I recently interviewed Rev. Dr. Ken Whitt about his work writing for change. We talked about his book, God is Just Love. In this guest blog post, Ken writes about his work to help us all live God’s love and find ways to be resilient, build community and develop adaptive skills in the midst of climate change and collapsing structures.
Who Am I? My name is Ken Whitt. I am a retired American Baptist Pastor, having served local churches for over 45 years, and counting. I am a Spiritual Counselor, retreat leader, and the Executive Director of the spiritual formation ministry, “Traces of God.” I live in the community of Hide-Away Hills, Ohio, a neighborhood association of 740 families where I volunteer as the chair of the Children And Family Enrichment Committee (CAFÉ) and am responsible for communicating with our community on behalf of the Emergency Preparation Team (EPT). I am an artist in the medium of wood. I am happily and wonderfully married to Kathy, have four children and fourteen grandchildren.
My identity as I write this blog is that I am an author who has written a couple of books, a Doctoral dissertation on the subject of transformation, many articles and a few thousand sermons. The most relevant writing that led to my interview with Nancy Flinchbaugh, on the subject of writing for change, is my book, “God Is Just Love; Building Spiritual Resilience and Sustainable Communities for the Sake of Our Children and the Creation,” published at the very moment that a pandemic was overwhelming and disrupting our lives in so very many ways, including a severe disruption of our plans to promote the book.
What Change Was I Seeking When I Wrote, “God Is Just Love”? That’s easy. I was writing on behalf of, and in obedience to, God who is Just Love, to encourage the spiritual journeys of everyone who has learned that knowing God as Just Love, is the one and only way we can become this love. Being one with God, being Just Love, empowers us to live well no matter what circumstances we encounter in our lives. In the midst of suffering, grief, crisis, hopelessness, we can become love and be loving, no matter what is going on in our lives and our world. No exceptions.
Why is knowing Just Love and becoming this love so critical right now? This emotional and spiritual goal has always been the most important purpose of our lives. However, the collapse of empires—this being the ongoing reality of our lives and our world—and the collapse of the systems that we have come to depend on for our well-being—all kinds of systems, such as governments, economic institutions, environment, religious structures, and many more—guarantee that Just Love, knowing and being this love, is the only road that we can travel is we want to live well and confidently and with hope and joy, as the world crumbles..
Towards whom must I Be Love? In other words, specifically, to whom am I do direct my loving action in these dangerous days? I hope you will read my book, “God Is Just Love,” because I tried very hard to share what I have learned, often the very hard way, to know and to be love. First and foremost, I am to be love to my wife, our children and grandchildren. I am to, by words sometimes, but mostly by example, teach them to know and to be love. Second, I am to be this love to my communities. For me this primarily includes the community of Hide-Away Hills and the spiritual community of Carbon Hill Christian Church. My books, and other writings, certainly reach out towards larger communities. I participate in various conversations with some friends in international communities. But, where I can most effectively be an agent for transformational change in with my family, friends and neighborhood. Ultimately, all solutions to the crisis of our world will be local.
How do I put Just Love into practice in these communities? In a lot of ways. I bake bread and make soups and distribute them freely and widely, simply as random acts of kindness and sometimes in response to people who are suffering and need to know that someone cares. I become a leader who knows that all the people I serve have themselves the capacity to be kind and generous and filled with hope and love. I invite my grandchildren to spend a day and an overnight with Kathy and I. They learn to love and they learn skills that will help them to adapt to the changes they are likely to experience in their lifetimes; adaptive skills like building fires and cooking outdoors, building wood projects with hand tools, baking break, weaving rugs, knowing and loving the forests and the gardens and all of God’s creatures and the whole creation, foraging, and many more. I write articles for my community on how to be prepared for calamities, the kind that already happen frequently and the kind that humanity will inevitably face in a collapsing world.
Summary? God is Just Love. We can know and become this love. We can awaken everyday and find a way to be loving in a way that empowers us personally to not give into despair and fear. We can lead others to find the path that will lead them towards the fulfillment of the purpose of their lives, no matter the crisis they face.
You can listen to my interview with Ken at these links: YouTube Spotify Apple Podcasts Amazon Music.
Connect with Ken by email at: drkenwhitt@gmail.com
Follow “Traces of God Ministries” on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/groups/TracesofGodMinistries