Sowing Seeds

By Paul Roberts

If you read our Monday Mulch newsletter for December 20th, you would have seen the following paragraph where I wrote about the impact my journaling, or “sowing seeds,” has had on my life: 

New ideas grew like weeds, creative ventures that are marked with a star in the margin of my journal pages, free to peruse at my leisure. In the past, those kinds of thoughts could come and go, with no record of their existence. Now I can go back and look at some of those “seeds” and decide if it is time to plant them.

I decided to take my own advice. I flipped through my recent Sowing Seeds journal, perusing the sections with stars in the margins, and came across this conversation with myself: Pastor Eugene says the mystery the Apostle Paul embraces is not the mystery of darkness that must be dispelled but the mystery of light that may be entered.

“Pastor Eugene” is a reference to Pastor Eugene Peterson, perhaps best known as the translator of the Message Bible. If you hang around with me for any length of time at all, you will hear about Pastor Eugene. Just ask Carol.

Now, blogging about spiritual matters feels like it really puts me out there in a way that is risky for me, and for those who read what I have to say. But the caveat to everything I have to say when it comes to spirituality and religion is that I always follow “Weinberger’s Rule”, which at its simplest is this: I could be wrong. I don’t think I am, but I could be.

Does that relieve me of any responsibility for things I might say? No, it does not. But one of the things that Carol and I, through Grow Me A Story, will dare to do is address the mystery that comes with all things spiritual. Let me quote Pastor Eugene again:

There is a kind of mind, too common among us, that is impatient with mystery. We want to know what is going on. But such impatience short circuits maturity… Mystery…is not what is left over after we have done our best to reason things out. It is inherent in the very nature of God and his works…It takes considerable humility to embrace mystery, for in the presence of mystery, we are not in a position to control anything…

There was some great online conversation going on related to one of Carol’s recent blog posts, “Embracing the Darkness.” Lots of honesty, vulnerability, comments and questions. That’s the kind of thing we want to encourage, particularly between the members of our Sacred Garden Community. Over the next several months, this inaugural membership group will be helping each other discover what it means to be a part of this facet of Grow Me A Story. We will be embracing the darkness, embracing the light, embracing new ideas, old ideas, planting seeds and exploring the mystery that is the art of living creatively.

Carol reminded me the other day that sometimes it is good to leave you with a question, or perhaps a task, designed to spark some online discussion.  How about this: Look back at Carol’s blog “Embracing the Darkness” and read the comments. Consider once more what Pastor Eugene has to say about mystery, darkness, and light. And then, respond. We’ve suggested many ways to do that, from public discussion boards, to emails to just Carol and I, or privately in your Sowing Seeds journal. Or surprise us with some creative format of your own design. Now that would be cool.