The following post by Joel Miller asks the question if place or person is required for change?
"Ever feel like a change in circumstances would make life easier? You’re not alone.
Basil wanted to find a place where it was quiet, where he could leave behind the craziness and commotion of life and focus on his relationship with God. (Sound familiar?) So he moved from the city to the country, hoping to still the waters and lower the noise. But it didn’t work. Quieter circumstances failed to quiet his mind.
“[W]e have derived no great benefit from our present solitude,” Basil wrote to a friend, explaining how the move had let him down.
It’s a common story and we all have our own version. When situations disappoint and experiences fall short of expectations, we think that changing our circumstances will fix the problems, like we can just discard and get a better hand. But it doesn’t always—or even usually—work that way.
Basil in the city can’t focus on God. Change the circumstances, and Basil in the country still can’t focus on God. Why? The truth is that the person matters more than the place. Remember that line from Bukaroo Banzai? “Wherever you go, there you are.”
Basil and Buckaroo are on the same page. “I am like those who go to sea,” Basil continued in his letter, “and because they had no experience in sailing are very distressed and sea-sick, and complain of the size of the boat as causing the violent tossing; and then when they leave the ship and take to the dinghy or the cock-boat, they continue to be sea-sick and distressed wherever they are; for their nausea and bile go with them when they change.”
The nausea is the problem, not the boat. The view might be different, maybe even better, but the change won’t help the real issue, which is us. Said Basil, “[W]e carry our indwelling disorders about with us, and so are nowhere free form the same sort of disturbances.”
If a change in circumstances isn’t the solution, and it usually isn’t, then we need to turn inward and work on ourselves. Basil says that looks like unlearning the things that foul up our minds and hearts and earnestly practicing the faith through prayer and meditation on the Scriptures; this is what will eventually reorder those indwelling disorders that we drag around.
When faced with joylessness and frustration, we should be quicker to fault ourselves than our circumstances. St. Paul talks about being content in all situations, whether in riches or in poverty. That’s the mark of someone who is comfortable serving in any boat that God assigns."
+ Joel Miller, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/joeljmiller/2011/01/dont-change-boats-change-yourself/
I think this is true as long as the place and the person are being steeped in the Orthodox Ethos. If Ethos is being compromised, then the situation would make "place" a very important concern. If the song changes and the dance is no longer in sync. If, for example one encounters Mega Church complex, reductionism, or heterodox doctrine, and one's loving attempts and prayers to alleviate these is rejected or of no avail, then it might be best to seek out and [with consultation with a spiritual guide] to be in the most Orthodox place there is. In such cases, it might be best to work out one's union with God in the place that can most help and pray that the place transforms our person.
But Miller's point seems to point out a different situation and is revealing because it points out not the seeking of Orthodoxy, but rather the state of the heart that may motivate someone to move from jurisdiction or from Parish. In this case, it's not the place that needs changing but perhaps the person. If one must move communities, one must ensure a transition is done gracefully, without regret or baggage, almost seamlessly, with peace, truth and love. With an affirmation of the gifts that the previous place has bestowed and which may continue to bestow. With affirmation of love that can restore and offer back to the place from where you have come, where you are, and where you will be.
Perhaps there's always danger for someone leaving the old place to bring their baggage with them... The passions follow the person and the heart.
Lord have mercy on us. May we encounter both the Person and Place of Christ.
Perhaps there's always danger for someone leaving the old place to bring their baggage with them... The passions follow the person and the heart.
Lord have mercy on us. May we encounter both the Person and Place of Christ.
"We have been endowed with many gifts from God, but we do not know how to live as we should, and we create hades in us and around us. Bishop Nikolai [ Velimirovich] once told the story of a priest who kept asking to be transferred to another parish. After a while Bishop Nikolai answered his plea, saying, “Father, I would be glad to grant your wish for a transfer if only you were not going to take your self there!” [St. Nikolai (Velimirovich) was implying that the priest would be just as unhappy in a different parish, as it was not the place but rather his inner state which was disturbing him. Make peace with yourself, and heaven and earth will make peace with you .]"
+ Elder Thaddeus, Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives
"Pray, wherever you are, pray, do not demand a place to pray in, because your spirit is a temple"
+ St. John Chrysostom
+ St. John Chrysostom
