Perspective and Experience

Yesterday I wrote that one aspect of flourishing is the ability to maintain perspective. This means, essentially, that though one type of experience may dominate our lives at a given moment, we acknowledge that it is not the only type of experience that exists or that is available to us. That sounds vague, I know, so let’s deal with an example. Families in recovery often have very tense interactions when they gather together. We see many families in fact who share a house with someone who is in active substance use disorder, and the house is not a pleasant place to be. The fear, the anxiety, the frustration, the anger, the resentment, and the tension can dominate the experience, but they are not the only experiences available to us.

There are ways to find moments of happiness and moments of joy, even if they seem fleeting by comparison at that moment. We can both actively struggle and find breaks from that struggle if we can be disciplined in setting aside the dominate feeling for a moment. One way we recommend doing this is to go to a movie, or go bowling, or go out to eat, without talking about anything serious.

How do you find breaks from your struggles while in the midst of the struggle?

What helps you flourish?

We’re going to be talking about flourishing for a few days. What do I mean by flourishing? I don’t have a good definition, so let me instead point to a few types of things that define flourishing. Flourishing is about acknowledging and accepting our life circumstances. It is the willingness to do difficult things in order to stay faithful to our certain way of seeing (we might call this courage). It is about finding perspective, even when our circumstances are so oppressive that it is difficult to see beyond the darkness of the present moment. It is about pursuing hope, which is the art of living as if God is not yet done transforming his creation.

What would you add to the list?

2019: A Year for Flourishing?

So often in a recovery community we end up talking about suffering. In many ways our sufferings are what drew us towards this community, or what drew us into recovery. It’s important to talk about our suffering because our culture’s superficiality often forces us into silence over our suffering, which leaves us isolated.

And yet…too much focus on suffering leads to unproductive rumination. This is true of us as individuals and true of us as a community. In 2018, we tried to shift away from community rumination. We talked about responsibility, we talked about ways to find hope, we talked about covering each other’s weaknesses, and more.

We’re now in the second month of 2019, and resolutions are, perhaps, beginning to fall by the wayside. I am resolving, though, to try to push our community conversation towards flourishing. What does it mean to flourish? How do we pursue it? I’m going to spend at least a few days of devotionals exploring these things.

If you’re struggling, this does not mean I’m going to leave you behind. It is possible to “flourish” while struggling, though it is a great challenge. I will try to keep the conversation grounded in reality.

God with us

We hope you’ll consider joining us for our Christmas Eve service tonight at 4:00 pm. It’ll be a quiet, contemplative service. There will be a few songs, a partial reading of the Christmas story, a meditative instrumental, and silent prayer.

We remember on this today, and tomorrow, that God entered the world into a set of harsh circumstances. His family was isolated and alone. In a short time the government would begin looking for young Jesus in attempt to thwart God’s plans before they really get moving. In other words, even God in the flesh struggled to find his way in the world, even as we struggle to find ours.

The holidays are often difficult for those in recovery and, on this day, we remind that Jesus was to be called Immanuel, God with us.

God's image is compassion

7 People can tame and already have tamed every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and fish. 8 No one can tame the tongue, though. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we both bless the Lord and Father and curse human beings made in God’s likeness. 10 Blessing and cursing come from the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, it just shouldn’t be this way!

~ James 3:7-10, CEB

These verses essentially teach us not to use our bodies (in this case the tongue/mouth) to tear down other people. Why? Because human beings are made in God’s likeness. This is both physical and spiritual.

On the one hand, we’re made in God’s likeness. So, to tear someone else down is to use God’s likeness to do something that is, let’s say, not great. We should be thoughtful, at the very least, about how we’re using the gift that is God’s likeness.

On the other hand, every human being reflect’s God’s likeness in some form or fashion. When we tear another person down, we’re tearing down God’s image. The only way we see God, physically, in this world is through other people. When we tear down God’s image, how is that different from tearing down God?

And so we return to compassion. We do not practice compassion because people are good. We don’t practice it because they are better than they appear to be. We do not practice it because other people deserve it. We practice it because we are made in God’s likeness, as are other people, and we’re doing our best to live up to that responsibility.

When we treat people with compassion, particularly those who do not deserve it, we may even be helping them recognize the ways in which they represent God’s likeness. Perhaps this is a moment of clarity, or spiritual awakening. Who can say? What we can say, is that all of us benefit from compassion.