The Flower Power of Love
The trees over head lightly sang their rustling songs. Women of all ages and walks of life drifted beneath their dance with momentary laughter and joy that comes when we gather together, outside of the normal routine and away from the noises of life. The sound of oars dipping into the lake and creaking cabin doors could occasionally be heard as the women descended from lunch to team building time. And a sense of freshness, as crisp and clean as the blackhills air, filled my lungs and my heart.
This realization that we live in a society that has isolated itself from one another in community suddenly hit me. No longer do we have even the desire really to work on projects and experience the natural connection that brings. So often we walk shoulder to shoulder in our silent prisons in the church, in life, at work. Not really even afraid to break down those walls and connect...more like blinded to the reality that 1) the walls are there keeping us from one another and 2) there is a way to connect on a deeper level. We smile and nod and laugh and share life but usually only so deep.
I stood before my mine field of hastily strewn items thinking about this, about these women I have seen roaming church and never quite connected with. My activity was to have people pair up with a blind fold and then work as a team to get across the minefield each person at different times blind folded and only able to respond by listening to the voice of their team mate. The mine fields were things in life that throw us off track. Each group of women shared some of their struggles and then they were off, listening, clarifying, failing and ultimately succeeding.
The first group sat discussing what it was like to have to trust a voice you couldn't see or feel to maneuver through a field of stuff. One woman had a particularly hard time at one point and hit several of the items. I asked her how she felt and she said she felt bad like she had let the team down. Suddenly the thought of grace and Mario Brothers came to my mind and I asked, "When you hit the mines what actually happened? Did you fail? Did you die? were points added against you? did you have to start over?" The answer to all of these was no. "Did you learn to communicate and listen and trust your partner more?" And the answer was yes.
We then talked about how the mine fields were actually like point systems in mario brothers and each one you stepped on, because of God's grace and love, was actually a point a for your team. Like flower power! I talked about how often I have looked ahead at my life and different things and feared stepping on them, or making mistakes. But that in reality there is no bomb or choice I can make that God's grace doesn't already cover. There is no mistake He doesn't turn into a blessing for me as He and I wrestle through it together.
As we talked one of the women began to cry, sharing how she was struggling, continually messing up and making bad choices and feeling like a failure. We were then able to pray for her and reassure her of God's grace and mercy and work in her life and how Christ had turned 'bombs' we had activated in our own lives into blessings.
As the day drew to a close we found ourselves seated for another speaker who shared how she was coping with a devastating season in her family. Her husband was recently and very suddenly paralyzed, yet in the midst of this she has been able to experience God's presence in a way so tangible that she would give up everything to be deeper in his loving presence. She challenged us to lay out all our burdens to God and then wait in expectancy for Him to come.
To cry out before God and others. To strip ourselves of our masks and get honest. There are certain sins I want, I pray for forgiveness but I am planning on going back to them. There are areas of my life I feel God has failed me. There are corners of my heart I don't want to look at, things I believe are wrong and unfair, promises that appear to have not been kept. These perhaps are the secret land mines of my heart. The bombs I don't want to say to God, or acknowledge exist because they may destroy my faith, cause me to feel pain or force me to wrestle to work to understand. Part of me thinks that if I get real in this part of me God won't show up. He won't answer. But then we read Psalm 73 and the psalmist gets real with struggle and what he sees and feels. Then he enters the sanctuary of the Lord and finally understands.
So I start to strip down before these women, to get real with them., and as I do... As I connect my heart to theirs and share my fears, struggles, pain, unanswered questions...I start to see their pain too. I hear their stories of what they have done and what has been done to them. And as we speak it all falls out like baggage filling the sanctuary. Then we stop. Quietly singing begins, our voices join together in the worship of our king and the heaviness of all we have held in and just laid out, starts to burn away as we sing about and focus on the beauty of our king, the power of His grace and mercy and never ending kindness to us. The beauty of knowing I am standing with women warriors and that we are united with one voice before our King, sends shivers of beauty down my spine. These are women I may never know deeply, but some that I will...worshipping...warring... and as we do we see Christ enter into the sanctuary and strip down to his bare chest..fighting for us, removing our burdens.
It hits me----this is one way that God turns our land mines into blessings. He lets us connect with others, we share our pain and joy and we begin to see our Savior stripping down and fighting for us and it transforms us. Transforms our hearts as we connect we see Him more clearly as well as ourselves and our situations. Connection----love's flower power.
This realization that we live in a society that has isolated itself from one another in community suddenly hit me. No longer do we have even the desire really to work on projects and experience the natural connection that brings. So often we walk shoulder to shoulder in our silent prisons in the church, in life, at work. Not really even afraid to break down those walls and connect...more like blinded to the reality that 1) the walls are there keeping us from one another and 2) there is a way to connect on a deeper level. We smile and nod and laugh and share life but usually only so deep.
I stood before my mine field of hastily strewn items thinking about this, about these women I have seen roaming church and never quite connected with. My activity was to have people pair up with a blind fold and then work as a team to get across the minefield each person at different times blind folded and only able to respond by listening to the voice of their team mate. The mine fields were things in life that throw us off track. Each group of women shared some of their struggles and then they were off, listening, clarifying, failing and ultimately succeeding.
The first group sat discussing what it was like to have to trust a voice you couldn't see or feel to maneuver through a field of stuff. One woman had a particularly hard time at one point and hit several of the items. I asked her how she felt and she said she felt bad like she had let the team down. Suddenly the thought of grace and Mario Brothers came to my mind and I asked, "When you hit the mines what actually happened? Did you fail? Did you die? were points added against you? did you have to start over?" The answer to all of these was no. "Did you learn to communicate and listen and trust your partner more?" And the answer was yes.
We then talked about how the mine fields were actually like point systems in mario brothers and each one you stepped on, because of God's grace and love, was actually a point a for your team. Like flower power! I talked about how often I have looked ahead at my life and different things and feared stepping on them, or making mistakes. But that in reality there is no bomb or choice I can make that God's grace doesn't already cover. There is no mistake He doesn't turn into a blessing for me as He and I wrestle through it together.
As we talked one of the women began to cry, sharing how she was struggling, continually messing up and making bad choices and feeling like a failure. We were then able to pray for her and reassure her of God's grace and mercy and work in her life and how Christ had turned 'bombs' we had activated in our own lives into blessings.
As the day drew to a close we found ourselves seated for another speaker who shared how she was coping with a devastating season in her family. Her husband was recently and very suddenly paralyzed, yet in the midst of this she has been able to experience God's presence in a way so tangible that she would give up everything to be deeper in his loving presence. She challenged us to lay out all our burdens to God and then wait in expectancy for Him to come.
To cry out before God and others. To strip ourselves of our masks and get honest. There are certain sins I want, I pray for forgiveness but I am planning on going back to them. There are areas of my life I feel God has failed me. There are corners of my heart I don't want to look at, things I believe are wrong and unfair, promises that appear to have not been kept. These perhaps are the secret land mines of my heart. The bombs I don't want to say to God, or acknowledge exist because they may destroy my faith, cause me to feel pain or force me to wrestle to work to understand. Part of me thinks that if I get real in this part of me God won't show up. He won't answer. But then we read Psalm 73 and the psalmist gets real with struggle and what he sees and feels. Then he enters the sanctuary of the Lord and finally understands.
So I start to strip down before these women, to get real with them., and as I do... As I connect my heart to theirs and share my fears, struggles, pain, unanswered questions...I start to see their pain too. I hear their stories of what they have done and what has been done to them. And as we speak it all falls out like baggage filling the sanctuary. Then we stop. Quietly singing begins, our voices join together in the worship of our king and the heaviness of all we have held in and just laid out, starts to burn away as we sing about and focus on the beauty of our king, the power of His grace and mercy and never ending kindness to us. The beauty of knowing I am standing with women warriors and that we are united with one voice before our King, sends shivers of beauty down my spine. These are women I may never know deeply, but some that I will...worshipping...warring... and as we do we see Christ enter into the sanctuary and strip down to his bare chest..fighting for us, removing our burdens.
It hits me----this is one way that God turns our land mines into blessings. He lets us connect with others, we share our pain and joy and we begin to see our Savior stripping down and fighting for us and it transforms us. Transforms our hearts as we connect we see Him more clearly as well as ourselves and our situations. Connection----love's flower power.
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