What Writing a Book With a Minister Taught Me About My Own Practice

About halfway through writing Called, Larry Love said something to me that I’ve been sitting with ever since.

We were working through what became the contemplative sections — the chapters on mindfulness and the watching mind. I had drafted something about how the practice of genuine presence is, theologically, the preparation for receiving the initial aim. Larry read it, was quiet for a moment, and then said:

“Fred, I’ve been doing this every Sunday for thirty years. I just didn’t have a name for it.”

That exchange changed the book. What I realized was that the watching mind and the open table are the same practice at different scales. The interior discipline of not fleeing from what is actually present — in your own mind, in your own body — is the same practice as not fleeing from who is actually present at the table. Both require you to stop managing and start receiving.

The best theology is always written from pastoral ground. Larry Love brought that ground to every chapter of Called.

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