Staying power a fundamental need

By Elfrieda Neufeld Schroeder and ChristianWeek | July 28, 2010

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove believes a spiritual need for stability is part of our human nature and that we have largely ignored this in our hyper-mobile culture. "As participants in a mobile culture, our default is to move," he writes in The Wisdom of Stability. "But I am convinced that we lose something essential to our existence as creatures if we do not recognize our fundamental need for stability."

To illustrate his point, Wilson–Hartgrove uses several metaphors. In his first chapter, aptly entitled "Foundation Work," the metaphor is that of an old house with a shifting foundation. In this day of constant motion and rapid change there is a growing movement toward stability. Our instinct, when we feel a shifting in what we believed to be solid and reliable, is to reach for something stable. It is important that we find stability in Christ and stability in community.

A second metaphor is that of a ladder. If we want to ascend to life with God, it matters a great deal which ladder we climb. The author concurs with Benedict of Nursia that the ladder we climb should be Jacob's ladder — "a way of life founded on solid ground, freeing us from the illusion that we can live without limits and climb above the ground from which we were made."

A workshop is a fitting metaphor for "the place where we learn the rhythms of the work we were made for from the One who made us." Again the author stresses the importance of community in this endeavour. Another image, the roots of a tree, teach us how the limits of a root system can actually be life-giving. The boundary lines of our life and love expand as our roots grow deeper.

He does acknowledge a tension between staying and going: "From the very beginning, those who have practiced stability in the way of Jesus have acknowledged a healthy tension between commitment to a place and the call to go elsewhere."

Reflecting on my own life, I admit that I have been a person of mobility for most of it, and that not always by choice. I have seen this as an advantage because I feel my horizons in all areas of life have been broadened and I am enriched as I learn about other cultures. However, there have been times when I have yearned for stability and I have tried to create it wherever we settled. Reading Wilson-Hartgrove's book helped me to realize that my instincts to stabilize my sometimes chaotic world of mobility are God-inspired.