There comes a moment when something finally makes sense, words that you have always just passed by, finally ring true and have meaning. I had seen and heard the phrase in one form or another all my life. You reap what you sow, where your treasure lies there your heart will lie also, countless forms and variations. I heard it again this week, different language and context, ¨Who do you work for?¨ It was a question my friend and supervisor Ofelia was always asked by a co-worker of hers when they would be discussing their jobs as social workers. Her friend would tell her, ¨If you´re working for the church, your employer, then fill your hours, take your check, leave work at work, be happy with having a job. But if you are working for the people, for the neighborhood, for change, then they are the ones you´ve got to be listening to. You have to be seeing what they need of you and when you need to be there for them, you need to be there¨.
This story has hit me on my many levels as I pull it into my life. Personally I am at a point in my path where I have to choose what I want out of life, what I value, and what I hold true. Who do I want to spend my life working for? I have derived that my greatest sin would be living for only myself, using my energy and mind for selfish gain. I want to help and I need to serve. It is difficult to consciencly enter into struggle and confusing. I know I offer no answer. Joining in though, I know I can at least offer my hands to collaborate and my heart to try to understand.
I look at these comments in my life with the church, and see just as stong a tie. A church that is seeking to fill pews will fill pews. This is what church an be and is for many, but what I want is to spend my days in the pew asking myself why I am there. I want to be asking myself who is this church in existance for. If it is for the people sitting aside me in the pews there will be the joy of knowing we are serving and caring for a few. But I feel that the church needs to be working for that neighborhood, wherever it may be, searching for struggle, searching out pain, helping, loving, bursting out those walls that have kept the church in for so long, using what we have to benifit others. Just as Jesus chose ordinary people for his disciples, his message continues to call us into action as we are, using the talents and life we have been given.
I get stuck up in it all much of the time, not knowing where to start, who to help, consumed with my own selfishness and greed. I know that if I feel it as an individual, we surely feel these emotions and stuggles as a whole. I feel comfort though in my own confusion, in our confusion, knowing that things can only change if we step out of our seemingly tranquil lives, and into that dischord. I want to spend my life living this question, always bringing it back to who and what I am living for. It calls us to put action to the gospel message, life to words, giving up what we have and understand, only to be confused and lost, but knowing that together we find our true significance. I want my treasure to be people and stories, I want what I sow to be listening and giving, and I want to work for so much more than money and the status quo.
Questioning it all,
james
This story has hit me on my many levels as I pull it into my life. Personally I am at a point in my path where I have to choose what I want out of life, what I value, and what I hold true. Who do I want to spend my life working for? I have derived that my greatest sin would be living for only myself, using my energy and mind for selfish gain. I want to help and I need to serve. It is difficult to consciencly enter into struggle and confusing. I know I offer no answer. Joining in though, I know I can at least offer my hands to collaborate and my heart to try to understand.
I look at these comments in my life with the church, and see just as stong a tie. A church that is seeking to fill pews will fill pews. This is what church an be and is for many, but what I want is to spend my days in the pew asking myself why I am there. I want to be asking myself who is this church in existance for. If it is for the people sitting aside me in the pews there will be the joy of knowing we are serving and caring for a few. But I feel that the church needs to be working for that neighborhood, wherever it may be, searching for struggle, searching out pain, helping, loving, bursting out those walls that have kept the church in for so long, using what we have to benifit others. Just as Jesus chose ordinary people for his disciples, his message continues to call us into action as we are, using the talents and life we have been given.
I get stuck up in it all much of the time, not knowing where to start, who to help, consumed with my own selfishness and greed. I know that if I feel it as an individual, we surely feel these emotions and stuggles as a whole. I feel comfort though in my own confusion, in our confusion, knowing that things can only change if we step out of our seemingly tranquil lives, and into that dischord. I want to spend my life living this question, always bringing it back to who and what I am living for. It calls us to put action to the gospel message, life to words, giving up what we have and understand, only to be confused and lost, but knowing that together we find our true significance. I want my treasure to be people and stories, I want what I sow to be listening and giving, and I want to work for so much more than money and the status quo.
Questioning it all,
james
