From "Me" to "We" part 2

 

Yesterday I invited you to ponder prayerfully what makes you…you.  You might have noted and noticed that some of the words I used to describe myself were caught up in others.  For example, I am who I am because of my marriage to Gina and being a father to Ethan and Olivia.  I shaped by members of our wider family and by our church family.  As a person of faith, I long to cultivate a relationship with God and to be “lost in wonder, love, and praise” of the One in whose image all of us are created. 

 

It was John Calvin who centuries ago said, “Without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God…and without knowledge of God, there is no knowledge of self.”  Both are true.  It is a mobius strip, continually moving from the inside out and the outside in…we discover and discern a truth about ourselves as well as a characteristic of God in whose image we are created.

 

Like a strand of Christmas lights or tangled ball of yarn, our lives are twisted with others from the very beginning: parents, grand-parents, school friends, second cousins twice removed.  To be sure, we all have moments when the bonds to others are strained or stretched.  When you move to a new community.  When you drop your child off a college.  Or when you spend time alone with only your own thoughts… and you suddenly hear just how much chatter and color commentary at life your mind is constantly offering. 

 

You are energy.  There is a spark that burns brightly and warmly in you.  You are not some isolated individual existing in a vacuum.  You interact with other humanoids…other featherless bipeds in the world.  You also interact with trees and dogs and sandhill cranes.  It is a constant spiral of both differentiating ourselves as well as realizing the structures that have made us who we are.

 

Today, keep working on your circle of life that is YOU.  Keep putting words in that circle.  I love the line from the hymn, The Summons, “Will you love the you you hide if I but call your name?”  What is that shadow part of yourself that doesn’t easily get named and claimed and tamed?  For example, my perfectionistic side that I try to keep tucked away but comes out frequently every day.  What is that part of yourself that you don’t show to others?  Put some of those words in your circle.

 

Next, either on the other side of the paper…or one a different sheet, write the names of people you interact with regularly.  I will leave it to you to determine and decide what “regular” means ~ begin to name some of the other circles that you bounce off on this sphere of a planet hurling through space right here and now.  As you name people, you may want to put a circle around that person as well.  You may list some of the characteristics of that person you appreciate.  Also recognize that we don’t always see people fully because, like us, everyone has shadow sides s/he keeps well-hidden.  There is a “me” and there is a “we”.  I pray this exercise is helping you begin to see the connections that weave those two realities together.