Breathing Under Water:
A Journey Towards Wholeness
A 9-week series
This summer at Faith UMC, we are moving through a new series, Breathing Under Water, based on a book by Fr. Richard Rohr. In that book, Rohr helps readers see the wisdom of the Twelve Steps not only as a path for recovery from addiction, but also as a deeply Christ-following path of honesty, surrender, healing and grace. As we journey together toward wholeness, we remember that we can breathe, even breathe underwater, because the breath of God is always with us.
On August 23, we continue to explore Breathing Under Water in worship, as the Rev. Dr. Laura Norvell preaches that repair is a key ingredient to growth and wholeness. This repair often includes the hard work of acknowledging the harms we’ve done and, with grace, extending our hands and hearts to make things right.
Sunday, we will move together into Steps eight & nine and learn how to repair what is broken - to understand that grace restores relationships, not just individuals.​​
This summer’s worship series is based on Breathing Underwater: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, a book by Father Richard Rohr. The introduction features this poem by Carol Bialok from her book, Coral Castles.
And then one day,
(I still don't know how it happened) the sea came.
Without warning.
Without welcome, even
Not sudden and swift, but a shifting across the sand
like wine,
less like the flow of water than the flow of blood.
Slow, but flowing like an open wound.
And I thought of flight and I thought of drowning and I thought of death.
And while I thought the sea crept higher, till it reached my door.
I built my house by the sea.
Not on the sands, mind you; not on the shifting sand.
And I built it of rock.
A strong house.
by a strong sea.
And we got well acquainted, the sea and I.
Good neighbors.
Not that we spoke much.
We met in silences.
Respectful, keeping our distance,
but looking our thoughts across the fence of sand.
Always, the fence of sand our barrier,
always, the sand between.
And I knew then, there was neither flight, nor death, nor drowning.
That when the sea comes calling you stop being neighbors.
Well acquainted, friendly-at-a-distance, neighbors.
And you give your house for a coral castle,
And you learn to breathe underwater.