MICAH NEWS - December 2008
by Trey Everett
Thursday at our MICAH meeting we were presented with a snow blower. The
actual snow blower wasn't dragged into the meeting and presented to
us right then and there, but we were shown a photo. And this snow blower isn’t the wimpy kind that you push around your sidewalk; although that would be
better than what I currently have which consists of a shovel and my back.
No, this snow blower is one of those you attach to your tractor to do some serious snow
removal. Around here where we have high wind warnings regularly and where it’s so flat that you can watch your dog run away for thee days, as someone once told me, we really need serious snow removal. This was a very kind gesture that many people were involved with by generously giving of their hard earned money.
We had a guest in Sunday school who shared about their card ministry. He brought in all kinds of wonderful cards and told us how encouraging it was when people received something in the mail. After church my daughter decided to generously give of her time by writing a letter to an old friend she hasn't seen for a few years. She could have been playing or drawing or sewing or reading but instead she chose to give of herself in this way.
Sacrifice is a word that comes to mind when I think of these things. Of course sacrifice means different things to different people. It depends on what we value. To one person giving of their money is huge and very difficult because they may value it so much or because they may not have much of it. To another the sacrifice is in giving their time because they feel so very busy. The widow’s mite is a great example of how you can make a sacrifice of great value to God while others don’t really notice or they think what you have done is just plain weak. It seems that time and money and talents come to mind first when I think of giving to God, but what about other types of sacrifices? For example I think of our minds. Certain values and ideas and thoughts and beliefs are of tremendous value to us. We often would not consider giving them up even to God because, well, they are too important. What if we generously held out to God our minds? What if we gave to God our ideas of how we think people should act or how we think the world should work? What if we gave to God our political views, our Biblical views, our world views? What if we sacrificed to God the way we see and hear God? What if we even gave up our hopes to God? It is one thing to give our minds to God while thinking that God will give our minds right back and say, “You have the same beliefs, thoughts, and ideas that I have. Good job!” We are making God in our image when we do that. But it is true sacrifice when we give our minds to God saying, “I know this will be painful but I am willing to give you what I hold dear in order to have the mind of Christ.” That truly would be a sacrifice.
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MICAH NEWS - November 2008
by Trey Everett
Last week while digging through some of my old journals a clipping I had saved fell out. Although I had not seen the paragraph for years I immediately remembered it.
“My mother-in-law tells me about a story she read a few years ago written by a man who spent his early adulthood as a monk. Later he left the order, married, and had children. He wrote that while the disciplines of the monastery did indeed nurture his spiritual life, caring for infants turned out to be the ‘quick path to sainthood.’ I know exactly what he means. Loving service, relentlessly repeated all day and night for a little person who, through a miracle of design and beauty, does have scrawny little chicken legs and can’t even smile in response to your patient and heroic ministrations-- this is the kind of regimen that will pound the selfish stuffing right out of you.”
I was thinking of Elizabeth and Zechariah, John the Baptist’s parents. They were apparently very devout, living their lives in service to God. And then some amazing events take place. Zechariah is visited by an angel and can’t speak for months, Elizabeth, who by this time could be a grandma, becomes pregnant, and when the baby is born he is named John, which is strange to everyone because John is not a family name. Luke 1:65 says, “Throughout the hill country of Judea, people were talking about all these things.” I’m sure they were talking! Everyone, along with John’s parents, was wondering what this little miracle boy was going to be like when he grew up. The coming of the long awaited Messiah was associated with the birth of John. High expectations! I wonder if Elizabeth and Zechariah were disappointed when John put on that camel skin and began wandering around the desert? They wanted the best life for their kid. If they were like most parents they had certain preconceived ideas of what he would look like and take interest in, what kind of job he would have, where he would live, where his wife would be from and what their kids would be like. All sorts of expectations crowding around that little boy as he grew up.
I have expectations for my kids as well. Not money or job or spouse expectations, just expectations for a life of hopefulness and joy and peace. A life of noticing and following God. But is that really true? What would I think if one of my kids went into the wilderness wearing camel skin? What if they traveled around homeless? What if they didn’t live like I just assumed they would? What if they ate bugs like John? I think I’d have a hard time with all that. I can’t help but think any parent would. And then I remember that little clipping I found in my journal. Like any parent, Elizabeth and Zechariah were stretched and molded and transformed by God, through their child, in ways they could not have imagined before John came along. It’s not those miraculous bolts of lightening; it’s all that everyday stuff, the interacting and listening, the day in and day out living as we seek to follow God that is the real means of transformation. It’s that learning to let go rather than holding on that brings about new life. To all those who are showering compassion on others through the every day acts of service of clocking in at work, shoveling snow, fixing meals, paying bills, washing dishes, raising kids; welcome to sainthood.
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MICAH NEWS - October 2008
by Trey Everett
How are we going to install the green roof? It was a question we had been wondering about all summer. How will our crew of four or five move all those heavy bags of plants, about 800, onto the roof without tearing the bags or hurting the plants or breaking our backs? Would we use a scissors truck, a fork lift, a hay conveyor, a catapult? And how long will this monumental project take us? It has been an on going question, but in the end with the the help from about 17 students and their instructors from a UMC class, some campus ministry students and our campus minister, a few friends, and a generous farmer and his tractor, we completed this puzzling project in one day.
This has been a theme throughout the summer. Just when we wonder, "How will we lift those huge beams? How do we install a rubber roof? We need an extra person, who will help? Where will we find scaffolding? How will this building ever be enclosed by winter? The ladder fell over now how do we get off the roof?" a solution reveals itself, the right part arrives, someone drives up unannounced, everything fits together. The solution to the mysterious puzzle falls out of the sky and hits us on the head.
I'm reminded of when the angels tell the shepherds about baby Jesus. "Go," the the angels say, and then they go into heaven. The shepherds are left on their own. Why couldn't the angels stay? Why couldn't they take the dirty smelly hands of the shepherds and drag them to the manger? Those angels could have flown every shepherd in the country to witness the baby in the hay. But that's not how God works. We are left with choices and decisions to make. God doesn't swoop us up and do it all for us. God doesn't taxi us around from one holy site to holy site. We are shown the way and then we can go or we can fall asleep on hillside. "Look for the baby," the angels say and the shepherds can look or they can hang out with the sheep. After all, what what would the villagers think of a shepherd who leaves the sheep?
"Store your treasures in heaven," Jesus says and we can let go of our treasures on earth or we can join the rat race. After all, what will everyone think of someone who doesn't try to save lots of money and amass possessions? There's no force, no twisting of our arms. There's no bribing either, no serving us whatever we ask for with a silver spoon. God doesn't do any of that stuff I would do if I were God. Just whispers, and nudges, and love. And we are given the decision to either take part in the life of faith or to fall asleep. But, once we decide to take part, once we risk, once we are willing to listen with the intent of doing, God shows up, the savior is found, the wonders never cease.
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MICAH NEWS - September 2008
by Trey Everett
The hornet's nest attached to the window in the church nursery is wonderful.
Large, perfect hornets with hardened armor covering their tiny bodies fly in and out of their paper fortress. My face is pressed against the window, inches from their army of stingers. I've apparently gained powers of invisibility as I watch them go about their work. One hornet lands in front of my nose and begins to add another millimeter of paper to the nest’s swirling design. I’m surprised to see the building material, a gray paste that quickly dries, come out of its mouth. The thin line of paste is carefully placed multiple times on the razor edge of the outermost wall. The talented hornet works for maybe a minute, working backwards the entire time, leaving a tiny fresh section of wall and then flies to some unknown place for more material.
I shine my flashlight into the hidden interior of their nest. It's dark and hard to see but I can make out a maze of tunnels. It is strange to think that I am looking into their home, into a place where secrets are kept, where no other animal or insects are allowed to enter. Seeing into this secret place is like peeking into the Holy of Holies. I’m seeing a vision of a spiritual reality that no one else has access to. There is a larva hanging from a small room-like opening. Its tail (or head?) is pulsating up and down. Multiple hornets, the larva's relatives, check on it by touching it with their legs and antenna every few seconds. I turn my flashlight off and a pinhole of sunlight shines through from the other side. Straining my neck and pressing my cheek hard against the glass I see that it's the entrance to the nest. I can make out line of hornets coming in and going out. It looks like the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel at rush hour. Amazingly there are no crashes, finder binders, or traffic jams.
The kid in me wonders what will happen if I sway my head back and forth. Will they lose concentration? Will there be a pile up? When my head begins to move back and forth suddenly my powers of invisibility disappear. There is a frantic call to arms as hornets swarm out of their protected paper hive to attack. Their seemingly indestructible bodies bounce off the glass trying to fly at my face. Unfazed they circle around and bang the glass again and again and again. My eyes are wide open in wonder. I never tire of this scene. Every now and then I lose faith in the glass and catch myself flinching when a hornet bumps at my nose. I even catch myself looking down at my leg thinking maybe, just maybe, they have a secret tunnel that leads inside and in a moment they will be swarming up my pant leg. I check a few times, just to be sure. It seems unnatural that I can be so close with no consequences. I remember as a child knocking down a wasp's nest under our deck. When I hit the nest with a stick there was an instant flurry of commotion. Dozens of wasps swarmed around my head and one landed on my glasses. I watched, frozen in terror, as it attempted to sting my lens. I saw, only a half-inch from my eyeball, it's stinger poke at the lens with yellowish poison coming out. Somehow I escaped without any physical scars. But I can still picture the scene like it just happened this morning. Now I am once again a half-inch away from insects angered that I have trespassed. Once again I am protected by a glass lens, but this time I'm not knocking down the nest. This time I’m just watching, observing, wondering. I wonder what will happen when the leaves change, when the river is frozen and cars and trucks use it as a road? Do the hornets hibernate inside this paper house? Do they abandon their intricate royal mansion and hideout in a fugitive’s hole? I know it won't last forever, it can’t last forever. I could even get a long pole and knock it down this afternoon. Someone could discover it and decide it's a nuisance and it could be gone tomorrow. This morning I read Luke 1:33, "His kingdom will never end." I think to myself everything will end. Everything else will one day stop. All of our homes, cities, achievements will be rubbish. Even the mountains will melt and the earth itself will be consumed. And that hornet's nest will be long gone, but God's kingdom will live on. I'm reminded to be attentive to what God in building.
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MICAH NEWS - June 2008
by Trey Everett
I have always been a sucker for the unexplained, the supernatural, what teeters between logical explanation and the outright mysterious. I was just reading a book by Frederick Buechner the Presbyterian minister and novelist. In it he describes a dream he had of a friend who had recently died. Buechner’s dead friend came to his bedside and visited with him. His friend seemed so real that Buechner asked him if he was actually there in the room. His friend said yes and then, as if to confirm his actual presence, he handed Buechner a piece of wool from the blue sweater he was wearing. Buechner said the small piece of wool felt so real that he immediately woke up. At breakfast he told his wife the dream. She said, “I saw that piece of wool on the carpet of our bedroom this morning.” Beuchner hurried upstairs and there on the carpet was the blue piece of wool. Coincidence? I am intrigued by stories like this, stories that could be explained away as simple coincidence and wishful thinking or they could be explained as a real glimpse of God’s hand nudging us awake.
About two years ago while Corene and Zoe were on a walk Zoe
turned to Corene and said, “Mommy, do you have a baby boy in your tummy?” “No honey. Why do you ask?” was Corene’s surprised reply. “I just need a baby brother,” Zoe answered. Corene and I giggled about such a cute and innocent comment.
We had no plans of having a third child. Corene had actually given away all
of her maternity clothes a few weeks before. Zoe’s little question was so
amusing, but three days later we stopped giggling when we found out we actually were
expecting. Zoe got her little brother later that year. Did a four-year-old somehow catch a glimpse behind the mysterious ethereal curtain? Was she really somehow aware that her baby brother was growing and developing even before the world and even before the mother and father had an inkling? Or was it all just coincidence, chance, luck?
This brings me to a story that just happened at the MICAH site. A few weeks ago we began one of the first steps in the construction of the first MICAH building - drilling a well. We had established where the building would be and had also decided where a good spot was for the well in relation to the building. When the well drillers came they decided the original spot we had chosen wasn’t a good place to find water. What did we know anyway, we’re not professional well drillers, so another spot was decided upon by the professionals and then the drilling started. After 350 feet there was no water to be found and the drilling stopped. It was then that the professionals brought in an expert Water Witcher to decide were this elusive water could be found. A second spot was confidently chosen, drilling began, drilling stopped, and no water was found. In the midst of this second drilling Dan told me he had this ‘feeling’ that we should drill in the spot where we had wanted the well originally. He said he didn’t have any scientific evidence that water was there but we had spent a lot of time and prayer on that land and he had this sense that we should try there. A sense? But the professionals didn’t argue, their methods had failed anyway, and 141 feet later we had water. The professionals were pretty surprised. Coincidence or God?
I keep thinking to myself that if we really do believe God interacts with us then why are we so surprised with things like the dream, Zoe’s question, and the well happen? I wonder, if we really listened, listened to all parts of our selves not just what was scientific and logical and easily explained, I wonder if we might get more glimpses behind the veil. Not for the purpose of telling fantastic stories but because God is speaking and because our job is to pay attention.
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MICAH NEWS - May 2008
by Trey Everett
Last month we had our MICAH Building Kickoff. Around forty people came for a fun and relaxing evening of great food, conversation, discussion about the MICAH building and discernment. Everyone immediately understands words like “food,” “conversation,” and “discussion.” But when the word “discernment” is mentioned people aren’t so sure how that’s done or what it really is. Noticing God’s movements and promptings in our life, which is what discernment is about, is of great importance in the life of faith. How do we know where is God leading us? What does God want me to do in this situation? How can I notice God’s guidance? These are questions most of us ask but often don’t have a good answer for. The prayer of examen is an ancient Christian practice of discernment.
The examen is very simple. Look back over a period of time in your life (yesterday, last week, last year, etc) or look back over an event and prayerfully notice where you experienced the fruits of the Spirit. Where did you notice love, or joy, or peace? What are the longings or desires that arise in your heart? The idea is that where we notice the fruits is where God is, and where God is is where we want to be. Our job is to move in the direction of God. Practicing the prayer of examen can be a daily exercise. We begin noticing patterns in our lives. With practice we become more sensitive to God’s leading. I wonder how our lives might change as we notice and then respond to God’s desires for us? Where have you noticed love and joy and peace in the last week? What might God be saying to you?
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MICAH NEWS - March 2008
by Trey Everett
As I reflect back on 2007 I am first of all amazed that the year is already over. The swift passage of time has always been of great interest to me. It continues to perplex and concern me because I have a fear that one morning I will wake up to find 20 years have passed while I slept. I’ll wonder what happened with my life. Did I use it wisely? Did I do what God wanted? Did I even really exist the last 20 years or did I just move along in a drowsy state of mind eating and sleeping and accumulating and paying bills and so on and so forth as the days and weeks and years slipped by unnoticed?
The mysterious movement of time however, is just a part of what I notice about 2007. As I look back I am aware of the great fullness of the last 365 days. All of us, I believe, long to be part of something as well as to be someone who displays to others truth, compassion, and transformation. We want to see “fullness” in the lives of our loved ones and also experience it within our own lives. But this fullness we hope for, this life Jesus offers, often evades us. We become so easily distracted from looking for and following God’s calling in our life. We tend to be attracted to and chase after a life that is fast not full, secure rather than challenging, a life that is clearly planned out not mysterious. We live for self, crowded schedules, effectiveness, applause, material accumulation, how we appear to others and so on. To live a life to the full in our culture requires a different way to see, think, and live. This is extremely difficult because to follow God’s unique and freeing call in each of our lives requires, on our part, the willingness to turn away from all that the world offers us.
As I look back on this last year what comes to mind besides the mysterious passage of time is the deeply woven interplay with God and this ministry of MICAH. I have a deep sense that we are actually listening to whispers of Jesus, mimicking divine actions, and speaking lovely messages of truth and compassion. Don’t get me wrong, this lovely scene I describe is full of difficulty in that it is a life opposite of how I am used to responding and living. It is opposite our normal agenda of having everything more or less figured out. It is against our notion of progress and individualism and the American work ethic and the idea that bigger and faster is somehow more holy and pleasing to God. But as I reflect on the ministry of MICAH, a ministry in which I difficulty moved my family across two states to be part of, I see time and time again the life giving choices, the amazing transformations, the beauty coming forth. I continue to touch and taste and hear in an ever-deepening way the ‘life to the full’ Jesus offers each of us no matter what our job or age or place in life. And that is good.
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MICAH NEWS - February 2008
by Trey Everett
As I write this edition of the MICAH News it’s a balmy 18 degrees outside. When you experience double digits below zero for weeks on end 18 above almost makes you sweat. This morning I saw a mom wearing a short sleeve t-shirt as she walked her child into the school building. I felt a little wimpy bundled in my parka and arctic mittens. This being my second winter in the frigid and wind swept Red River Valley I’ve noticed that people still get out and about even with it’s 40 below. People still go to work, walk the dog, get groceries, run errands, and even ride their bikes. But I’ve also noticed there is a strong, if un-admitted, desire to slow down, to hibernate. Eating a huge meal and then crawling under your favorite down comforter for a six-week nap really sound nice to me. In a sense isn’t that what “snowbirds” do? When it starts to get cold suddenly your neighbor disappears and then when it starts to warm up poof, there they are. For all we know, except for a post card or two, those folks could be deep sleeping their way through winter never leaving their bed. Winter, if you take time to notice, causes everything to slow down. The natural world just sort of shifts into a lower gear and barely moves along. Sometimes it moves at such a slow pace it appears to be dead, but it is very much alive and it’s simply doing what it’s supposed to do. I’m tempted to do that too. When it’s 25 below I think twice about committing to some evening program or meeting. I double-check my errand list to make sure I only have to go out once. I can’t even just rush out the door like I can other times of the year because I have to put on my heavy coat, mittens, hat boots, and scarf, walk out to the van and start it up, walk back in and take off my heavy coat, mittens, hat, boots, and scarf, wait a fifteen minutes and then put back on my heavy coat, and well, you know. And imagine doing this with three kids! Winter just makes me little more thoughtful. I try to consider what’s really worth doing.
I feel like this is our mode of operation at MICAH not in winter but throughout the entire year. We work on what seems to be really worth doing. Right now we’re working on the new Health and Spirituality Program, we’re making plans for the summer, we’re working on an upcoming retreat in Grand Forks, and the Snow Shoe retreat on Feb 10. We’re praying, discussing, considering, reading, and having fun besides a list of other projects. With all that’s going on there is a calculated slowness. It’s like when the blizzard hits and the temperatures drop. You strategize what you will spend your precious energy on. You really don’t want to run around doing frivolous errands. That’s the life of faith. You consider what is really worth doing and then you pour your energies into that. And even though the rest of the world, or your neighbor, wags their finger at you because you don’t seem frantic and busy like everyone else you are unconcerned what they think because you’re not listening to them but to something deeper. So, if you feel like hibernating and slowing down this time of year, well, maybe you should listen to that.
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MICAH NEWS - January 2008
by Trey Everett
At the beginning of another new calendar year I think about the life of faith. God continues to move and change and transform us, His new year’s resolution. I think about how God opens our hearts and eyes and reveals to us the ways of God. These ways are mind blowing, painful, strange, terrifying, beautiful, joyful, dangerous, and holy all at the same time. Our Sunday school ideas of love and life and money and decisions and relationships and how it all interacts with God are one by one cast off the cliff of the brain into the sea of false ideas and forgetfulness. Some of these immature and false beliefs, what I call Sunday school ideas, I look back upon and laugh. I’m so grateful they have long ago been cast over the edge and have sank into the depths. But other ideas I don’t laugh at. They’re beliefs I have right now and I cling to these with passion. They bring me security, I identify with them and it’s difficult for me to even consider letting them out of my grip. In fact I can’t image it if these tightly held ideas were really false and that they would one day be cast into that sea. I guess I understand that this must have been the same way I felt with those Sunday school notions I once held so dearly but now am thankful they’re gone. The more I allow God to change me, the more I let my fingers loosen, the more I begin to realize I am truly in chains. And I am slowly becoming aware that God must toss all, not some, but all of those false ideas over the edge. As I gather courage to reluctantly give up what I possess I begin to shockingly understand that God is not so interested in throwing my false ideas of God into the sea. I begin to realize that God is not really interested in tossing my immature thoughts or naïve images over the edge. I see more and more that God is actually taking me to the edge. God’s plan is to toss me over that edge where I will disappear into the waves completely engulfed by God. That’s quiet a new year’s resolution.
I’m reminded of the poem by Christopher Logue:
Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It’s too high!
Come to the edge.
And they came
And we pushed
And they flew
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