Somewhere Beneath the Surface
Table Talk
Setting the Table
You are welcome here. Come just as you are, bringing whatever is on your heart today. Take a few moments and allow yourself to just be. Take a couple deep breaths, grab yourself a cup of coffee, light a candle, do something that brings you comfort. Allow yourself to be present in this moment.
Consider that every new breath we take is a moment of change and exchange, a moment of renewal, growth and life.
Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
― Lao Tzu
Isaiah 43:19
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
Food for Thought
Since I was a young child, I have enjoyed the night. On our family fishing trips, I would stay up late fishing on the surf while also trying to catch a glimpse of any stars shooting across the sky. In school, the nighttime is when I would do my best work. When there was nothing to distract or derail, the papers would write, the math problems would work, the chemical equations made more sense. Even now, night is when I find the space and freedom to just be. When everyone else has turned in, there is a settledness that assures me that it is alright to let my mind wander — to give myself space to plan or read or create. And sometimes at night, we sleep so that our ever-racing minds can rest, and so that the night and the darkness can do its own work of renewal, of reworking, of rejuvenation. In the night, our minds and our bodies are changed while we rest.
We are not always aware of what happens in the night, but night and darkness hold within them great potential for creativity and growth. When God first created, it was from within the darkness; seeds germinate in the dark; star formation happens in the dark; moonflower and night phlox and gardenia bloom in the dark; stalactites and stalagmites take shape in the dark.
This past summer I had an opportunity to visit a set of caverns just outside of Knoxville, TN. Our group ventured some 200 feet below the Earth’s surface where we were guided by flashlight and spotlights to see with our own eyes some of the most incredible changes that happen in the dark. As we ducked beneath the low, wavy ceiling, we learned that the curves above us were created by rushing waterfalls that fell into the depths of the caverns, coursing between ceiling and floor as they made their way through to the river. When we were invited to look up into the cavern's highest archways, we discovered intricate rock carvings formed by more delicate waters – slower, streaming waters that over time carved their paths down the sides of the cavern. And surrounding us on all sides were incredible formations of sediment hanging from the ceiling, or growing up from the floor, created by a steady dripping of water over time.
Change is happening within and around us all the time. Collectively, we are in a season of change. The mornings are getting cooler; the streets are busier with school buses and more morning commuters; pumpkin spice everything lines the shelves in our stores, and we are getting our sweatshirts ready to wear. And though it might not be as evident, as individuals we are also in our own seasons of change. Sometimes the changes come quickly and all at once like moving to a new city, losing our job, a child leaving for college, the death of a friend. Other times our lives are being carved gradually by a slow stream of transitions like learning to live with a chronic illness, navigating a relationship with your child who does not always believe the way you do, caring for your parents as they age.
Sometimes the change is welcomed and sometimes it’s harder to accept; sometimes it brings joy, sometimes it brings grief; sometimes we see it coming, other times we only notice it once it has left the mark of where it’s been.
Isaiah says that the God who loves us and sees us and cares for us is also the God, who in the midst of the changes happening in our lives, is creating something new. For those of us who find even the most minimal shifts difficult or unsettling, for those who have experienced devastating changes, for those who are living through even joyful transitions right now, may this be an offering of hope.
Change reshapes us in ways that we often cannot fully see as it is happening, as if it were happening in the dark of the night. And though we cannot always make sense of it, perhaps in these seasons of change we can trust that somewhere beneath the surface of our own lives, the God who loves us is breathing life over the waters, is reshaping the landscapes of our lives with love, and is bringing forth something new.
Offer a gesture of kindness or reassurance to someone navigating a time of change; remind them they are not alone by sending a note of assurance and solidarity.
As you find yourself moving through a time of change, or transition, focus on your breath — breathe in the strength, the goodness and the hopes being sent your way by the hearts of others; breathe out the weight of your anxieties.
For a printable version of today's reflection Click Here!
Blessing
Holy One,
Be with us in and through all things. Change has always been the course of the tides and rivers, the source of mountains and canyons, the nature of growth and blossoming promise, the essence of our very breath. As we encounter moments of transition, help us to remember that we, too, are a part of your beloved and ever-evolving wondrous creation, and that you will hold us and guide us into the next and new possibility of our becoming.
Amen.
A little Table Talk for your table...
Where are you noticing change happening in the world around you?
What is shifting in your own life — where are you experiencing the pull of transition or change?
In what ways is change unsettling for you? Where are you experiencing hope in the midst of the changing seasons of your life?
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
With your kiddo, notice the changing colors of the leaves, the changing patterns of the animals in the world around you as fall sets in. Discuss why these changes are necessary for the trees and animals.
Ask your child how they have experienced changes in their own routines as we transition from summer to fall. What has been hard about these changes? What has been good?
Remind your child that no matter what changes they experience, your love will always be there for them. Have them draw a picture of a change they have experienced that has brought them joy (i.e. a picture of the previous grade, summer fun, learning something new…).
Meet our Welcoming Voice!
Lin Story-Bunce is a North Carolina native and lovingly calls Greensboro, NC home. She earned a Masters of Divinity from Wake Forest University and has served a wonderful and thoughtful congregation at College Park Baptist Church since 2009, pastoring to families and their faith development. Most of all, Lin loves the moments she gets to connect with her family, snowboarding with her wife and keeping up with their four kiddos and two energetic pups. Lin is a teacher, preacher, dreamer, and procrastinator who, if you ask her youth group, has a knack for trying to do way too many things in far too little time.
To hear more from Lin throughout the week, follow along on our Instagram!
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