Finding Some Breathing Room
by Cathi King
tiredness grounds me
into a quiet stupor
of the spirit.
I yearn to be inspired,
to be lifted up,
set free . . .
—Joyce Rupp
What inspires you? Who inspires you? Where do you turn for inspiration? Some of you tell me you can hardly bring yourselves to watch the news anymore because you find it so depressing: greed on Wall Street, contentiousness in Washington, despair in Haiti . . .. Job related stresses seem to be at an all-time high, the entertainment industry is producing an inordinate number of movies about the apocalypse, death tolls rise in Afghanistan, and it’s cold outside in Michigan. We’re in need of inspiration.
Inspire comes from the Latin word inspirare, “to blow into or to breathe into.” The Psalmist writes:
God, the one and only . . . breathing room for my soul. (Psalm 62,The Message)
Indeed, when our spirits are stressed and anxious, we can physically feel constricted or tight in the chest. Imagine God providing breathing room . . . literally breathing hope and light, energy and life into our weary souls. And God is immensely creative, using a wide variety of means through which to breathe life into us.
I visit with a member of the congregation who doesn’t get out much but sometime in the past when he did, he took a number of photographs of flowers, particularly sunflowers. On the table next to his door is a stack of these photos. To each person who visits him, he gives a photo of sunflowers . . . a picture of joy . . . a snapshot of life. These have inspired him in an otherwise fairly dark journey, and he has chosen to pass on that inspiration to others.
Do not worry about your life . . . see how the lilies of the field grow? . . .” (Matthew 6:25+)
Others have told me stories of the ways in which their pets bring them joy. One friend in the congregation talks about settling into the couch with her cat throughout her burdensome days to receive a little unconditional love. The newest member of our family, Zeus, our four-month-old golden retriever, provides us with hours of entertainment, teaching us to lighten up, to laugh more, to just be silly together.
Some share how music and dancing, card games with friends, reading stories about literary underdogs who become town heroes, delving into boxes of old family photographs or memoirs, experimenting with new recipes, or an early morning run bring them renewed energy and vitality. This week at Sarah Circle, we laughed as we remembered show tunes we’ve loved and movie scenes of dancing. In February, we’ll listen to a collage of these favorites and watch a montage of dance scenes that vibrantly fill our memories.
You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy . . . (Psalm 30:11)
God breathes joy and hope into us through Scripture and worship, church fellowship and song most definitely, and also through the creative arts of poetry and literature, through the beauty of nature and the friendship of animals, through the laughter of friends and the aroma of a new culinary delight . . .. The tools available to God to renew our dry and weary spirits are limitless . . . myriad chords in a love song . . .
Listen . . . breathe deeply . . . arise and join the dance. 
Do you ever look around the church and realize how little you know about many of those seated around you? If so, this Westminster tradition is for you.
On February 27, March 27, and April 24 share a meal with friends old and new. At each gathering, a group of 7, 8 or 9 will gather for dinner at the home of one of the participants. The host provides the main course, while each guest brings salad and bread, a vegetable or dessert. Your dinner partners are different each month, so this is a great way to get to know many in our Westminster family.
Singles and couples, please sign up in the entry to the fellowship hall by Sunday, February 7. You are encouraged to participate even if you can attend only one or two of the evenings. Bon appétit!
Men to resume monthly breakfasts
Saturday, February 13, 8 am
Men, join us for breakfast and conversation, followed by a short presentation by Jeff Flynn entitled “Being a Faithful Christian Man in an Online World.” Come and bring a friend. RSVP: Ralph Lange (734-426-4177) or Jeff Flynn (734-663-0556). Breakfast costs $3 per person.
Ralph Lange will present “Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag” at the March 20 breakfast.
Women’s spring retreat:Fri–Sat, April 30–May 1
Michindoh Conference Center, Hillsdale
You’re welcome to join the design and planning team for this wonderful weekend of renewal; please contact Sharon Flynn.
Chicks & Flicks series continues with Julie & Julia
Saturday, January 20, 7 pm
Julie and Julia find their lives intertwined. Though separated by time and space, both women are at loose ends . . . until they discover that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible.
In 1949, Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep), the wife of a diplomat, is in Paris, wondering how to spend her days. She tries hat making, bridge, and then cooking lessons at Cordon Bleu. There she discovers her passion. In 2002, Julie Powell (played by Amy Adams), about to turn 30 and underemployed, decides to cook her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year, and to blog about it. We go back and forth between the stories of these two women learning to cook and finding success. Sympathetic, loving husbands support them both, and friendships, too, add zest.
Sign up in the entry to the fellowship hall to come–and bring a friend or two. Bring a snack (as indicated on the signup poster), or just come and enjoy.
EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
Sixty Plus Club celebrates in song
Friday, February 19, St. Andrews Fellowship Hall
Lunch and program beginning at noon
Barbara Hilbish and others will serenade us with a Valentine’s Day musical at our February meeting. All are welcome to join us!
Westminster library a great place of learning
Looking for a good book for a dark winter night? Look no further than these new books in our library:
The Proclamation of Jesus, by Larry Woodruff, former Westminster parish associate, is a collection of meditations on the four Gospels.
Strength in What Remains, by Tracy Kidder (Pulitzer Prize winner: Mountains Beyond Mountains), is an inspiring account of one man’s remarkable journey and of the ordinary people who helped him.
The Genesis Enigma is by respected evolutionary biologist Andrew Parker who relates how the biblical story of Genesis reflects scientific truths while allowing for divine inspiration at the heart of the Creation story.
America’s Prophet, by Bruce Feiler, tells how the Exodus story is America’s story and that Moses is our real founding father.
Alphas, Omegas sell Super Bowl subs
Wednesdays: Movie (February 3); Wednesday Rap (February 10); Dutch Blitz Tournament (February 24)
Sundays: Sub sandwich-making (February 7, 7:30 am); Joan of Arcadia (February 7, 14, 21, 28, 12:30–2 pm; $2 for lunch)
In January, children’s Sunday school classes assembled 65 hygiene kits for the people of Haiti. Children’s Committee members helped make it happen quickly and the Mission Committee shipped them.
Your photos of church events are welcomed. Send digital files to Marti Burbeck; put prints in her mailbox in the public office.
Remember: photos of a few people doing something say more than ones of “the whole group” in a static all-in-a-line pose.
Shutterbugs old and new, start snapping!
Save your stamps!
You can donate cancelled stamps to a good cause. Please cut cancelled stamps from letters, leaving a quarter-inch inch border, and place them in the “Third World Country” box in the entry to the fellowship hall. We send them to a German community of 7000 mentally and physically handicapped people who process and sell them to stamp dealers. The profits are sent to aid mission workers in needy countries.
Books, Bible, videos teach and inspire
Adult Education classes encourage discussion, reflection, prayer and disciplines of life-long learning, discernment and faithful and Christ-centered action in the world. You are welcome to join any class at any time.
Bible study: Exodus An in-depth study, led by Andy King. A variety of resources and perspectives are used to explore this foundational book of the Old Testament. Meets Sundays at 10 am in room 32 on the lower level.
Book discussion: A People’s History of Christianity, by Diana Bass John Ellis leads discussion on this book advocating the restoration of “Great Command Christianity,” referencing the tale of the Good Samaritan and Jesus’ admonition to “go and do likewise.” Meets Sundays, Jan 31–Feb 14, at 10 am. Book purchase is not required.
Nooma Studies with Rob Bell: A fresh look at the teachings of Jesus, based on short, engaging DVDs discussing topics such as anger, identity, busyness, unconditional love and prayer. Meets Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm in room 30 on the lower level.
Empty Space
This the sixth in a series of meditations on hospitality taken from the book God’s Welcome: Hospitality for a Gospel-Hungry World, by Amy G. Oden.
Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death–even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:4–8, NRSV)
We usually associate hospitality with being full, not with being empty. As hosts, we want to be full of things to give our guests, not empty with nothing to give. Scripture invites us, however, to turn this equation on its head, to empty our full-to-the-max lives to create space for others and for God.
The passage from Philippians connects “the mind that was in Christ” with Jesus having “emptied himself.” God’s welcome involves emptying ourselves in order to experience the “wide, open, spacious life” in God. What might that look like?
We empty ourselves as we lay down the false images of who we think we are supposed to be or who others expect us to be. We empty ourselves as we let go of some of our images of God to make room for new ones. We empty ourselves as we give up the need to be right or to have it all figured out and prescribe the truth to others. We empty ourselves as we give up grievances that maintain our superiority or our list of accomplishments that gives us status. The Philippians passage describes this emptying as being humbled, even to the point of death.
In the Gospels, Jesus puts it this way: “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it” (Matt. 15:25; cf. Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24; John 12:25). A radical openness accompanies life in God’s welcome–abundant life–that creates empty space, space to welcome strangers, space where new voices can join the conversation. A well-known story describes a Zen master who, on the first visit from a new disciple, poured tea into his student’s cup and kept pouring. As tea flowed over the sides of the cup, the student finally exclaimed, “Stop! It’s full and can’t hold anymore!” The Zen master replied, “Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions and speculations. You must first empty your cup in order to learn Zen.”
Emptying is necessary in our churches as well, both figuratively and concretely. I remember working at a church whose fellowship hall had, over the years, become cluttered with quite an assortment of odd furniture. Couches, tables, chairs and decorative items had been donated or placed there, each with its own history and meaning. When the fellowship hall was built in the 1950s, the large space was used for weekly fellowship dinners. Every week the hall had been filled with people and activity. Over the years, furniture had taken up more and more space, so that now the fellowship dinners were reduced to two banquet tables at one end of the room. Interestingly, the membership had gotten smaller too so that the aging congregation could, in fact, all fit around those two tables.
Then a fascinating thing happened. After an enthusiastic summer vacation Bible school, a few neighborhood families visited the following Sunday, staying for the fellowship dinner. As more chairs were added to these two already full tables, it was clear there was no room for new folks. They could squeeze in around the edges, but the filled space would need emptying before new folks could comfortably fit. The existing members weren’t sure they could empty the space; each piece of furniture represented an important person, event or memory. Yet the welcome in their hearts for these new families gave them strength to make those tough decisions.
That was just the beginning. When a young dad offered to help in the kitchen, the women who had served fellowship dinners for decades shot up their eyebrows, and assured him that they didn’t need help, they had everything taken care of. Their well-oiled organizational machine for cranking out church dinners left no empty slots for helpers. Quickly sensing his disappointment, though, Betty regrouped: “Sure, you could put the bread out–the baskets are on top of the freezer.”
Opening up spaces to include new people in our life together may require some of us to step aside or lay down a task so that someone else can pick it up. The Philippians passage calls us to many kinds of emptying in order to welcome.
As we cultivate a spirituality of hospitality within our churches, we can think not only about what we have to offer visitors, but also about what empty space we can open up to make room for them. It’s at least as important to receive others as it is to give things to them. It’s not a bad thing to fill a visitor’s hands with brochures, activity schedules, and descriptions of our Sunday school classes and mission trips. But in addition, we need empty space, like the unscheduled time between Sunday school and worship, not only to greet visitors, but also to listen to them, to receive their lives and the gifts they bring. Henri Nouwen describes it this way:
The paradox of hospitality is that it wants to create emptiness, not a fearful emptiness, but a friendly emptiness where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free; free to sing their own songs, speak their own languages, dance their own dances; free also to leave and follow their own vocations. Hospitality is not a subtle invitation to adopt the life style of the host, but the gift of a chance for the guest to find his own.
This “friendly, empty space” is a powerful place for God’s welcome.
Experiment Do an “empty space inventory” of one day of your life. Pick a day on your calendar and identify two times in the day when you have fifteen minutes of empty space, that is, time not scheduled with a commitment, chore or other activity. For one day, protect each of these fifteen-minute time slots. Leave that space empty. This may be hard because it can feel like unproductive time. That’s okay. Experience fifteen minutes of empty space. Just breathe. Be fully present to where you are. Welcome the empty space, like you would a guest. See what happens, what thoughts emerge, or what opportunities present themselves. Discover what happens in empty space.
On our web site
Our sound board has recently undergone repairs. We anticipate that sermon recordings online will resume soon.
May I Have This Dance?, the theme for Westminster women’s year-long journey of prayer, now has a web presence. Join the conversation and keep up with events there.
The Westminster Weekly, plus sermon title and Sunday Bible readings are placed online on Fridays. Get the week’s news early, and give God opportunity to prepare your heart for Sunday’s worship.
Sign up to receive The Link via email on the web site home page.
Westminster Presbyterian Church
1500 Scio Church Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
734-761-9320 | westpresa2.org