kinship
Last week, two days before Epiphany, I had a (small-e) epiphany of my own. It was sparked in large part by Central’s ministerial staff. They get wide recognition for their transformative outreach with our brothers and sisters experiencing homelessness and hard times; I wanted to assure them they were indeed transforming the comfortably-housed, well-fed, materially-satisfied folks sitting in the pews, too.
Do y’all remember those huge gumball machines they used to have in malls, where you’d drop a quarter in and it would spin around and around a huge funnel-thingy, faster and faster as it approached the vortex at the bottom, until it was ultimately sucked into the hole and a gumball fell out? THAT is as close as I can get to describing my trek with and towards God: my quarter has been spiraling in tighter and tighter circles for decades. And last week, it dropped into its holey(holy!)-home with a breathtaking ping. I. got. my. gumball.
That needs some explanation.
I have spent my adult life trying to prove my worth by jumping on every available volunteer opportunity at previous churches: Sunday School teacher to meal provider to mission trip organizer to capital campaign committee (never again). I feel sure the resultant exhaustion and resentment I felt outweighed any contribution I made. I was striving to prove my worth. Ezra, Julia, and Michael have shown me a different way of being useful to the common cause, a way of honoring my natural abilities no matter how insignificant they seem to me.
In a recent Facebook post, Michael listed four principles that guide Central: lay-led, collaborative, reciprocal, and kinship. KINSHIP. This last one took my breath away as I fell, along with my symbolic quarter, into the vortex. I had never thought of my urge – my joy -- to connect with folks of all stripes as kinship.( And I certainly had never considered that it might be a spiritual gift of any worth.) Having what comes easily to me be identified as valuable to our shared Christian mission relieves a burden of inadequacy I have felt all my life. I only have to be who I already am…and that is enough. (Thanks very much, Paul.) With leadership from Julia, Ezra, and Michael, I look forward to more opportunities of being “enough” at Central.
May 2025 ring with the holy sound of falling quarters and gumballs for us all!
Do y’all remember those huge gumball machines they used to have in malls, where you’d drop a quarter in and it would spin around and around a huge funnel-thingy, faster and faster as it approached the vortex at the bottom, until it was ultimately sucked into the hole and a gumball fell out? THAT is as close as I can get to describing my trek with and towards God: my quarter has been spiraling in tighter and tighter circles for decades. And last week, it dropped into its holey(holy!)-home with a breathtaking ping. I. got. my. gumball.
That needs some explanation.
I have spent my adult life trying to prove my worth by jumping on every available volunteer opportunity at previous churches: Sunday School teacher to meal provider to mission trip organizer to capital campaign committee (never again). I feel sure the resultant exhaustion and resentment I felt outweighed any contribution I made. I was striving to prove my worth. Ezra, Julia, and Michael have shown me a different way of being useful to the common cause, a way of honoring my natural abilities no matter how insignificant they seem to me.
In a recent Facebook post, Michael listed four principles that guide Central: lay-led, collaborative, reciprocal, and kinship. KINSHIP. This last one took my breath away as I fell, along with my symbolic quarter, into the vortex. I had never thought of my urge – my joy -- to connect with folks of all stripes as kinship.( And I certainly had never considered that it might be a spiritual gift of any worth.) Having what comes easily to me be identified as valuable to our shared Christian mission relieves a burden of inadequacy I have felt all my life. I only have to be who I already am…and that is enough. (Thanks very much, Paul.) With leadership from Julia, Ezra, and Michael, I look forward to more opportunities of being “enough” at Central.
May 2025 ring with the holy sound of falling quarters and gumballs for us all!
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