Written in Our Flesh

Finding “Our People”

Beginning something new is difficult. I think that in The Wellspring what we have begun is a “new thing,” as Gerhard Lofink would say. Unfortunately, obstacles to the “new thing” present itself like a giant in the road on a regular basis. I think my response to this tends to travel between clinging like mad, lashing myself to the metaphorical mast and howling at the storm or tossing the new thing out altogether to avoid the pain of failure. In the midst of all of this what comes to me in regard to our particular “new thing” is this; it is not so much what we are building as much as who we are in the building of it. The first task for us, as a budding community is to find “our people.”

As I pondered this recently I was reminded of a quote from a book I love. The book is “Community and Growth” by Jean Vanier. Jean Vanier was the founder of a community called l’Arche in France. This was a community for mentally handicapped persons and their helpers and it is world renowned. The work they have done there is incredible and the insights in “Community and Growth” never seem to dull for me. There is something rich and new there each time I read it.

This is the quote that came to me today. It is a good place to begin:

I love that passage from the Bible:’And I will say…”You are my people”; and he shall say, “Thou art my God.” ‘ (Hosea 2:23)

I shall always remember one of Martin Luther King’s disciples saying to an early gathering of many thousands of blacks in Chicago, in the early seventies: ‘My people are humiliated.” Mother Theresa of Calcutta says: “My people are hungry.”

My people are my community, which is both the small community, those who live together, and the larger community which surrounds it and for which it is there. ‘My people’ are those who are written in my flesh as I am in theirs. Whether we are near each other or far away, my brothers and sisters remain written within me. I carry them, and they, me; we recognise each other again when we meet. To call them ‘my people’ doesn’t mean that I feel superior to them, or that I am their shepherd or that I look after them. It means that they are mine as I am theirs. There is a solidarity between us. What touches them touches me. And when I say, ‘my people,’ I don’t imply that there are others that I reject. My people is my community, made up of those who know me and carry me. They are a springboard towards all humanity. I cannot be a universal brother or sister unless I first love my people.

Today as I pray for The Wellspring I pray that God will continue to reveal our people…who will be written in our flesh? Who are we in The Wellspring?

“Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23