“My promise is to seek the presence of Jesus Christ in the people, things, and circumstances of my life through stability, obedience, and conversion of life.”
This is my promise in the Benedictine order to which I belong. I’ve been reflecting on that promise this week and how it has continued to speak to my life for the 25 years I have lived by it. The interplay of stability, obedience, and conversion of life are the essential elements of the promise. One without the others will not hold.
Last night I watched the sun set behind the marsh near where I’m staying. A friend reminded me that the marsh itself is an example of the interdependency found in the Benedictine promise where the tidal waters work with the plants and animal life to mutually serve and support each other. The tidal waters nourish and feed the cord-grass of the marsh as it comes in and then it transports food and nutrients produced by the salt marsh to the sea as it goes out and feeds the animal life there.
This is an apt metaphor for the Benedictine promise. Practicing stability grounds us where we are and provides a hedge against our human inclination at times to run away from difficult things (or people). Steeped in the faith and practice of the Church we can rest in God and have the stability needed for perspective and reflection on our lives. But stability without obedience and conversion of life can make us rigid and can lead us to cut off from others and from the breath of the Holy Spirit leading us to a new place.
Practicing conversion of life gives us a stance in the world where we’re open to that new person, or thing, or circumstance where God just might be calling us. This openness allows us to experience conversion, a change of life, from the place where we are to the new place God is pulling us. This openness comes from the daily practice of repentance. But if our lives are one constant conversion experience, a daily change from one thing to the next, then we become spiritual butterflies flitting about. Practicing stability helps ensure our groundedness even as we experience conversion of life.
Obedience is like the tidal waters. In the constant ebb and flow of stability and conversion of life, the practice of listening to God’s voice in the Scriptures, the Church’s tradition, and in a good word from a sister or brother provides us with the spiritual nutrients we need as we seek Jesus in the people, things, and circumstances of our lives. Obedience, the discipline of deep listening to God, to others, and to the pulling of our hearts, gives us competence in our faith practice to discern the way forward. But obedience alone can make us passive; always listening, but never doing anything about what we’ve learned through our obedience. Conversion of life moves us from the places where we’re stuck reminding us that God is leading us to the New Jerusalem.
No metaphor is perfect, but I find the ocean, the tidal waters, and the salt marsh to be an apt visual, organic metaphor for how stability, obedience, conversion of life work in the Benedictine promise.
+Scott
The Rt. Rev. Scott Anson Benhase was the tenth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia from 2010-2020. This website serves as an online archives for the weekly email reflections, the eCrozier, he wrote during his episcopacy.