It's time for your voice to be heard!
What’s your vision of how to be holy?
This particular message resonates strongly with me. It gives me encouragement to speak up and share my vision for a different way of being holy, and to encourage people to find a life-giving path back to the divine.
The quote is from Steven Charleston, a Choctaw elder and Episcopal priest, who listens to the voice of the Spirit. He shares the messages he receives with thousands of followers on Facebook and has collected many of those messages in his book, Ladder to the Light. Check him out if you are on Facebook.
Charleston also writes in his book that Spirit gave humans the gift of vision that sets us apart from the rest of creation. He defines vision as “the gift to see both what is now and what is coming. It is the power to see into the future, to project into the future, to make the future.”
What I see now is a great spiritual hunger that is not being met through traditional religious institutions. So many people have turned their back on their religious upbringing because they have found it oppressive or constrictive, punitive, and hypocritical. In severing their connection with organized religion, many have also severed their relationship with God. But no amount of Netflix and Oreos can satisfy the hunger for a relationship with God. “Our hearts are restless until they rest in God,” according to St. Augustine.
I feel called to speak to those who are seeking to connect with something bigger than themselves, to help them find a different path of return into the divine embrace. I want to help people release toxic theology and give themselves permission to live life fully alive.
I feel called to stand up and be part of making a better future, of imagining a different way of being church, one that is inclusive and concerned for the marginalized, one that understands God as love, and one that disregards all the teachings that separate us from God and from each other. I feel called to seek ordination to the priesthood.
I’ve been following this path for some time, and it's been filled with twist and turns and obstacles. I cannot see where the path is going, and this may be the first time that I've had to completely trust God because I can’t see the way ahead. But I know that my path will be made by my walking it, trusting God’s lead with every step.
What do you think?
What is your vision of the future?
How do you imagine a new kind of church to look like?
What would you bring with you?
What would you leave behind?
What insights and concerns do you have about connecting with God and being part of an inclusive community where questions and doubts were welcome?