The level of anxiety right now in American culture is palpable, but it's not just America. It seems that people around the globe have a sense that more is at stake in this presidential election than any other in our lifetimes. Perhaps even more concerning is the anxiety surrounding what might happen in the days after the election because violence, and threats of violence, once utterly taboo as a response to American elections, is now an acceptable option. There’s a sense that, no matter who wins, a huge swath of America will be angry, despondent and, depending on the way things unfold, tempted to bypass the rule of law. The implications for all this on our global standing, economic security, and capacity to, as Paul says, ‘work quietly with our hands,’ looms large.
Though all this matters and I have strong views on the importance of this election, I write today to let you know that no matter what events unfold in the days ahead, the essential purpose of our lives remains the same: We’re called to display the character of our creator by loving our neighbor, working for justice, showing mercy, practicing hospitality, and living lives of gratitude and worship. These things, and the capacity to do them, never change, no matter who’s in power, no matter how the market is doing.
So I write today offering this reminder: Keep the main things front and center. Don’t allow yourself to get so myopically fixated on elections, hurricane misinformation, name-calling, conspiracy theories, and the immensely frustrating state of things, that you lose sight of what is the much much bigger and more lasting picture, with its foundational calling. It’s still there for you, waiting to be fulfilled in the midst of the madness (and though we may differ on the why of the madness and what’s needed to fix it, we all agree that it's a moment of madness). How can we live as people of hope right now?
We start by looking at a tree. There’s one outside the window from where I’m writing that is 250-300 years old, which means it's been around since before the white man came, before the treaties, the Declaration of Independence, the civil war, the land becoming part of the USA, world wars, Kennedy’s assassination… and so forth. To call the tree stable would be an understatement. It survives, thrives, and blesses the world because it's been consistent, for all that time, to do four different things every day.
I want to show you how we too can do these four things every day, because if we’re consistent like the trees, we can become stable, beautiful, and life-giving like the trees. What are the four things?
Trees receive gifts from above. Sunshine. Rain. Snow. Air. Pheromones. Without these gifts from above, trees die. James says that every good and perfect gift that humans receive also comes from above. It falls to us to pay attention to these gifts. Food, water, friendship, family, health, the beauty of creation, worship, revelation, pleasures of seasons, and music, and intimacy. God’s gift economy is vast and raining down on all of us.
Every day I say: Christ above me, I’m receiving, and explicitly name one or more gifts God has given me by writing in it my diary and giving thanks.
Trees are rooted. Trees without roots can’t fulfill their calling. No matter how healthy they look on the outside, they’re dying, and their sickness may become visible when the next strong wind storm passes through and knocks it over. ‘Not enough root strength’ makes any tree susceptible to storms.
You’re also susceptible without roots. That’s why Paul the Apostle prayed that we would be ‘rooted and grounded in love.’ God’s declarations that you are loved unconditionally, filled with the life of Christ, endowed with spiritual gifts, and a recipient of God’s peace, power, joy, and hope, are just a few of many timeless truths. They remain true no matter your emotions, no matter your latest success or failure, no matter the state of your body, no matter the state of your country, or party. Your identity in Christ is the great treasure that is true both now and remains forever.
Every day I say: Christ beneath me, I am rooted and grounded in love, and I remind myself of one of these identity truths, writing in my diary (which has a daily entry looking something like the sheet above) as a reminder. When I’m weak, I recall that I have a strength not my own; when anxious, a peace; when lonely, a companion, etc.
Trees are connected. When a big building project in our neighborhood necessitates the cutting of many trees, it's inevitable that some trees on the perimeter of the new project will eventually die because the clear cut destroyed the connectivity network between the trees. You can read more about this in The Hidden Life of Trees, but the point is clear. Trees are made to be in a symbiotic relationship with other trees. And we need each other in exactly the same way. Each of us have gifts to offer and need what others offer us. Let’s bid the hyper-individualism of our culture goodbye and seek to live differently by fostering and sustaining relationships.
Every day I say: Christ around me, I’m connected, and I write some names in the bottom right corner quadrant and pray a blessing on each person, whether friend, neighbor, family member, co-worker, or difficult person.
Trees have a calling to bless. Among other things, each tree offers the blessing of shelter to birds, shelter to ground animals, shade in the heat, stores of energy shared with other trees, information shared with other trees, oxygen for us, carbon capture for us, wood for building, wood for heating, and finally, compost for future generations of trees. Nothing is lost. The whole tree is a blessing to other entities. So are you a blessing, and therefore you have a calling to bless the world using the gifts God has given us to bring hope, and display God’s character to others in unique ways.
Every day I say, ‘Christ within me, I’m called’ and write in the lower left quadrant the things I’m called to do today that, I pray, will bless others. Teach? Write? Split wood so that there can be warmth with our hospitality? Steward my body, my money, by investing time in caring for these important areas? Loving my neighbor? Practicing hospitality? Rest and worship? Every day I’m called to something.
So there it is. I’ve been saying these four things (above, beneath, around, within) most mornings for a couple of years now in meditation. For more details on the how and why of doing this, there’s
a book (recently re-released with new edits) available in either hard copy or on kindle. For practical guidance in your meditation, there’s a video (below), with another one in the works. Try to finish each time with a phrase regarding gratitude, identity, connection, and calling.
For now, remember this, no matter what’s happening outwardly at a global, national, or personal level, these things never change:
There are gifts to name with gratitude.
There’s a bombproof identity to claim, unmoored from our performance
There are people to love and bless
There’s a calling to fulfill.
What are you waiting for? I invite you to join me in meditation on four truths in order that you might live as a person of hope, love, and wisdom in the days ahead, no matter what happens.
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