The 9th beatitude – a useful lesson to learn

 

I’ve just completed delivery of a 2-day workshop on 360Life materials with a small group of prison chaplains who comprise 60% of the Good News Global Kenya team. The other 40% of the team were too far flung in Kenya to be able to make it to Nairobi unfortunately.

The training went very well overall, and we achieved the intended outcomes. Today they each had to give a presentation on part of the materials, to demonstrate their depth of understanding, and those went very well. It was really encouraging to see how they were inputting to each other’s presentations, and asking questions just to push each other a little more on showing the practical relevance of the information.

There were some good conversations throughout the training regarding the application of the materials into the Kenyan prison context. Having spent the earlier part of this week discussing with the Rwandan folks about the materials in the context of working with genocide perpetrators, here in Kenya the conversation revolved around the three categories of crimes that are most evident in the Kenyan prisons, namely civil, criminal, and political.

It was so good to hear how the chaplains could see the many ways in which the materials have the potential to change things for the better, both for the prisoners and for the prison officers. Through taking a trauma-informed approach, and gaining a better understanding of the functioning of the brain, and the impact of trauma on the brain, the chaplains cited many examples of how they could see improvements being achieved. Relationships between inmates, relationships between inmates and officers, mental health support, trauma counselling……. I felt so humbled to hear the enthusiasm and energy from the chaplains as they discussed the practical applications of it all.

But alongside all of this there was an important lesson for me to be reminded of. And that relates to the title of this blog.

The training was supposed to start at 9am on both days – yesterday one person arrived at 9am, the next at 10am, the next at 1045am, and the last at 1230. As one from a time-focused culture, it is an understatement to say that I found the late arrivals a tad frustrating! When they each did arrive, their reason for being delayed was very justified, but I didn’t know those reasons until they arrived, and so in the meantime I was not the most laidback individual. I tried to put the waiting time to good use, but it’s hard to settle to anything when you just don’t know when the next person will arrive. It was definitely a bit of a test of my desire to be in control.

Messaging a friend later on about a few things, it came up about the time-keeping issue. He identified with the challenge that it can be, and shared with me the ‘9^th Beatitude’ that a Malawian friend had given to him during a similar time of frustration: ‘Blessed are the flexible for they shall not break’.

What wise words – and so very true. Flexibility over timing and plans makes such a difference, as I keep finding out. If only I’d been more flexible yesterday – my blood pressure would definitely have stayed a bit lower, and maybe I could have used that first bit of time productively rather than getting bothered about what wasn’t being achieved.

Hey ho! The training went well, the goals were accomplished, and there was plenty of laughter and conversation along the way, as well as good learning. For the participants, the learning was about 360Life, for me the learning was the 9^th Beatitude – may that be a lesson that I remember, and put into practice, for a long time to come.