Reflections on the Past 9 Months

In a follow-up 1:1 with my coworker, he asked how had I changed since I began organizing,, and I admitted it was a question I needed to reflect upon. After being at National training around congregation renewal and a series of 1:1's focused on the work I had done in the past 9 months, I finally had an answer for Michael. 

Vulnerable. There are many things I've learned and realized about myself and the world since I started organizing,, yet the question of how I had changed struck me harder than any other. But I realized that I had learn to open myself up to people in a way I had never done before. Now many may think that who I am now is far from vulnerable, but I know that I have become more open. 

The thought of being open to others than my family and friends was an idea as far fetched and absurd to me as was sky diving! Yet somewhere between 1:1's and a culture of accountability built into the organization, I began to trust and believe that being vulnerable enough to enter into people's stories and them into your's was a valid tool for building relationships. But not only building relationships with others, but also challenging my own ideas of sensitivity, weakness, and openness.

And while I appreciate the culture that is built into faith-based organizing and our "intentional-ity" in reclaiming and defining our language as it should be, with concepts like self-interest and power, why not do the same with love? While I completely understand and love the idea of people understanding power and tapping into it, as a community of faith, why do we not talk about love more? Why don't we reclaim the power of love and define it the way God intended it to. Love encompasses everything that we preach anyhow does it not? Does not true love require accountability? Does not true love tell us to do for others but also for self because true love must begin within? I believe that love and affection can be part of the culture we build as much as self-interest is. 

Finally, the last thing I reflect upon from these past 9 months is the concept of clarity. I think the singular most thing I appreciate about this work is that if nothing else is done right, the agitation around becoming clear about the issues we work on, becoming clear about the mission and vision of our organizations and congregations, and becoming clear about what we desire out of life is one of the best tools anyone can have. Whether a pastor, lay leader, organizer, lawyer, doctor, teacher, investment banker, stay at home dad, the worker at McDonald's drive thru to the beggar on the street, we all have to know what it is we desire for our lives and how it is we plan to make that happen and communicating it clearly. 

I have learned the value and true meaning of vulnerability, wondered where the gospel of love is in this work, and yet among my discovery and wandering,, I have come to appreciate the importance of clarity. There are many other things that have struck