Dear Saints,
As a child, I was always told that “acting out” was not a good thing. Apparently, it was frowned upon when my actions did not meet the expectations of others. But perhaps there is another way to consider what it means to act out. After all, don’t our actions always arise out of something?
Our actions reveal something about the places from which we are living. They may emerge from joy or fear, confidence or uncertainty, generosity or self-protection. They are shaped by our understanding of who we are, whose we are, and where we understand ourselves to belong.
So, what about you? From what place are you acting? What motivates the ways you engage with the people and circumstances around you? Do your actions reflect your deepest intentions? And how might your actions be different when they arise from a genuine sense of welcome and belonging in God?
These questions have been stirring within me as we prepare to launch our new Children’s Church: ACTING OUT. Children will engage the lectionary by stepping into the biblical story, becoming its characters, and exploring their emotions, postures, choices, and actions. As the ancient texts come alive, our children will be encouraged to wonder not only what the characters did, but what might have been happening within and around them, and where God was present in the midst of it all.
Perhaps that is a worthy spiritual practice for all of us.
As you pray for this new ministry, for the scripts being written, the leaders preparing to guide, and the children encountering God’s Holy Word, I invite you also to pray for your own awareness. What is the place within you from which your actions emerge? What changes when that place is grounded in the assurance that you are welcomed, loved, and held by God?
May our sense of belonging in God increasingly shape our intentions, our actions, and the ways we engage with one another and the world around us, as we learn to act from that place of welcome and belonging.
For this, too, is a way of abiding; remaining connected to the Divine Vine and allowing what grows from that connection to become visible in the way we live.
Shalom,
+Deacon Pegi