Tall Monastic Guy

“Mitakuye Oyasin” (We are all related!)

In March of 2012 I made a visit to Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation located in one of the poorest counties in the US. There were many aspects of this brief visit that have profoundly formed my vision of prayer and relationships.

I was invited into a sweat ceremony for prayer over a particularly painful circumstance that our host family was experiencing. At the end of the individual prayers there was a standard repeated phrase - “Mitakuye Oyasin”. The elder let me know that this was similar to how Christian’s conclude a prayer with the standard “amen.” But this phrase runs deep in the Lakota spirituality as it translates “we are all related.”  

The elder’s grace and hospitality toward me revealed just how seriously he lived out that value. It’s as if he read this…

When immigrants live in your land with you, you must not cheat them. Any immigrant who lives with you must be treated as if they were one of your citizens. You must love them as yourself, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:33-34 (Common English Bible)

As I type this, a van full of close friends of mine are rolling along interstate 70 toward Ferguson, Missouri to be present with the people there as they anticipate great pain and unrest. Essentially, this van full of advocates and peace lovers are going to promote the Lakota message that indeed “we are all related.”

the paradox of second-hand theology

“God is fed up and he’s coming back to gather up those who are getting it right.”

I’ll just let you imagine the look on my face as I listened to a preacher shout those words to a gathering of chronically homeless friends. These words came within a Bible study held weekly for the street community I serve at Network.

I won’t spill all the details of what happened in my brain but my censored inner dialogue went something like, “Nobody should have to listen to such theological garbage and especially not the vulnerable ‘least of these.’ This incessant shame-laced-fear-based God talk just perpetuates the addictive behaviors of these folks.” And on and on went the frustrated grumblings in my head.

We give our second-hand worn out clothes to the poor. Why do we also hand down our used up and worn out theology?

What if God stutters?

From the moment our boys wake up until the moment they fall asleep they talk. And talk. And talk. Constant commentary on all aspects of life. It’s exhausting (and beautiful and hilarious). My wife and I crave the hour or two of silence we’re afforded after they finally conk out at night.

For the past couple years our oldest has battled with stuttering. It can get particularly bad when he’s going through a wild growth spurt (which seems to be about every other month). As he struggles to produce complete words and sentences his mom and I attempt to maintain a positive and empowering posture - a body language, facial expression, and verbal response that allows him to feel received and safe with us.

Some days are harder than others. As we wait for the words to come out it can produce a powerless feeling in us. We don’t want him to feel so vulnerable. It makes us feel vulnerable.