My family and I enjoyed a recent visit to my childhood hometown in Boise, Idaho. I lived there for many years, many years ago. Each time I return I’m surrounded by the juxtaposition of familiar landmarks and new innovations. This contrast came together for me as we visited the Idaho Botanical Garden, a hidden treasure located on the site of the old Idaho State Penitentiary. When we bought our entry tickets, I recognized the foreboding guard towers of a place that I feared as a child. We walked through the gates and passed by an odd sculpture of a tree that opened onto a large unimpressive field against a backdrop of parched hillside. I wondered, “This is Boise’s idea of a botanical garden?” But my trip to the garden taught me that without a big picture perspective, it’s easy to get stuck in distorted thinking. Seeing a bigger picture is the first step to getting unstuck.
If you’re like me you’re probably feeling disturbed about something right now, family conflict, politics, financial concerns, or a health condition. Living Faith*Fully invites us to face those problems as they are, even while we zoom out to take in a bigger picture.
A tree sculpture made of discarded items welcomes visitors to the Idaho Botanical Garden
Feeling Stuck? Add Context
My first impression of the botanical garden left me chagrinned. Our schedule was full, and I had pushed the family to go there. “Really, we took time and money to see prison towers, a dry field and a weird sculpture?” But we were already there so we crossed the field.
It may be like that for you too. Chances are whatever difficulty you are facing is something you’re already “there” for. You might as well keep going. Most likely your present reality will change. Mine did in the garden as I lifted my eyes beyond the field and found trees nestled against the distant hillside.
Feeling Stuck? Add Beauty
You’ve probably heard the saying, “Two things can be true at the same time.” Too often we either refuse to acknowledge truly bad news or we give in to hopelessness while overlooking redeeming possibilities. The saying reminds us that even though things may be difficult, God can still be working in our lives, and the love of friends, and our own good choices can influence the ultimate outcome of our situation. Both things can be true at once.
As my family approached a tree lined walkway in the Idaho Botanical Garden, our persistence paid off. The creators of the garden have incorporated the arid landscape and the crumbling prison as a framework to shelter leafy shrubs and vibrant flowers. Barren land and bountiful vegetation thriving side by side.
Singer/Songwriter Carolyn Arends mingles life’s sorrow with transcending music in her song “Without Music.” Commenting in New Release Today she observed that “music seems to rise in us no matter what we go through.”
Are you feeling stuck? Acknowledge the difficulty, then look around. Seek the breathtaking sunset, the friendship, the gentle music, or the fresh breeze along a river’s shore that penetrates your valley of despair. Adding beauty will bring a bigger picture into view.
Feeling Stuck? Add Love
In my role as a school principal, I’ve met with many student rule-breakers. Scuffles on the playground, disrespectful remarks, stolen property, vandalism. No principal gets though the year without some version of these situations. It’s easy to take an adversarial perspective at times like these and to see the errant child as the enemy of a well-ordered school. Among the ineffective methods an administrator is tempted to use is to ask the student, “Why did you do that?” They seldom articulate the underlying need that led to their misbehavior. Not because they won’t but because they can’t. Too often they are unaware of the issues that lie behind their choices.
My most successful interventions at times like these came when I followed the lead of curiosity. What else is going on in this child’s life? What do I know of their past choices? When have they known success? Who do they trust?
If I regard the student as simply a rule-breaker and myself as a corrections officer, I may assign a punishment, but I have left untouched the brokenness that led to the misbehavior in the first place. However, if I enter the child’s world, addressing first their worth as a person of value, and then as someone unaligned with their own best interest, I become an ally, seeking to discover unmet needs, and working as a partner to find solutions.
Listening to others with an authentic desire to see from their perspective is the foundation for building this kind of relationship. I’ve been working on this for years, and I still struggle to do it well. Author David Augsburger writes that “Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person they are almost indistinguishable.”
A life filled with faith is the best way to move beyond stuck patterns of judgment when relationships break down in our families, communities and world. Choosing to acknowledge difficulties while trusting God to bring a bigger picture into focus opens doors for us to grow and for the people he places in our pathway to thrive.
The creators of the Idaho Botanical Garden could have seen an arid countryside and a collapsing prison wall. Instead, they fertilized the soil, investigated native plants, took full advantage of available water, and saw the best in the rugged landscape. The results are breathtaking.
A wooded pathway across a bridge at the Idaho Botanical Garden
