By Andrea Lingle

Trust.

The work of the Missional Wisdom Foundation boils down to trust.

The Contemplative Stance—Show Up, Pay Attention, Cooperate with God, and Release the Outcome—articulated by Elaine Heath and foundational to the process that the MWF adheres to, can be distilled to trust.

The contemplative is committed to resisting the urge to live clenched. As a contemplative, I cannot say that I don’t have opinions. I have diligently studied the ramparts of my faith, and the things which I hold to be true have been hard won. I have spent years mining the meaning and nature of grace. I’ve bent my brain over and around and through the hearts and minds of Tillich, Weil, and Hegel to hone in on the nature of reality, the Divine, and creation. I have walked the road of spiritual practice, pilgrimage, and grief. But, even after all that, my view is incomplete. My understanding is constrained by my ability to grow and understand. Although my inclination is to speak in definite articles and I dearly love all my beliefs, my commitment is to trust.

Trust that, ultimately, life and the Divine are mysteries.

Why not faith? There is a whisper of difference here. Faith is believing in what you cannot see. Trust is also about believing in the unseen, but it is more. It is walking in a dark room, hands behind your back, asking the community in the room with you for directions. Or a flashlight. Trust is a state of chosen shared power. To truly trust, you cannot achieve complete control. 

Faith will get you in the room. Trust will allow you to navigate it beyond your own power. 

Community is additive. There are examples everywhere: migrating geese, twelve step programs, military units, sports teams, colonies of penguins. Wisdom is collective. The greatest teachers do not tell their students what truth is, they tell stories (Jesus), ask questions (Plato), and create generative spaces (Montessori). They play games, celebrate failure and success, and listen. They listen to what is being said and what isn’t. They listen for the broken heart behind the sour attitude. They listen for the faltering courage hiding behind the bravado. They show up fresh even when they are afraid. Because they know that wisdom can only be carried by many hands.

So the Missional Wisdom Foundation cannot be the product of the ivory tower or the pulpit, it has to be the collected efforts of painters and therapists and blacksmiths and fiber artists and photographers and philosophers and pilgrims and caterers and kombucha brewers and vegan food truck owner/operators and dancers.

And it starts with trust. 

Trust that when we show, pay attention, cooperate, and let go, Spirit has been, is, and will be there. Trust that loving God and neighbor is really enough. And trust that together we hold a deep wisdom.