Invaluable

As many of you know, in July I went to Wyoming for a week of continuing education. The draw was two-fold. It took place at Ring Lake Ranch, a Christian conference and retreat centre which is in a wild part of a wild state. The leader for the week was Belden Lane, a professor at a St. Louis Roman Catholic university, even though he is a Protestant. He is the author of The Solace of Fierce Landscapes and Ravished By Beauty, two very thought-provoking and challenging books which look at the tradition of desert spirituality and the earth-honouring spirituality of leading Calvinists, respectively.

I have mentioned before that there is great benefit in hearing theologians, but in a much more complete setting than a lecture hall. We were able to chat and share meals with Belden and his wife Patricia. We also hiked together in some magnificent and challenging terrain. The exchange of ideas was an essential part of the experience.

In fact I was taken off guard by the result of our chat on the first day. I mentioned that with son Isaac I had been kicking around the concept of "lectio terra," a  reading of or conversation with the earth, as a spiritual discipline. We are modelling it on the ancient tradition of "lectio divina" which is an expectant, holy reading of scripture in order to encounter God. If the bible is one book through which we meet God, the earth is another.

To my surprise Belden used this concept for half of his first presentation that evening, kindly giving credit to the pair of us. We have agreed to stay in touch as he works on his next book. I appreciated his openness during the week.

Is continuing education valuable? In a much broader way than you might imagine.

Thoughts.