Pineridge Blog

Blog by Sara Stubler

Sara Stubler coming to you as I am reflecting in our bathroom mirror!

I want to spend a few minutes to share what giving and living with faith and courage means to me.  I was raised in a Presbyterian Church, spending a fair amount of time learning all the rules (and there were oh so many rules) to be a good Christian and Presbyterian.  From a child’s perspective, there certainly seemed to be a lot of focus on the “don’ts.”

Our Pine Ridge community has helped me shift my focus to love.  Please know that I am still a work in progress.  Romans 13:10 is a comfort knowing that love is all  the law demands. It says, “Love does no harm to a neighbor.  Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.”

I love the way Jim has started Sunday morning’s church service recently.  “You do not have to be good, you do not have to walk on your knees for a 100 miles through the desert repenting, you only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”

David, my husband, used to send me off with a cheery “Be good today!” each morning. For a while, it felt like a comfortable and appropriate send off - until it didn’t.  Even worse, it occasionally morphed into a “Be a good girl today!” which definitively became fingernails on a chalkboard for me.  My response to his well-intentioned wishes took a negative turn when my feminist self truly blossomed in my forties. 

Fortunately, for both of us, David learns quickly and shifted gears.  One morning a few years ago, I woke up to a surprise “Be Awesome Today” message inscribed on my mirror.  Awesome certainly sounded more exciting and more fun than being good.

Awesomeness is something I want for Pine Ridge.  As a community, I hope we aren’t just checking off the do’s and don’ts.  I hope that we are living courageously and giving of ourselves with awesomeness.

As I head into my fifties and watch the house quiet down after years of chaos filled with our children and their friends, I am grateful that love is all the law demands but I am also really embracing stillness and the peace that comes with it.  I hope it will give me time to truly live the breath prayer from Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God.”