Spirit On The Margins

Last weekend the learners from the “Will You Drink From This Cup?” program went on a one day inner city pilgrimage. We heard this amazing story from a guest by the name of Wayne at the Dorothy Day Center in downtown St. Paul. 

Wayne was trained as a mechanical engineer and employed by a well known engineering firm. He flew all over the country in his consulting engineering role. When his mother had a stroke, he chose to care for her. Her condition worsened as she moved into her 80s, and he finally quit his job to care for her full time.

In 2001, after he and his mother had used up all of their assets, she went into a nursing home, and for the first time in his life, Wayne became homeless. That’s when he became a guest of the Dorothy Day Center, a drop in homeless shelter.  Just recently, he finally got his life back together and has his own apartment.

“Will You Drink This Cup?” program learners at Dorothy Day 

He is one of the most articulate and well educated persons I have ever met in the sites which City House serves. He is known around Dorothy Day for mentoring younger guys and volunteering to do all kinds of odd jobs.

It was striking to hear him say, “Many of us are only a paycheck away from being homeless.”  It is the first time that I felt my own fear of being homeless disappear. I could see that Wayne, someone like me, had survived it and had even grown through the experience.

One of my favorite Biblical stories is in the book of Samuel, chapter 16. It is when God tells Samuel the prophet that he is sending him to annoint a new king for Israel. Samuel is sent to look for this king among Jesse of Bethlehm’s sons, but he doesn’t know which one. 

So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” So Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.”

And Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all the young men here?” Then he said, “There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he comes here.”

So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.

Yet, one more story in which God chooses the little, the lost, and the least to bring about change in the world. Just as a small boy named David goes on to become a great king and leader for Israel, so God leads and reaches us through persons on the margins of our own society.

The past two weeks, I have been engaged in a fascinating discussion with people about the links between leadership development, spiritual formation / character development, and  intentional relationships with persons on the margins of society.

There are books and leaders in the world that have made the argument that leadership development is more than just a skill set - that it is about character formation. That includes people like Stephen Covey, Kevin Cashman, and many others.

Stephen Covey’s web site 

Leadership From The Inside Out by Kevin Cashman

I have been drawn to the work of Janet Hagberg the past 15 years. Janet is also part of our faculty for the “Will You Drink From This Cup?” program.  Her book, Real Power, does a marvelous job of describing the developmental stages of leadership and the individual’s spiritual formation as part of that process.

Janet Hagberg’s web site 

In fact in Janet’s book, she has a section entitled, “Leading From Your Soul”.  There she describes behaviors and practices that can take one on this journey. One of the practices is to find yourself a mentor on the margin.

I find her book so aptly descriptive of my own experience both in my career and particularly in my time at City House. I am feeling drawn to creating a program where mainstream leaders can have this unique experience - leadership development, through a transformational relationship with someone on the margins. I have been meeting and discussing this possibilty with leaders in the community. There has been an enthusiastic response from many.

One of the leaders I talked to was Jeff Pauley, CEO of Magellan Executive Resources. They have a servant leadership program based on Robert Greenleaf’s work. He and colleagues are hosting a Servant Leadership Training Academy in partnership with St Mary’s College.

Magellan Executive Resources Servant Leader Training Academy announcement

Jeff was very supportive of this new programmatic idea. We had a great conversation and have committed to meeting again.  I will keep you posted as additional discussions take place.

I received a call on Monday this past week.  It was Kay Jorgensen of the Faithful Fools from San Francisco. “Could I meet with them today, before they left Minneapolis to go back to California tonight?” I had heard about them from the Franciscan sisters at the Sabbath House in south Minneapolis. So, I jumped at the chance.

The Faithful Fools is a charitable and educational organization created in 1998 to be present with and to address the existence of poverty in the midst of material wealth. They do ministry in the Tenderloin District.

I am inspired by some of the language they use on their web site:

“We are called to a ministry of presence that acknowledges each human’s incredible worth. Aware of our judgments we seek to meet people where they are, through the arts, education, advocacy and accompaniment. We participate in shattering myths about those living in poverty, seeing the light courage, intelligence, strength and creativity of the people we encounter. We discover on the streets our common humanity through which celebration, community and healing occur.”

We speak of Faithful Fools Street Ministry as being a “practice”.  It is a practice of love and service.  It is at the heart of our presence with people and in a neighborhood that are labeled “bad” and “unsafe”; and of providing a space for the artists’ soul to discover its expression.    

Rachel Naomi Remen has written in her book, My Grandfather’s Blessings, a reflection that inspires us in our practice of service.  We share a portion of it with you.    

“Service rests on the basic premise that the nature of life is sacred…Fundamentally, helping, fixing, and service are ways of seeing life.  When you help you see life as weak.  When you fix, you see life as broken.  When you serve, you see life as whole.  From the perspective of service, we are all connected.  All suffering is like my suffering and all joy is like my joy…Service goes beyond expertise.  Service is another way of life.  Service is a relationship between equals…In helping, we may find a sense of satisfaction; in serving, we have an experience of gratitude… When we serve, we discover that life is holy…Service is closer to generosity than it is to duty…Over the long run, fixing and helping are draining but service is renewing.  When you serve, your work itself will sustain you, renew you, and bless you, often over many years.”

Faithful Fools web site

I was really inspired by this meeting I had with both Kay and the Faithful Fools outreach minister, Alex Darr.

This ministry leads street retreats in San Francisco and in other cities around the country. These retreats sound much like the inner city pilgrimages that we at City House began leading last fall. Meditation is an important part of their practice, like it is at City House.

But, I noticed a difference. They really push the envelope even further in being in solidarity with the poor. For example, they will come into a community they have never been in and live on the streets for several days so they can get an insider’s view before designing a street retreat in that locale. In their street retreats in San Francisco, they offer an option for people to go on seven day retreats, where those on retreats are invited to live on the streets for that full time. I thought City House was out on the edge, but this really challenged my own understanding of what is possible.

At any rate, I was really impressed. The Faithful Fools will be conducting street retreats in Minneapolis and St Paul Saturday, May 10. As part of that effort, they will be putting on a play on Wednesday, May 7, about one person’s experience of being on a street retreat. We will be supporting them and helping them in their effort. I am looking forward to it. We will keep you all posted.

This week I had the opportunity to visit the men’s spirituality group that one of our volunteers leads at PPL Industries. It is a work site in which ex-offenders get an opportunity to transition their way back into the workforce.  I heard one of the more interesting stories I have ever heard in the past five years of doing this work.

PPL Industries Web Site

One of the men in the group that day announced that we was retiring because he didn’t need to work anymore. That caught my attention right away, because the men working in this facility generally have all they can do to get by on the $6.00+ per hour wage they get.  In fact, most will talk about the near impossibility of getting a job once you have a felony on your record, and it doesn’t generally matter how long ago that it happened.

He was serving a 100 year sentence in Texas for armed robbery in which gunshots were exchanged. He talked vividly about feeling the gunshots going through his body. While he was serving his sentence, he had a spiritual awakening, which according to him, led to a dramatic change in his behavior and lifestyle. He became a different man because of his surrender to God.

Nine years into his sentence, he wrote an article for the prison newsletter. A woman in Minnesota happened to see the article and was so touched by what he had said, that she began to write to him. She came to visit him in prison. They ended up falling in love.  And somehow, through the grace of God, he ended up being released from prison and placed on 25 years probation. He moved to Minnesota and ended up marrying this woman. Last year, after 22 years had elapsed, he was released from the remaining 3 years on his probation.

One of the most unusual aspects to this story is that the woman he ended up marrying is well off financially. That is highly unusual to see persons who find themselves in this situation to be able to move from poverty to a middle or upper class lifestyle. So, he hasn’t had to work, but he has because he wants to make a contribution to society. Unfortunately, with a felony permanently on his record, the best that he has been able to manage all these years is minimum wage jobs.

He is an incredibly affable man. You can’t help but like him as you hear him tell his story. He is so grateful for everything God has done in his life, including the amazing miracle of this woman he loves and who loves him, the early release from such a long sentence, and the miraculous twists and turns he has lived through.  What a privilege to hear his story.

Tears of sorrow running from a statue of Mary, the mother of Jesus 

One of the sites at which we serve as spiritual companions is Harriet Tubman Family Alliance. This program includes residential facilities for women that have been victimized by domestic abuse. This story was told by one of our volunteers.

“I arrived at the domestic abuse shelter open to whomever might attend the spirituality group.  Well after ten mintues no one showed up, which happens.  So I decided to be available to anyone hanging out in the community space.”

“I started talking to a small child and she was willing to talk to me too.  Her mother said, ‘My daughter really likes you, you’re fun.  What are you here for?’  Realizing this was an opening, I said, ‘I am a volunteer who leads a spirituality group but nobody came so I decided to just hang out.’  The woman asked ‘Could I still attend the group?’– ‘Oh sure — we still have time.’  She invited three others and we had a group of five.” “The group was very connected, open and deep.  Two of the women really had issues that they needed to share about and needed our open and listening hearts.  Another woman was very spirited and had a lot to say about her strength and hope that comes only from her faith in God.”

“We were praying at the end and the women asked if there was anything about which I needed prayer.  So I told them my father just had another stroke and that I was going to leave tomorrow to visit him in Florida.  I opened up more and said this visit was going to be hard. While my intentions are to be there for my father, he is usually quite critical of me.  These women said the most precious prayer for me after they heard my concern and it brought tears to my eyes.  They were ministering to me.”

Once again, we find ourselves being amazingly blessed by those we come to serve.  The experience is mutual when we all show up to the presence of God in each other.

As many of you know from a prior post, I have been engaged in my own grieving process about my decision to go half time at City House.  I have been revisiting one of my favorite books that has supported me in finding meaning in times of transition. Making Sense Of Life’s Changes - Transitions - by William Bridges.

“Every transition begins with an ending.  We have to let go of the old thing before we can pick up the new - not just outwardly, but inwardly, where we keep our connections to the people and places that act as definitions of who we are.”

“Endings are the first phase of transition. The second phase is a time of lostness and emptiness before life resumes an intelligible pattern and direction, while the third phase is that of beginning anew.”

Bridges makes the point that in our culture, we tend to skip over the inner work this all entails. We have this belief that if we just address the external circumstances that everything will be okay. But, the reality is that life is not this mechanistic. It is only when the inner life and outer circumstances are in alignment, when meaning is once again restored, that we can move forward with fullness of life once again.

It is an acknowledgement of the classic death and resurrection theme found in Christianity.

When I can embrace this, I find myself feeling much freer internally. I can wait and watch with anticipation for what God might be doing. I can resist the siren song of the culture to rush on with things, when just the opposite response is called for.

Hagar and Ishmael Banished by Abraham

Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp

“In the Biblical narrative in Genesis, Hagar was an Egyptian slave who belonged to Sarah, the wife of Abraham.  When Sarah was unable to provide Abraham with a child, she proposed that her husband beget a child with her slave…By the time Hagar was pregnant, Sarah regretted the arrangement and began to treat her quite harshly. In fact, at her insistence, Abraham sent Hagar and her son, Ishmael alone into the wilderness.”

Genesis Biblical story of Sarah and Hagar

“They wandered in the desert heat until their water supply was finished.  Then Hagar put the boy under a bush and wandered off alone, unable to bear the sight of her child’s death.” ‘Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink.’

“Though Hagar is not the main protaganist in the story of Abraham and Sarah, she plays an important role in the characterization of God.  Though she is an outsider, a foreigner, a woman of no account, a discarded slave in the wilderness, it is yet she who “sees” God and names him in turn as the God who sees.”

All Saints - Robert Ellsberg

This last statement is so powerful and so true. I am regularly astonished at how often God communicates directly and most clearly to me from individuals who find themselves on the margins of society. It is their secret gift to us who find ourselves in the mainstream.

Hi everyone,

I made the decision last week that my position with City House needed to be reduced to half time, in light of some funding challenges. I am in the early stages of grieving and could use your prayers.

I don’t have much energy for keeping up the blog right now. I know that my energy to engage in this again will return in God’s time. So, until then, please consider looking at all of the past blog posts and make some comments. I am notified whenever someone makes a comment and I promise to reply to any comments you choose to make.

God bless.

Tom

Site of Mahatma Gandhi

“Mohandas Gandhi was the hero of the Indian independence movement. Others had embraced nonviolence as a personal or religious code. But, it was Gandhi who demonstrated that the same spirit of nonviolence he embraced as a principle of life could be harnessed as a principle of political struggle.”

“He was a Hindu who politely rejected the dogmatic claims of Christianity while embracing the ethical claims of Christ. Indeed, if left with the Sermon on the Mount and his own interpretation of it, he said he would gladly call himself a Christian. Jesus, as Gandhi observed, called human beings not to a new religion but a new life.”

All Saints, by Robert Ellsberg

“I came definitely to the conclusion that, if I had to serve the people in whose midst my life was cast and of whose difficulties I was a witness from day to day, I must discard all wealth, all possession….”

“I cannot tell you with truth that, when this belief came to me, I discarded everything immediately. I must confess to you that progress at first was slow. And now, as I recall those days of struggle, I remember that it was also painful in the beginning. But, as days went by, I saw that I had to throw overboard many other things which I used to consider as mine, and a time came when it became a matter of positive joy to give up those things. And one after another, then, by almost geometric progression, the things slipped away from me.”

“And, as I am describing my experiences, I can say a great burden fell off my shoulders, and I felt that I could now walk with ease and do my work also in the service of my fellow-men with great comfort and still greater joy. The possession of anything then became a troublesome thing and a burden.”

Gandhi

Ultimately, Gandhi also became a source of inspiration to Martin Luther King. Jr. and his nonviolent civil rights movement.