I think all too often our attention is focused on “doing” with each other when the greatest gift we can give is “being.” I know that the more I study ministry, the more I explore myself, the more this lesson comes to the center of my room.
When we talk and share with one-another, we focus on the challenges, the systems, the issues, the concepts, ideas. It seems natural. We forget each other. Our sentiments, our perceptions, our inner worlds, our hidden selves. More than any idea, concept or philosophy, our inner landscapes need exploration. Our hidden selves need a gentle invitation to emerge forth. No conversation about problems and solutions will bring them forth. Gentle questions about what is important, what we value, where we find meaning, what we love. Suspending judgment and inviting a holy curiosity into our relationships with one-another, a desire to explore and understand who we are and what has meaning to us, to listen deeply enough that we invite discovery of new ground.
That is “being” with one-another.