Devotions at the Sewing

I spoke today during the devotional time to the ladies from Center and Cedar Crest who had gathered for the monthly sewing day.  It was a typical day in that comforters and quilts were being churned out as fast as such projects can happen.  Anyone who has helped with such projects knows that knotted comforters can be finished much much faster than quilts.  Once a year, usually in February, we have a potluck (or carry-in, as it's usually called), and we did that today.

I agreed afterward to helping with the cleanup after the sewing for the next seven months. 

One of these times, I'm going to have to start saying no again when I'm asked to do things.  No one asked when I was teaching (and I would have said no if they had), but now that I'm retired, I'm apparently "fair game" when volunteers are being solicited.  I guess that's OK, because so far I'm really happy for the switch in activities.  I think I can trust Hiromi to gently intervene if he sees things getting out of hand.  He's done so before. 

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I used my students' response to my teaching-the-wrong-Sunday School-lesson story as an example of their choosing an adaptive response to the situation.  After a bit more explanation about the difference between adaptive and technical situations and responses, I observed that most of the women "here" seem to me to face many adaptive challenges. 

I had no illusions about being able to offer anything that would magically make adaptive challenges easier to navigate, but I attempted to point out that God's provision is sufficient for facing these challenges.  I think I probably talked too long, but they were an attentive audience.  They're kind that way.

I'm plopping my notes into the remainder of this post.  They're pretty rough in places, and the content might be too sketchy to be helpful.  In brackets I added some explanations--some of which I included when I spoke, and I crossed out at least one thing that I think I did not say.  Even so, the notes aren't that great.  If the notes need interpretation, just ask.  And please bear with me.

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 Sewing Devotions Notes

God’s Provision for Adaptive Work

Story about teaching the wrong lesson.

Adaptive challenge: No clear path forward.  Various things to consider.  Involves discomfort and uncertainty.  All options involve some risk.  [Adaptive work is what it sounds like--requiring many adaptations.  Technical solutions often involve an authority figure and unquestioned and invariable processes and actions.]

[I read the next two paragraphs aloud.]
Most of life calls for being able to meet adaptive challenges.  Often the thing we would like most to do is to find a technical solution so we won’t have to muddle through a situation like this repeatedly. The problem then often becomes dealing with the situations that don’t fit a tidy system.  In such situations, we have a new adaptive challenge.  If we don’t recognize this, or perhaps if we don’t have the time to invest in finding adaptive solutions, we end up investing too much energy in maintaining the system.  The sweet spot seems to me to be a system that has enough structure to relieve the stress of having to constantly reinvent things, but is flexible enough to incorporate variables as they arise.  There probably are times when the systems themselves need to change.  On the other hand, often what we need to do is to take better notice of the options we do have within an existing system. 

God’s provision for us is adequate for our tasks. I’m thinking especially of women in our setting.  I will be speaking largely out of my own experience, but partly also about my aspirations.  I hope that in listening you might be able to find something that you can apply in your own situation.  Specifically, I hope that you can begin to employ some practices that are simple enough to provide some easy structure, and flexible enough to be workable in varied situations.

God provides for us--

–Through our biology–better connections between the two sides of our brain
–hormonal cycle (more energy at certain points in the cycle–because of different hormone mix) 

–Through rhythms in the created world–
–day and night (earth’s rotation on its axis)–Markers: sunrise and sunset–witness this!  Day and night–day is for work/night is for rest–going to bed at a regular time
–moon phases (moon orbiting around the earth)–Markers: Full moon and new moon–Seedstarting
–solar cycle (earth orbiting around the sun)–Long days and short days–Equinox and solstice–markers [All of the above can serve as prompts for accomplishing certain tasks.  E.g., if we do spring cleaning, use the vernal equinox as the deadline–or the starting time, etc.]

–Through God-ordained rhythms–
[Nothing in the natural world suggests the 1 in 7 rhythm.  It exists only by God’s direct creation and command.] Very basic: (work and rest) 1 in 7, [applicable also to other tasks] traditional tasks on certain days (wash on Monday, ironing, mending, cleaning, baking) menu planning: different meats, different vegetables, different starches

–Through being present in nature–
–a good place to exercise
–a good time to get fresh air
[I meant to list below the physical, mental, and emotional benefits of being in nature.]
–a good time to be exposed to negative ions–not directly related to exercise and fresh air–most studied in relation to going barefoot outside on bare ground or waking in forested areas–here, the open sky and enormous plant diversity in a prairie ecosystem have been less studied [I admitted to some uncertainty about how this works and couldn’t explain it very well.]
--elevated mood
--greater calmness
--improved mental processing and memory
–a good time to notice plants that are valuable nutritionally and medicinally
–a good place to worship–Psalm 8 & 14–Romans 1--God is revealed in creation
–being easily amazed (If this does not come naturally to you, I think the way to acquire it is to cultivate the discipline of gratitude)

--Through God’s Word and Spirit–won’t attempt to say how this should look for you–for me, it [spending time in Scripture reading, meditation, and prayer] looks very different since Hiromi is retired and our children have left home [I’m able to take more time, more regularly.]

–Through crying out to God –this is probably the only one that is the right thing to do every time when you face an adaptive challenge–because it’s probably the only way that you’ll be able to know which other approaches are the right ones for right now. 
–God, the wonderful Provider, will never fail us. [I can’t imagine how very different my life would be if God had not responded, over and over, when I cried out to Him–often in uneloquent prayers like “O Lord, help!” or “Please show me what to do next.”]

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Here's a link to a well-documented article giving "11 scientific reasons you should be spending more time outside."

Several ladies were happy to hear that being barefoot outside has health benefits, and a few affirmed that they feel really well when they do this a lot.