Creative dislocation

By Richard Kauffman

Christians often practice a little-known spiritual discipline called “creative dislocation” without realizing it: we engage in creative dislocation by going on a spiritual retreat or on a mission trip into a foreign environment—the inner city or a third-world country—where the usual markers of our lives are taken from us, and we’re subject to someone else’s way of doing things. When we’re dislocated, we begin seeing in fresh ways. We look for the familiar in the unfamiliar, and we see what is familiar to us in new ways. If we’re paying attention, we see the presence of God in new ways.

Sometimes that strange and unfamiliar place is a spiritual desert where we seem to experience the absence of God more than God’s presence. One of the most haunting of scriptures is 1 Samuel 3:1: “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.” I’ve known periods in my life like that.

Sometimes that strange and unfamiliar place is in adversity, as when God’s covenant people were taken into Babylonian exile. All that was familiar and comfortable had been taken from them: their homeland, their place of worship, their usual rituals. In exile they opined, “How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Ps. 137:4). Yet looking back we can say that the exilic period was one of their most fruitful. We’re blessed by the fruits of their exile, including so-called Second Isaiah. It was a period of creative dislocation—they had to think fresh thoughts about where God was, what work God was doing in the world.

Perhaps we should think of vacation as more than a setting away from it all, more than some down time. We might be more likely to find rest for our weary souls by practicing the discipline of creative dislocation. Once we’ve placed ourselves in a strange place away from our usual routines, we can ask: Where is God present in our world? What is God doing in our world? To what is God calling us?

Comments

[Stan Nelson]

The fact that in England our vacations are called holidays could be important. Going for holy days rather than vacating would change perspective.

[Julie Clawson]

I've been on "creative dislocation" trips that did serve to help me set aside the everyday and see God. But I've also been on "vacations" to familiar and loved places - places with which my heart resonates and feels at home in. Instead of the unfamiliar pushing me towards God, it was the intimately familiar that brought me rest and refreshment. I see that it works both ways.

[Jason Byassee]

The difference between vacation and Richard's creative disclocation for me is whether I pray. If I'm going somewhere for a pilgrimage, or story (in East LA recently) where it's a bit rough, or somewhere I'm unsure of myself, I pray more. If I'm on vacation I expect the hospitality industry to run like clockwork or I get mad at them. In the former, more out of control situation I grow in the way Richard describes. In the latter...

[Julie Clawson]

For me there is still prayer in "vacations", just of a different sort.

[Jason Byassee]

No disagreement there.