Good Morning Friends,
This morning’s coffee thoughts really have me thinking. I don’t know what it all means, but the Spirit was stirring something in my coffee this morning. Tell me what you think, does this strike you at all?
Much love,
Glenn || PATREON / BUY ME A COFFEE
A few days ago I told you about a Celtic Saint known as St. Brigid of Kildare and how although there isn't too much known about her in a historical sense, legends about her have been PLENTIFUL throughout Irish history.
Legends.
Stories.
Parables.
Tales.
Fables.
... All sorts of things, the wild sort of stuff that movies are made of.
There's lots to say (just Google her name and you'll find tons of stuff), but one of the things about her that I'm dwelling on this morning is that (even today) she is often spoken of as "the woman on her knees".
Knees?
Sure, she did some praying in her day, but she was given this title not so much because of her prayers, but because of her legendary role as the midwife who helped bring Jesus The Christ into the world.
In his book "Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul" John Philip Newell says that women in Brigid's day would give birth in the threshold of their homes so that the woman in labor could press her hands into the opposite sides of the doorway and push the baby out into the hands of the midwife who would be kneeling on the floor in front of her.
As Mary's midwife, then, Brigid (the legend says) knelt on the ground and caught the new thing - the Good News of great joy for all the world - that was birthed from Mary's womb.
AND.
It's obvious, but it's worth emphasizing: as the midwife, Brigid didn't have to do any pushing ... right?
She didn't have to do any struggling.
She didn't have to sweat.
She didn't have to experience any pain.
Instead.
All she had to do was kneel, prepare a space for the arrival of the baby, open her hands, and catch the new thing that fell from the virgin womb of Mary.
This morning over coffee the spirit of St. Brigid showed up at my kitchen table and challenged me to be a person who spends his life kneeling ... not to pray, but to midwife Divine births and new things ...
Into my own soul.
Into the world.
Into generations of Sieperts to come.
"Stop thinking that your main role in life is to struggle and sweat to birth new things when in reality it is to midwife the new things that the Spirit is already birthing in your life and in the world around you."
This is a huge thought for me because coming out of the world of Evangelicalism ... I don't know how to sit still.
Like, I was always taught to place a very high value on "work" and was always told that God is more apt to act on behalf of the person who is working their land, working their soil ...
Digging.
Sweating.
Planting.
Digging.
Sweating.
Planting.
... "The harvest", I was taught, "comes to those who do the work, who put in the time, who put forth the effort." And so I always placed such a high value on the work I did to make things happen, the work I put in to build a church or a ministry, to get my education, to deconstruct my faith.
Lots of late nights.
Lots of early mornings.
Lots of sweat.
Lots of tears.
And don't get me wrong - there's nothing wrong with work or working hard. Don't email me any feedback because that's not my point. I wouldn't have earned a Masters and Doctorate degree before the age of 40 if I didn't work for it and I wouldn't be 180 episodes into a podcast with a book on the way if I didn't work for it.
Hard work is a key component to success, to the birth of change in our lives and in the world. Not much is going to happen in and through my life if I lay in bed all day and do nothing.
And so my point, rather, and I think Brigid's point ... and I'm still fleshing this out ... the point is that sometimes I can get so lost in what I feel like I need to do and the things I need to birth into my life and the land I need to work and the harvest I need to create and the good steward I need to be and the pushing I need to do and the struggle I need to put forth ... that I completely miss and am oblivious to the things that God is birthing into my life and into my world every single day.
Newell says that we live in a "threshold moment" ... and he's right. The Spirit of the Divine is wedged in the doorframe of the universe and is birthing all sorts of new things into the world, into our lives.
Right? People are waking up and seeing the need for ...
Faith deconstruction.
Racial equality.
LGBTQ inclusion.
Police reform.
Gun control.
Political reform.
Church reform.
Work reform - the pandemic has opened so many people's eyes to see that they have wasted so much time commuting to work, sitting in an office, etc. People are quitting their jobs, demanding remote options, etc.
What I'm saying is that sometimes all we need to do is open our eyes and take a look around us to see that the Spirit is birthing change and new things left and right, every single day ... and rather than spending all of our time and effort trying to generate and birth our own change ...
Perhaps.
PERHAPS.
... We would do well to (at least once in a while) get on our knees and catch some of these new things that are being birthed around us.
Like ...
How can you help birth faith deconstruction into your community?
How about raise awareness around the need for racial equality?
Or LGBTQ inclusion?
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
I don't know what this all means and I haven't really thought through the implications of it all ... but I feel challenged anyways. St. Brigid challenged me to slow down this morning and to stop thinking that my main role in life is to birth new things into the world when in reality my main role is to be on my knees, midwifing the change that the Divine is birthing in me and through me ... into my life and into the world around me.