{"id":319,"date":"2021-07-22T19:10:12","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T19:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/2021\/07\/22\/lilies-and-leaves-and-whatever-else-is-beautiful\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T19:34:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T19:34:05","slug":"lilies-and-leaves-and-whatever-else-is-beautiful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/lilies-and-leaves-and-whatever-else-is-beautiful\/","title":{"rendered":"Lilies and leaves and whatever else is beautiful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Leaves\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin,<\/em> yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.\u2013 Matthew 6:28-29<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last April, when we were less than a month into the pandemic, Tyler Betustak (VU \u201820) offered a reflection on what he\u2019d learned as a long distance runner and how he\u2019d learned to apply it to daily life as a way of staying healthy and hopeful in times of great stress, deprivation, and uncertainty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said, \u201c\u2026if you start to run long distances \u2026 you\u2019ll find that once you think about the ending once you stop thinking about where you are right now and start thinking about that end goal you\u2019re essentially done \u2026the only thing that you can fathom is the end and it makes every mile that much more painful \u2026 if you don\u2019t take the time to pay attention to the things happening around you \u2026 and really pick out the good things instead of thinking so far down the road instead of thinking about the finish line, to take a second to look around and enjoy these things that God has provided for us was a lesson that I learned as I started to run.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tyler shared that he learned to apply that running lesson to his daily life through the experience of being a bone marrow donor. I encourage you to watch the video of his reflection here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not a runner so I\u2019d not heard this bit of wisdom before and it struck me as odd considering that so-called successful people tell us to do things like \u201cbegin with the end in mind.<\/a>\u201d Goal setting seems to be a given. Tyler\u2019s notion that we would do better to take our mind off the goal and place it elsewhere struck me as curious. So curious that I kept thinking about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now we\u2019re seven months into this thing and just over halfway through a break-less semester and the question of ends looms large in our minds. What\u2019s more, many of us are in uncomfortable places, conversations about tightened budgets and program discontinuation, conversations about experiences of racism and a political season that is challenging our vocabulary of superlatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll be fine when it\u2019s all over. This is what we tell ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m coming around to Tyler\u2019s way of thinking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Typically, when I read Jesus\u2019 words about lilies, I hear it as a teaching about priorities. These days, I\u2019m also hearing them as guidance on attention, not just attention to the important and eternal things, like the reign of God in our lives, but attention to the small and beautiful things. Consider the lilies and the turning leaves and the music and the art and a friend\u2019s kind gaze.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is not a strategy of avoidance. We\u2019re not simply sticking our heads in the sand. Instead, we are attending to all that is going on in our lives, both the stress-inducing and the wonderful. It\u2019s about having all of the information and it\u2019s about pacing ourselves for what must be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. \u2013 Philippians 4:8<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pr Jim<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oct. 14, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo credit: Valparaiso University<\/p>\n\n\n\n

University Pastor James Wetzstein and Deaconess Kristin Lewis take turns writing weekly reflections.<\/em>\u00a0You can\u00a0contact Deaconess Kristin here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Pastor Jim here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.\u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":88,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/author\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/06\/20151211-FJA-Christmas-Advent-Vespers-018-300x200.webp","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":[],"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 5 years ago","modified":"Updated 10 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on July 22, 2021","modified":"Updated on December 29, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on July 22, 2021 7:10 pm","modified":"Updated on December 29, 2025 7:34 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12000,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions\/12000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}