Connected Christianity

There’s a reoccurring segment on the radio that I catch every now and then. It’s called “This I Believe” and features essays from (semi well-known) people about how they see life. Recently there’s been some very inspiring ones:

Sister Helen Prejean (who wrote the true book that became the movie Dead Man Walking) says, “I watch what I do to see what I really believe.” She looked at her life, realized it wasn’t a complete devotion to God, so she immersed herself into a hurting community. First a poor neighborhood in New Orleans, then inmates on death row. I wonder what my life says about what I really believe?

Susan Cooke Kittredge, a minister in Vermont, says that we all need a little mending. She enjoys sewing garments that’ve been ripped instead of discarding them. “Accomplishing small tasks, in this case saving something that might otherwise have been thrown away, is satisfying and, perhaps, even inspiring. Mending something is different from fixing it. Fixing it suggests that evidence of the problem will disappear. I see mending as a preservation of history and a proclamation of hope.” Maybe we could use a little mending after all.

Lastly, Kevin Kelly, a writer and senior editor for Wired magazine, writes a great article about how he believes the universe is conspiring to help us, but only if we humble ourselves to let it. He talks about the wonderful act of receiving help. “With each gift the threads of benevolence are knotted, snaring both giver and recipient…. Good givers are those who learn to receive with grace as well.” He says it takes humility to be both a good giver and a good receiver. The people he respects “exude a sense of being indebted, and a state of being thankful…. The story of your life becomes one huge elaborate conspiracy to lift you up. But to be helped you have to join the conspiracy yourself. You have to accept the gift.” I pray that all of us will.

So, that’s what those folks believe, and I think they’re on to something. As Henri Nouwen said, “The most personal is the most universal.” So what do you believe?