Worship Theme: Heliotropic Effect
We opened our worship with this Playful Inquiry:
"What's the Best Thing That Has Happened to You Today?"
Message: Image Inspires Action
Looking at the screens, you might think, “Wow - that’s a lot of sunflowers. By the way, what’s that word - heliotropic? I haven’t heard it before!”
That’s good, because I hadn’t heard of it before this week. I have asked around to see if anyone knew, and they didn’t know either. So it’s not just you - we are on the same level to study this theme, together.
For this purpose, I am inviting you to one more Playful Inquiry. First, choose a high spot in your life – a really memorable moment. It can be from your life journey, your present daily life, or your ministry at UCiM. When you are ready to answer, go travel in the sanctuary to find your inquiry partner. Then, ask your partner, “What is a high spot in your life, and why is it a great moment for you?” If you have extra time left, ask, “What made your great moment possible?”
I am very interested in what your great moments are, so please share them with me, if you like, after worship. ... I'll stand at the doors. No one can pass me without...(people: haha)
Okay. Here are some of mine.
The 1st picture: Min Goo and I at a beautiful field of canola flowers beside the Hangang River, in Seoul. We were expecting Peace, our older son, to be born at any time, (at the time, we didn’t know what we would get - sleepless nights, tired arms, etc.) Peace had his 11th birthday just last Wednesday.
Now, I chose my ordination as a minister as another high moment. I can’t believe it took place just 3 years ago, just one month before my family took a road trip across Western Canada to come to Winnipeg - both of us being called to two churches in Winnipeg: Meadowood and Fort Garry. BC Conference people told us “Our loss in BC is a gain to Manitoba.”
I put a lot of pictures for you to see them like a motion picture. I just wanted you to see how Peace was curious up there, looking at me and trying to understand what was going on - feeling proud of what he did not yet completely understand.
Min Goo lamented, when he saw this picture, “Just 3 years passed since, and I can’t believe this: all four of us look very young in the picture.”
The last high moment I would like to share with you is what so many people were very excited to participate in and joined last week here at UCiM: Friendship Kitchen. What is so inspiring when you are there is not just how the cooking session is super-organized and goes beautifully; it is not even the high energy which both volunteers and participants are bringing. Those are amazing, but what is even more inspiring are the stories the people are willing to share and the sincere expressions of “thank you” that our participants say to us for making this program available to them. We have just had the beginning of a wonderful adventure!
Now, while I reflected on these three highest moments that have happened to my family and our community in the past decade and last week, I made my next inquiry for enabling further exploration of our theme: What makes our greatest moments great?
My principle is this:
Great moments are Anticipatory.
Here’s my step by step understanding of this principle:
It is not difficult to notice and learn that great moments are rooted deeply in positive feelings like hope, love and joy. In the great moments, we are focused on what is right, what works and what’s good, instead of what’s broken, what doesn’t work and what’s bad. (Notes to add: I read an interview in which the interviewee said, "To me, happiness is finding satisfaction in our lives and embedded in how often we can experience positive emotions.")
Therefore, we experience courage, kindness, curiosity, increased understanding, increased interest in life, respect, playfulness, a sense of gratitude, and awe.
(Notes to add: What if we ask this question, and really know the difference?: "Do we look at life, at people, ... including ourselves..., at organizations, at church, as problems to be solved, or mysteries to be embraced?" Albert Einstein said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”)
Therefore, we experience courage, kindness, curiosity, increased understanding, increased interest in life, respect, playfulness, a sense of gratitude, and awe.
(Notes to add: What if we ask this question, and really know the difference?: "Do we look at life, at people, ... including ourselves..., at organizations, at church, as problems to be solved, or mysteries to be embraced?" Albert Einstein said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”)
Remembering these great moments and the positive feelings that they generated can be a wonderful antidote to anxiety.
The night before I was writing this Message I woke up in the middle of the night. Suddenly I noticed a cloud of anxiety began to rise inside of me like smoke. Still lying on my bed, I talked to myself: “You know this old feeling you experienced and were able to overcome a long time ago. At the time you were young, you didn’t have a job, you were adjusting to a new life situation that followed being married to a man who worked in a church, and your new place to live was a makeshift building on the rooftop of the church. You were feeling that the doors to society, your meaningful participation in the world were closed against you.”
Hmm... Last year I went to the Human Rights Museum. On the tour, I found a very interesting activity that was put up on the wall: “Can You Work?” On the activity board, there were a bunch of questions in boxes that were connected with arrows. Your yes or no leads to the next question, then the next question, so on and so on, and you finally get the result. I tried. The first question was “Are you a woman?” Then, “How old are you?” “Do you have children?” The following questions were: “Do you have access to… certain supports, a childcare system, laws and organizations?” I answered them, imagining my young self living in Korea 11 years ago. I answered YES to the last question, Then Bang. The result: “You likely cannot access your right to work.” Wow.
Reflecting on that, it was the right choice to leave Korea and start my new path in Canada.
Back to that anxious midnight: I was still lying on the bed, talking to myself: the present uncertainty that seems so overwhelming has no power to make you think that the present adversity is the end of the story. Remember, with God being your cohort and company and source of help and with your right choice for your future, the future is a blessing and a gift. Remember these great moments - growing family, ordination, community outreach and ministry - were possible and blessed, even after you were so anxious, panicking, worrying whether the doors were closed against you.
I believe faith invites us to an appreciative inquiry: What if the future is a gift and blessing for me? What if my future participation in the world can be energizing, exciting, bold and beautiful? Where can this spirit of discovery lead me? What positive changes can I make even now to make this future reality possible? What inner clarity is required, if I want to pursue my life freely?
Sunflowers are heliotropic.
Yes, we are back to this word!
People, or any organization, church, community, tend to grow in the direction of our positive image of the future, like a sunflower or heliotrope grows towards the sun. Faith, openness, listening, conversation - these willing engagements help us to create inner clarity and can shape our expectations of our future – therefore, of what we believe is possible - positive, compelling, exciting.
I shared earlier that the great moments are anticipatory. You feel anticipation when you know a good thing’s coming.
Image inspires Action.
Athletes who mentally rehearse their success do better than those who don’t have a clear image of success. In our own terms of faith, having a clear, compelling image of the future which God desires for us creates “towards” motivation. This “towards” motivation, or faith is different and sharply contrasted from “away-from” motivation.
We have a tendency to move away from our fear. Avoiding awful experiences often becomes the reason why we make certain choices in our life. However, it is worth noting that there is a strong point of how ‘towards’ faith and ‘away-from’ motivation are contrasted. Above all, ‘away from’ motivation is stressful, because our thinking and conversation is dominated by the unpleasant situations or possible outcomes that we want to escape. Thus, the more motivated we are, the more stressed we are. By contrast, ‘toward’ motivation, or, faith, engenders positive emotions - connection, playfulness, awe, relief, and freedom. Faith enables us to focus on what is right, what works well, what is good.
Ask yourself, what image do you have about your future? Or about the future as a general concept? Do you see the future as a blessing and gift? Or is it something else?
Let’s make it positive: What if building the future is not a lonely job you are supposed to do all by yourself, but is an open-ended, promising time in which something wonderful is possible? What if there’s a whole community to help you achieve it, together, or to support you to move toward it, create it and embrace it?
Ken Gergen says, "If we could construct a world in which something is possible, we can talk about that in such a way that we might be able to achieve it, together. Suddenly, you create a tremendous energy.
As many of us already have experienced - maybe for some of you it was your great moment - nature has a lot to teach us about faith. Not only sunflowers – let me introduce arbutus trees.
Arbutus trees are an inspiring creation God has made. This time of year, the arbutuses are like a “candle” with tiny, white blossoms. The arbutus thrives in the coastal nooks and crannies on Vancouver Island. (Fact: We don’t see arbutus trees all over Canada. The Southwest Coast of BC seems to be the only place in Canada where they grow naturally) In 2014, the year when I left Vancouver Island, the canopy was heavy with those flowers. However, what is amazing about these trees is not their flowers. Their bark is amazing.
They reveal their intense shades and contrasting colours. You see in the pictures the rough reddish-brown of its thin outer bark, with the younger, smooth, green bark underneath emerging … as the old bark falls away. It is amazing, but these unique evergreen trees have another surprise.
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| Arbutus Tree finding the Sun |
First Nations people honour the arbutus tree as their Tree of Wisdom, because it knows how to find the Sun. It twists and turns and somehow knows to drop one branch when there is not enough sunlight. Then, they will grow a new one where the Sun can reach it. The arbutuses know how to ask and embrace faithful inquiry, appreciatively and enthusiastically.
The sunflowers and the Arbutus trees beautifully demonstrate what makes great moments great; what enables us to hold on to hope: creative, open-ended, compelling images of the future God desires for us. These creations are anticipatory. They know what’s coming. Image inspires action. Positive stories are transformative. Our collective effort to help make the future bright and beautiful for all people is already possible when we plant the seeds of hope right now and here and know how to hold on to it through all adversity.
We see the sunlight because we are turned towards it, at all times – even when there are clouds, we patiently wait for the light that we know is always there.
The sunflowers and the Arbutus trees beautifully demonstrate what makes great moments great; what enables us to hold on to hope: creative, open-ended, compelling images of the future God desires for us. These creations are anticipatory. They know what’s coming. Image inspires action. Positive stories are transformative. Our collective effort to help make the future bright and beautiful for all people is already possible when we plant the seeds of hope right now and here and know how to hold on to it through all adversity.
We see the sunlight because we are turned towards it, at all times – even when there are clouds, we patiently wait for the light that we know is always there.
Bulletin images:
My intention speech
After taking meaningful time for discernment - which means deep listening -,
(The last couple of weeks has been one of the most profound, incredible time
in which I find myself again,
and become inspired and grateful.)
and reflecting on our collective ministry of the last three years,
discerning my gifts, passion and experiences,
and reorienting and opening myself toward God
and God's playfulness and calling,
I decided not to apply for the full time position once the vacancy is declared.
I have chosen spirituality that I need most at this time,
not seeking status.
It has been a great leap of faith, and the journey of
appreciative inquiry of my faith and future path.
It is the best thing that has happened to me.
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