A Non-Anxious Presence

We live in anxious, confusing times. Old and trusted patterns no longer hold. Everything seems to be up for grabs. Familiar roles collapse. Institutions are no longer reliable. It is hard to know what to expect next. There are days when it seems that nothing really works.

It is easy to feel anxious. Fear lurks around every corner. The only thing we can be sure of is that we cannot be sure of anything. We scan the horizon for a vision but it seems impossible to discern a clear way forward.

What might leadership look like in such tumultuous times?

I recently heard leadership defined as “being a non-anxious presence.” I do not know the origin of the definition; google leads me to believe it is neither original nor new. But it is new to me and it strikes me as a powerful vision for leadership in the deeply unsettled context of human institutions today.

When the way forward is unclear it is tempting to panic. Anxious leadership casts around desperately saying, “We must do something.” Someone finally comes up with something; anxious leadership declares, “This is something, let’s do it.” It does not seem to matter what the “something” is; it only matters that we do something. The tension of being still and holding the doubt and confusion is just too painful to bear. So we rush to whatever plan seems to present itself at the moment and pursue our plan with tenacity until finally we have to admit our plan has failed.

Richard Rohr says that a priest in the church has only one job. The priest’s job is to tell people, “It’s okay.” A priest is uniquely qualified to fill the role of being “a non-anxious presence,” because a priest has a larger, broader, and deeper perspective than sometimes presents itself in the midst of the turmoil of daily life.

A priest has the capacity to reassure the community because a priest is called to stand a little bit apart from the chaos of daily affairs and to bring the assurance that “this too will pass.” Whatever anxiety or fear currently grip our hearts, the priest reminds us that there is another deeper, fuller realm in which we can know that, whatever is going on on the surface, God is present in the depths; we are not alone.

I have a sign on the cupboard door in my office that declares, “It will all be okay in the end. If it is not okay, it is not the end.”

Julian of Norwich, though not officially ordained in the church, filled the priestly role when in her Revelations of Divine Love, she wrote, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

Julian was no pie-in-the-sky starry-eyed idealist. Julian of Norwich was a child when the bubonic plague first reached England. Within her lifetime nearly half the population of England died from the plague. Julian had seen suffering, pain, sorrow, and human tragedy beyond imagining. Yet, Julian could peer into the face of this desperate affliction and declare, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

This is the leadership of the “non-anxious presence.” Julian was able to offer this leadership, not because she believed everything in life always ran smoothly, but because she had found within herself a place of peace and steadiness. She had made the journey, in a time of great suffering, to her own non-anxious place.

The journey for a leader to become a “non-anxious presence” travels through deep and treacherous waters of doubt and uncertainty. The disciplines for this journey do not come easily to leaders in a culture that worships activism and reveres efficient management. But becoming a “non-anxious presence” is a powerful call for leadership in anxious times. If we intend to lead in the current upheaval, we must find our way to that non-anxious presence in the midst of the turmoil.
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Leadership

Last Tuesday residents of British Columbia returned the Provincial Liberal Party to power. But the most significant fact in this election may not be who won and who lost, as who did not bother to participate in the process.

Justine Hunter in the Globe and Mail points out that, “Half of the province's eligible voters opted for ‘none of the above’ by staying home. And there are lessons for both parties in that result.”

I think the lesson of this dismal voter turnout is that it is enormously difficult to be a leader in the unsettled confusing times in which we live. The electorate looked at the leadership options and said, with Woody Allen’s character Cristina in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” “I know what I don’t want; but I don’t know what I do want.”

It is so easy and so tempting to be critical of existing leadership. Everyone is an expert until they find themselves in the position of having to make tough choices and difficult decisions.

The realities of the world in which we live almost guarantee that no leader is going to be popular for long.

When budgets are tight and cuts must be made, the leader who makes the cuts will be despised by those who lose their paycheck. When leaders fail to make cutbacks to bring in balanced budgets, they are reviled as irresponsible spendthrifts cashing in our children’s future. If you are going to be unpopular for cutting the budget and you are going to be unpopular if you fail to cut the budget, you are going to be unpopular.

In an uncertain world leaders must be willing to be unpopular. This is the flaw in democracy. Democracy rewards popularity with power. But good leadership comes from those who are willing to do what needs to be done even if it means being unpopular and losing the privilege of leadership.

Unpopularity, however, is not always the badge of good leadership. Bad leaders can also be unpopular. The leader who is arrogant, unresponsive, out of touch with the realities of peoples’ lives, and is only committed to the trappings of the office, will be justifiably unpopular.

A good leader must have a strong internal compass to guide decisions and keep heading in a consistent direction. But a good leader must also have the humility and flexibility to stay open to change. Only the leader with a stable inner sense of who they are has the security and calm to listen deeply to the realities in which leadership is being exercised and respond appropriately. When the leader’s inner sense of self is secure it is possible to be open and flexible enough to lead consistently in response to the constant turmoil of changing circumstances.

Good leadership in uncertain times is exercised by those who have taken the journey inward and have come to know themselves from the inside. Sadly, the person who is committed to taking the journey within is not the person who tends to win popularity contests and rise to the pinnacle of power in our culture.
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Prophetic Confession

I have always thought of Mary Oliver as a nature poet. It turns out she is also a prophet. In her poem “The Empire” Oliver speaks with a scorching prophetic voice. Anyone running for election to political office or aspiring to any kind of leadership should be required to read this poem every day.

Of The Empire

We will be known as a culture that feared death
and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity
for the few and cared little for the penury of the
many. We will be known as a culture that taught
and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke
little if at all about the quality of life for
people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All
the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a
commodity. And they will say that this structure
was held together politically, which it was, and
they will say also that our politics was no more
than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of
the heart, and that the heart, in those days,
was small, and hard, and full of meanness.

(from Red Bird by Mary Oliver)

Oliver does not separate herself from “The Empire;” it is “We” who have “feared death/ and adored power.” This is not finger pointing. It is honest, soul-searching confession.

I wonder if I can be as honest.

When have I “adored power”? How have I “tried to vanquish” the trivial little insecurities of my life while caring little for the poverty that surrounds me on every side? What power do material “things” still have in my life while I continue to fail to speak about “the quality of life for/people (other people), for dogs, for rivers”?

I wonder if I am willing to see where my heart has been “small, and hard, and full of meanness.”

Κύριε eλέησον, Χριστe eλέησον, Κύριε eλέησον.

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Boys' Camp Revisited - Know Christ; Know Your Child

St. Philip's Members at Boys' Summer Camp


Attending Boys' Summer Camp as an adult is a different experience than attending as a child. I have just spent five days at Boys' Camp with fifty pre-adolescent boys and their leaders. My role was labelled "staff support." I led a morning devotion each day in the leaders' meeting, prayed for the camp, supervised a few activities, hung out with leaders and boys, and read in my cabin. It's not a bad job if you can get it. But the most interesting part of my time at Boys' Camp this summer was just watching.


As I watched Boys' Camp two things struck me. First, I was overwhelmingly impressed with the adult leadership. Over the course of my five days at camp I saw adults interacting with children in a way that was respectful, kind, generous, and sensitive. I saw adults excercising extraodrinary patience and grace. I saw people who were willing to go to great lengths to create an environment in which children might thrive.

The adults I observed consistently showed Christ's presence and work in their lives. And, because of their commitment to Christ and their openness to God's Spirit, these leaders gave the boys an opportunity to experience the world as a safe and caring place, a place that is oriented towards their well-being and towards that fullness of life for which they were created. They were able to show these boys a world in which God is real and God's love might actually be known and experienced.

These leaders were able to demonstrate Christ-like qualities at Camp because each of them has a living relationship with God in Christ. They know that their lives are filled with the presence of the living God and they desire to live from that place of fullness and to be the image of God in the world.

Often we hear talk of strategies for healthy church life. The example of these leaders at Boys' Camp is the only strategy for healthy churches. Churches will be healthy and strong to the extent that those people who consider themselves a part of that church live, before anything else, in relationship to God and desire to treat one another as they believe Jesus would treat them. Any other church strategy is just a program, a package and will ultimatley end up doing violence to someone.

So Boys' Camp renewed in me my determination to know Christ in my own life and to be open to the presence, guidance and love of God's Spirit at work in and around me.

The second thing I observed at Boys' Camp was less happy. I observed over the five days I was at Camp some boys did not want to be there. The boys who did not want to be at Camp were certainly the minority and their reluctance to be at Camp in no way reflects upon the Camp or the leadership, both of which were superb. There are simply some children who should not be at Camp. There are some children for whom this kind of activity simply does not work. They don't know how to fit in. They cannot find their place in this environment. They do not have the levels of energy and extroversion required to make spending six days with fifty pre-adolescent peers a positive, life-enhancing experience.

So the success of a boy's experience at Camp depends upon what happens long before the Camp begins and it depends upon the parents or guardians who have care for the child throughout the year. Before sending a child to Camp, or any other activity, we need to listen carefully to the child. I believe that, for the most part, children should not be forced to do unnecessary things that they do not want to do. I believe there is an inner wisdom in a child and most children, if they are encouraged to listen deeply within themselves, will find the necessary wisdom for their lives and make good decisions for for their own well-being.

Children should not be sent to Camp simply for the convenience of their caregivers. It is not fair to the child, to the Camp leadership or to the other campers. Before sending a child to Camp, those resposnible for the child should ask, "Do you want to go to Camp?" "What do you think Camp will be like?" "Do you feel that you will fit in at Camp and that it will be a good experience for you?"

If a child decides against going to Camp, I believe we should honour that decision and try to find an activity/way of socializing that is more in keeping with the child's character. Raising a child invovles listening sensitively and carefully to that child. Children need to learn to listen to the inner voice of their own wisdom. There is a voice of truth in each child to which they need to be encouraged to pay attention.

Jesus promised his disciples "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth." (John 16:13) This "Spirit of truth" lives in our children. The greatest lesson they can ever learn is to pay attention to the "Spirit of truth" who desires to "guide" them "into all the truth." The truth to which the Spirit desires to guide them is not just correct doctrine and proper theology. The Spirit of Jesus desires to guide our children to the truth of life, the truth that will lead them to that abundant life Jesus offers. (John 10:10)

Thanks to the wisdom and grace of the leaders at Camp, most of the boys I observed were clearly enjoying an experience of abundant life and had the opportunity to connect that experience with the presence and work of God in their lives. For those few boys who were unable to receive the abundance of God's work at Camp, it might have been better for them to stay home, learning in their own more quiet and inner way to open to the fullness of God in their lives.

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ps. My personal favourite moment at Camp was when a young boy came up to me with eyes of wonder and asked in a most serious tone, "Do you own this Camp?"


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