Advent 14: Courage
Advent 14: Courage
It’s just any old, ordinary pasture at our farm. Nothing but grass. But there is something happening just below the surface.
If I pick up a scoop of dirt from that pasture with one hand, there are more living organisms in it than there are people living on earth today. That handful of dirt has greater diversity than all the animals and insects in the Amazon Rainforest.
Not to geek out on grass (one paragraph), but in soils that haven’t been harmed with synthetic chemical application, billions of microbes are feeding grass/plants what they need—chemicals like phosphorous and nitrogen. Mycorrhizal fungi also create a root network so that the grasses can communicate with each other to ward off disease and become more drought resistant allowing them to grow as they should. Amazing things are happening just below the surface!
Many times in our own lives, we need to look below the surface in order to let some things go. A few years back, when I went to rehab for alcoholism we specifically choose a place that also dealt with trauma.
I’m not sure I would be here today if I was not given the opportunity to look below the surface and let go of some childhood trauma I had been carrying with me all these years.
Sometimes we need to look below the surface to let things go, other times we look below the surface to pick things up.
We may think of the Christmas story as a calm, sweet manger birth (btw our farm has never seen a sweet looking manger/cow trough). Underneath the flat manger scene, there is so much more going on-a scandal, a fearful pregnancy, a treacherous journey, Mary’s amazing “yes,” (farm willing-I’ll write about those things soon) and a “bit player”named Joseph.
Joseph we are told was “righteous” which meant he always played by the rules and did what he was told: he didn't eat unclean food, he didn't mix with the wrong kinds of people, he didn't keep his carpentry shop open on the Sabbath to make a few extra drachmas. When his fiancée showed up pregnant by someone else—play by the rules. Divorce her or put her on trial for adultery and death by stoning.
But beneath the top soil of “righteousness,” an angel visited. Courage grew roots in Joseph that night. He bucked every norm, risking everything, and took Mary as his wife.
So halfway through Advent, I give thanks for those who have looked below the surface and found the place where courage grows.
The father who finally sees that the grudge has only damaged himself and musters the courage to whisper “I forgive you (and myself).”
The woman who looks inside and says “it can’t end this way” and takes her first step into a church basement. When it’s her turn she gently says “hi, I’m an alcoholic.”
The community member who searches for something deeper than the written and unwritten rules of his geographical/political/religious tribe and says no thank you, I’m going to try loving everybody for a while.
The friend who has spent a lifetime smoldering about all that has been done to him and then someone says make a gratitude list. Another says have you tried serving someone else? He finds the courage to look inside and let go of all those smoldering resentments, while picking up a life of gratitude and service—a life of peace he never thought possible, yet there it was just below the surface.
So what’s below your surface today? If the Christmas story is right, there is an awful lot of good that can come from having the courage to look.
