Last week, I drove 420 miles to Ripley, West Virginia to learn wood turning. The idea of holding a blank piece of wood and shaping it on a lathe at 2,000 rpm can be frightening. Yet, I think of all the times I had the privilege of standing behind Ed Bartz, a wood turner from my parish. He could take a chuck of wood and shape it into an exquisite bowl. His gift gave birth to the thought that this might be something that I would like to learn.
Cedar Lakes Conference Center, in Ripley, offered multiple classes in stain glass, water colors, quilting, fly-fishing, black smiting and wood turning. I was fortunate to meet my instructor, Byron, from Charleston, West Virginia, who has been teaching this course for many years. He enjoyed sharing his passion for wood with his novice students. I told him that my experience was limited since my mentor would let me hold the spindle gouge for a few seconds but never let me shape the bowl. I came to learn the basics. Put on an apron, the safety glasses and take that bowl gouge, anchor the gouge on the tool rest and pivot the gouge so that it slowly and carefully sliced the wood. However, I can’t count the number of times that instead of slicing, my wood would catch and make a mess of things. But Byron was patient and he shared that it takes practice and the whole idea was to learn the basics and come home with a few ideas that you would want to improve once you got home.
And isn’t this
why we come to church. To learn the basics, how to love in a way that makes a difference in our life. However, we need a teacher. Jesus who walks
along our side teaching us the basics. Not one to show us how to hold our
hands, but how to extend our hearts. One to help us know when it is time to be
more quiet and when to speak. A teacher who can show us how to slow down and
how best to speed up for the sake of the other. For the sake of love. We need a
teacher who will model for us what it is to live the sort of love that will go
beyond what is expected, making the sacrifices, actually die for another, as
Jesus offers now.
What I learned in wood turning applies to our spiritual journey. Byron preached patience in the classroom and his hands would sometimes wrap around my hand to guide the gouge so that it was making the proper cut. In the same way, Jesus guides us in our everyday life so that our love reflects his patience, compassion, and wisdom. However, I learned that to get comfortable and good in wood turning applies to our spiritual journey, we
won’t get it right the first time, or the second, or maybe even the fiftieth time. We need to keep on turning. In wood turning, you need to
practice, practice and practice. In the same way, to grow spiritually, you need to pray, pray some more and pray for the fifieth time until your life shines like the Christ with patience, mercy and understanding.
Lord, I pray for
all my Sonshine Friends who daily need to practice, practice, practice this divine spirit of love. Not always easy, but with Jesus looking over our shoulder and
holding our hands steady we eventually get the idea how to manage the difficult cuts to make a beautiful life in the image of God.
