Ep 190 Seeking Shalom in our Neighborhoods (With Justin Markofski.

  Today non-profit community director,  Justin Markofski, shares insights on what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves.  He dives into the delight of deepening our love of God and how that overflows into the community around us.

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Seeking Shalom in our Neighborhoods(With Justin Markofski.

Chris: [00:00:00] Hello. It's great to be with you. Today, we are grateful to have Justin Markofsky on the podcast. Justin happens to live about a mile down the road from us and works for an organization that coordinates community connections and flourishing in our area. And we recognize that many of our listeners do not live in the same city as us.

However, we all have neighborhoods and neighborhoods that we interact with each day. And we thought it would be interesting to talk about the intersection of contemplative spirituality and thriving neighborhoods. So Justin, welcome to the podcast. Thanks, Chris. It's great to be here. Justin, we have heard you talk about a concept of seeking shalom for our neighborhoods.

Can you explain what that term means for those who aren't familiar and how you see that playing out in the work that you do?

Justin: Yeah, absolutely. I'm excited to give it a shot. Shalom is not a word that I actually [00:01:00] use too frequently, but the richness of what it means is something that I really love.

Just scripturally, it's a word that sort of tends to reference completeness and well being, welfare, peace, it's both an internal reality and an external reality all packaged into one, and one of my favorite passages from Jeremiah Speaks, To this idea of shalom, when the letter says, seek the peace and prosperity or shalom of the city to which I have carried you into exile, pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

And so for me, that captures and represents a really great kind of idea and understanding of this shalom, that it's not just an individual feeling safe, locked in their home at night. It's a city. Experiencing prosperity and peace as a broader concept. And so for me yeah [00:02:00] that's part of Shalom that I seek my understanding of it.

And in my workplace are the mission of my organization Northside planning council that I work at is to. Improve the quality of life and foster equity on the north side of Madison. And so really there's a parallel idea of seeking that shalom quality of life, equity across a geographic area of the city that I'm thankful to be working at through my day job.

Yeah. And Justin, you're in such a unique position because you work for an organization that has such a powerful mission statement, which I appreciate you sharing that I hadn't quite heard that. And yet you're not like in an official pastor role or a Christian ministry role or anything like that. It's just very much lived out.

And I'm curious, Justin, in what ways has your own sort of personal contemplative spirituality, how does that feed into the work that you do in the larger community? Yeah that's a great question. And for me, as you referenced, the role that I [00:03:00] have is with a nonprofit, it's not a Christian organization.

And Yet here I am as a Jesus follower doing this work and loving what the work is and believing that it's good work happening. And even, I would say my own perspective on how I came to be in the position of executive director of this Madison based non profit is absolutely amazing. A fruit of my spiritual practices, my life endeavor to follow Jesus and his leadership.

And so it's the sum total of trying to be a disciple, living out faithfulness to Jesus's example and, call to me that's put me into the position. of this job to then seek shalom in a broader, context for my neighborhood, the north side of Madison and neighbors. Yeah, I think some for me, like in terms of whenever I hear spiritual practices or spiritual [00:04:00] disciplines, I have an immediate sort of confession of being one of the worst.

People I know of at having regular spiritual practices I'm not the daily devotion guy at 6 a. m., I follow this script, I just, all of that type of thing has never worked for me, and I've had my own journey of coming to Grips with and accept sort of my own life and orientation around spiritual practices, but they absolutely like my manner of life following Jesus and the intentionality of that has brought me to this work, and it goes along so well with the work That I'm doing here,

Justin. I wonder if you have a store like I appreciate you saying that that it's not, you are the 6am devotional guy your prayer walking every hour on the hour or something like that, right? It's just you're living your life and these opportunities have opened up. And I [00:05:00] again, from the bit of the work I know you do it's involved in, for example, getting small.

Businesses off the ground and things like that in our community. And so I'm wondering if a story comes to mind of how, these two worlds of your spiritual life, which isn't an explicit part of your job description, but very much who you are as an individual, how that meets with members of our community.

I can think of multiple stories. Yesterday my office happens to be just with a direct door accessing outside of somewhat busy street here on the north side that there's walking traffic and different people just stop in off the street.

Sometimes a few regulars now that have come in and, appreciated the interaction enough to come back. And in this case, one of those regulars stopped in pretty despondent because he and his partner are getting. kicked out of the storage unit that they've been living in like a block away.

They're not legally supposed to be there, but they've been squatting there. And, he's just over time, just [00:06:00] comfortable enough with me, with being honest and real with me. And I think finding me to be a sympathetic listener, someone who genuinely Cares and has concern about his life and its circumstances.

So he wanted to come and find me and let me know that and though I wish I had great immediate like resources and ideas and solutions for him in his situation. I was just able to talk about the faith that I have offered prayer to him just in the authentic. I don't know what to do. I don't have the resources that are going to solve your problem of needing housing in the next 10 days, given where you find yourself.

But I have experienced God making a way in my own life in ways that seem. too difficult or impossible. And so just, that's just one example of kind of the intersection of prayer and just being able to, from the experience of my own life let that [00:07:00] spill out into conversations with others that I meet regularly.

I appreciate you sharing that story, Justin. And, I've I, I love the text that you brought up, the Jeremiah text and seeking the peace and the Shalom of the city. And, it's funny you say, I don't have a typical spiritual practice, but I think every time I've had a conversation with you, Justin, gratitude is such a big part of what I see. in just your demeanor towards everyone.

You're so grateful for your job. You're so grateful to be in relationship with others. And that just comes through a lot. And I think, speaking to this notion of seeking peace and seeking good, how big of a part does gratitude play in your life and the people that you interact with 

Even in gratitude, like when I've tried to focus on, okay, I'm going to have a regular regiment of. I'm thankful for these things and making like a [00:08:00] list of that, like daily, like any attempt like that for me to do such work usually fizzles out.

But I think what I've found for myself is rather than this disciplined approach to spiritual disciplines that are character forming it's, I have been, More delight driven and desire driven and so I guess when I have come into awareness of my belief in a living God, and then began exploring that and diving into Jesus' life 

it the fruit for me of getting to know God and who God is in my life and in the testimony of scripture and in the example of others that I've met through the years, it, the result is gratitude.

And for folks who can make that their focus and then, meditate on it, I'm positive it will be worthwhile and [00:09:00] valuable, but I feel like gratitude for me is more a byproduct of my getting to know God slowly and in my stumbling ways over the last 26 years of being a disciple of Jesus and it's just the natural result of discovering the love of God in my life and then the love of God that sort of wants to, Just naturally flow towards others.

It's interesting hearing you talk, Justin, I think in different contemplative circles, and we've highlighted some of them in our summer podcast, but for example, like Franciscan Benedictine, these orders that are doing wonderful things in the world for centuries type of a thing.

And it's interesting because some of these orders the beginning place is a place of prayer, contemplative practices, those rhythms, and from that outflows love of neighbor, love of self, love of neighbor, love of the world, etc. Other orders start with the love of neighbor, love of world, love of that.

outward. And from that, it fuels the inner practices of I'm witnessing this, or [00:10:00] I'm seeing this, and then I then bring that back to God. And both are beautiful, both are wonderful, but it's interesting in the contemplative world how we see such powerful models of that. And so I really appreciate you again, naming and owning, if I'm hearing you, it's this outflow of this Wellspring almost of you really experiencing divine love and delight and from that flowing out, but I'm also hearing a lot of as I'm in the community that's really informing and helping to shape who I am.

It's not like I'm better than you because of, some connection to Jesus I have, but it's a reciprocity that I think I'm hearing. Yeah, absolutely. And I acknowledge and agree so much with that, the both and direction of it can be, it can move in either way. And I think we just, as individuals have our own personalities, have our own bents and also our own kind of environments that we've grown up in both family culture culture at large, and then for those that are church going or have been.

And there's, I think usually, an emphasis, right? Like one might [00:11:00] be stronger in the contemplative side or the prayer, vertical looking, towards God in prayer. And, that's an emphasis or a starting point. Others might. Be in the activism and, being out there in the world.

And certainly there's tons of scriptural support for both, and I think for me, that's part of my still ongoing journey is both discovering what my personality bents are, but then not just putting myself only into those situations and I keep discovering and will continue to be discovering to need to have my mind renewed to be able to both express and embrace in myself even my job, my work, as a spiritual practice in the ways that I'm seeking, the common good and things that, that Jesus explicitly taught are part of knowing him.

Thank you so much for sharing that. How much you show, [00:12:00] how you show up in the world. And, you're talking about your journey. And I wonder, are there any challenges or obstacles that you've had to work through or that you continue to work through as it relates to seeking Shalom in our neighborhoods?

I would say not like anyone else that I'll just speak to my own experience and own it. My life as a husband and father of four kids, and then working and we're just, it's busy. There's a lot of responsibilities, a lot that needs doing just administrating life in our time. And Just the busyness of life, the distractions available for me, is a continual challenge to just daily being able to set myself apart in a way and whether it's two minutes, just to be aware of.

the presence of God in the world around me, to be aware of the presence of God with [00:13:00] me, and to be taking in daily bread for not just my body, but my soul and my spirit. That, that's, that continues to be something that requires intention, that requires focus. And again, for me I can be sometimes a beast and famine kind of person in relation to I'll want to take, a huge amount of time kind of binging and study or like scripture or something when I can, but then go days without doing so.

And I think, just paying attention to the, my own Mood even and how I'm showing up for my family and for others like helps me helps to me into all that challenge of setting time apart to be taking in spiritual food and spiritual drink and whatever form that is, that's going to help me reconnect to God as source so that there can be the wellspring that Christina spoke of that I'm [00:14:00] both familiar with, but then I'm familiar with that being drier and me not having a sense of wellspring to flow out of me.

And yeah, distraction, busyness renewal of my own mind in fullness of what understanding kind of what we're called to, what I'm called to and, scripture, I think is full of a spirituality that isn't just individualistic, but that's more.

communal oriented, others oriented. . And that's just, that's challenging to live in community, to live in real relationship with other humans, even just as a simple biological family of six. You've got six individuals with six different personalities, preferences, priorities, wills, what folks think should happen, want to have happen.

And that's challenging to continue to bear with one another in love, continue to prefer others before oneself, [00:15:00] continue to live out and live into all these different ideas and values 

 Justin, you have a title, a position as the North side planning committee, you coordinate things as part of your job.

I know you've had different iterations working for. After school programs at our local co op, et cetera. And I think both you and Chris vocationally have been involved in seeking Shalom for the city, but also just on individual personal levels to something as simple as we teach our kids, the person at the grocery store has a name tag on or the waitress use their name and acknowledge their name.

And when we do that, like you would be surprised how shocked people are that you're actually like. Talking to them by name or thanking them by name, something so simple. And so I wonder if you have any final thoughts for, those of us that aren't in these official positions, but we do care about neighbors and, taking some small steps.

If you have any sort of like final thoughts or wisdom for common everyday folk. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. And that's easy because I am absolutely a common everyday [00:16:00] person and I'm more. Familiar with that role and that title than any other, than my current executive director role and it's something that I love about just the truth and the example and teachings of Jesus is that it is for all of us, right?

There isn't, it explicitly is not just something you need an external position, an external title to fulfill and to bring Love of neighbor, right? You know this the second commandment that Jesus couldn't uncouple from the greatest commandment He had to name it as he said loving God with our whole heart soul mind strength.

Loving neighbor as self Belongs to that too in Jesus's mind and we all Everyone can do that. And we all have actual neighbors, even though our neighborhoods are different maybe than, they used to be generations ago here in America, at least in the ability to [00:17:00] have more easily accessible interactions with one another as neighbors.

But Jesus again does this. Does this a service to define neighbor in the Good Samaritan, parable is the stranger who you come across on the street. And it just to me, it's the excitement of my own, like coming into contact with faith in a living God 

and then like in experiencing Even a taste of even a bit of that sort of life and love that it was what brought me actually to become a follower of Jesus is meeting some individuals that had an attraction to their quality of life and quality of love. And it made me curious to know more of what was going on there, what the source of that was.

And I think that, maybe all of us like If we don't already find ourselves [00:18:00] connected to God in a way that is exhilarating and invigorating and actually making us love who God is in a way that we're loving ourselves and the life that he's given us and then able to love our neighbor as ourself, then maybe pay attention to find people in your life who Have something of energy, a spirit, a spark, an attractive way of being that you can pay attention to and purposefully get around a little bit and maybe ask some questions of so that you can tap into something that might be new and and different and and welcomed, for you.

So that's what comes to mind.

Thank you for sharing that. And I have the privilege of seeing you drive by in your truck. And usually you're not alone, Justin you have one of your sons or two of your sons with you. 

And often I [00:19:00] wonder what light Justin and his family are bringing into the world. So thank you for all that you've shared with us today. We appreciate your presence in our neighborhoods and just the examples that you gave us. So thanks for being with us. Yeah, it's a pleasure to be here with you both, Chris and Christina.

Now is the part of the podcast where we talk a little bit about what we are into. So what are we into? I am into back to school shopping. I don't know. There's something about getting the list. Even when I was younger, I loved doing that. And interestingly enough, our kids school, they have a program where you can sign up and pay money and somebody will do all that for you.

But all of the kids love shopping, as do I. And so we've been heading to Target and getting our lists and everything is all organized. Our kids started school today, so I am very much into back to school supplies. I have been into I've been into gut health but I think more specifically I've been into [00:20:00] kombuchas and there's this new kombucha that I really love.

It's a honey, apple crisp kombucha that we can get at the co op that we were talking about earlier. So I'm into gut health, but I'm also into the flavor that is honey, apple crisp kombucha. That's what I'm into. Yeah. What comes to mind for me, what I'm into is spectator sports once again, not do a screen, but the live version as a football season has started for one of our sons and Being at the sidelines for practices.

I'm into as a parent being a taxi as well to the kids that don't have driver's license yet but I'm enjoying being back on a familiar scene, not football field. Cause the sport is new to our son, but along the sidelines, seeing our child with other kids doing team sport that's what I'm into right now as a new season begins.

Very fun. Thanks for joining [00:21:00] us and we'll see you again next time. Make it a great week.