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| Rwandan children |
Margaret Wheatley wrote in
Turning to One Another about a pregnant Rwandan mother of six whose village was destroyed by a massacre. Shot first, she was left for dead, buried under the bodies of her slain children. After giving birth to the child she was carrying, she adopted five orphaned children.
"I believe we become more fully human with any gesture of generosity, any time we reach out to another rather than withdraw into our individual suffering. To become fully human we need to keep opening our hearts, no matter what" (p. 63).
What do you think Wheatley means when she asks us, "Do I feel a vocation to be fully human?"
12 comments:
Bishop Spong, in his latest book, THE FOURTH GOSPEL:Tales of a Jewish Mystic, talks about becoming fully human. This is what strikes me here. The opening quote by Pema C. (p.61)reminds me that I don't need to worry about changing the world, but to be aware of how I can make the people I encounter in "real life" feel loved by me. #1- "Do I feel a vocation to be fully human?" I would answer "yes" because a vocation is inner passion, the feeling that I must do it. I think this is my soul reminding me of who I am. This is God-talk.
I like David Whyte's SELF-PORTRAIT on page 65. "...falling toward the center of your longing" describes vocation to me.
I want to be fully human, but I realize that at times I close myself to me and to others. I care, but I have too much reluctance/fear of reaching out to others or out of myself.
Since I didn't quote Pema Chödrön (p. 61) in this post, let me do it here:
"We don't set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people's hearts."
I don't know about that. I think I did set out to save the world. At age 10, I decided to be a missionary to Africa; at age 11, I decided to be a medical missionary, and I worked toward that goal until I was taking pre-med in college and got married. My new husband had said we'd go to Africa together, then changed his tune after we were married, saying I was his wife now and women didn't need higher education. I asked why he'd lied to me, and he said, "I figured you'd outgrow all those childish ideas." It probably was childish to think I could "save the world" or save anyone, for that matter. Teenagers think anything is possible. I was wrong.
How admirable that you decided at such a young age that you wanted to go to Africa as a medical missionary. The dishonesty that your husband showed is disgusting. It hardly was a good foundation for your marriage. Conversations are meaningless if the words are dishonest. That is good that you were able to fulfill your dream of entering the ministry.
From an early age, I wanted to be a teacher. However, in seventh grade, I took under my wing a girl whose family were migrant workers and tried to help her with school work and social skills. It was a major flop as she had little interest and her lack of education was combined with minimal interest and probably low intelligence (difficult to say if this was caused by her environment or if it was innate). I realized then that one cannot help those who do not want to be helped. I was still interested in teaching, but did not pursue it. I later learned in my dealings with kids that I was poor at it since depending on the group (4-H and homeschool kids were terrific, but library kids and Sunday School kids were not) I had problems keeping them under reasonable control. I did later homeschool my kids which I enjoyed. I am now enjoying my role as a grandparent and hope that my teaching interest can benefit my grandson. The learning resources available on the internet are amazing.
Missionary and pastor weren't the same call. By the time I went back to college in spite of him (and divorced him before I finished college), it was too late to go to medical school. So I have an undergraduate degree (BA) in Philosophy and Religion and in English Language and Literature (double major). What I'm best at, I think, is teaching adults. Before going back for my Master's degree, I did management training and taught communication skills for area hospitals and Chattanooga State. While studying at Emory University in Atlanta, I also taught continuing education classes for DeKalb Community College. Before and after retirement, I was an adjunct instructor at Chattanooga State, teaching Religions of the World and other humanities and writing courses. I quit after teaching two remedial writing classes with students who, as in your situation, weren't interested in learning to write, not even to get into college.
Sounds like you've had an interesting journey. I'm sorry that I misinterpreted your eventual ministry call as being similar to the missionary call.
Although I'm sure there were many heartaches involved, I'm glad that you didn't stay in the marriage with the husband who was deceitful.
I thought that the earlier Facebook posting to the writer who had a calling at a young age was interesting--even though her visualized attire was too formal.
Nothing to be sorry about, Shirley. I'm just not sure how to explain it. Mostly, I had wanted to be a doctor to make people well. I'm not sure -- now -- that would have worked for me. It was never about preaching to people, even when I went to seminary. I was more interested in teaching people and helping them understand things. In the Methodist system, pastors are appointed, and I always asked for a town with a college where I could teach.
Shirley, I went looking at Facebook to figure out who the "writer who had a calling at a young age" was. I didn't find it. Do you remember a name?
The link was from your post about Rachel Held Evans and her book Evolving in Monkey Heaven. It was on the about page of the author and shows her in her school days dressed as a writer: http://rachelheldevans.com/about/
I have posted something on this on your Facebook post to help tie it together.
I hadn't thought about the difference between teaching people and preaching to them. Teaching does sound like a more positive goal.
What do you think Wheatley means when she asks us, "Do I feel a vocation to be fully human?"
I have just read this section and without reading all of your comments, I want to respond and then go back to read Buddies' comments.
I think that to be fully human is to become my most authentic self, a unique individual that is called to rise above sinfulness. I have been reading a lot about the "holiness" movement in the Church. It seems to have started with Wesley's call to follow Jesus and enter the Kingdom of God while we are here on earth.
I have been investigating this lately because of a blog that Rachel Held Evans wrote this week. She indicated that Jesus did not really expect the woman who was to be stoned to "Go and sin no more". I take Jesus at his word and think he was calling the woman to holiness.
I do feel a vocation to be fully human. When I am on the road to becoming my best self, I am following my vocation to be the most fully human that I can be.
http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/
Rachel had a bad time after her blog on Tuesday. It is interesting to me that this is the week that Cori and I read her book. I did think that she got it wrong in the first version of "On Sinning No More". Many other bloggers were on the attack after reading her essay. Hope she can recoup soon. You can do a google search for all the responses to her first version of the blog.
I think that when Jesus said to the woman "Go and sin no more" He was saying "Go and be fully human. Live your vocation. Be the best YOU that you can be." And he meant it.
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