February 2025
Click to Read February Steeple
Dear Church Family,
I heard a quote this past year that has stuck with me and won’t let go. Howard Thurman, the theologian and spiritual advisor to Martin Luther King Jr, was known to have said: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” As a Civil Rights activist, he was not dis- missive of the needs of the world, but knew that individuals who have fully actualized as the people God has made them to be are who end up participating in the healing of the world.
I picked up the book What Makes You Come Alive by Lerita Coleman Brown to learn more about this man who was inspirational to so many. Much of his life was shaped by the innate sense of God’s Spirit at work, and though he was active in the public sphere inspiring change, he was rooted in contemplative practices of prayer and solitude. He followed Christ’s lead in taking time apart to pray, to be alone, to be in tune with God’s reality in him and around him, often in the gifts of creation. His life was also shaped by loss, racism, injustice, and tragedy. He didn’t so much come to prayer with ease, it was a balm for his soul that gave him what he needed in the midst of the chaos. Brown writes, “Going inward to connect with God generates an inner resolve. There we find our strength to cope with the horrors of oppression or the pains and stresses of everyday life.”
I am particularly drawn to this invitation into solitude and recentering amidst the chaos of our news cycle today, the constant temptations for distraction in technology at the tip of our fingers. There are unspoken expectations all around us, and ongoing needs ready to burst through our doors. Escapism is a similar yet different temptation all together - to try and ignore the world and only dwell in what makes you happy - which doesn’t solve anything. If we are not healthy and wise people, the bombardment to overengage or ignore will inevitably destroy us. Thurman’s prioritizing of space for God anchored his soul in such a way that his restoration led to community transformation. Making space for quiet and inviting God to speak is a highly uncomfortable and foreign practice for me, but when I actually do it there is an unspeakable enrichment and grounding that occurs, and I know I am a better spouse, parent, friend, and leader for it.
As we’ve been moving through Paul’s letter to the Corinthians in January and on into February, I can’t help but think this too was what Paul is getting at when he is pleading with the participants of these churches to recenter on Christ. Their lives have become more reactionary than purposeful, their ministry catering more to personalities than Christ’s wisdom and peace. The chaos of their day was its own flavor - yet the cultural moment tempting them towards prestige, power, superiority and financial ease seems to repeat over time. What Paul is inviting them and us to is a reinvigoration of the individual journey with God so that the community might be restored to health. That takes a lot of maturity on each member to recognize where they have stopped listening, where they’ve begun filling up God spaces with culture and busyness, and maturity to try the awkward practices of prayer, listening for the movement of God’s Spirit, and measuring our lives back to the ministry of Christ.
As you go about your days, I hope you’ll consider some space for solitude and quiet with God. Maybe a “pause pocket” for 2-3 minutes of silence, perhaps asking God for what He has for you today. I find myself alone from time to time, but it is easy to even fill that space up with nonsense items or busywork. I’ll commit to these pockets of silence alongside you - longing for the movement of God’s Spirit to guide our hopes and our days. Amen!
Blessings, Pastor Becca
