A Prayer

O God, you are our refuge.

When we are exhausted by life's efforts;

When we are bewildered by life's problems;

When we are wounded by life's sorrows:

We come for refuge to you.

O God, you are our strength.

When our tasks are beyond our powers;

When our temptations are too strong for us;

When duty calls for more than we have to give to it:

We come for strength to you.

O God, it is from you that all goodness comes.

It is from you that our ideals come;

It is from you that there comes to us the spur of high desire and the restraint of conscience.

It is from you that there has come the strength to resist any temptation,

and to do any good thing.

And now as we pray to you,

Help us to believe in your love,

so that we may be certain

that you will hear our prayer;

Help us to believe in your power,

so that we may be certain

that you are able to do for us

above all that we ask or think;

Help us to believe in your wisdom,

so that we may be certain

that you will answer,

not as our ignorance asks,

but as your perfect wisdom knows best.

All this we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

-From Prayers for the Christian Year by William Barclay

Adorably Sweaty?

You know how some girls are super cute when they exercise?  I run by them on the street, with their adorable ponytails and color-coordinated athletic clothing.  Hardly breaking a sweat and certainly not breathing hard, they jog effortlessly by with some variation on a theme of "Mmm-bop" undoubtedly coursing through their iPod earbuds.

I am not one of those girls.  My hair, not long enough for a ponytail, is held up with a random assortment of variously colored and sized clips, which does not come across as messy-but-adorable, but pretty much just plain messy.  My running clothes, chosen for their utility, are mismatched--usually some variety of purple shirt, black pants, tan gloves, blue hat.  The no makeup situation doesn't convey 'fresh and alive!', but more along the lines of 'yes, I just rolled out of bed and am not quite awake yet.'  My nose red from the cold and face flushed from the exertion, my post-run state is certainly not my most attractive.  Let's just say I'm pretty sure I won't be meeting the man of my dreams mid-5k. 

Ah well, what can you do?  We can't all be super cute and athletic.  Let's just hope the looking-like-crap attempted athleticism contributes to some measure of cuteness when not engaged in aerobic activity :-).     

Circular and Linear

The first time I read an article by John Paul Lederach for one of my classes last semester, I think I stopped in the middle and said out loud, "I love this guy!"  As I have read more by him and learned about his work in peacebuilding and reconciliation around the world, he has shaped my vision of who I aspire to be as a peacemaker.  I'm always enthusiastic when I see his name on a syllabus for class.

A few weeks ago in Comparative Peace Processes, we read an article in which he criticized the concepts of 'ripeness' and what is known in the field of mediation as a 'Mutually Hurting Stalemate.'  For Lederach, these concepts imply that a peace process is linear, moving constantly toward the ripe moment a mediator must be ready to 'seize.'  He argued instead that a peace process is both circular and linear, kind of like the loops of the roller coaster pictured above (repeated on indefinitely).  At any isolated point in time, a peace process may appear to be moving forwards, backwards, up, down--or in any number of seemingly random directions--while at the same time also moving in sustained direction.  The key for him is creating what he calls a 'transformational platform' of sustained relationship and engagement that allows the parties to experience the loops while still moving 'forward.'  Seeing the big picture is important.  Looking at the circumstances on the ground at just one point in time tells you nothing about the state of the peace process.

I like this visual and have been thinking about it in relation to our spiritual journeys.  I think our journeys are circular and linear, too.  We don't just move in a straight line--either backwards or forwards, growing or 'falling away.'  At any point, we could be moving in any number of directions, not appearing to ourselves and/or to others to be making 'progress' or moving in the 'right' direction.  But it's just not that simple.  Spiritual journeys are complex. They aren't just linear, and they aren't just circular (moving constantly over the same ground over and over again), but they are both.  Sometimes it looks like we're making progress and sometimes it doesn't, but when God is at work, we trust that if we could step back and see the big picture, we would see movement in a sustained direction, despite the loops we make along the way.

I Have a Blog?

I have been MIA lately, I know!  No blogs, no email responses, no returned phone calls--sorry all!  Between school (mostly school) and work, I have been working hard trying to stay on top of things, and that hasn't left much time for anything else.  The past couple weeks have been particularly intense, with a presentation last Wednesday on Models of Ethnopolitical Conflict, Mediation Training all this weekend, and another 2 hour presentation coming up on Thursday on the conflict and peace process in Sierra Leone.  It's good stuff and valuable learning, but quite time-consuming!  So, for a taste of what my life is like these days, you can watch this mini-documentary on The Sierra Leone Civil War.  I'll be swimming in West Africa until Feb 12!