Lesson from this Week, #1

Two lessons came to me this week but I am forgetting one...

This first was a re-thinking of what I have been seeing as "evangelism." While I have felt in the past a gnawing drive to express my own story in order to call others through witness, I may have been mistaken, as far as method. As I look back on my life, there were people who gave me silent witness to Christ, ie, through their clear emulation and the love they gave to others, but there were no testimonies that swayed my heart, except to assume that that person had succumb to madness. Instead, I was solemnly reminded that it is the Spirit who does this work, not anything I could possibly say in the perfect way, to the person who needed it at that perfect time... as if that sort of thing could happen without the Spirit!

But far from being discouraging, this is liberating. It gives credence to the idea that I knew in my heart but didn't know how to reconcile with my mind -- that "if you build it, they will come." To be our best selves, to give all we can give, and be open to receiving. Taking the stories and keeping them as compost for new thing to grow, not striving to preserve or otherwise memorialize old flowers. That is not to say that stories are not useful, or should be hidden away, but in practice, I feel that I had been putting them along the wrong portion of the journey. 

Because of the things we experience in our lives, two things happen, at least: 1) that we learn something from it (ideally), and 2) that whatever we learn or experience will help us sympathise with others, even if their circumstances are not identical. This is less about singing a song to call those who are lost, but to sing the song so that those who are lost, but have had their eyes and ears opened, will hear it.