Doing what needs to be done

To do what needs to be done usually requires some shifting, selecting, discerning, sorting, choosing…and those processes begin with choosing basic criteria: an inner source (for a change)? Or, outer influence (the usual)?

Who is deciding what needs to be done? Put it another way. Do I drive? Or, am I driven?

Always, there is tension here — and it’s never  exclusively one vs. the other. I have, however, on quite a few occasions, put myself into the flow of external circumstances. Falling, like a leaf, into a torrent not of my own making, but a river or stream — it can feel like someone else’s storm run-off — my day gets carried along for the curbside ride, washing down the gutter, into the drain.

Yeah, I hate when that happens. Not much fun there.

We all know how friends, family and forces outside of our selves can bring strong influence into our day-to-day routines. But what about those inner resources? Are we paying proper attention to the quiet murmurs of the heart?

Shiftings. Siftings. How to sort this stuff out. Discernment is a big question for me at the moment. Do I move toward this work? Or some other?

I guess the obvious question could be “What most captures my attention?” To hold attention is to be held. Behold is to be held! What an epiphany. But, how best to move from attention to engagement?

Make choices. Decisions. There are many opportunities for this activity every waking hour of every day. What criteria can we use? One way is to plot out important vs. not important on one axis, and urgent vs. not urgent on another axis, and see where today’s activities end up. Staying in Quadrant II is tricky, but I believe that is where the truly valuable work resides. That Quadrant II requires real vision work and real heart work.

What does your heart desire? What do you see there? Hear there? Think, or feel there? Out of that place emerges what truly needs to be done.

Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. —Ps. 90:12

Richard Rumble
January 2014

Reflection on the Rule: Christian Social Transformation

CHRISTIAN SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION — Praying and working for the coming of the Kingdom of God in metropolitan Richmond.

Do we Christians transform our society?

How do we do that? By sheer force of will? Collective osmosis? Wishful thinking?

Before we become agents of transformation, agents of change, change is required on our part. “Become the change you want to see.” (who said that?) This change comes at a personal level, a molecular, individual level. It involves changing our minds, our hearts, and our behavior, too.

Beginning with our minds, let’s think about our notions of community. What does it mean to you? Community used to mean a group of interacting people, living in some proximity (i.e. space, time, or relationship). It usually refers to a social unit larger than a household that shares common values and has social cohesion. In this time of social media, our digital virtual connections begin to surpass or usurp realtime face-time with our neighbors. We have the possibility of “friending” those who we like, while flaming or conveniently ignoring those we don’t.

Examining our hearts, what do we find? Isolation that is inherent in our digital platforms sneaks up on us. “Me? Lonely? Are you kidding? I have 500+ friends on FB and 637 connections on LinkedIn. Don’t tell me I’m not connected!” To function well in a fully engaged manner, our hearts need to be tuned to both vertical and horizontal frequencies. That is, vibrating on a north-south axis, from the heights of heaven into the depths of our soul. As well as cultivating a horizontal awareness and love of all that surrounds us — in the form of people, places and things.

Now we come to our behavior. This is how our beliefs and intentions manifest themselves in the “real world.” Thoughts and beliefs that are not reflected in some sort of action bear little fruit. We are called to act, but, at the same time, often our actions are constricted, limited by our experiences, fears and failures. 

Jesus brought radical possibility into play with His ministry. He came to set us free from our constraints. And He is waiting to see what we will do with our precious possibility. I’m thinking we could all benefit from an inside-out approach to this transformation process…from inside: get clear, get thinking, and then, get working outside…and see how the Kingdom of God emerges in our own small corner of metropolitan Richmond.

This is Kingdom building, one brick at a time. May it ever be so.

Richard Rumble

October 2013

The work-around the work

There’s such a close connection between location and vocation. Listening to my friend Ben one morning as he shared an experience of his formation where he came to grips with feelings emerging from deep within, I realized just how challenging it is to do a deep dive into the interior realm. It takes courage to go there. And it certainly takes guts to come back out and share whatever you uncovered. Recovered. Or discovered.

So…how does location connect with vocation? Vocation is a calling. If we are listening and paying attention, a response is elicited. Just like the physical universe, for every action there is a reaction. What exactly is the Call? Something you hear? Feel? See?

How do we react when we get the call? Are we flat-footed? Or sure-footed?

Frequently, the locus of the Call lies embedded deeply within our selves. But who possesses the topographical map of their own soul? Over what inner distance or terrain does that Call have to travel before it registers in our consciousness?

Vocation can be cerebral, abstract, remote. Location is visceral, physical, concrete. Let’s look at some of the ways we interpret or discern where we are standing.

Here’s a short list of nine innate intelligences which are very useful for locating where we are:

• Linguistic: the use of verbal language.
• Musical: create, communicate meaning made out of sound.
• Logical: use, appreciate abstract relationships.
• Spatial: perceive, transform, create images from memory.
• Kinesthetic: use all or part of the body to create, solve problems.
• Interpersonal: recognize, make distinctions about others feelings, intentions.
• Intrapersonal: distinguish meaning among one’s own feelings.
• Natural: distinguish among, classify, use features of the environment.
• Existential: raise philosophical questions regarding life’s meaning.

Whichever way you prefer to roll, identifying or recognizing a nudge is a critical first step in responding to your call. The more familiar you become with how you tick, the quicker you may be to react to the prompting of your call.

For ages, sailors have attached small strips of cloth to sails and stays on their boats. These flexible flags of fabric are known as “tell-tales,” and they indicate the presence (or absence) of the wind. Of course, since no one can actually see the wind, these tiny tools prove very useful in sailing, as well as moving oneself from point A to point B.

Where are the tell-tales in your soul? Have you discovered them? In sensing the teasing touch of RUAH (God’s breath) on your shoulder, can you tell where that Wind is coming from? And where you are heading? Make your map. Get a fix. Mark your location. Press on… and into your calling.

Richard Rumble
August 2013

No direction home...

Waiting on Wednesday

Thumbnail of my future. What's next?

Off road, into adventure

Whoa. Something happened. I don’t know what, but I do know when. A couple of weeks ago I had this dream. I dreamt I found a field. I left the road I was on, and turned into this field. I was excited — because I knew that somewhere in this particular field, there was treasure. All I had to do was dig in the right spot, and I would find it.

The shift happened. This is how a wanderer turned into an adventurer. Maybe I got lucky. Maybe I experienced an epiphany of sorts. Maybe just a change in perception. But at a fundamental level, something shifted. Something changed. And possibility, although always out there, came within reach. Amazing!

Since about age 18, I have known myself to be in the wilderness, wandering for almost as long as Moses, feeling every bit as clueless as the lost tribes of Israel as they looked for their promised land. “What kind of season is this, Lord?” I wondered. I wandered. And wandered some more. I had been out there so long I thought I might as well apply for a permanent address.

The lesson might be about understanding where the kingdom lies: is it without, or, within? The kingdom of God lies all around us. So obvious and yet so not. With unmatched, gentle humor, I think God is often hiding things from us in plain sight.

The message to me is: Go on! Just go in. Sure, it takes courage. The reverse of the same kind of courage that called Peter to step out over the gunwhale of all that was familiar to him and start that slip-sliding water walk to the One he loved.

Step out, or, go in…just DO something, for God’s sake! And, for our own sake. Because in the searching comes the finding. In the knocking comes the answering. And the power lies in the process of full engagement. As long as I remain living only in my head, my life is on cruise control — zipping along, safely encased in my mind, I am totally removed from any meaningful engagement in the landscape of my life. How sad and how sterile.

The frightened steward in Matthew’s telling of the talents parable took his talent and buried it in his own backyard. I think that jar of his probably held three cups of wildflower seed, which, had it been scattered over the fertile soil, might have yielded a yard of glory and a riot of delight.

My field is the treasure. I just pray that the soil is good.

Richard Rumble
May 2013