This last week I had the privilege of serving as the ‘Theologian in Residence’ for Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA. It was a wonderful opportunity to interact with students, faculty and staff. I particularly appreciated the engagement with students on all sorts of theological topics as well as learning about their own personal experiences of life in a boarding school. The diverse student body comes from not only across the country but around the world. Being able to hear their perspectives that have been shaped from the places they call home such as Charleston, New York City, Shanghai, and Kiev was incredibly rich.
I elected to use theologian Richard Rohr’s work on ‘Order – DisOrder – ReOrder’ as my theological paradigm for engaging the students. My rationale? Many young people (as well as adults) struggle with the inevitable challenges that are part of life’s journey. I wanted to invite the students to explore ways to navigate those times of DisOrder in their lives.
Rohr contends with respect to DisOrder, “Without a certain ability to let go, to trust, to allow, we won’t get to any new place. If we stay with order too long and we’re not resilient enough to allow a certain degree of disorder, we don’t get smarter, we just get rigid.” My intention was to challenge the often binary perspective of good and bad. Everything is “going my way”, “all is good”, “I am winning”. Challenges are encountered, “all is bad”, “I’m losing”.
Danaan Parry in her wonderful piece entitled, “Trapeze ” offers, “I have noticed that, in our culture, this transition zone is looked upon as a ‘no-thing’, a noplace between places. Sure, the old trapeze bar was real, and that new one coming towards me, I hope that’s real, too. But the void in between? Is that just a scary, confusing, disorienting nowhere that must be gotten through as fast and as unconsciously as possible?
NO! What a wasted opportunity that would be…They should be honored, even savored. Yes, with all the pain and fear and feelings of being out of control…they are still often the most alive, most growth-filled, passionate, expansive moments in our lives.”
My encouragement for the students was to see challenges in their lives not as a place of failure but an invitation for re-imagination. And, further suggesting that in my experience the best space to do such is within the context of a supportive community. A space where one’s worth is not affirmed based on accomplishment but rather out of basic respect as a beloved child of God. A space where one can fully embrace all that one is experiencing and feeling. A space where imagination, risk, vulnerability, trial and error are valued for their capacity for growth and transformation.
I am very grateful for the privilege of being invited into a community that strives to provide space to navigate through the challenging, yet transformative times of DisOrder. And, with the Lenten season on the horizon, I’m hoping that all faith communities will be those spaces where folks will be supported to lean in, learn and be transformed by the times of DisOrder in our lives.
BP