We are still writing history.

When I was a young person, I saw history as a required class. Invariably my teachers seemed ancient. They expected me to memorize dates and places and people. I saw this process as having no relevance to my life.

I had been taught to succeed, so I would duly memorize the dates and places and people. When the test was over, I would forget them. I could not see why they mattered or how their stories were linked to mine.

I'm not sure when this began to change. Somewhere along the line - when I had children? when I started to see many gray hairs? - I realized that someday, I myself would be history. Suddenly, history mattered in a new way.

The author Phyllis Tickle, of blessed memory, saw history in cycles. She wrote about how every five hundred years, the church went through a major shift in thinking and practice, at the same time that the world as a whole also deeply changed. I was in my thirties, almost twenty years ago, when I heard her say that we were beginning one of these shifts again.

There was so much change happening with the rise of technology, Phyllis told us, that it would reshape the entire culture. Also, the Reformation - that last 500 year fundamental reshaping of Christianity - had run its course. What we considered normative was ending. Something new was next: something was emerging. Those words were some of the seeds God planted in my heart that led to Plainsong Farm.

When Plainsong began, it was as a radical experiment in response to a call. It didn't begin with a mission statement or a clear vision or, God knows, a business plan. It began with a "yes," and a gift of place and time and not enough money. This was all I knew to give. That "yes" and those gifts were offered knowing that Christianity was deeply broken. The practices of discipleship had been broken by our ancestors in their time in history. In their humanity, they got confused and took wrong paths. And it was time to begin again.

It is tough to look back on history and say "the way that my faith is being practiced is wrong. We need a place to start over." The logical next question is, "So what makes you think you're practicing it right?" The only honest reply I could make is "I don't think I'm practicing it right. I just know a new path is needed."

When Plainsong began, I couldn't even have told you what was wrong or why or how to address it. I just knew I needed to set out on a path I hadn't seen before, a path I trusted would lead me to the place God would have me go. I never expected anybody to actually stick with me on that path; I knew it would be a hard road. But so many have that there is now an entire organization founded on this one question: How can Christian practice begin again, grounded in the actual gospel of Jesus Christ, which is health for all Creation?

Now the founding chapter of Plainsong Farm is itself history. But my sense is that this organization has not even begun to make the difference God created it to make for the health of the world that God loves. I am amazed by the grace of God to call me into this work. I know I will not do it perfectly, because I too am human. But I am also ready to begin again.

A blessed 2023 to you. Let's make history together.