How Does He Do That?
David and I have become entranced with Sophia Sayed, the
adorable child actress used by AWS in their television ads. (AWS, if
you didn’t know—until recently, I didn’t have a clue—is Amazon Web
Services.)
“How did you learn to play like that?” she asks a guitarist on the street. Her childlike earnestness is captivating.
“How
do you always find the best stuff to watch?” she wonders aloud, lying
on her prone mother’s back, both on the floor, faces turned to the
television screen.
The questions proceed. “How do they make
shoes like that?” “How do you know that?” “How do they know this
stuff?” “How does it know where we’re going?” Coming out of the bakery
with a donut in her hand: “How did they know I like sprinkles?”
The
curiosity is enchanting. Amazement is captivating. We all remember
either being a child filled with curiosity or raising or teaching a
child with curiosity. Sometimes the endless questions are annoying, but
mostly, they’re entrancing. Her last question seems to be one that my
husband and I are adapting around the house: “How do they do that?”
How do they do that?,
we wonder when someone tells a story of accomplishment, something
difficult that took energy and planning and determination. We question
this often regarding our daughter-in-law, now a widow after our son
died 5 years ago from a rare and aggressive lymphoma. She works—in
fact, she’s the director of her community-outreach program. She parents
three children—Eliana, 12 years of age, Nehem, 10 years of age, and
Anelise, 7 years of age—all by herself. She also completed her
doctorate in adult education. You too may be wondering with us,
watching all of this, How does she do that?
When
the little grandchildren, who we keep twice a week and are the
stand-ins when emergencies interrupt and Angela needs an extra hand,
when they do something special like bringing home a really good report
card, or create a make-believe city in the basement from saved tin cans
and cardboards and miniature cars and felt-tip-marker and ruler
streets. (All of which occupies several days and multiple hours of
intense creativity.) “How did you do that?” we exclaim—not necessarily
manufacturing a response of grandparently amazement.
And in moments of personal pride, we address the quote, grandly, toward ourselves: “How did we do all that?”
Recently,
our question has taken on grander implications. We have started to ask,
when overcome with some obvious evidence of God’s work in our lives,
“How does He do that?”
My
prayer journals (some forty years of them) are filled with lists of
ways God has intervened in our everyday lives. David I termed this
effort of recording daily divine activity “The God Hunt.” Using this
well-know metaphor of hide-and-seek, we taught our own four
children—now adults—to be on an existential watch, to expect God to
jump out from His hiding place and exclaim, “BOO!” At any moment.
Anywhere. At any time. And generally, though we can’t always hear it,
the interventions are always accompanied by a rollicking and divine
belly-laugh.
So this is how David and I have
organized our thinking; there are four main categories. (1) God
intervenes through answered prayers. (Remember, I have recorded four
decades of answered prayers! Proof enough for me.). (2) We see Him
interacting through how He helps us to do His work in the world. (3) We
don’t believe that anything is coincidental, though many proclaim,
“What an incredible coincidence!” Instead, we believe God can be
identified in any unusual linkage or timing. For the Christian, there
is no such thing as coincidence. (4) Lastly, we see Him in abundant
evidences of His loving care.
“How does He do all this?”
My
lists include such commonplace things as having enough leftovers to
create a lovely dinner on those busy, busy days when I haven’t had time
to write out a menu, check the fridge/freezer/cupboards for what’s on
hand. Enough for this evening, I discover, and by the way, there are overlooked leftovers that will do for lunch tomorrow.
Our children’s books, the “Tales of the Kingdom” Trilogy,
have been in the marketplace for over 35 years. That is a record worthy
of any author’s satisfaction; most books don’t last a decade, few make
the 5-year mark—this considered to be a mark of a classic. When the
books were declared out of print, we offered them to all the religious
publishing houses that existed, and not a single one snapped them up.
In some ways, we understood; they are expensive books, hardcover with
glossy pages that include 12 full-color illustrations. So we kept the
rights, and decades ago, made them available in the marketplace under
our own imprint. Beloved by many readers, both young and old;
proclaimed by others (not ourselves) as “classics comparable to C. S.
Lewis’s Narnia series; the
recipients of overwhelming five-star ratings on Amazon, we are pleased
with our decision to keep these properties in the marketplace. This is
due mostly to the efforts of our eldest son, Randall, and his
determination not to let the products die.
Recently, I had the desire to create a stage production of the first book, Tales of the Kingdom,
for children’s theatre using a participation methodology that would
involve the audience, the actors on the stage and every child in the
theatre (or every adult with a childlike heart). This is not an easy
task, and I am not a playwright. Since each book contains 12 standalone
stories (36 in all), there are a plethora of characters who move along
the overall narrative arc (or theme) of the books. Just adapting Book
One would take skills beyond my own.
While organizing my file-cabinet (or perhaps more accurately, “pile cabinet”) drawer of “Tales
Stuff,” I came across a script written for a production put on by the
drama department of a seminary in Canada—talk about obscure. I had
totally forgotten that it existed. The playwright, Rob Riddell, has
beautifully composed a stage treatment for Book One that adheres to the
principles of stagecraft without disordering the construction of the
narrative arc—no small feat.
Indeed, “How does He do this kind of thing?”
How
did He orchestrate this creative project, in this far-off seminary with
people I’d never met, that rested for decades in the dark caverns of my
messy organizational systems? How did He bring it to light seemingly
serendipitously at the very moment when I seemed inspired to finally
create a stage treatment, knowing I was nearly incapable of doing so?
Indeed, how does He do it?
The
psalmist in the Old Testament recorded similar moments of great gasps
at the recognition of God’s involvement in the everyday world, in the
commonplace events. Look at these how-does-He-do-that remarks just from
Psalm 34.
• I will extol the Lord at all times/ his praise will always be on my lips. • My soul will boast in the Lord/let the afflicted hear and rejoice. • I sought the Lord and he answered me. • The poor man called, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. • The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them.
How does He do that?
• Fear the Lord, you his saints/ for those who fear him lack nothing • The lions grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. • The Lord is close to the brokenhearted/ and saves those who are crushed in spirit. • A
righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from
them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken. • The Lord redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him.
So
let us, all together now, ask in joyous wonderment, “How in the world,
how in the great expanse of the universe, how in all heaven above,
does He do
all this?”
How, indeed, does He do that?
Karen Mains
NOTICESListening Group Book Project
I’m
scheduled to start writing on the Listening Group experience I
conducted for seven years, ending some five years back. I’ve scheduled
for April 2020 to begin writing a book tentatively titled Listen to Me! Listen Well! The Proven Healing Power of Being Heard and Feeling Understood. I’m planning to co-author this venture with a friend who is a neurosurgeon/neuroscientist.
However,
it has been five years since I led a Listening Group, and I would like
to write out of a current experience with people who are intrigued by
the concept of the healing power of being heard and feeling understood.
So there are two groups I will be offering. They are as follows: (1) A
classic Listening Group of 3-5 people who meet for 2 1/2 hours once a
month, starting in April, and going forward for 7-8 months through
October or November. (I’ll let the group decide about the ending month.)
(2) A training group for people who want to lead Listening Groups.
This will be a four-month exposure, meeting twice a month on Monday
evenings from 7:00 to 9:00. I offered Listening Group leader training
in the past, thinking it would be a simple tool to pick up, but
realized the training had to be more structured than I had offered at
that time. The fee for this training is $100. If you are on a church
staff or are a small-group leader, I strongly encourage you to sign up.
Looking for a Researcher Then
if someone wants to help me set up research criteria and has training
in research (usually the first courses Psych majors receive are in
research), I think that would give the book additional credentials it
doesn’t have at this time.
If interested, contact me at karen@hungrysouls.org. For further questions, I am happy to have phone discussions. Home phone: 630-293-4500. Cell: 630-338-3604.
Listening Group White Papers We
are including a link to the white papers I developed in the past, which
give a detailed explanation of Listening Groups, the scriptural basis
for listening, and some assessments as to their value. TO VIEW THESE PAPERS HERE ON HUNGRY SOULS, CLICK HERE. TO DOWNLOAD A COPY (WORD DOC) OF THE PAPERS, CLICK HERE.
Reminder!
The Soulish Food e-mails are
being
posted biweekly on the Hungry Souls Web
site. Newcomers can look that over and decide if they want to
register on the Web site to receive the biweekly newsletter. You might
want to recommend this to friends also. They can go to www.HungrySouls.org.
Hungry Souls Contact InformationADDRESS: 29W377 Hawthorne Lane West Chicago, IL 60185 PHONE: 630-293-4500 EMAIL: karen@hungrysouls.org
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Karen Mains
Recently, our question
has taken on grander implications. We have started to ask, when
overcome with some obvious evidence of God’s work in our lives, “How
does He do that?”
BOOK CORNER A Listening Heart: The Spirituality of Sacred Sensuousness by David Steindl-Rast
Our
youngest grandchildren are attending a Catholic private school. Their
father, our son Jeremy, died five years ago this past November, and
their mother, Angela, has valiantly provided a stable home environment
for them while holding down a full-time job and working to earn a
doctorate in adult education—all at the same time.
We love
this little private school. It is not only providing the kind of
excellent schooling parochial schools are known for, but it is
including and embracing my semi-orphaned grandchildren in love and
community and joy and healthy learning—but it is uniquely Catholic!
For
instance, the 12-year-old has a habit of procrastinating in regards to
turning in her homework on time. So she was scheduled detention—not for
a one-time infraction but for a habit of infractions. However, this was
not called a detention but an “Hour for Self-Reflection”! HAH!
Our
twelve-year-old actually enjoyed answering the searching questions and
seriously took them to heart. Let’s hear it for the educators who
understand that real education is not just mastering information but
mastering ourselves!
This Book Corner is dedicated to one of my favorite Catholic writers, Brother David Steindl-Rast. His book A Listening Heart: The Spirituality of Sacred Sensuousness
is really about learning to attend with all our senses. My copy is
highlighted through all the pages. The word “lovely” is often
hand-written in the borders. Here are a couple quotes. The first begins
with Moses’ experience at the burning bush.
This
“strange sight” (Exodus 3:3) signals a central theme of the whole
Bible: God’s presence in our midst, the co-existence, even more than
that, the inter-penetration between what is accessible to our senses
and what goes altogether beyond them. These two “suffer no confusion,
but permit no separation” (non confusionem passus, neque divisionem)
as a Christmas antiphon puts it, full of wonderment and awe. The vision
of the Burning Bush boldly proclaims: Divine Reality is accessible
through the senses. This is quite a claim.
If you are
lacking in the ability to attend to the Presence of the Holy in your
everyday world, I strongly suggest you procure a copy of A Listening Heart and get your highlighter ready to underline and your pen ready to take notes.
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