Every Tuesday morning at 9:00 am, I gather online with a group of three other people to participate in a spiritual practice called Huddle. Over the course of one hour we dwell in Scripture, one of us describes an event or moment in which they saw God moving from the past week, the group asks clarifying questions, we spend time in silence, wonder how our identifies in Christ are being shaped by God, and finally conclude with asking the question: given all this, how is God calling you to respond? Primarily, Huddle is a discernment tool for listening and making sense of God’s action in our midst. Huddle is about making sense of God’s activity through the company of other people. It is based on the premise of communal discernment: we need the presence and support of others to name how the Holy Spirit is acting and to learn how to faithfully respond. I’ve been participating in Huddle for about three years, and the practice has been a tremendous gift for cultivating my capacity for paying attention to the Holy Spirit.
We live in a world that vies and competes for our attention. Whether through advertisements on our smart devices or on television screens, through our calendars filled with commitments, appointments and things to accomplish or even the larger societal pressures that attempt to link our worth as human beings to our possessions. Lately, in my journey of faith formation, I’ve been wondering about the voices that compete for my attention. More specifically, I’ve been reflecting upon how easy it is to pay attention to the things that are fleeting in this world: money, status, success, youth and accomplishment. Social pressures in the form of advertisements tell me these are the most important aspects of my identity; my worth and value are wrapped up with these standards. What I’ve discovered is that my capacity for paying attention to these misappropriated standards is highly developed. This capacity is highly developed because these worldly voices are loud and pervasive.
Gathering online with my discernment partners for Huddle is one space where the worldly standards are dismantled by the voice of God. This past week, one of my Huddle partners said to me: “Beth, when was the last time someone told you that you are a beloved child of God?” The question was directed to me after I described some of my anxiety associated with completing the midpoint internship evaluation. I was focused on meeting all the standards to perfection! So the question: “when was the last time someone told you that you are a beloved child of God?” hung in the air for a moment and re-centered me in God’s unconditional love. This question illuminated how I had been conflating my identity as a beloved of God with the standards of worldly perfection. In that space, God spoke clearly through the gift of community to remind me of who I truly am: named, claimed and loved by God.
Who reminds you that you are a beloved child of God? I ask because the journey of faith is a struggle at times; we get confused and thrown off course by the loud and pervasive voices of the world. We can find ourselves in the ditch all too easily, and wonder how we got there. People of Grace, you are truly loved beyond measure by a God who will always say: “This is my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.”
With deep joy and love for you,
Vicar Beth Gallen