The Spiritual Work of Becoming

How do you preach a sermon on the art of living? Recently, I preached on the “future vision” of our church and decided against addressing the big things that often come with ministry. I didn’t get into budgets or missions or some far-fetched dream of exponential growth. Instead, I addressed the 10,000 mundane things we do every day in which God’s future slowly unfolds before us.

Surely, we can anticipate the large movements of our faith — the mountain top experiences, the life-changing programs and retreats — but it is really the living of every day that seems to get us from there to here and from here to there. Our faith is less like a torrential, rushing waterfall, and more like a brook that sings as it passes over pebbles, moves precariously in new directions when it confronts obstacles, carries along leaves and sticks that fall helplessly in its current.

How is it that we can live into God’s future for us? By doing our best every day, and by making every act, from grocery shopping to making sure we eat before we take our medication, a sacred gesture of worship and thanksgiving. Kurt Vonnegut, in a letter to high school students, calls it the simple act of becoming. It is the ability, in his words, to write a poem — a great poem! — and then be able to enjoy it without publishing it or reciting it to someone else, to tear it up and throw it away all while knowing you’ve created something beautiful without requiring another person’s affirmation.

We do things for accolades or boisterous attendance, but what of the things that people hardly notice? Things like sitting with a neighbor on the porch to talk about the grandchildren well into the night, or planting that herb garden you always wanted. The late Jonnie Sherwood walked every morning and moved people’s newspapers from the ends of their driveway to their doorstep just so they didn’t have to walk far to get their daily news.

As we move into November, we are called to give thanks with a grateful heart. But how are we to give thanks when we fail to be content with simply becoming. How can we be filled with joy when we miss out on what Lord is doing in the 10,000 little ways that He shows up in life?

This November, I encourage you to find points of Christ’s light in those little, quiet moments, and give thanks for everything that God gives us each and every day.