home in your body. You feel at peace in your mind. For no particular reason, you let the palms of your hands come together and close your eyes. Sometimes it is only when you happen to taste a crumb of it that you dimly realize what it is that you're so hungry for you can hardly bear it.”

I hope you get at least a taste of that this semester, because even a taste can sustain us for a long time. Maybe these reflections can even help a little. Let me know if there is a topic or idea you'd enjoy reading more about... In the mean time, may you find "rest for your soul" in whatever ways seem good to you.

Faith, Hope, Love,

Dana

PROWL Leadership

2009-07-09T10:40:00.002-04:00

I'm starting my 6th year with PROWL this fall (that's only one more year than some of you! ;-). One consistent blessing during that time has been the leaders who have come through to help guide PROWL. Each year there is some consistency (a few folks who were involved the year before) and some novelty (new people who seem to come from "out of nowhere" - though of course we know there is some "guidance" involved!). Sometimes in the past, I've spent some time worrying about whether such folks would get involved. I'm mostly done worrying now... faith tells me it will happen and PROWL will take whatever form is most needed at MU right now.
So anyway, if you're feeling any kind of interest in helping shape what we'll do, how we'll offer hospitality and welcome, how we'll show God's grace and love around campus, let me know. We welcome your help!
Peace,
Dana

A Blog??

2009-06-30T13:31:00.004-04:00

Friends of PROWL,
I've wondered as I've wandered this summer about our PROWL website and its best uses. One thing that's clear is that our old site was one way (or as some people call it Web 1.0). I'm going to try using this Blogspot for a while (Web 2.0 = Interactive). I plan to write regular reflections/random thoughts and will welcome your comments. In fact, lemme know what you think about this site when you get a chance. AND BE SURE AND VOTE FOR THE BEST TIME FOR PROWL!!
Peace, Dana