Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is a voice in the new monastic movement. He’s an author, speaker, North Carolinian, and Duke Divinity grad, who visits us to talk about his new book The Wisdom of Stability.
In The Wisdom of Stability, Wilson-Hartgrove illuminates the biblical and monastic understanding of why staying in one place is both a virtue, and good for you. “For the Christian tradition,” he writes, “the heart’s true home is a life rooted in the love of God.” When we cultivate an inner stability of heart, by rooting ourselves in the places where we live, engaging the people we are with, and by the simple rhythms of tending to body and soul, true growth can happen. The Wisdom of Stability is a must-read for pastors, leaders, and anyone seeking an authentic path of Christian transformation.
Check out Jana Riess’ Q&A with Jonathan.
Pick up a copy of The Wisdom of Stability at your local bookstore or here.
Also check out Baptimergent. Thanks Amy for calling in and talking about your chapter!
I hear what he is saying and believe it to be true for me. Staying put is not easy in any way shape or form. It means loving people at a level that you may never have experienced before. Whether this is staying put in a neighborhood or a church it teaches you how to live and forces you to keep on learning as Jonathan mentions. I admit that some simply stay put because going any place else would be a change and they do not like change. These folks are content and would not know what I am talking about. For me, as I learned and experienced more about God and the bible and realized it was more about relationships than memorizing scripture and spouting forth your ability to remember, etc. As I learned it was more about loving others and my becoming the very best Jo Ann that I could possibly be it forced me to learn how to love. How to be hurt so badly by church people that you wanted to leave and never coming back. However I felt my heart kept telling me to stay, forgive, love those folks. Well I did. Over and over again I did this and I began to see what Jesus was telling us. We must be born again, a new creature by the changing of our minds and hearts. Staying in community and following Jesus is not easy but it can be made easier the more I allow The Holy Spirit and my discernment process to work on me and change me. Have you ever spent days, months, years trying to become friends again with someone who hurt you so terribly? Well I have, with some it literally took years for me to get to the place where I could do things with that friend and almost all the hurt feelings and thoughts were absent. Now that is how staying in one place and healing takes place. Now I know that I could move away and work on my inner being until it was healed but that did not heal the friendship. Staying put and working on my inner life and practicing loving the other brought about a complete healing for us both. The church calls forth the good but also the bad in us and when we work on this together we become the Kin-dom of God at its best. This is not the only way but it is a very rewarding way to soul care and relationships that are so genuine in their loving care of others and ourselves. Soo many examples I could give to express this journey of both the joy and the sorrow. I am not saying to those who because of jobs or family they must move around that they cannot find this wonderful joy. They can but it requires a different effort and practice to achieve Christian friendship and service to others. I look forward to reading Jonathan's book.
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