We had included this reflection in a monthly newsletter to our staff but wanted to make it available to friends of Word Made Flesh as well. Thank you for partnering with WMF and being a part of God’s work to bring healing, hope, and peace to our neighbors in need around the world.
by Clint Baldwin, Executive Director
We recently read one of Wendell Berry’s Sabbath poems from A Timbered Choir during a reflection time we had at the International Office. The poem is titled, “Amish Economy.”
A dear missionary friend and brother from Paraguay was back in Wilmore for a quick minute. He had come over to our home to share a morning coffee together. We got talking about Wendell and he said he wanted to read more of his poetry. I asked him how long he was going to be in town, found out, and then offered, “well, why not start now!?” 🙂 I went and randomly chose A Timbered Choir for him as a nice initial read. He took it, enjoyed it, and thoughtfully returned it. Upon returning it, I sat down with it and began to read back through some of the poems. It is then that I re-encountered “Amish Economy.”
As I read through the poem, I was struck by how important the reflections in it are for us in the WMF Intl Office (and I think for all of us in WMF around the world). It’s a profound poem with many layers and facets to it, but I simply want to share two primary things that I believe bear relevance for all of us in WMF.
First, Berry writes in his second stanza,
“It falls strangely on Amish ears,
This talk of how you find yourself.
We Amish, after all, don’t try
To find ourselves. We try to lose
Ourselves”—and thus are lost within
The found world of sunlight and rain
Where fields are green and then are ripe,
And the people eat together by
The charity of God, who is kind
Even to those who give no thanks.”
I love the collaborative, communal nature of life’s rhythms that are communicated here. It reminds me of the Nguni concept of Ubuntu – “I am, because we are.” In a world that increasingly focuses on “self,” this is a wonderful reminder of John the Baptist’s counter-cultural orientation offered in the context of noting his complete personal joy, “He [Jesus Christ] must increase, I must decrease.” (see John chapter 3) As with any perspective, John’s focus can be abused through excessive extremism. However, we don’t want the potential danger of a process to keep us from the good.
The key here is to be reminded to always be vigilant in assessing the difference between healthy care of self and narcissism. John was not talking about doing harm to himself. Rather, John was speaking about not being center-stage, in the limelight, the main act. I do not think that there is a singular plumb line whereby whether we are doing this or not can be defined. I think healthy living as opposed to harmful living will vary depending on a person’s psychological make-up, life experiences, current life situation/context, etc. That is, except in more extreme scenarios, we ought to primarily leave the navigation of this matter to each person-in-community (understanding that there will always be some sense of broad [sometimes more specific] community responsibilities to which a person has already assented and is obliged to remain within). However, we should each be asking God that we might be able to honestly and joyfully sing the words of the hymn first published in 1896,
All to Jesus I surrender,
All to him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust him,
In his presence daily live.
I surrender all,
I surrender all,
All to thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.
May God who has promised not to give his children stones when they are asking for bread guide our steps.
I believe that those in WMF who are living in the most strongly communally oriented cultures around the world have much to offer all of us in this area of shared life in which, as Berry references, all eat together and are offered charity, “even…those who give no thanks.” May our Lord give us all the needed wisdom to seek both healthy care of ourselves and healthy care of those around us.
Second, Berry writes in stanzas four and five,
“While in the world of the found selves,
Lost to the sunlit, rainy world,
The motor-driven cannot stop…
…
But now, in the summer dusk, a man
Whose hair and beard curl like spring ferns
Sits under the yard trees, at rest,
His smallest daughter on his lap.
This is because he rose at dawn,
Cared for his own, helped his neighbors,
Worked much, spent little, kept his peace.”
Connected to the previous reflection, I am highly interested in both hard work and rest; I am interested in longevity as opposed to fast and furious; I am interested in sustainability as opposed to burnout. I love the title of one of Eugene Peterson’s texts…A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.
I think that we practice appropriate and helpful self-care when we remember our need for both work and rest. Approached healthily, work is good and rest is good. Both are gifts from God. Engaged unhealthily, rest becomes sloth and work becomes bone-wearying. At this point in the world, wherever we are, we all to varied extents deal with aspects of being Berry’s “the motor-driven.” Agricultural and seasonal rhythms no longer most naturally lead us toward rest, toward Sabbath. Thus, the question is begged, lacking naturally occurring patterns, how do we institute and preserve best practices that facilitate our caring for ourselves and our community? Overarchingly, our WMF Lifestyle Celebrations, our broad adherence to the Lausanne Covenant, and our commitment to being a Jesus-centered organization all lean us into helpful stances.
Berry also gives us some helpful suggestions, “rising at dawn, caring for our own, caring for our neighbors, working much, spending little, keeping our peace”; all of these give us a subsequent corresponding sense of personal permission to rest in God. However, no matter how good any answers that we find at any point in time might be, the query will always remain open…are we practicing healthy Sabbath, how are we practicing healthy Sabbath, how can we most healthily continue to practice healthy Sabbath?
So, friends, in the midst of this open-ended, pilgrim life…Love God, Love yourselves, Love others. A lifetime of both helpful answers and questions reside in considering and acting upon this phrase.