by Deacon Peggy Hahn (she/her), Executive Director at LEAD

A little self-disclosure: I love to walk outside! To me, walking on the treadmill is not the same. I love to dig in the garden – weeding is as great as planting for me. Even houseplants can give me joy. Reading books can also offer an escape into adventure, or provide an opportunity to learn from a new perspective. This can fill my heart and head with joy. 

Yet none of these things really hold me when life is unraveling.  

I can get lost in grief, mine or someone else’s. I can feel devastated for myself or for someone I love or a total stranger whose life is torn apart by hurricane damage, a bad diagnosis, serious accident, job loss, or divorce. And so many other heartaches, if you want me to be honest. 

I love to walk, garden, or read my way out of these feelings of hopelessness or despair, but those moments are empty. They offer N O T H I N G. 

When life is unraveling, the only thing that works is what Dr. David Anderson taught me thirty years ago. He called them the 4-Keys for Faith Formation. I call them Faith Practices (Of course, I have added my own tweaks to each of them over the years… it is what we all do, right?) 

Over the next few weeks, we are going to lean into these practices. We know it’s not Advent yet but why wait? Maybe we can prepare to prepare by starting now. The election season, or anything else that has you on edge, is a good enough reason to lean into these practices anytime.  

These phrases—Rituals and Traditions, Caring Conversations, Serving Together, and Sacred Moments—each beautifully encapsulate core aspects of communal and spiritual life. Separate or together, these practices stop the unraveling.  

If you feel like your church is unraveling, start with teaching and living from these practices. We are in a time of re-creating and some things do need to unravel so we have enough thread to knit new things together. Faith is a verb that is a call to action. These practices can hold us through… everything.