Beth Beaty is a longtime member of Hamline Church, and a church communications professional. She has worn many hats at Hamline over the years, and has recently been exploring the Enneagram. This week, we asked her how her work with the Enneagram has developed her spiritual life. 

When I started studying the enneagram a few years ago, I had no idea the impact it would have on my life. It was something I was literally just studying. It seemed a dense, convoluted theory wrapped in enigmatic spiritual-psychobabble. No one could even tell me what it was. A personality typing system? Not really. A model for personal growth? Well, no. A spiritual practice? Not exactly.

Despite my frustration – or maybe because of it – I kept picking away at it. Something told me there was something there for me. Then one day, I was sitting in the narthex (I don’t remember why now) reading Richard Rohr’s The Enneagram a Christian Perspective. I was reading a chapter about the enneagram type I thought I might be (because it is in part a personality typing session). I read a sentence that made me laugh out loud with recognition. The next sentence made me slam the book shut with shame and fear. It was an automatic reaction, like the slamming of a door. I remember feeling this kindly smiling priest was somehow looking from the pages of his book right into the darkest part of my soul. The words “How did he know?” appeared fully formed in my mind. Who knows, I may have said them out loud. I was pretty rattled.

I gave the book the side eye for a couple of days, but I eventually picked it up and I read those two sentences again. They still amused and stung, but not as much as the first time. What shocked me now was what followed them. No recrimination or scolding. Not a solution or improvement plan. Not even forgiveness for what felt like the sin of being a failed human. I found love and acceptance.

That experience – of being so fully and deeply seen and then so thoroughly accepted – is the core of the enneagram for me. It’s where it meets the Gospel. We are all broken because the world is broken. But we are all loved and supported as we are, breaks and all. And – breaks and all – we are called to love deeply, live bravely, shine brightly and move compassionately through the world.

I am now nearly at the end of my formal training as an enneagram teacher (or at least this phase). I’d like to think I am no longer just studying the enneagram but am living it at well. I have been blessed to have many amazing teachers on this journey, from internationally known trainers to people I was supposedly teaching. I love the way every new encounter brings me a new insight.

The enneagram has brought an expansiveness it to my life. I use the tools it gave me and the practices it taught me multiple times a day. But most importantly, it made the Gospel real to me like nothing else before. I feel deeply seen, completely accepted and compassionately called.

Julie Dahlke is a mom in our congregation, and has for several years run Centering Prayer on Sunday mornings. This week, we asked her what it means to her to be a veterinarian.

I’m a mom, wife, veterinarian; I love movies, contemplative prayer, old cats and bubble baths. The photo below shows me with one of my many favorite clients, Dottie Reilly, the owner of one of my many favorite patients, Barley (not pictured, unfortunately, as he’s far and away the cutest of the three of us!)

It’s a cliche but one with more than a kernel of truth; virtually all of us veterinarians find our way into this field because we love animals. Nonetheless, I think to really love this job over the long term requires something more than connecting to the pet. Pets do not walk into a veterinary clinic on their own, request services and plop down their Mastercard (in fact sometimes, quite the opposite!). People bring their beloved geriatric cats, newly adopted kittens and puppies, arthritic labs, anxious border collies and all the rest. Without some degree of love for people, it gets to be a long day pretty quickly.
The people who bring in pets come in all shapes, sizes, and have as many attitudes towards their pet as there are owners. Some think of their companion animal as their “fur baby” or family member and others take a far more casual view of pet ownership. For all their differences in how they relate to their pets, there are some similarities between these diverse owners as well. They are bringing their pet to the clinic to start with, so all are pretty invested and responsible regarding pet ownership. I can promise you that if the message regarding their pet’s health is not good, virtually all will grieve in a very recognizable, human way, whether they are busy professionals or older, retired owners on disability with little monthly income.

Some experiences bridge a lot of differences, and caring for a pet is one of those. In this role the owner and I are partners, engaged in a common goal. As a vet I have the privilege of caring for people by helping their pets or sometimes just helping the owner to try to make sense of the sometimes seemingly senselessness of heartbreaking accidents or diagnoses. It is that lowliest of positions, a customer service job with an emphasis on the service aspect and (so far at least) never gets old for me!

Jack Molter is a 9th grader at Hamline Church, and a longtime ice cream scoop extraordinaire. He was confirmed last year, and enjoys playing lacrosse and hockey. This week, we interviewed him about how volunteering with the Dining Hall helps him live out his Christian faith.

When did you first start volunteering at the Dining Hall?

I first started volunteering at the dining hall when Good Shepherd and Hamline first merged in June of 2010. My dad had always worked in food, and it was a great way to meet new people. Even though some of the people for Good Shepherd merged as well, it was still hard for me. I have a very vivid memory of 8 year old Jack wanting a vote because I didn’t want to leave the church. But now I am the exact opposite of him. I am so grateful for the incredibly welcoming arms of the dining hall and I strongly encourage new members or just anyone who has never worked to sign up for a shift or two or eight.

What is your favorite job at the Dining Hall?

My favorite job at the dining hall is definitely Ice Cream. Along with scooping, I really like interacting with all of the different people who come to get Izzy’s Ice Cream. I love volunteering because I like to think that me, along with the Ice Cream can help brighten people’s day. Just being a friendly face able to say hello is one of the reasons I keep coming back to ice cream instead of getting paid to work in the kitchen. I remember when we first started serving ice cream, and I would beg my dad and John Jakel (who is in charge of all Ice Cream Operations, if anyone hasn’t seen his friendly face around church), to let me help up front at the Izzy’s booth even though I wasn’t old enough. Ever since it came to the dining hall, the Ice Cream station was always my favorite.

Why do you keep coming back to work with the Dining Hall?

Hands down the best part of the Dining Hall is seeing the people smiling. Our Dining Hall has a distinct effect on people. Here, it seems like people can’t be in a bad mood. I’ve seen countless faces light up when they see their California Burger being flipped on the griddle or their Church Elderberry cone emerge from the depths of the cooler. Our food makes people happy, and the fact that I can contribute to making people feel joy, and help out our church, makes it impossible for me to stay away. I already signed up for all three days of the car show, and you all should sign up for a shift too.

How does volunteering at the Dining Hall connect you with other members of the church?

Volunteering at the dining hall is the first way I really connected with people when first coming to the church like I said before, but I’ve still made many new friends in my time at the dining hall. Volunteering is a great way to meet new people. Especially if you work multiple shifts you’ll meet a whole lot of great, new people that you’ve either never met at church or maybe just never had a chance to talk to. I’ve met new people, old and young that I would have never talked to, and I’m grateful that the dining hall helped me make those connections.

How does volunteering at the Dining Hall help you live out your commitment to a Christian life?

The Dining Hall helps me to make sure I do my part to help others. Helping others is a very important part of living a Christian life and the Dining Hall helps me fill that part of my commitment. Hamline Church does so many great things to help out the community, like the sprout garden, bread oven, social justice committee, and our refugee ministry. I’m glad that I can help raise money to support all these great causes is another huge reason You and I should both work at the dining hall. I hope to see you at the Dining Hall this year, and many to come.

During Pentecost, Hamline Church is inviting members to write about who they are, what makes them tick, and how the spirit moves in their lives. This is a way for us to understand more about what our ministries are Monday through Saturday, and why we seek out God in this church. This week, longtime member Craig Bowron writes about how he became involved in medicine and writing, and how these two inform each other.

I’m not exactly sure why I became a physician. There wasn’t a doctor in my family, and we’d been fortunate enough to avoid ever really needing one. My father got his higher education in the boiler room of a Navy destroyer, and my mother dropped out of college after her freshman year because she felt motherhood was a stronger calling than academics.

By high school I was certain that what I really enjoyed was being outdoors, and the biology of things. So I entered college with the idea of becoming a small-town doctor. Except life has other plans, and for the last 20 years I’ve worked at Abbott Northwestern Hospital near downtown Minneapolis—definitely not small, definitely not rural.

Being a physician is a fascinating mix of science and art.

The science is complex and always expanding. It demands a certain humility, because the more we know, the more realize how much we don’t know. It’s a miracle that life works out, even for an instant.

The science of medicine takes place inside a human being, not a beaker or a lab, and that is the art of medicine. Every day I am immersed in the great pageant of humanity. Being sick is a very stressful event—it goes to our core, literally to our very existence, and that can bring out the best and the worst in any of us. We are all our own brand of crazy. Some days the pageant seems like a Cormac McCarthy novel—dark and serious—and other days it’s more like a Monty Python skit—ridiculously silly. Some days it’s invigorating, other days exhausting.

There are plenty of mundane, routine, and even trivial aspects to my job, but to sit down at the bedside of a patient and hear their story, to participate in some small way in their suffering and to struggle with them in regaining their health…that is sacred ground. It is always a deep honor—and sometimes a weight—to stand on it.

I didn’t plan on becoming a big city hospital doctor, and I didn’t plan on being a writer, but I am both.

I was an English major in college, and started writing in earnest after finishing my training. What medicine and writing have in common is the power of story and the importance of small things. Some days, if I’m lucky, I get the story and the details just right.