Ever wonder how to keep your spiritual roots strong amidst life's storms? The balance between spiritual renewal and daily demands can actually be a divine opportunity. What might happen when we slow down daily to open ourselves up to God?
In this episode, Melissa and a conversation with The Rev. Bonnie Underwood, Rector of All Saints Warner Robins. Melissa and Bonnie discuss spiritual practices, what gets in the way, and how sitting with God in the morning sets up to live our faith out in the world. Listen in for the full conversation.
The Rev. Bonnie Underwood joined All Saints in 2018. Prior to becoming a priest, Mother Bonnie had a diverse business career including 20+ years as a business executive; experience as a small business owner; and service in the United States Marine Corps, as both an officer and enlisted Marine. Bonnie enjoys reading, movies, and travel with her husband Jess, and especially spending time with their 6 adult children and 5 grandchildren.
Ever wonder how to keep your spiritual roots strong amidst life's storms? The balance between spiritual renewal and daily demands can actually be a divine opportunity. What might happen when we slow down daily to open ourselves up to God?
In this episode, Melissa and a conversation with The Rev. Bonnie Underwood, Rector of All Saints Warner Robins. Melissa and Bonnie discuss spiritual practices, what gets in the way, and how sitting with God in the morning sets up to live our faith out in the world. Listen in for the full conversation.
The Rev. Bonnie Underwood joined All Saints in 2018. Prior to becoming a priest, Mother Bonnie had a diverse business career including 20+ years as a business executive; experience as a small business owner; and service in the United States Marine Corps, as both an officer and enlisted Marine. Bonnie enjoys reading, movies, and travel with her husband Jess, and especially spending time with their 6 adult children and 5 grandchildren.
On the days that I am busiest. I know it's going to be insane If I take that 10 minutes at the beginning of day to really anchor myself in Christ, to spend that quiet time whether that's in morning prayer or just a little bit of quiet, it makes a difference throughout the day. It's like you're grounding yourself, you're deepening your roots and I can stay more focused.
Speaker 2:
This is For People with Bishop Rob Wright. Hey everybody, I'm Melissa Rao, and this is For People with Bishop Rob Wright. Hey everybody, I'm Melissa Rao, and this is For People with Bishop Rob Wright. Thanks for tuning in for this summer's Summer Shorts, where we'll be having conversations with guests from across the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, who prepared a short devotion on behalf of Bishop Rob's four-faith devotion, sent out every Friday. This week, we're joined by the Reverend Bonnie Underwood, rector of All Saints Warner Robins. Mother Bonnie welcome.
Speaker 1:
I'm so glad to be here. Great to be speaking with you, Melissa.
Speaker 2:
Yay, I'm excited. So, Bonnie, tell me a little bit about where you come from, how you're in Atlanta in the diocese in your role as rector. Just tell me about yourself.
Speaker 1:
Well, I have kind of a strange background Came to the priesthood later in life. I've been ordained as a deacon in 2014, 2015 as a priest. But I'm a mom and I'm a nana and I'm a former Marine and a former business executive, so have done a bunch of different things in life, which I think has all been really formative, and have been a priest here in Warner Robins at All Saints since 2018. So got the joys of COVID down here as well. But it's just a wonderful place and a place I'm really enjoying living into my ministry and serving these folks.
Speaker 2:
That's fabulous. What do you love the most about living into your call as a priest?
Speaker 1:
I think the piece that is most exciting for me is really getting to know people and helping them to understand just how deeply deeply they're loved, just for who they are, and that you know God is always with us and Jesus is leading us to truly understand how beloved we are.
Speaker 2:
Thank you so much for saying yes to preparing the devotion you named Choose for this week. It's based off of Mark, chapter 6, verses 30 to 34 and verses 53 through 56. Why don't you just share with us why you chose this particular passage and what it's really speaking to you?
Speaker 1:
So this particular passage, as you mentioned, has a little gap in the middle of it, and so it's grabbing two pieces that surround the feeding of the 5,000, but the feeding of the 5,000 is not mentioned. And so it's talking about at the beginning that Jesus is taking off, is suggesting to the disciples they really need it, let's go off and be by ourselves, let's, you know, renew and refresh and have some time just to gather. And it never really happens, because as soon as they take off, they're just surrounded by all these people with needs and even when they cross over the sea it again happens, over again, and they're not able to have that respite time. And there's a piece of that that I think just really speaks to me, because how often can we feel like we are just overwhelmed by the day-to-day? We may want to have that quiet time, we may have this plan of what we're going to be doing for the day, and the interruptions just happen and can seem to happen nonstop.
Speaker 1:
And I was really honing in on choice, on choosing, because we have a choice on how we look at those things.
Speaker 1:
Are we hearing from this passage that Jesus is telling us that the doing is much more important than having that time to renew in that spiritual side of us.
Speaker 1:
Or are we supposed to be seeing something else? And I choose, I believe, with God's help, to perceive some of these things differently. And perhaps we need to look at those interruptions that happen as God winks as those moments that we really can see and perceive things differently. That that's happening at this particular point in time because it's something that we need to understand a little bit differently. That that's happening at this particular point in time because it's something that we need to understand a little bit differently, something that perhaps can open our hearts to viewing things in the world differently. And so we have a choice on how we view things when they just get so big, of whether that's something that we can lean into and see that as a God moment. Of whether that's something that we can lean into and see that as a God moment versus something that just frustrates us. And so I just think it's something that we can, we can hone in on, especially today when things can be so overwhelming.
Speaker 2:
Can we look at things differently, see them through God's eyes, lani, especially in today's time, where I love how you kind of mentioned that we're kind of living in a time of doing, that we become kind of bogged down and we forget that we're human beings and not human doings. You ask a very compelling question what are we to hear? And there's two questions Are we being told to choose a doing life over a spiritual life? And I I take that as like are we? Is our doing in line with our being? And so what are we about?
Speaker 2:
I'm just wondering if you can speak into kind of the, the culture of the go, go, go, because I'm also reminded of the Martha moments you know in scripture, where Jesus not that he scolds Martha, but when Martha's complaining she's doing active ministry, and so the word in that passage, when Martha and Mary you know the sisters and Martha complains that Mary is sitting at the at the base of Jesus's feet, jesus says Martha, stop doing what you're doing, but the language in there is actually ministry. So the Greek in that is stop doing ministry, take a break, which is just very interesting to me. So do you want to speak into kind of like how we actively choose how to spend our time and how. Maybe do you have an idea or opinion about the balance that we mark balance in the things that we're doing can just be insane.
Speaker 1:
And culture doesn't help us at all Because you know, that idea of I'm going to spend some time, just you know, sitting and reflecting and abiding in God is like you're wasting your time. That's not productive. I mean you should be doing and yet that isn't really. You know, that's almost a silly choice to have because it's not an either or it really is a both and what I consistently find in my life and in those that you know spend some time really talking about. You know how having that quiet time abiding with God, talking about you know how having that quiet time abiding with God, taking the time for reflection, it seems to just balance everything.
Speaker 1:
On the days that I am busiest, I know it's going to be insane. Anchor myself in Christ to spend that quiet time. Whether that's in morning prayer or just a little bit of quiet, it makes a difference throughout the day. It's like you're grounding yourself, you're deepening your roots and I can stay more focused. And I really believe that when we take the time to do that, to abide in Christ, that suddenly things just start to fit. We can trust. We can trust that God's going to help us through our day. We can trust that there's going to be enough time to get done what really needs to be done, and not everything that flashes in our heads as our to-do list necessarily really needs to be done. So can we ground ourselves differently and make it's not either or it's both, and nurturing that spiritual side of ourselves as well as doing the ministry? Doing the doing. That's important too, but it's not one over the other.
Speaker 1:
It is finding that balance.
Speaker 2:
I love that you talked about the deepening the roots, kind of grounding the roots, and when you said that, I kind of had this image flash in my mind of a tree and I live in Southwest Florida and so there's palm trees all over the place. And one thing that I was super struck by I was always taught or thought that like oak trees have like a deep rooted system, and maybe that's true for some oak trees, but certainly not all. I lived through Hurricane Ian and there were huge live oaks just on their side, I mean just huge, gaping, not holes, just big old things of a root system but shockingly shallow. And so when you said we got to mind our rootedness, I thought oh gosh, okay. So Jesus did that a lot. Jesus would retreat and sometimes would even baffle his disciples when he would choose to go off, but clearly he was grounding himself for the storm. He knew that was coming.
Speaker 1:
Great example, and that really is again part of what's missed in this particular passage. Jesus does take the time to ground himself, even if we don't hear it all the time, and so when we read short passages and we see some of these things, we really need to dig deeper. We need to look at the broader context, because when you think about Jesus walking across the water, you know the reason he's walking across the water is because he told the disciples to go. We needed to have some time by himself, and then he's walking across the water. So it's, it's all of those kind of things. Jesus did take the time, and so if we're reading something that says oh no, no, no, it's all doing, we're missing something. Look broader, look wider, make sure that we deepen our roots.
Speaker 2:
I love that. Friends, we're going to be right back after a short break. Going to be right back after a short break. Hi listeners, thank you for listening to Four People, a space of digital evangelism. You can keep up with us on Instagram and Facebook at Bishop Brabright. And now back to Four People. Welcome back to Four People. So, bonnie, before we took a break, we were talking about the choices that we make and taking time to pray, to retreat, to take time for our spiritual well-being. Can we kind of just put that aside a little bit, because I think that's true, that's right and good and wonderful. I'm just curious if we can dig down deep into just even the topic of choice itself, because sometimes I feel like when we get crazy and busy and just harried, sometimes we feel like we don't have choices or that we're forced to make difficult choices, and I'm wondering what you think most people would choose and would you?
Speaker 1:
Great question, and it is. You know it's a hard one and we all face that with being harried and too busy. And I think most often when we're facing those things I know this happens to me it's like you know, when you're trying to prioritize, you know what needs to happen first and you know we've got the survival stuff. I mean the things that you've got to put food on the table, you have to have a roof over your head, you need to take care of your family, those things, and so I think those absolutely are at the top of the stack. But there also are priorities that get I'll call it set upon us Pressures from culture and society.
Speaker 1:
It's like I need to have this face when I'm dealing with people. I need to not make these people angry because and so I need to be careful about what I say or what I do I, culturally, I'm supposed, I'm supposed to act this way. So I think that in the middle of our, you know, busyness, if we can try to separate out what are what's real, what are the things that I really need to be busy about versus the things that other places and things are, you know, trying to inform that and telling me what I need to be busy about. And so, you know, I think that's what gets back to that spiritual piece and grounding ourselves and trying to, you know, trying to really see things through through Jesus's eyes instead of, you know, in our we all do this, and through our humanness and our you know, and just our frailty being inundated with all of these things that are just noise, just noise. Um, can we really get it down to more of the basics?
Speaker 2:
Basics. So well, okay, can we talk more about that? Like, sometimes I wonder in our own choices that we judge others for their choices, whether they're good, bad, indifferent, or, you know, sometimes some people's choices are better for them and not so good for others. I think sometimes, when we abide in God, we're going in, we're going internally and listening to what Spirit's saying to us. Through our own intuition, through our own image and likeness of God, our own personal divinity, you know, like not the narcissistic kind, but like the God within. What do you think leads us to choose to judge others' choices?
Speaker 1:
It's a great point and I love what you said about so many times. Abide can be looking inward, looking for. You know that, that light, you know that image of God within ourselves, and yet we really are encouraged and taught to. You know, discernment happens in community. It's not an individual thing, and so who is it that we're surrounding ourselves with, individual thing? And so who is it that we're surrounding ourselves with?
Speaker 1:
What are the voices that we're listening to, and are those voices also spiritually grounded, grounded in God's love, grounded in that idea of you know God first, loving God, first loving our neighbors as ourselves, seeing ourselves as being part of you know that community, unified in Christ. And so you know, yes, abide in God and listen and be open. But you know, discern in community, because you know, otherwise all we're going to hear is our own, what can be subject to hearing, just our own voices. You know all of those messages and things that are make up our filters by how you know what we've been, how we've been raised and how, what we see in the people that we, that we, listen to.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, thank you for saying that, the both and. Again. You know you're right. We do have an individual wisdom that I believe is graced by God, and yet what you said about the discernment and community is, oh gosh, it's so good, I love that. So how do you live that out then? How do you actively choose, bonnie, to take time and live into that balance of the doing and the being?
Speaker 1:
I really try to spend time intentionally listening, you know, listening to scripture, listening to people that you know I encounter, you know, every day, because you know another child of God who I should be looking through Jesus's eyes to be able to see that person and hear what they're trying to say not necessarily the way they're saying it, but hear what it is that they're trying to say.
Speaker 1:
But I think it's if we can have a listening life with an open heart that can help to guide us through what really can be chaotic, you know, on the day to day, but it really. But that piece, within that grounding, can we bracket our day. You know, starting out with God, abiding in Christ, whatever that looks like in the morning, the same thing at the end of the day, so that we can begin to surround ourselves in a new way, with God creating our, helping us to grow our roots, so that we can work through, you know, the day-to-day ministry that we all have in our relationships and encountering people and in the doing so that there is both abiding and moving in the doing so, that there is both abiding and that's really great.
Speaker 2:
Well, friends, we're so grateful for Mother Bonnie joining us. We're grateful to you for tuning in to For People. You can keep up with us on Instagram and Facebook, follow us, subscribe. You can do all of those things. We'll be back with you next week.
