Stillness, Rising, Falling

So I was thinking about stillness, and how stillness is one of the things we look for in Quaker meetings, partly as a retreat from our crazy world, a place where we can feel safe.

And I was thinking about the joy and excitement that I think has been felt at the birth of new religious movements, including the beginning of the Quaker faith.

I guess both of these - looking for steadiness and retreat, and the looking for excitement - are healthy.

But I think the loud-and-excited side of faith is what's often caused dramatic growth in different religious movements, like early Christians or early Quakers.

I've also been thinking about the worry some folks have, about declining numbers of people participating in unprogrammed Quaker meetings. Maybe we'd really like the numbers to be steady.

Often, though, sameness is not really something the world does. Things rise, they fall, but they don't really sit still that well. Do our meetings for worship sit still well? Do we rise and fall? Do the numbers of Quakers rise and fall?

Often we don't feel safe even saying that we might like the numbers of Quakers to rise. And religions that let excitement take over are dangerous.

I don't know. Not like the number of Quakers "on the books" matters that much anyway, but I guess I'd like to see more of us be excited about our faith, and I think that'd have an impact on how many people come to worship with us...