“…The act of staying and living in our place has an impact on us practically, of course, but also on us theologically. It’s not always sexy to stay put, is it? In most of my church tradition, no one ever mentioned the holy work of staying. No one talked about how the places where we live life matter to our spiritual formation, how we are shaped by our communities, by our rootedness, our geography, by our families, and by the complex web of connections and history that emerge only by staying…” Sarah Bessey in Out of Sorts.
I don’t think that there is officially a spiritual discipline of staying put. But if there were, I think that it would be in the list of most difficult disciplines to practice.
I often hear people talk about the sacrifice of going.
But for me, and I think a number of us, when it things get harder, it’s harder to stay. In those times leaving can seem like the easier and, dare I say it, better alternative. Staying and working things out involve holding hands and wading through the mess together. Letting people see who you really are. Staying involves holding onto your pain and not hiding from it. It involves having those brave and difficult conversations. It involves risking your heart and testing your hope.
More often, there is a greater sacrifice in the staying.
My natural response to scary things is the flight response. My natural inclination is to turn tale and get out of there as quickly as possible. So staying requires fighting against all my normal impulses. When I walk into a room my brain automatically maps out all of the exits. Staying put takes discipline. Breathing exercises help.
I have learnt about how to stay put physically. But I am still learning how to stay present in the place where I stand. Who doesn’t fantasize about winning lotto and quitting your job and sailing away into the sunset? Sayonara suckers!
Staying put requires hope. Hope that things will get better here, where you are. It means not longing for the greener grass of distant pastures. The grass is greener where you water it. Yes but why work at tending to the grass at your own feet, when you can more easily benefit from someone else’s hard work somewhere else?
It isn’t fashionable to talk about staying put. You know what is sexy? Mission trips. Overseas mission trips are sexy. And people who go on them are exotically anointed.
Don’t get me wrong; I do enjoy hearing about exciting events in far off lands.
But I also want to hear about the stories of the people who are outworking the kingdom where they are. I want to sit at their feet and listen. And maybe even take time to wash those tired feet as an act of celebration. Thank you for staying!
Thank you for shining a light in your schools, your workplaces, your homes, your churches, and in your communities. Thank you for visiting the sick, for holding the heartbroken, breaking bread with the lonely, for encouraging the weary (even as you had your own weariness to bear), for celebrating birthdays and weddings, and for showing up to funerals. Thank you for welcoming people into your homes. Thank you for cooking meals, counseling teenagers, coaching kid’s sports teams, for fundraising, for volunteering, thank you for serving and loving people in your community.
Sarah Bessey sums it up well:
“…We can embody the Gospel by going, absolutely, but we can also embody the Gospel by our roots, by our unhurried community development, by our family meals and our wanderings. Some of us embody the Gospel by staying put.”