The Curach

Within the maddening maze of things

2011-03-06T09:28:00.000-05:00

While away a couple of weeks ago, at a friends place, I picked up a hymnal and opened to this page.
Not a lot has changed as it pertains to our spiritual passage mingled with our physical experience. Wouldn't mind visiting the islands with their fronded palms about now!

1. Within the maddening maze of things,
When tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings;
I know that God is good!

2. No offering of my own I have,
Nor works my faith to prove;
I can but give the gifts He gave,
And plead His love for love.

3. I know not where His islands lift
Their fronded palms in air;
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care.

4. And so beside the silent sea
I wait the muffled oar;
No harm from Him can come to me
On ocean or on shore.

5. I know not what the future hath
Of marvel or surprise,
Assured alone that life and death
His mercy underlies.

Written in 1867 by John Greenleaf Whittier.

Extending our souls...

2011-01-05T22:43:00.061-05:00

"If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
The Lord will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In."
Isaiah - 58

Amazing promises for going beyond merely meeting physical needs.
Poverty and homelessness are a real mystery for many. Good people are at a loss of what to do.

Here's just a piece of it for me:

So what does extending our soul look like?
For me, it's seeing my brother and sister on the street as someone's son or daughter. Loving them as I would any friend. Spending time talking about life, sports, God, weather, whatever comes up.
Earning the privilege of someone's friendship.
If physical needs become known out of those conversations, then shame isn't present.

I like that the verse above starts with "If", as opposed to "thou shalt". It's not an expectation, just an encouragement to love more, and packed with promise. Who knows, we might just make a life-long friend in the process.

"Blessing of the Three"

2010-10-18T21:36:00.001-04:00

The Sacred Three
My fortress be
Encircling me,
Come and be round
My hearth, my home.

Fend Thou my kin
And every sleeping thing within
From scathe, from sin.
Thy care, our peace
Through mid of night
To light's release.

2010-09-13T11:47:00.000-04:00

Beannacht

("Blessing")

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

~ John O'Donohue ~

(Echoes of Memory)

Written by John O'Donohue as found in his book, Anam Cara

Passing of a torch

2010-07-26T18:54:00.000-04:00

In ancient times, in Ireland, whole communities would say good-bye, forever, to friends that had been called to a living martyrdom. Leaving their family, their clan, their people, to follow the Wild Goose (the ancient Irish name for The Holy Spirit).
Either Green Martyrdom - wandering Irish soil until the Spirit would tell them, here, this is your "place of resurrection", or,
White Martyrdom - leaving the shores of Ireland never to return.

I imagine that for a people that held friendship and community among their highest values, this was a certain type of death, for all involved.

Following are the contents of a card our community received from another community. The C'Ville Project has been serving Jesus and friends in our city for 5 years. They are a beautiful group of people who invited my family in for rest early in our transition to Charlottesville, and several times since.

Their founders, Jonathan and Christa, have been called to transition. Their final destination is unclear at this writing. They go with our prayers, our love, and the wish that we had more time to spend with them.

The card:
One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time - Andre Gide

To the Curach Community,
We don't know each other well and it feels a little like we're tossing a package from one boat to another here, but we wanted to encourage and challenge you as you enter into a season and we wrap one up.
Our little community has been based in Charlottesville and have been together 5 years and are now dispersing. It's been an amazing journey that has shaped us in ways we don't even know yet.
It's sad to be ending, but it's exciting too - like shoving off in a curach again.

We're really excited to see new things springing up in Charlottesville and really cool to hear about your community and your love for Jesus, desire to build relationships with the poor and homeless in C'Ville, and your choice to live honest, courageous lives together.

We believe you are called, we believe it will be costly, (already is, for sure), and believe it's worth it. We pray that you will not carry more than Jesus asks you to, that you will love and be loved, and that you will embrace the calling you are receiving, especially when it looks different than you expect. This money is a gift from our community to yours - an investment in the invisible.

- The elders of the C.V.P

Springtime post

2010-07-05T17:23:00.001-04:00

This is an excerpt from an email that went out to our community this Spring, I was reminded of it this morning and thought it worth posting.

John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener"

All metaphors about God break down eventually.
The Shepherd, Lover, Warrior, Vinedresser, on and on, Elohim is infinite.
I find myself oftentimes reaching for a couple of these within a single conversation, as I attempt (as we all do) to describe some aspect of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.
When it comes to the will of God, I find describing His tending us as a Shepherd helpful.
When it comes to the crossfire we find ourselves in sometimes, the spiritual warfare, the picture of the Warrior/Avenger as in Ps. 18 speaks well.
When it comes to our desire to do the "good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them", being fruitful, the Vinedresser, or the Gardener sheds a lot of light.
When it comes to our unfulfilled longings and our desire to know and be known, the Lover is behind it all.
This short list doesn't even touch the many metaphors that speak to who we are, our experiences or the part we play.

As for our gatherings, mostly, I find the garden is my favorite picture.
With a garden, there is a preparation of the soil, building a fence, seeding, weeding and watering.

A gardener facilitates a safe place for growth. Tends to the life that is in the garden. Relies on greater, outside forces, in the Sun and the rains to give life what it needs to grow and produce. Understands the cycles of hard, dry ground (hardship) that produces certain strengths in the plants, and the soaking rains that refresh and give life. Is skillful in nurturing transplants from the greenhouse. Rejoices in the beauty of each seed bearing fruit of it's kind. And, of course, the honest gardener will never take credit for a tomato, a cucumber or sugar-snap peas.

This is where this particular metaphor breaks down: though we are all in the garden, we are also tending the garden as a community. Though we are the ones that are bearing fruit, we are tending and encouraging each others' health as well. Maybe we could say (as Daniel and Robin taught us last year) that certain plants help in each others growth, like basil in proximity to tomatoes.

We have been learning who we are as a community, as a family, and seeing certain values take shape and solidify. This is exciting.
I love that we are in no hurry (another aspect of gardening!).

So, what was so affecting for me on Thursday? We witnessed the priesthood of believers, a high value for the Curach. All of us stepped forward together. There was no one dominating voice, but a beautiful feast of voices.
Simplicity, (another high value) in that we simply facilitated a safe place, and each seed reached up a little more, spread their leaves out a little more, bloomed a little more. What a blast! We exercised the freedom to reach up in our own way.

It helps to know that we are not building something, but producing what God has put in us. Naturally.

Thanks to Daniel, Ian and Patrick, as they tended to us well, it was beautiful to witness the freedom they brought.

Thank you for the cornucopia everyone, and Happy Springtime!

Love always,
Chris

Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Chrysalis

2010-04-19T16:14:00.000-04:00

Last week we watched a short film as a community, and discussed the beauty of being set free and restored to our intended path. The Butterfly Circus, is a wonderful film...enjoy it.

Anam Cara (Gaelic for Soul Friend)

2009-10-12T11:35:00.001-04:00

Written by Christopher Haggerty

The Irish have a proverb from ancient times that I love and quote often.
A man without an Anam Cara is like a body without a head.
They believed their life depended on friendship.

So, the other day, I lost sight. Really bad. Lost sight of who I am. It happened when I talked with someone, who, at least on the surface, seemed to be living the life I desire, the life I've been waiting to live. The story of ease and serendipity that brought him to that life, left me feeling like an orphaned child.

I'd been pin-pricked by an incomplete story. I hadn't heard anything about my new friends' struggles, or his personal battles, which no doubt he has. Just the good stuff. Our conversation was too brief for more. I got angry, really angry. I was beside myself. My prayers were, pointed, to say the least, like arrows to the Throne room. (Please don't read anger at God here, this is anger at how the conversation made me feel. This was not a catastrophic event, just frustration with the pace of life).

Experience has taught me that this can be part of my process. I can move along in a state of coping for a time, incapable of rousing the deeper things, until I get pin-pricked like that. Then a truckload of desire gets dumped.

Just as I am un-offended by my children's occasional meltdowns, I believe my Father is un-offended by mine, even gratified that my full attention and dependence are on Him. He remembers my frame. (ps.103:14)

Then came that evening. I was invited to a friends house for conversation. No agenda, just three of us talking on a porch. Two men I love and respect. Two men that have my trust and know it. I was still carrying the weight of the morning, until one of them asked: so, what's going on in your heart? Because of what we'd already invested in each other, and the resulting sanctuary, there was no holding back. I told them everything.
I confessed.

I exercised the ancient privilege of Anam Cara. I looked to these men to be the priests I needed. The priests I know them to be. I needed them to help me regain perspective. I knew that what I shared would never be repeated, I knew they would hear me.

Knowing my story, my friends gathered me in, back to myself. They caused me to re-member, to be put back together. They weren't surprised or ashamed by me. They continued to see the best.

Without our prior time together these good men would have had nothing to offer but platitudes and pity. Instead they offered great wisdom and true compassion. We talked through the tension that upset me and what it means to continue to wait on God. They had earned that place in my life.

Here's the kicker, I've known one of them for a year and the other for about nine months. We're all busy fathers, husbands and making our livings, but we do something extraordinary. We value friendship, like our lives depend on it.

We take risks and share deep personal story, tell bad jokes and laugh our butts off. We speak the spiritual language of encouragement and blessing. We pray for each other and our families and hope for the best. We give each other room to explore spiritual concepts.

To the Ancients, Friendship seemed the happiest of all loves; the crown of life and the school of virtue. C.S.Lewis - The Four Loves

By and large, our modern culture has forgotten how to be friends. We "network". Like every other aspect of our lives, we've allowed commerce into the temple of our relationships. But friendship is what we truly need. The school of virtue indeed. I am a better man because of my friendships. Paul goes so far as to say that He who loves another has fulfilled the law! (Romans 13:8b)
The result of friendship is a life above reproach.

As I was writing this I began to think about the Anam Cara friendship of Jesus. Jesus spent his years of healing and teaching and modeling perfect love with his friends, and in the end he called us friends. I love how Jesus describes, in no uncertain terms, the tell-tale sign of his friendship.

Listen to this:
No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. (John 15:15)

We do this! We share what is rolling around in our hearts. The things that the Father is speaking to us, we bring to the table and we feast. This is the token of our friendship. I love that! We don't withhold, we don't compete. We spend time together to explore true friendship. True revelation. We love each other like our lives depend on it.

Christ goes on to say These things I command you, that you love one another. (John 15:17)

Without each other, we are the Body without it's Head.

It's an amazing thing to experience, it is our richest frontier.

One more quote:
Come on in boys, the water is fine! Delmar