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Radical Muddling
faith and the middle way
POSTED 05/24/10, 06:39 PM EST BY LIZ RICHARDS
A few weeks ago Greg-our-interim-rector invited me to lunch and told me that he thought that I was called to the priesthood. What followed was one of those world-shaking conversations, the ones that make you say "Am I missing something big? Is he right? Am I on the right path?"The sensation of being told by a priest that God just might be calling you to do something is new and scary. Also exciting and flattering, but mostly new and scary. It packs significantly more punch than the time the director of the summer camp I worked for told me that I was destined to be a counselor.
I'm fairly confident that my life makes sense that it is. I am sure (though less sure than I was before the conversation with Greg) that I am called to make an impact on the world as an urban education reformer, as a non-preachy lead-by-example locovore, that my calling to the church begins and ends with my position on the vestry and my work with the youth group. Greenblade fits in there somewhere too, as does my church-girls book group, but I don't know if the sum of these things equals the priesthood.
Greg wasn't pushy, he wasn't bossy, he wasn't insistent that God was telling him anything that God wasn't telling me. Greg was just reporting what he saw, letting me see how the future could unfold.
My main protestation had a lot to do with the "middle path" the "Via Media" that used to feature so much into my writing. Doesn't being a priest mean having certain absolute answers? Doesn't it imply that I know that one path or another is the correct way to go? Greg assures me that it doesn't, that I can keep bushwhacking my way through the undergrowth, keep up the radical muddling, and be ordained.
I'm still trying to make heads or tails of this which I take as an indicator that now is not the time for any radical changes. Still, it gives me something new to muddle over.
Comments
Annie May 25, 2010 | 04:35 PM
Well, no matter how many people tell you they think you are called to the priesthood...what do they know? They're not you.
One can be called to ministry without actually being ordained and serving as an in-the-pulpit minister. Everyone is, really. You're ministering now in the ways you mention, and your ministry in the education system is very much needed. Sometimes what people mean to say is that they see God working through you...and they just wanted you to know.
So if you're going HUH? - don't worry. You're not missing out on anything. Because if and when you're supposed to be a priest, you'll know. And that's what's important.
Liz:
Diitto what Andrew said. Having not said that:
It's nice to be complemented. Anytime someone says "You'd be a really good..." it feels good, assuming of course that we like or admire the object of their perception.
Remember, though, that people tend to see what they are looking for. This is an *interim* priest???
In olden times (more than 6 months ago) the gate guard at a city appraised two visitors. He disliked the scruffy, dark, vaguely shifty looks of the first one. When the visitor asked him what sort of people lived there, the gate guard described them as unfriendly, inhospitable, suspicious, even downright mean sometimes. Sure enough, that was the experience of the visitor and he quickly moved on.
The second visitor was well dressed, well-groomed, sitting astride a magnificent horse with expensive saddle and tack. When he asked the gate guard what sort of people lived there, the guard described them as friendly, welcoming, hospitable, and kind. Oddly enough, that is what the second visitor found and he ended up making his home there among his many new-found friends.
While other people's perceptions and opinions may serve to inform, it is to our own selves that we must be true. What does Liz say to Liz? Oh, you already answered that, didn't you?
My $.02
Chris