40 Days with Still: Day 38, March 31

Ethicist Samuel Wells has said, " A saint is just a small character in a story that's always fundamentally  about God" (p. 194). How do you notice God as the fundamental character in your story? Does this change how you live, or want to live, out the story already in motion?

40 Days with Still: Day 37, March 30

The wall that Winner had earlier stared at, been stuck next to, and fought with for so long, she now sees as "opalescent, incandescent, like the inside of a shell, like glazed porcelain" (p. 192). How does this speak to the nature of spiritual middles? Does this image of the opalescent and incandescent wall encourage you? Frustrate you? Can you think of a time in your life when a situation looked one way when you were in the middle of it and then different after some time had passed?

40 Days with Still: Day 36, March 30

Winner offers the "middle tint" as another metaphor for faithfulness, that of everyday, ordinary tasks: churchgoing, prayer, and such--action that will never get noticed and don't sing of the extraordinary but that make up the majority of your spiritual life. Is it helpful to picture spiritual acts that otherwise feel mundane in this way? What tasks would you put in the "middle tint" category, and how can you view them in a new light?

40 Days with Still: Day 35, March 28

"I want to feed people as Ellie feeds people, as I have been fed" (p. 188). For Winner, a part of inching toward wholeness is learning to leave yourself and serve other people. She begins to serve other people by baking. How can you feed the physically, emotionally, and spiritually hungry people around you? What hesitations do you have about feeding others? How does your experience of being fed allow you to turn around and feed others?

40 Days with Still: Day 34 (a day late), March 28

Winner is in a church one morning when a less-than-desirable woman sits next to her in the pew. At one point, the woman starts tapping her finger on her knee and, instinctually, Winner reaches out and holds the woman's hand to stop it. The woman isn't bothered, and in the end, the two women hold hands throughout the service. Why do you think this happened? Do you think Winner needed to connect with the woman, or sensed the woman's need to connect with her? What, in the end, did Winner discover about herself afterward?

Sacrament is defined as "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace." Many Protestant churches would say that the only sacraments are baptism and Eucharist--but, in a sense, this hand-holding became sacramental for Winner. Have you had an experience of something other than an official sacrament that seemed sacramental?

40 Days with Still: Day 33, March 26

Winner recalls the church's creedal formulations of belief, and then thinks: Let this be my scaffolding. Let this be the place I work, struggle, play, rest. I commit myself to this (p. 169). What does this response to the creed call forth for you? What would your faith look like if you allowed the teachings of the church to be your scaffolding?

Another great way of understanding faith--especially how we maintain it in the face of doubt and uncertainty--in the line that Julian's father said to Julian as she was about to be confirmed: "What you promise when you are confirmed is that that is the story you will wrestle with forever" (p. 172). What are the ideas, theologies, and questions that you wrestle with? Do you think that wrestling is a good metaphor for faith? Why or why not?


For tomorrow: please read pages 173-181

40 Days with Still: Day 32, March 25

"Maybe God has given to some this humming sense that we know nothing, this belief and disbelief a hundred times an hour, this training in nimbleness," (p. 167). What is the gift that Lauren finds in "winding back and forth between belief and disbelief"? Can this winding back and forth be an indication of a healthy faith? Can it be, as Winner suggests, a gift to the church, just as other people's very certain belief is a gift to the church?

40 Days with Still: Day 31, March 24

"God is no longer an abstraction. But God is elusive. With this elusive God, there is a certain kind of closeness, one I did not know before God became elusive, one I did not know when god was still nearby as friend" (p. 162). What do you think that it means to have an intimate relationship with an elusive God?

Winner likens intimacy with God to praying with someone who lives in another state, or reading in one room of your house while your spouse is reading in another. What other analogies are apt? How do you understand intimacy with God?

40 Days with Still: Day 30, March 24

As she starts to feel God's presence again, Winner realizes that she is becoming reacquainted with Jesus as "mother, bread of life, author of my salvation, the bright morning star" (p. 161). What are some names you would give to Jesus, especially in this stage of your life?

40 Days with Still: Day 29, March 22

After tasting a piece of bread used for Eucharist that was "sweet, like caramel on your ice cream" (p.158), Winner is struck by the psalmist's words to "taste and see that the Lord is sweet." Do you think the adjective "sweet" is a good word to describe God? Do you often think of God as sweet? If not, why?

Have you ever had a sensory experience--a taste, a semall, the feel of a rough piece of fabric--that helped you understand something about God?

For tomorrow: please read page 160-161

40 Days with Still: Day 28, March 21

"Even on days when I don't believe in God, I still will tell you that one night, while sitting in church, I heard God's voice, naming a resurrection of sorts, telling me I could stay"(p. 149). Ho have you heard God speak to you? Have you experienced a moment that was a turning point for your life, where you heard God speak and then understood that your life would go in a different direction?

Winner meet a woman who tells her, "That is how my spiritual life has always moved. Like a Jewish day, from darkness and then into light" (p. 150). It's a simple metaphor but profound. Does it help to view your spiritual journey as a movement from darkness into light? Even when God seems absent, can you still be moving toward light?

For tomorrow: please read pages 153-159.

40 Days with Still: Day 27, March 20

Winner starts to practice "'dislocated exegesis,' that is, the practice of reading scripture in unexpected places" (p. 136). Have you ever read the Bible in an unexpected place, and if so, what was the result? If not, would you consider trying this practice? Why might reading a familiar passage in the unfamiliar, and at times jarring, locations change how you experience the text?

40 Days with Still: Day 26, March 19 (published on March 20)

If you believed, as Winner's friend Sarah does, that you could find God in any person you encounter, how might that change how you treat those around you, both friends and strangers?

For tomorrow: please read pages 133-141

40 Days with Still: Day 25, March 18, 2012

Boredom

When do you find yourself bored? What do you think of the idea that people sometimes respond with boredom to situations that make them uncomfortable or challenge them--that boredom may point directly to those parts of our lives that need untangling?

"Perhaps boredom is not unlike loneliness: the best response may not be to run from it, but to give yourself to it, to see it as an invitation to attend more carefully to the very thing that seems boring" (p. 126). As with loneliness, perhaps exercise is "staying" in boredom the next time you get bored, and see what comes of it.


For tomorrow: please read pages 127-132

40 Days with Still: Day 24, March 17, 2012

The Feast of St. Joseph
Another Good Reason to Go to Church

Is it possible to lose Jesus? do you identify with any of the ways of loosing Jesus that Winner lists? Are there other ways one might "lose" Jesus?

Throughout Still, Winner names reasons that she finds herself in church. What do you think are reasons people are drawn to church? what draws you to church?


For tomorrow: please read pages 121-136

40 Days with Still: Day 23, March 16, 2012

Purim
After Purim, the Eucharist

Perhaps, Winner says, "we live in a time when it is possible for God to remain hidden." However, "to abide in God's hiddenness is one thing, to abide in God's absence is altogether something else" (p. 115). What is the distinction between God's hiddenness and God's absence? How are we to abide in God's hiddenness?

Throughout Still, Winner recounts being spiritually sustained by the Eucharist. What have your experiences of the Eucharist been? Have you had an experience of being sustained by the Eucharist?

For tomorrow: please read 117-120

40 Days with Still: Day 22, March 15, 2012

Busyness During Lent

"Busyness is the new sloth" a fellow parishioner tells Winner. Do you agree that in our current society, busyness has become something that could be added to the seven deadly sin? Is being busy really that harmful?

The forty days of Lent encourage us to slow down, abstain from busyness, and partake in prayer and remembrance of Christ and his suffering. How can you best use these forty days to practice reducing busyness?

For tomorrow: please read pages 109-116

40 Days with Still: Day 21, March 14, 2012

Wisdom from My Friend S., Which is Something of a Comfort

"One of God's gifts to some of us is just not to be immediate, so that we have to undergo the kind of discipline necessary to have what others seem to have effortlessly" (p.102). Do you experience God "effortlessly", or do you, like Winner's friend S., fin that you must undergo disciplines and practices in order to know God? Do you agree that sometimes the process of searching out God, even questioning God, is more valuable that immediate certainty? Or is there merit to immediate certainty that cannot be found in the searching? 

For tomorrow: please read pages 103-108

40 Days with Still: Day 20, March 13, 2012

Across the Street from the Dickinson House

Winner offers some examples of the metaphors Emily Dickinson gave for Jesus: Largest Lover, Gigantic Sum, Tender Pioneer. If you were to create one or two word metaphors that illuminate the mystery that is Jesus, what might they be?  

For tomorrow: please read page 102

40 Days with Still: Day 19, March 12, 2012

Manchester Pilgrimage

Hi Gang--I'm behind on posting comments--sorry about that. A full weekend with Vestry Retreat. Anyhow...I have been reading along with your comments and am grateful for your insight! On we go...

Rabbit Angstrom, a character in one of John Updike's novels, finds "that the best proof of God's existence is Rabbit's own desire for him, his own undeniable longing" (p.97). What does our longing for God reveal about God? What does it reveal about us?

Winner finds in one of Updike's books a line that he scrawled quoting Augustine: Deus est qui Deum dat. How do you respond to the idea that God gives us many gifts, but "God is He Who gives God" (p. 98)?

40 Days with Still: Day 17, March 11, 2012

Anxiety, ii
Winner describes trying to exercise control over her emotions. When have your emotions overtaken you? Do you think prayer can be part of the process of managing emotions? 

For tomorrow

40 Days with Still: Day 17, March 10, 2012

Anxiety

Winner decides that for Lent, she will give up anxiety. Have you observed the season of Lent and the practice of giving something up? What was your experience like? 

For tomorrow: please read 88-93

40 Days with Still: Day 16, March 9, 2012

Prayer

Do you think that reading about prayer can be a form of prayer itself? 

"I can participate in prayer (or not), show up to pray (or not), but I am not the author of my prayers; when they come, they come from God" (p. 77). What does this statement mean?

For tomorrow: please read pages 78-87

40 Days with Still: Day 15, March 8, 2012

Pie Social

Winner finds that "t he offering of pie," as humble and ordinary as it is, is a wonderful reminder, if only for a moment that "God is not lost" (p.74). What ordinary things remind you of God's presence? 

For tomorrow: please read pages 75-77

40 Days with Still: Day 14, March 7, 2012

Prayer, Lively

 Have you ever experienced real difficulty in prayer? How have you responded to the shifts in your prayer life?

Winner realizes that even when she cannot pray, she knows other people continue to pray for her. Have there been seasons of your life in which you had a profound sense of other people praying for you ? What is the importance of praying for one another?


For Tomorrow: please read pages 70-74

40 Days with Still: Day 13, March 6, 2012

Middles

When you hear the word "middle," what does it bring to mind? Does it have a positive or negative connotation for you What about when you think of the middle of a spiritual journey?

For tomorrow: please read pages 63-69

40 Days with Still: Day 12, March 5, 2012

A Thought After Reading Emily Dickinson

Winner realizes, "Maybe the loneliness has something for me" (p. 54). What beneficial purpose could loneliness serve? Have you ever found something or learned something in your lonely times?

For tomorrow: please read pages 60-62

40 Days with Still: Day 11, March 5, 2012

Hi All:
Apologies for not posting yesterday. It was an unexpectedly long day that was beautiful and holy and, well, long. I got home around 10:30 and frankly forgot to post. So sorry!

Anyhoo...I'll be posting twice.

I'm enjoying this book journey. Thanks for all who are participating!!
S+

Exorcism; Blessing
Winner feels that her home needs both an exorcism, to remove the negative parts of herself and her history that have been taking up space there, and a blessing, to affirm the goodness of her house, her faith, and her future. When have you, literally or metaphorically, needed a combination of exorcism and blessing to start healing and move forward?

For later Day 12, please read pages 53-59

40 Days with Still: Day 10, March 3, 2012

Eucharist
Visit to My Mother's Grave

What has been your experience of grief? As Winner finds, the death of a loved one opens a hole, points to a tear that needs to be fixed but can not be. What are we to do in these times?

For tomorrow please read pages 47-52. 

40 Days with Still: Day 9, March 2, 2012

Epiphany

"And again, to church" (p.33). For you personally, what is the significance of going to church? It is a holy discipline to be observed? A habit? A therapeutic exercise? An attempt to make God less of an abstraction?

Winner reads the story of Jesus' baptism and realizes that perhaps the true beauty of this story is that he is Emmanuel, God with us, standing alongside us in the line of sinners waiting to be baptized. What does Jesus' place in that line signify as we meditate on God's presence and absence? As Winner imagines herself in line with these "tawdry first-century sinners" and Jesus, she feels relief. How oes it make you feel to imagine yourself in line with those sinners?

For tomorrow: please read pages 37-46.





For tomorrow: read pages 37-46

40 Days with Still: Day 8, March 1, 2012

A Sort of Psalm, Maybe

"Every ten years you have to remake everything" (p. 31). How, over the years, have you reshaped, relearned, remade pieces of your life?

For tomorrow: pages 33-36

READING LIST

I've been trying to remember to publish the readings for the next day, each day, with each post. A quick review of the past 7 days will prove that I'm failing at that! So...here's the list for the rest of the 40 days. I'll still try to remember to post with each reading, but in the event I don't you can have this as a reference point.
Sarah+

Day 8: pages 31-32
Day 9: pages 33-36
Day 10: pages 37-46
Day 11: pages 47-52
Day 12: pages 53-59
Day 13: pages 60-62
Day 14: pages 63-69
Day 15: pages 70-74
Day 16: pages 75-77
Day 17: pages 78-87
Day 18: pages 88-93
Day 19: pages 94-98
Day 20: pages 99-101
Day 21: page 102
Day 22: pages 103-108
Day 23: pages 109-116
Day 24: pages 117-120
Day 25: pages 121-126
Day 26: pages 127-132
Day 27: pages 133-141
Day 28: pages 142-150
Day 29: pages 153-159
Day 30: pages 160-161
Day 31: pages 162-164
Day 32: pages 165-167
Day 33: pages 168-172
Day 34: pages 173-181
Day 35: pages 182-188
Day 36: pages 189-191
Day 37: page 192
Day 38: pages 193-194
Day 39: pages 195-196
Day 40: pages 197-197