The Becomers

The psalms reflect two sides of our nature.  One theme is our waywardness and need for forgiveness and a Savior.  As in the abject confession of Psalm 51:    Have mercy on me, O God, for I know my transgressions.  Surely I was sinful from birth.  

But there is also the original picture wondrously expressed in Psalm 139: You created my inmost being, you knitted me together.  I’m fearfully and wonderfully made.  Both are fitting for the season of Lent, beginning in the middle of the month.  Marred as we are, in need of mercy each morning, yet we are loved by our Creator and sustained by his purpose – in each season of life.  

As an old book by Keith Miller invites us to see ourselves as “The Becomers.”  What does this say for later seasons that may include retirement, moving, losing and adding family members?  The winter as well as the tradition of Lent invite us to rest and to quiet times for understanding who we are becoming, in continuity with how we were knit together.  Parker Palmer has written:

Vocation does not come from a voice “out there” calling me to become something I am not.  It comes from a voice “in here” calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original self God gave me at birth. Accepting this gift turns out to be even more demanding than attempting to become someone else!  

There is a Hasidic tale that reveals the universal tendency to want to be someone else, [yet the responsibility to keep growing in the way the Lord designed us].  Rabbi Zusya, as an old man, said, “In the coming world, they will not ask me: ‘Why were you not [more like] Moses?’ They will ask me: ‘Why were you not [more like] Zusya?”  (from “Let Your Life Speak”).

This week I shared with a Bereavement Support Group the twin tasks of expressing the harshest feelings about our loss, while focusing on our own identity:     our meaning and core beliefs and goals and hopes going forward.  The participants agreed this was a daunting task.  “I have no idea what my purpose is now” one said.  While others could see some remaining connection with caring intensely for one other person, and his / her on-going influence.

Sundays we will be looking at a few more Bible personalities who rose to their vocation in crisis.  As we seek mercy for our weakness along with clearness on becoming what we have been called to become.