Promises and Fruit

Promises

“12 Promises of AA

1.  If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through. 2. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.  3. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.  4. We will comprehend the word serenity, and we will know peace.  5. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.  6. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.  7. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.  8. Self-seeking will slip away.  9. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. 10. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.  11. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. 12. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.”

Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous pp. 83-84

Keller Dining Hall, Camp Mitchell, Diocese of Arkansas

Do you see any similarity between the promises of a 12-step program and the nine fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5: 22-23)? Paul writes that we know and feel we are connected to the Spirit, the God within us if the consequence, the fruit, of what we are doing produces “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control.”   The promises and the fruit of the Spirit are both guides, benchmarks telling us if we truly on the right track, if we are connected to the God, the Christ, the Spirit within us. When two disciplines tell me a similar truth, I begin to believe and pay attention to this truth.

Joanna                                 joannaseibert.com

Our Story

Our story

“In the spring of 1953, I had left my job at Lawrenceville to be a full-time writer in New York, and it was that fall, with my third novel failing to come to life for me, that in some sense my life itself started to come to life for me—the possibility, at least, of a life in Christ, with Christ, and, on some fine day conceivably, even a life for Christ, if I could ever find out what such a life involved, could find somewhere in myself courage enough, faith enough, craziness and grace enough, to undertake the living of it.”

Frederick Buechner, Originally published in Now and Then, from Frederick Buechner Center Quote of the Day

The American Presbyterian minister, Frederick Buechner, is certainly one of the most read spiritual writers and theologians of this day.  I thought I had read all his books and sermons until I found out he has written over 30 books. I have only read about a tenth of what he has published. Buechner’s writings are honest, practical, not preachy, concerned about the frailty of the human condition constantly supported by Grace. His most unifying theme is “listening to your life,” paying attention to everything around you, living in the present, realizing that God is constantly at work in our everyday lives. Peter Hawkins in Listening for God 1 describes Buechner as seeing each person’s story as sacred, capable of revealing divine truth. By sharing our stories, we discover patterns and purpose, like figures in an oriental carpet. Telling our story is not just a possibility, it is our purpose. If we lose touch with our own story, we may lose touch with God. God is a co-author with each of us in the story of our lives.

Dale Brown, The Book of Buechner: A Journey Through His Writings.

Joanna      joannaseibert.com

No words talking

   No words talking

“Conversation can stimulate, inform and build strong connections. It can be the thread that weaves us together and binds us to our tribe. At best it can inspire, comfort, motivate and kindle creative thought. But as I listen more carefully I discover that much of the dialogue in our culture is what someone once called ‘talking and waiting to talk.’

Anne LeClaire,  Below the Noise, from Inward Outward, August 24, 2016

No words

This is a picture of our oldest granddaughter on a recent mission trip to Nicaragua. She does not speak the language, but her actions and her body language speak volumes. Psychologists tell us that people believe and read our body language, our eye contact, our gestures, the tone of our voice, how we sit, our facial expressions, our touch, our distance much more than what comes out of our mouths. Listening skills are paramount in pastoral care and in relating to spiritual friends as well as giving spiritual direction. Have you ever been with someone where they made you feel like you were the only person in the world they were talking with? Friends say this about President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.   Professor Albert Mehrabian from UCLA believes that our words are 7% of what is heard while our body language is 55% and our tone of our voice is 38%. I remember a physician I worked with who never made eye contact. Getting to know who he really was turned out to be impossible. I had another physician I worked with who was constantly looking at his watch during the conversation. Another kept his arms crossed in front of him during the entire conversation suggesting nothing was getting in or out of his body during our time together. Another seemed to be picking lent off his coat as we spoke.

 Remembering what does not work is helpful but memories of times when someone was really listening or showing us compassion can help us set the mood in our mind and body as we talk with others.

When I want to let someone know I feel compassion for them, I will try to hold in my mind this picture of Langley holding and loving this precious one.

Joanna           joannaseibert.com