by Gwen Shipley, Director of Formation

Be the change you wish to see is cliché by now. It rolls easily off the tongue but is not nearly as accessible as that favorite sweater you reach for this time of year–or is it?

The distinct seasons of the Northwest make it the perfect climate for growing things. For instance, we are the world’s largest hop-producing region. On the lane I have been privileged to call home for most of three decades, there is a different crop growing in every direction I look: apples, pears, alfalfa, and yes, hops… As summer turns to fall this year, the cooling Concords that used to sacrifice their aroma before September sunsets is now just an olfactory memory, replaced by new homes and the sound of barking dogs. The rest, however, remains unchanged…rooted, growing, producing. Still.

In the spring of each year, the trees, gray-brown and silent through the winter, begin to flirt with the idea of turning green. Look closely and you will see swollen nubs up and down the branches where new shoots will appear, followed shortly by delicate flower petals that eventually become infant apricots, miniature apples and the tiniest teardrop pears. After a long summer of taking in nutrients, soaking up the Cascades’ spring runoff, and lounging in the sun’s heat and energy, they will offer up their mature bounty in service of the world’s hunger.

The hop vines—bines, actually–behind our historic kiln will hang heavy, collapsing under the weight of their lupulin-laced cones into a waiting truck bed as the top-cutter slices them from their wires. They will be processed and shipped the world over. What were once vulnerable seedlings will have grown into acres of lush, climbing vines 20 feet tall. Each year, when we return from our week-long beach trip, we marvel at the metamorphosis that has taken place.

What if this kind of change we long to be and see can result from so little effort—from indirect action? What if by regularly and intentionally putting ourselves in God’s way, something transformative can happen in us, growing fruit simply because we are rooted in deep soil? This is the role of spiritual practices like silence, solitude and stillness, combined with the often more familiar habits of scripture, community, worship and service.

RELAX. The sign in my bedroom reminds me every morning of the perennial invitation to learn the unforced rhythms of grace, echoes of, it is God who works in you… I stop to notice with a slow breath and a listening pause, taking in the presence of God. My roots go deeper.
This time of year, especially, I am reminded that seasons do change, growth, transformation does happen. Harvest does come.

Gwen Shipley
Director of Formation