From the minister:

Change Your Habits,
Take a Chance

Our Friday Nights at the Fellowship is a program that resulted from both the August sustainability series and a brainstorming session of the Music Committee. These gatherings have drawn mixed crowds. So, first, I want to advocate for your taking a chance and coming to the Fellowship for your Friday evenings. While the First Friday Family Fellowship Fun, ceilidh, and movie nights are all getting decent crowds, the vespers service needs some attention. Last month was my first chance to attend the vespers service, and I found it an excellent close to the week. The group that puts on these services is hoping for more support, so if this alternative service is something you’ve thought about attending, make time for it, or it will disappear.

Speaking of the sustainability series getting us to take chances, it has caused me to look at one of my primary practices and to attempt a change. That practice was commuting by car. I am very fortunate to have a short commute. The Fellowship is a bit more than a mile from our house, and my classroom at Iowa State is just under 3 miles distant. So, I decided ride my bike.

So far this fall, I’ve only driven to my classroom twice, times when I had appointments immediately after class that took me farther afield. If you add the minutes it takes to walk from the parking lot to my building to the time it takes to drive from my house to campus, I’ve discovered that it takes less time to bike the distance than it does to drive. And, on the days that I bike, I’m more alert and feel better, even when I’m wet and muddy.

I have biked to a number of meetings downtown and to visits at the hospital. Those do require careful planning since it takes longer to traverse those distances by bike. During the late summer and early fall, I also found myself having to do more laundry, since I’d frequently be a sweaty mess when I arrived home. Several people who came to see me at the Fellowship this fall didn’t realize I was in my office since my parking space was empty. So just because my space is empty doesn’t mean my chair is. I have been fairly successful in my attempts to commute by bike this fall. We’ll see how well it goes once the snow flies!

While I’m not about to hold up my short-lived transition to bike commuting as an ideal for everyone, and I write about this with some reluctance since the toughest months are ahead, I did want to comment on one of the important changes that allowed me to make the shift. It was a mental thing. My daily routine involved picking up my car keys (oftentimes searching for them first), heading to the garage, and getting into my car. In years past, I’ve made feeble attempts at commuting by bike, which is probably why I’m hesitant to write about it now. Those times I’d sit in my car and ask myself, “Could I ride instead of driving today?” But the norm was always to drive. It was really easy to talk myself out of riding, which I usually did. Too wet, too sunny, too windy, too much stuff to carry, scheduled too tightly, might need the car to go somewhere, etc. The list of reasons was long and convincing. Now my attitude is that I’ll always be riding my bike. I have a rain jacket and a bag that hauls all my stuff. My bike has lights. So I really have to work to find a reason not to ride.

I’m trying to look at other aspects of my life where my routine is not in sync with my values. Too often we get caught up in the momentum of living and fail to actually think about how we’re engaged in that life which is ours. Where in your life are you touching the earth with more force than you’d like? Where are you putting the relationships that matter most second to other priorities? It may take a shift of mind, but change is always possible, for each moment is a new one.

One last note: Many of you may recall the Building Your Own Theology Sunday morning program series from a couple of years ago. With the help of Brenda Witherspoon, those sermons will soon be released as a book titled Can I Call this God? These will be available at the Fellowship for $15, with all profits going to the Fellowship.

See you on Sundays,

-- Brian