Joe's Journal

May 30, 2008

Last month I attended the Leadership in Ministry workshop I go to every six months. It’s always a great learning experience combining case studies and three lectures. One of our lectures, given by Rev. Margaret Marcuson, dealt with the issue of willfulness in leadership and how this can become a destructive force in relationships and organizations, not to mention, it rarely works. Typically when we try to will someone else to do something, we wind up worn out and frustrated by the other person’s will to resist our willfulness.

(cont.) To illustrate her point, Margaret shared her experience with the work of Moshe Feldenkris. Feldenkrais developed a method of therapy involving self-awareness through movement and functional integration. His method centers in developing different ways to do basic tasks like getting out of bed. He is quoted as saying, “What I’m after isn’t flexible bodies, but flexible brains.”  By doing basic physical tasks differently, Feldenkris suggested the brain will open up to function more effectively. At the heart of his theory is the concept of using gravity to your advantage.  Part of his method involves lying on the floor for at least twenty minutes a day. He advocates getting out of bed by basically falling out of bed and using large muscles to do the work, as opposed to sitting up in bed, then turning your legs out.  It is all about efficiency of movement leading to expanded thought; doing less in order to see more. 

This Sunday the lectionary offers us Psalm 46.  It’s one of my favorites.  It speaks of mountains shaking, waters roaring and foaming, earth trembling, nations in an uproar, and kingdoms tottering. In the midst of all that chaotic activity, God is our refuge and strength.  At the close of the hymn, God utters these words: “Be still, and know that I am God!”  These are some of the most comforting yet challenging words in Scripture. I hear in these words an injunction against willfulness. I hear in these words Feldenkris’ theory to do less in order to be open to more. Of course, he was Jewish, so he knew these words as well. 

In the midst of trembling mountains, roaring seas, and nations in an uproar, may we listen to God’s counsel, taking time to be still, and know that God is God and we are not. God is working in ways beyond our best efforts or wildest imaginations. I look forward to seeing you Sunday as we explore this powerful hymn of faith.

In Christ,

Joe