Go Outside and Connect!
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
August 29, 2021
Good morning, Friends! It is so good to gather outside to celebrate Funday Sunday! The scripture text I chose for today is from Psalms 96:11-12 (from The Voice translation). It speaks of the creation praising the Divine or Eternal. I encourage you to close your eyes as I read and still your hearts. Listen to the nature around us as communicates wisdom and hope.
11 And so, let the heavens resound in gladness!
Let joy be the earth’s rhythm as the sea and all its creatures roar.
12 Let the fields grow in triumph, a grand jubilee for all that live there.
Let all the trees of the forest dig in and reach high with songs of joy before the Eternal.
I was thinking the other day about when our kids were younger. What brought this to mind was driving by the park at the end of our street and seeing about 6 middle school children scattered throughout the park all on their smart phones. It looked as if something had frozen them in time.
I thought of how both Sue and I would say to our kids – alright, time to turn off the devices and go outside to play! Go out and have some fun.
Sure, they were often playing with toys or building with Legos, not always on devices when we said this, but there was something about getting up and going outside to play that was different and important.
And it would not matter if it was a beautiful day like today or in the middle of winter with snow – it was about going outside that was the key.
If you really think about it, we make the outside part of our play throughout life. When we go on vacations, go for walks, even when we play sports or exercise, we make sure to get outside.
For me, I love spending time in nature and I love to play in nature, whether it is enjoying the beach, walking a trail, sitting by a waterfall, laying in a field at night to watch the stars.
I have always loved playing in nature. But often that is as far as we go. We stop with the playing. We utilize the nature, sometimes abuse the nature, but rarely do we connect with the nature in a spiritual way.
Just maybe we will never get to really enjoy the play until we make a connection to the Creation around us.
My daily walk was changed a year or so ago when I saw a tree that I had never noticed right off the path that I walked each day. I had passed it on numerous occasions, with my ear buds in my ears listening to a book or podcast and never seeing it (hmmm…maybe I am no different than those middle schoolers in the park). My sole goal was getting my walk in, NOT connecting to nature.
Yet that day, it was like the tree called out to me. Immediately I stopped and turned off the book I was listening to. That’s when I started to make a connection.
I noticed how the tree was overwhelmed at its base by a large invasive vine. It had become so thick that the tree was struggling too fully live. My first instinct was to try and remove the vine, but it was so incredibly thick and intertwined that I knew with my hands that I would not make any progress. I became a bit frustrated because I did not want to see the tree get suffocated by the vine.
Yet, as I stood there in my frustration, it was almost like the tree was asking me to look deeper or that it was becoming a mirror reflecting back to me the struggles of my own life.
Suddenly, I was realizing that I was connecting with this tree in a special way. It was showing me more than I at first realized.
Just at that moment the sun came out and I glanced up from the base of the tree, following the trunk up to the branches and leaves. That is when I realized that even though that invasive vine was surrounding the tree, the tree still found a way to thrive and grow. Above the vines it was lush and full of color and life.
So many applicable lessons the Creation was trying to communicate and teach me in that moment.
Kris Abrams calls these moments of clarity and connection – “accidental encounters with nature.” I wasn’t seeking a profound experience that day when I left my house for my walk, but it happened.
That tree took on an entire new meaning for me and still today I never miss taking a moment to look at it when I pass it on my walk. And yes, it has continued to teach me new things over the last year or so.
Most of the time, we don’t stop, we don’t go any further, we don’t make the connection.
Kris Abrams says that is because “mainstream culture exerts tremendous pressure to prioritize the surface rather than the spiritual and we revert to exercising or socializing, using nature as a sort of grand gym or café” all the while missing all the deeper ways it could enhance our experience.
The day that tree “spoke to me” I realized I made a shift from an accidental spiritual relationship with nature to a more intentional one. I found it was not so much me “going out to play” as it was me “going out to connect.”
Thus, the reason, I am glad we outside in these beautiful meditational woods for worship today.
Now, I know many of you have shared with me connections you have had while in nature. How spending time on your back porch, at these mediational woods, even in a local park can help you transcend the urgency of the moment, slow you down, and help you sense the presence of God more directly.
Even one of my mentors and professors used to tell us of how he had a profound encounter with a set of birds on his porch birdfeeder that he believed was the Divine’s way of teaching him how to be a better father.
But I also know for myself and for many others, taking the time to connect with God through nature does not come easy. So, this morning, I thought I would offer you six suggestions that have helped me deepen my experience with God through nature.
What I have realized, is that It’s not enough for us adults to simply tell ourselves “it’s time to go outside and play.” And maybe that’s because we should be saying to ourselves “it’s time to go outside and connect.”
Here are some suggestions that have helped me from Kim Abrams.
1. Make a Commitment
This is often the biggest hurdle to getting outside and making a deeper connection. You and I both have said it, “But it is too hot, today.” “It’s raining.” “I am too busy.”
Much of this is what Kim names mind clutter. Our mind is working against us – and that might be due to not getting outside and connecting more with nature.
Hoping to organically spend time in nature may be our hope, but with our lives these days, it probably will not happen.
To develop a spiritual relationship with nature begins by committing to spending this time in nature. That may be once a day, once a week, or even more depending on your schedule.
After the long pandemic and being cooped up inside, we have what I call “nature atrophy” – the use of nature and its effectiveness has declined because of its underuse this past year and half.
2. Create time alone in nature
When we are with other people, we tend to talk to each other, and even when we are not, we often put on headphones that do the same. I sometimes now find myself going out for a walk without my ear buds in, my phone silenced, and all alone.
As Quakers we must be reminded how silence and solitude go hand and hand. It was Quaker Richard Foster who taught me that solitude amplifies the other disciplines, the environment around us, and allows us to achieve a greater focus, a greater ability to see just what God is trying to say to us.
Even if you are planning to spend some time with others in nature – make an agreement that you will set-apart some time for solitude – and agree to share how you connected and what you learned.
3. Find a good place
Don’t complicate this. I probably never would have picked to stop at that tree on the path, if I didn’t allow it to speak to me. You do not need the “perfect place” or the “same place” every time.
4. Sit Down
Yes, you may have a spiritual experience in nature while walking, running, or climbing, but you may need to stop and sit down to help align your focus. Sitting down breaks the cycle or rhythm you have been in and helps promote you to see, hear, smell, and experience new things.
5. Relax & Observe
Spend a moment taking in your surroundings. Try and notice little details as well as the larger lay of the land. Connect through all your senses – hear, smell, feel, and allow yourself to enjoy the experience. Then when you have relaxed a bit – ask yourself a query:
What drew me to this specific place?
Really take a moment to fully explore that query. It wasn’t for a couple days after I experienced that tree overcome by the vine that I realized why I was drawn to it.
And finally…
6. Communicate.
Being raised in a Western Culture, this may be the hardest to grasp. In our Western ways we are quick to say that tress, rocks, flowers, dirt do not have a soul or spirit. But I think if we look at it in another way, it may help.
It is interesting, how often we talk about God communicating with us through nature – God sent that bird, or that sunset, or that rainstorm - so why can’t we communicate back, or have a conversation with the means God uses?
I find words or thoughts appear in my mind, and they aren’t the ones that I would come up with on my own. Sometimes a quiet awareness or idea arises, and then you can try to articulate it with words to help you remember it better.
For me this is just what happened when I started to notice that tree with the vines. I started to relate to the tree because I too was feeling overwhelmed. That feeling came into my mind and I began to look at what all the tree was wanting to communicate to me.
Personally, I was probably feeling so overwhelmed that I needed that tree to “call out” to me. I might not have heard a person, a friend, even my wife. But then it was like the tree, without saying a word, communicated with me and helped me understand, helped me see there was hope and helped me know I could still thrive and grow.
So, this morning, I would like you to take these 6 suggestions and spend some time allowing God to use nature to communicate to you and for you to communicate back.
Once again, let me read those 6 suggestions – you may also find them in your bulletin this morning:
1. Make a commitment
2. Create time alone
3. Find a good place
4. Sit down
5. Relax and Observe…and
6. Communicate
For our time of waiting worship, I want to encourage you to spend some time connecting with nature in these beautiful woods. You may want to move your chair or sit by a tree, or simply stay in your current place. Enter this time with an openness to how God may speak to you through nature and see what you are being led to communicate back.