“By ‘celebration,’ I mean that it is worth aligning yourselves with the way the world is and could be, rather than by the way the world isn’t." I found this to be very powerful
This has been so helpful to me. Thank you! I have spent the week helping my 92 year old mother who is adjusting to life in a beautiful assisted living facility. She is doing well but is a highly anxious person, which I find hard to not absorb. I will share your writing with her, as I think this essay and your meeting with Rowan Williams is a real inspiration for those of us who are anxious. (Isn’t that just about everyone these days?)
I resonate with you saying that it’s hard to not absorb the anxiety of our mothers. I too am taking care of my mother from a distance since she moved into an independent living place. It’s such hard work to do all
The things she can’t do like finances and health care and transportation arrangements. Learning to let go in the midst of a lot of doing.
Thank you for sharing your conversation with Rowan Williams. So much to ponder, so much to apply. To learn to let go and allow God to work in me, to take my fears and replace them with faith. It is so hard to relinquish the illusion of control for me. We find hope wherever we can.
I loved this, especially the part about naming anxiety, moving towards surrender and finding solace in music and literature. Rowan Williams is just brilliant.
I am not normally an anxious person, but this year has been so different and I find a lot of what you have written here I can relate to. Thanks for sharing this.
As a preacher who steps into the pulpit weekly I am weak in the knees in exhaustion and feel the weight of that blinking line and wondering what do I say?! This reflection and conversation are planting some seeds. Grateful for the sun that shines even when the sky is grey and there are no visible signs of rays.
This is a timely essay, and will read it a few more times this week. Thank you. I'm fighting fear too. I have been thinking a lot about the faithful throughout history who have lived through their own apocalypses. Sustained by the very presence of God. Beauty. Goodness. Love. I'm praying for open eyes and ears. An open heart to see my Father who is always at work. Safe travels.
Hello Jeff, thank you as always for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. It is more helpful than you can imagine. Have you been listening to the podcast, The Rise of Bonhoeffer, that Tripp Fuller and Jeffrey Pugh have put together? I believe that Prof. Vosloo has been part of that project. It is very well done. Best wishes for a "fruitful" time in SA, and safe travels.
Jeff, I didn't have time to read this when you sent it last week, and for that hectic week and delay I am grateful. It was just the message my soul needed to hear today, Wednesday, November 6th. Thanks be to you, the former Archbishop, and, of course, to God, the lover of all our souls for this timely message.
Thank you for your honest words and reflection Jeff. I am generally not an anxious person (as others have said here), but I am so anxious about this election, and every time I am reminded of it I feel it in my body. I just can’t wait for it to be over and yet I’m terrified for it to be over. It’s good to not be alone and to know that others are struggling as well.
I am also just so sad to see how my own family “others” so many people, including me. The church my brother leads, the faith they profess… it feels so “anti-Christ” in this moment in our Country’s history, and I continually remind myself that we can believe differently and still be family. Yet, while they pray for me, that I would “come back to Christ” (I haven’t left Christ!), I pray the scales would fall off their eyes. It feels futile and hopeless and yet I do it anyway.
As others have expressed here, I too have aging parents, and I am helping sort and pack to move them to my brother’s home 250 miles north as my dad requires too much care for my mom to now handle. I’m absorbing my mother’s anxiety over the move while trying to manage my own. It’s a lot.
I’m trying to rest in the knowledge that God is with us. God has always been with all of us, regardless of the circumstances. And if the fears of what could be materialize, God will still be with us.
Thank you so much for this article. I see myself being revealed in your writing. There are so many new ways for me to look at my anxiety because of what you have reported here. I will go back to this wisdom over and over again, and hopefully it will begin to sink in to my heart.
“Hope found in the radiance of truth”. Thank you for sharing your fear and your visit with Williams. I’m encouraged. Even though I still hold on to some hope that this election will favor truth and justice , I’m worried and need to draw from
That deep well of gratitude. It’s a hard time in so many places. I still want to believe in that otherworldly love of God.
“By ‘celebration,’ I mean that it is worth aligning yourselves with the way the world is and could be, rather than by the way the world isn’t." I found this to be very powerful
Jeff all of this resonates with me as I am living in fear. Thankyou. So good!
This has been so helpful to me. Thank you! I have spent the week helping my 92 year old mother who is adjusting to life in a beautiful assisted living facility. She is doing well but is a highly anxious person, which I find hard to not absorb. I will share your writing with her, as I think this essay and your meeting with Rowan Williams is a real inspiration for those of us who are anxious. (Isn’t that just about everyone these days?)
I resonate with you saying that it’s hard to not absorb the anxiety of our mothers. I too am taking care of my mother from a distance since she moved into an independent living place. It’s such hard work to do all
The things she can’t do like finances and health care and transportation arrangements. Learning to let go in the midst of a lot of doing.
Thank you for sharing your conversation with Rowan Williams. So much to ponder, so much to apply. To learn to let go and allow God to work in me, to take my fears and replace them with faith. It is so hard to relinquish the illusion of control for me. We find hope wherever we can.
I loved this, especially the part about naming anxiety, moving towards surrender and finding solace in music and literature. Rowan Williams is just brilliant.
I am not normally an anxious person, but this year has been so different and I find a lot of what you have written here I can relate to. Thanks for sharing this.
As a preacher who steps into the pulpit weekly I am weak in the knees in exhaustion and feel the weight of that blinking line and wondering what do I say?! This reflection and conversation are planting some seeds. Grateful for the sun that shines even when the sky is grey and there are no visible signs of rays.
This is a timely essay, and will read it a few more times this week. Thank you. I'm fighting fear too. I have been thinking a lot about the faithful throughout history who have lived through their own apocalypses. Sustained by the very presence of God. Beauty. Goodness. Love. I'm praying for open eyes and ears. An open heart to see my Father who is always at work. Safe travels.
Hello Jeff, thank you as always for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. It is more helpful than you can imagine. Have you been listening to the podcast, The Rise of Bonhoeffer, that Tripp Fuller and Jeffrey Pugh have put together? I believe that Prof. Vosloo has been part of that project. It is very well done. Best wishes for a "fruitful" time in SA, and safe travels.
This was good. Thank you. Baaie dankie!
Jeff, I didn't have time to read this when you sent it last week, and for that hectic week and delay I am grateful. It was just the message my soul needed to hear today, Wednesday, November 6th. Thanks be to you, the former Archbishop, and, of course, to God, the lover of all our souls for this timely message.
Thank you for your honest words and reflection Jeff. I am generally not an anxious person (as others have said here), but I am so anxious about this election, and every time I am reminded of it I feel it in my body. I just can’t wait for it to be over and yet I’m terrified for it to be over. It’s good to not be alone and to know that others are struggling as well.
I am also just so sad to see how my own family “others” so many people, including me. The church my brother leads, the faith they profess… it feels so “anti-Christ” in this moment in our Country’s history, and I continually remind myself that we can believe differently and still be family. Yet, while they pray for me, that I would “come back to Christ” (I haven’t left Christ!), I pray the scales would fall off their eyes. It feels futile and hopeless and yet I do it anyway.
As others have expressed here, I too have aging parents, and I am helping sort and pack to move them to my brother’s home 250 miles north as my dad requires too much care for my mom to now handle. I’m absorbing my mother’s anxiety over the move while trying to manage my own. It’s a lot.
I’m trying to rest in the knowledge that God is with us. God has always been with all of us, regardless of the circumstances. And if the fears of what could be materialize, God will still be with us.
Thank you so much for this article. I see myself being revealed in your writing. There are so many new ways for me to look at my anxiety because of what you have reported here. I will go back to this wisdom over and over again, and hopefully it will begin to sink in to my heart.
“Hope found in the radiance of truth”. Thank you for sharing your fear and your visit with Williams. I’m encouraged. Even though I still hold on to some hope that this election will favor truth and justice , I’m worried and need to draw from
That deep well of gratitude. It’s a hard time in so many places. I still want to believe in that otherworldly love of God.