Connect with us on Facebook!
Subscribe.
Make us your home page!
Authors, sign in!"Stop practicing the politics of complaint and start writing the vision."
These are the words I heard from Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners, during a keynote address at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress while I was trying to decide if blogging was a good idea. It seemed like a pretty clear sign! But if I'm honest, on most days I'd just rather be complaining. Complaining doesn't take much effort, blaming others is so much easier than considering how I might need to be responsible for changing things, and the rush that can come with righteous ranting has a certain appeal. But struggling to articulate a vision and committing my life to it - that's work and it makes me feel vulnerable.
What if people read my vision of the world and don't like it? What if there's a real cost to speaking my mind? How much of myself am I willing to share on these pages? Will I have enough courage and commitment to work and sacrifice for my vision or is it just a bunch of words?
I don't have answers to these questions but I do know two things: I need to risk writing a larger vision and I can't write it alone. Vision making is a community affair. Usually it becomes a little messy with all the different voices clambering to be heard but ultimately the vision is stronger when we take the time to listen and appreciate what each of us has to offer.
Wallis said that in this time of growing poverty, escalating wars, overconsumption and rampant cynicism he still has great hope. He believes that when politics and politicians fail as completely as they are failing now, the time is ripe for new movements to break into the lives of ordinary people and create great change. Like the long struggle to end slavery in the 1700-1800s and the fight for civil rights in 1950-1960s, these movements are born from a faith which is stong enough to overcome fear and which calls the willing to action no matter what the consequences.
Following the example of so many ordinary and mostly unknown people who had that kind of faith during their own desperate and dark days, how can I not try to write a little more and complain a little less. So here goes...
Published April 2, 2007 by Jo Ella Barrie |
Permalink
| Tags:
Faith
Jim Wallis
