service : mackenzian

Chile: a flock of long-necked pink birds fly past a mountaintop. — Photo credit: Shwetha Shankar

“We in the United States live in a deathly social context that’s marked by consumerism and militarism and the loss of the common good… [This] ideological system causes us to be very afraid, to regard other people as competitors, or as threats, or as rivals. It causes us to think of the world in very frightened and privatistic forms.

“The gospel very much wants us to think in terms of a neighborhood, in terms of being in solidarity with other people, in sharing our resources, and of living out beyond ourselves. The gospel contradicts the dominance values of our system, which encourages self-protection and self-sufficiency at the loss of the common good. The church is in some ways a reflection of those dominant values.” —Walter Brueggemann

I returned to this quote tonight after first seeing it almost two years ago. I love the idea that people might choose to live openhearted and in solidarity with each other, and I also love the challenge that Brueggemann brings to the doors of the Christian community.

I wrote a short article on electoral participation this week, explaining that Christianity is a practical religion, not merely a theoretical one. Given our essential oneness, we share mutual responsibilities with the rest of our world. But how can we make a neighborhood out of a global village of 7 billion people. What if our apartment complex is 2,000 residents large: how do we practice the solidarity Brueggemann writes about here?

An answer came to me from a long-ago post. Just as birds flock by attending to the birds on either side of or ahead of them, mass action is about aggregated local action. We progress not by steering our entire community at once, but by adjusting with the units immediately around us as needed.

Explore: What actions could you take this weekend to learn more about your and your immediate neighbors’ needs? What affirms the way you serve them?

The floor plan for my old one-bedroom apartment. The floor plan is a line drawing, black lines on a white background. Bedroom, bathroom, living area, and kitchen are labeled. — Defined and distinct zones in the floor plan for my old apartment. Image: DTI Properties.

Helping professionals and social activists are among the many, many kinds of people who really need to pay attention to the space available in their lives for recovery and restoration.

I’m completing my second year in a congregational position where I’ve learned a great deal about community life and what works well for people who serve. Working behind the curtain means seeing much more than I did in my years as a very active lay church member. Those who pour themselves out in service to others must have space and time to gather themselves, and that can’t be optional or there’ll be unnecessary suffering.

I woke up one morning this summer with the phrase “Don’t sleep where you cook” rattling around my head.

Don’t sleep where you cook.

Give the stove room to breathe, and give yourself the luxury of a bed distinct from the pots and pans. Differentiate between where you prepare nourishment for or with others and where you rest from service with and for them.

It can be especially easy for leaders in faith communities, human services, and non-profit organizations to devote so much energy and attention to worthy causes that reasonable boundaries fail and their activity and rest zones blur. In the name of commitment and dedication, a lot of leaders end up designing their lives more like a studio apartment than a multi-room home.

There are privileges in having paid time off to take or community resources to support our hitting full-stop on the cycle of production: parents and other caretakers know that vacations can involve their own category of work. It’s also a privilege to have new contexts to go to, to relax in, to learn from, and to train in.

But even a studio breaks up its spaces. And while we’re in our home routines, not off-grid, we can practice gentle ways to ensure that we do wholly rest so we can do our best when we return.

Learn from my friend Hugh; help him rest if you can.