Blog Masonry

Becoming

This past Wednesday at our Pause worship service, we talked about the process of becoming – a process in which we grow to better understand our identity and who God created us to be. The following story is one of my own experiences of becoming during my time in China – enjoy!

For those of you who don’t know, I’m majoring in Chinese and last year I studied abroad both semesters in Beijing. I had many experiences of becoming during my year in China, but I’m going to focus specifically about how I experienced becoming in my faith and beliefs as a Christian.

Before going to China, my faith life revolved almost entirely around all things Lutheran. We’re talking potlucks in the church basement, lefse bakes, old school German hymns, super chill Midwesterners, and a strong belief in salvation through grace. Lutheranism was what I grew up with and for the most part, it was all that I knew! After two years of being heavily involved with LCM and loving every minute of it, I was in a very comfortable place with my faith – I was confident in what I believed and I didn’t have many questions for God. And then I went to China…

Since I was going to be in China for many many months, I made a conscious effort to seek out a church community. I wanted to make sure that I maintained my relationship with God, and I wanted to find a good ol’ group of Christians to be in community with. After doing some research on the ELCA’s website, I found a partner congregation in Beijing called BICF (Beijing International Christian Fellowship). BICF is a non-denominational church for Beijing’s international community. They had an English service on Sunday mornings and were pretty close to my dorm, so I decided to check it out.

I walked into the worship space (a rented room in an office building) and found an empty clump of chairs towards the back. Since this was an international church, the worshipers were mostly American, British, African, Pacific Islander, etc. There were mostly families and 20-somethings in the congregation. The service started with a worship song led by a contemporary praise band with the lyrics projected onto multiple screens. About halfway through that first song, I looked around the room and noticed more than a few people with their hands in the air, swaying back and forth to the music, really getting into it. I’m not gonna lie, I got the church giggles a lot that morning. Since Lutheran worship services are typically pretty reserved, I felt very out of place in this new worship style. The whole time I kept thinking, “What have I gotten myself into?”

After the service ended, I was getting ready to leave with no intention of going back, when I heard someone call out my name. I turned around to find my next-door neighbor from the dorms, John. John’s from England and as I found out, had been going to BICF for a while. He introduced me to his group of friends and we all ended up going out to lunch. This group was all young working professionals or students like me, all Americans or Brits, and they were all involved in a small group. They were also the first big, friendly community of young people I had found since being in China – everybody was really friendly, welcoming, kind – it was like walking into LCM for the first time as a freshman.

It wasn’t long before I joined one of their weekly small groups. We met every Thursday night for about an hour, and we would follow a Bible study book, reading and discussing certain passages. At first it was great to be back in a weekly routine of faith discussion, something I had really hoped to keep up with after leaving the U.S. But after a few weeks, I started hearing opinions and ideas being expressed that didn’t have much correlation with what I personally believed or had thought much about before, particularly the idea of conversion and salvation through faith alone. There were a couple small group meetings where we prayed for people we knew to find Jesus. Since converting others isn’t something Lutherans really talk much about, I felt very confused and turned off whenever the subject came up in small group or at church services. Every now and then I would get into these long debates with myself about it, thinking over and over about what I actually believed and how to reconcile this difference I had found with my other small group members. My faith had been shaken, my comfortable ideas about God and Christianity thrown out the door. I even had to Skype with Pastor Kate a few times for moral support and to remind me the basics of the Lutheran faith.

After a few months of these sorts of internal debates, I eventually came around to the idea that finding the answers wasn’t so important. I didn’t have to agree with everything my friends believed – we could have differences and it didn’t matter. At the end of the day, we were all just a group of Christians who liked to have active, thoughtful discussions about God. I even got used to and enjoyed some of the different practices they had – even some of the contemporary songs sounded pretty good by the time I left China!

More importantly, this group had given me something that I would’ve never experienced without stepping outside of an ELCA church. They had given me a reason to seriously question my faith, to challenge my ideas about God, to live into those questions we’ll never know the answers to. Like Martin Luther said, “this life is not about being, but becoming; not rest, but exercise.” My experiences with this group led me to get a TON of spiritual exercise – and my faith is stronger than ever because of it. I was able to grow, and I was able to become a little bit more the person God has made me to be.

Luke Jerviss

Thanksgiving!

Next week is Thanksgiving – the one day each year set aside for being with those we love, feasting on delicious food, and giving thanks for what we have.  However, Proverbs 15:15 tells us “A happy heart as a continual feast!”  Instead of just on Thanksgiving, shouldn’t we be giving thanks to God every day of the year for all that we have to be grateful about?  I, personally, have a multitude of things to be thankful for.  But, sometimes, in the busyness of day-to-day life, I forget to be grateful for them.  Every night before I go to sleep, I try to think of 3 things I’m thankful for that day.  Think I’m silly for doing this?  Research has shown that people who are grateful tend to be happier, healthier, and more fulfilled.  So, instead of just being thankful and feasting on Thanksgiving, try being thankful every day of the year.  Then your happy heart will have a continual feast!

Amy

How to be a Faithful Sports Fan

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3267/2570532807_51b7d5d5f4_z.jpg?zz=1

A problem I always find myself getting caught up in is how to be a faithful sports fan.  I’m not talking about how to be true to my team.  Over half of my wardrobe is maroon and gold.  In my 4 years at the University of Minnesota I have attended hundreds of sporting events, including the Gophers Men’s and Women’s Hockey, Men’s and Women’s Basketball, Football, Volleyball, Baseball, and even Tennis.  Never in my years here have I not given my full support to Gopher athletics.  I am also an avid fan of the Twins, Vikings, Wild, and Lynx, although I don’t watch nearly as many Pro-sports games as I do at the collegiate level.

What I mean by being a faithful sports fan is being faithful to God, while enjoying sports.  I often get so caught up in the heat of the moment that all I can think about is Gopher Hockey.  Occasionally, I get so wrapped up in how the Gophers Hockey team is doing that I let it dictate whether it is a good or bad day.  If the Gophers Football team is on a loosing stretch, I can’t help but feel a little gloomy.

One thing that a good friend of mine told me was that if we put our faith in anything other than God, we are bound to face disappointment and anger.  However, if we put our full faith in God (where it belongs), we will never be disappointed.  It took me a while for this to fully sink in.  The more I thought about my behaviors as a sports fan, the more I realized that this made sense.  When I am fully invested in the outcome of a sporting event, I realized that I am putting my faith in something that is a gamble.

We are also reminded of the FIRST commandment: “Though shalt have no other gods before me”.  While I don’t ‘worship’ the Gophers, I have caught myself at times putting sports at the forefront of my life.  During the fall semester, my whole schedule revolves around the Gophers football season.  I have missed opportunities to spend with friends and family.  In hindsight, was I putting sports before other things in my life?  Was I putting sports before God?

I am often times faced with the tough question of “how can I be a FAITHFUL sports fan?”.  I think the important thing to remember is that God comes first in all things.  If I can continue to remind myself that God is what I should put my full faith in, I will never be disappointed.  And I should give thanks to God for the opportunity to go to sporting events and enjoy them so much.  “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” – Colossians 3:17

So go out there and cheer for your team, giving thanks to God all the same for the wonderful gift of sports!  And Lord, please give me patience when my friends cheer for the Wisconsin Badgers.

GO GOPHERS!

Joe Carlson

Appreciation

My school year so far has been a roller coaster of ups and downs. On the bright side, I have been doing well in my classes, I finally think I know what I want to major in, and I am having a ton of fun with all my friends. On the not so bright side, I have been going through something I never have dealt with before- a death of a family member. My grandpa passed away on September 30^th unexpectedly. The weird thing was about this was that September 30^th is my birthday. It gets weirder, he died mid afternoon (they aren’t able to pinpoint the exact time), and I was born twenty years ago at 3:27 p.m. I can’t help but feel comforted in the fact that my grandpa entered heaven around the same time on the same date as I entered God’s Earth. Also, I feel much more connected with my grandpa knowing that God planned it this way and that he was present through it all. To me, this is evidence that God is active in our lives.

I have come to peace with my grandpa’s death and have the closure I need, but I’ve been having a few consistent trains of thought over the past month. Mainly, I just feel overwhelming lucky (just in time for Thanksgiving). I have learned to be so much more appreciative of everything I have over this past month. I feel grateful to have gotten to know all my grandparents and learn from each one of them. I am incredibly lucky to have a supportive, loving family and friends who accept me for who I am. It’s super easy to get caught up in our busy lives and go through the motions but I want to change that in my life. I want to not only continue stating what I am thankful for, but actually act on it. I want to show the people who I love that I love them whenever I can, whether that includes calling my aunt on my walk home from class, writing a letter to my grandma, texting a friend to come over for coffee, or just being completely present in conversation. I encourage you all to not only reflect on what you are grateful for, but more importantly act on it. Doing so will undoubtedly improve each day and will make a relationship with God continue to grow exponentially.

-Krista

Future Unknown

This semester is the start of the end for me.  Ok maybe that’s an over-dramatization, it is just my senior year of college, but when peppered with questions like “what are your plans for after college?”, I can’t help the freak out that comes with not knowing.  To put this in perspective, I’m the most comfortable about my future when I have a plan.  I may have come into college unsure of what I wanted to major in but at least I had a plan to follow. I wanted to continue in Architecture and there were plans for other majors if I had chose to switch.  Now looking out at the vast opportunities for life after college I can’ help but to feel a bit overwhelmed and daunted by a future that can’t be planned or foreseen.  I realize that a good portion of professionals don’t work in the same field as what they majored in and I’m not really worried about that.  I just worry because I keep asking myself “how do I get to a point where I love what I’m doing if I don’t know where to start?”

So instead of dealing with this grappling thus far I’ve run the other way and ignored the problem and that’s not working.  Time to try something new; accepting that right now it’s okay to not have the answers.  Yes the deadlines for graduate school are quickly approaching with the end of the semester and life continues to move and I have no choice but to move with it.  So I’m accepting that I’m confused and unsure about my future as of now.  I’m instead going to focus on fully enjoying all of the wonderful things in my life- my friends, my family, my classes- with the knowledge that with some creative wandering, hard work, and passion I will end up where I need to be.  Do I still have freak out moments where I can’t help but question where I’m going with my life? Yes, but I don’t let these moments overwhelm me because they’re generally the fault of bad days (and no matter what, I’ll have those once in a while).  As I taught one of my Italian friends this last spring, I’m taking “baby steps” towards the only thing that is clear right now, graduation.  I may not know where I’m going after that, but I know that with enthusiasm, determination, and the loving support of my family and friends I’ll figure something out, and that’s good enough for now.

(can you tell today was a good day?)

-Alexa

Awake My Soul

This semester has absolutely been a whirlwind and I’m only half way through it.  I’ve been busy juggling all of my commitments – school, work, family time, student groups, volunteering, etc.  I’m loving every minute of it and I’m definitely trying to enjoy it and soak it all in because this is my last year of college.  I’m officially a senior set to graduate in May, but this is only my 3^rd year in college.  I’ve worked hard to get to this point and I’m beyond ecstatic to be graduating early, but I’m forced to make “grown-up” decisions sooner than my peers.  Instead of deciding what classes I’ll take next year, I have to make decisions about my future plans and career.  This is definitely not an easy task, especially for a self-proclaimed planner!  One of the reasons I am able to graduate a year early is because I strategically planned every single semester of college and I have the next 7 months completely planned out in my planner.  (See what I said?  I’m a planner :). )  However, the days and months immediately following my graduation ceremony in May are totally blank.  What comes next?

At the beginning of this semester, I was fortunate to get to attend the Mumford & Sons concert.  One of their songs, Awake My Soul, definitely speaks to how I’m feeling right now.  Here are some of the lyrics:

And now my heart stumbles on things I don’t know

My weakness I feel I must finally show

Lend me your hand and we’ll conquer them all

But lend me your heart and I’ll just let you fall

Lend me your eyes I can change what you see

But your soul you must keep, totally free

Awake my soul

This song reminds me that even though I don’t know what comes after graduation, I can trust that God has big plans for me that He will reveal when the right time comes.  If I could, I’d plan the rest of my life, so my heart is stumbling and I’m definitely feeling weak because I don’t know what comes next.  However, it’s important for me to believe that God knows my future and is holding my hand through it all because with Him by my side, I’ll definitely conquer life after graduation!

-Amy

The Balancing Act

         How do we find balance in a time in our lives where there is so much going on? On top of classes and homework, we have clubs and jobs and sports and friends, all life giving activities.  But how, in all of this action and commitment and stress, do we find time for ourselves?  I’ve been struggling with this issue of balance for almost my entire college career and, warning, there is no easy answer.  Initially I ignored the problem and only when I felt extremely overwhelmed did I realize that once again my life was really out of balance.  I had left no time for self-reflection and questioning and was losing my self in school and my commitments.  You’d think that since this has happened more than once, I would catch on and understand that I can’t try to take on everything at once. The problem is, I just can’t seem to help myself.  There are so many interesting courses to take, so I take more credits than necessary and there are equally as many great ways to get involved on campus.  With that in mind, cutting back on what I’m invested in isn’t a viable option.  So instead I’m left with a giant juggling act and I’ve never learned to juggle.  With everything in the air, something is guaranteed to fall and that’s okay.  One of the biggest helps when you’re stressed out and anxious is to acknowledge that you’re overwhelmed, and that it’s an acceptable feeling.  Also you’re not alone, at one point or another, or possibly too consistently, we all feel the same way. 

            At these points, it’s hard to take time away from everything that seems to be piling up to just take time for ourselves but it’s often what helps the most.  Set aside time for a walk, meditation, baking, self reflection, sleep, asking question that probably won’t be answered right away, what ever YOU need.  Even if it’s just for 15 minutes every other day, its important to take time do something that helps you find your center and forget, just for a moment during the day, all of the things that stress you out. 

-Alexa

Why saying the Westboro Baptist Church aren’t “real” Christians is a cop-out

I’m in the process of researching for my senior thesis and so I’ve taken many trips to the library and borrowed many books. One book I stumbled upon is entitled “Slavery and the Churches in Early America.” In this book, the author tracks the church’s stance on slavery from 1619 to 1819 (acknowledging different denominations and their different stances). And I’ve got to say, it is a really disheartening read. The church’s stance essentially ranged from apathetic to approval. Only the Quakers really took a stance against slavery at this point in history. The book hits home with its final sentence, “Self-proclaimed and widely recognized as the nation’s “conscience,” the churches appeared to be saying that drinking whiskey or enjoying sex without marriage was more scandalous than holding people as slaves.”

Wow. Like wow. Talk about a huge stain on our history of the church. And it’s far from our only one. Reading this book, I couldn’t help but wonder what book will be written about the Christian church 100 years from now. Will that book finish with the sentence “Self-proclaimed and widely recognized as the nation’s “conscience,” the churches appeared to be saying that loving someone of the same gender was more scandalous than allowing people to freeze on the streets”? Or “than bombing citizens in foreign nations”? Or anything else that the church sits by and lets happen today?

This week, our campus was visited by some hate-preaching Christians. I didn’t see them myself, but from what I could gather from other’s accounts, they were your run-of-the-mill hate-proclaiming crazies. But they bore our name as Christians. When we encounter these hate-preaching Christians, it’s really easy to shrug it off and say, “Well that’s not who we are. We’re real Christians.” Which is a cop-out. Because for some people, this type of Christian is the only type of Christian they’re interacting with. Mainly because those types of Christians tend to be the loudest. But why is that? Isn’t love more radical than hate? Why can’t our voices be louder? Aren’t there more of us? If we are God’s hands and feet and we show God’s love through our actions, shouldn’t our actions speak louder than their words? 

We can’t cop-out and shrug those Christians off as “not Christian.” Because they bear our name and whether we like it or not they’re staining our history. Instead, we need to bust out the Tide and make our loving voices louder.

-Meghan Lane

Musings about Bread

A glimpse at the musings of the LCM Food and Faith small group:

Bread is fascinating.  I know it seems like a mundane and perhaps boring food, but stay with me here.  It takes simple ingredients, at its core just consisting of ground up grain and water, and transforms them into a delicious and completely altered form.  Through the complexity of chemistry the inedible becomes not only edible, but incredibly valuable.  We value bread so much that we have given the driving force of our world (money) a nickname that comes from bread (dough).  Bread has started revolutions in its absence (French Revolution anyone?)   Even more importantly, it is the basis of almost every culture’s diet.  If we went on an international culinary bread tour, we could eat baguettes from France, focaccia from Italy, soda bread in Ireland, naan and roti from India, dark rye bread in Russia, tortillas in Mexico, pandesal in the Philippines, bannock from North America, or mantou in China (“Bread”, 2010).  Bread feeds the world, and gives us all common ground. It is something that both feeds our bodies and soul as well as brings us into community. 

To me bread is more than my morning toast; it represents the core of my faith.  Simply eating requires me to rely on God’s abundant gifts.  Gifts of nature, talent, and time that are shared not only with me but with my friends and families, bringing us together over the sharing of a meal.  It is rather humbling eating something that has been made for some 30,000 years, something that was shared on the communion table.  The simple gift of bread becomes a platform for community, a moment to share in faith and to sustain us as we live out our beliefs.

At the same time, bread can be a challenge to our beliefs.  It provides an interesting lens to look at the global food crisis.  As a culture, we value and romanticize the bread that is homemade and local; bread that reminds us of Tuscan villages or of Mom hand kneading dough.  Some say this romanticized notion of bread is what could fix our food system, if only we could all go back to making bread and other foods locally and in a healthy way.  At the same time, this is not economically viable for less wealthy nations.  Citizens of small poor communities cannot afford to spend all of their time growing and harvesting grain and manipulating it into bread, so they utilize mass production and preservatives.  It is simply not viable nor sustainable for their communities.  So here we are, with an interesting question.   What is better: eating in an environmentally friendly way that is not viable and even detrimental to small impoverished communities, or feeding the world processed and preservative-rich white bread that is cheap and plentiful while possibly hurting our bodies?  We have a rather murky situation, one that also brings interesting questions to a Christian community.   How can we share God’s gifts while protecting his creations?  I certainly don’t have an answer.  All I know is that a still have a lot to learn from bread.  

Lindsey May

This rant brought to you by:

http://www.ted.com/talks/louise_fresco_on_feeding_the_whole_world.html

Somos familia!

A big, warm HOLA from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I’ve been exploring and digging through the layers of this beautiful city for six weeks now… Holy moly. This is (apparently) about the time that homesickness sets in during a semester abroad. I definitely miss my family and friends like crazy, but Skype and Facebook have made staying connected fairly simple. 

This past week, however, I noticed that I was feeling a different kind of homesickness. I’ve officially named it, “Community sickness.” For all 21 years of my life, I’ve had an amazing spiritual community present in my life. Communities that pushed me to ask and answer challenging questions, supported me through difficult life experiences, celebrated my successes, and helped me create my morals and values. Thanks to these communities–LCM in particular– I now notice the absence of curiosity, integrity, hospitality, service, and justice.  

I was CRAVING to share my spiritual experiences/”God Sightings”/life-giving moments with a community, so I sent a frantic e-mail to three Pastors that have supported me through my faith journey, asking for connections in Buenos Aires. They all responded within 24 hours with words of wisdom, names, and places that would help me fill this void. I also reached out to my program coordinator here in BA, and she gave me the address to a Methodist church close to my home-stay. 

I decided to check it out and figured I could hide in the back and sneak out if I felt uncomfortable. Like a good little Lutheran, I arrived 15 minutes early to claim my pew. Besides the choir practicing, I was the first one there…so much for blending in the background! I sat down and an energetic Argentine man (the Pastor) came running toward me, greeted me with a, “Bienvenida!” and a kiss on the cheek. He asked where I was from and then asked what church I went to in the US. His response when I told him I was Lutheran literally brought me to tears: Ahhh, sí! Somos familia! Ahh, yes! We are family! 

Everyone who came in greeted me with a kiss on the cheek or a friendly wave, and the congregation ended up being around 40 people. I’m pretty sure God was hugging me for the next hour and a half… I felt so comfortable, and I couldn’t stop smiling/crying. The congregation was a beautiful hodgepodge of varied ages, colors, languages, and social classes…

Lady who sings louder than anyone else and somehow makes tone-deafness sound beautiful: check.

Old man who sings lower than anyone else and makes it his personal responsibility to set the pace of the hymn: check.

80 year-old organist who plays at his own speed and doesn’t notice that he’s two measures behind the congregation: check. 

Young girl constantly giggling and bouncing from pew to pew, unable to pay attention: check.

Beautiful. 

I was able to understand (for the most part) the sermon, and I’m pretty sure it was written for me. Or maybe I understood what I wanted to…? In a nutshell, it was about asking important questions, accepting when the answers aren’t always there, and searching for ways to strengthen your faith in times of trial. 

When it was time for communion, everyone gathered around the altar at once. It was so powerful for me to hear the Words of Institution in Spanish and to share the meal with beautiful strangers. The pan de vida was passed out to everyone, and after we all received our bread, the Pastor exclaimed, Comimos! We eat! The same happened with the wine and, Bebimos! We drink. I’ve never been a part of such an intimate communion… it was beautiful. 

Still standing in front of the altar, we were asked to share our prayer requests with the congregation and our prayers were then held up by the entire group. Again, a very unique and intimate experience. 

After the service, I was approached by various members of the congregation inviting me to a Friday night group for students, concerts, and other events around the city. A stellar representation of hospitality 🙂 I left la iglesia feeling re-energized and full of life. I practically skipped home, smiling the whole time. 

Maybe I was so moved by this experience because not once did I feel like an outsider. I was greeted immediately as I walked in, and felt the presence and beauty of the Spirit through hymns, prayers, and hospitality. As I was leaving, an older woman yelled, Chau, mi amor! Hasta luego! Goodbye, my love! See you later! Maybe I felt so connected to this community because it echoes the values of LCM and embodies the spirit of who we strive to be. 

It’s kind of cool to feel this void, acknowledge it, and respond to it. I’ve learned that I need community. I know what a strong community looks and feels like because I’ve been surrounded by them for 21 years, and for that, I am incredibly thankful. As the semester continues, I encourage all of us to reach out to the girl trying to hide in the back pew. Continue to push your boundaries in hopes of creating a community that fosters curiosity and leaves people skipping home, wanting to share the good news.

Paz y Amor,

Kalysta 🙂