Sunday, November 16, 2008

Clueless

The longer I stay on this planet, the more I realize that none of us has a clue as to what we are doing here. We join churches, political parties, sororities, fraternities, and civic groups in order to pretend we are not clueless. We form elaborate theories, do research and publish volumes of studies, debate endlessly and still end up - clueless.
That would not be a bad thing, except that in so doing, we hurt each other. We exclude people from our special groups, we claim to have the way, the truth and the RIGHT ANSWER. We, at best, only have a partial answer to what humanity is doing on this Earth and how we should behave while here. But that doesn't stop many of us from claiming to have figured it all out. The best among us kindly want to share our vision of the truth and thus reach out in ministry. The worst of us kill those who do not share their "truth".
I have recently become a Lay Speaker in the United Methodist Church. That scares me considerably. As a Lay Speaker, I can minister to the ill and elderly, teach Sunday School, and even - and this is the part that scares me - give sermons. I have spoken three times at services in nursing homes. I spoke on passages from Scripture, the third chapter of John to be exact, and prayed that I understood it enough to speak about it.
In the end, all I could really say is this: We are created beings, created by a loving God. We are supposed to help each other figure this life stuff out. Wouldn't it be wiser to put our individual pieces of Life's Great Puzzle together, instead of jealously holding on to our little tiny piece while insisting it was the whole puzzle? Sheesh.
Pretty much, my theology doesn't get much deeper that the two Great Commandments.
I summarize them:
Love your Creator.
Love His people.
Now go forth in peace and hug someone.

2 comments:

MHH said...

Peace be with you on your journeys, Becca! I am so grateful to be an acquaintance through CCS, and to know that praying for you and having you pray for me is a wonderful thing!

Love your life!

XO -- Mary

Becca Allison said...

Thanks, Mary! CCS has brought a lot of lovely folks together. Thanks for being there for me and for us all.
Becca