Where Did You Come From?

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career, future, give thanks, God's hand, growth, influences, Jan Phillips, life path, lives, No Ordinary Time, past, present, profession, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

During last evening’s gathering of “No Ordinary Women” (named for the book No Ordinary Time by Jan Phillips) we recognized that each of us, in looking back over our lives, had evolved in ways we had not foreseen our early years. It’s always interesting to ask children the question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Usually, the younger the child, the more fanciful the response – and it rarely touches on what really happens as they mature. Only one of us touched on what would be an answer to that question, i.e. career or profession, but we all agreed that we had evolved personally in ways we might not have expected as we walked our life path. Life has a way of forming us through events and relationships that sometimes seem random but can be quite formative as we live into and then reflect on them and their impact on us. For example, I thought I would be a high school French teacher all my working life. At this point, I have not lived that role since 33 years ago and have worn six different hats since I left that first position!

Perhaps today is a good day to carve out a bit of time to see where we started and who we have become because of the influences in our lives. I just took a 3-minute break here and made a cursory list of the twists and turns in my life and people who were instrumental in the genesis of those happenings.  There were 12 people on my list and that was mostly in regard to career shifts. Just think where I could go if I looked at my personal life! As we move toward the celebration of Thanksgiving in our country, let us all reflect on how our past has generated our present and what we see as possibility for the future. The goal? Seeing God’s hand in every instance of our growth and giving thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

Assessments

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assessment, career, Jesus, lawyer, Matthew, temple, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth

One of my daily practices is reading the obituaries in our local paper. This morning I found one about a man whose children I taught in high school in the 1970s. He was a small, seemingly nervous but very polite man, and was always happy to greet me over the years when I encountered him at his parish church where he was frequently involved in the liturgy. I held a great fondness for him and took him for a shopkeeper or a tradesman of some kind – one who would have treated every customer with kindness and generosity. I was surprised to learn from his obituary that he was a patent attorney, a rather distinguished one at that, whose demeanor did not fit my image of someone in that career for some reason. The issue was not one of intelligence or competency, but just the personality traits that are necessary for a lawyer’s life.

This morning’s gospel (MT 13: 54-58) has Jesus being scrutinized by the people from his “native place’ who were astonished at his wisdom as he taught in the synagogue. Their comments were quite derogatory (not just surprised as are mine). “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?” they asked. “Is he not the carpenter’s son?…Are not his sisters all with us? Where did he get all this?” And they took offense at him.

These two examples set me to thinking how easily we assign people to boxes without really knowing them at all. My assessment was a positive one but totally off the mark. I don’t think it made any difference in the way I treated Mr. B, but I can’t be sure since, with a sister who had a successful career as a lawyer, I am in some ways pro-prejudiced (although not always) toward people in that profession. In the case of Jesus, the people in his hometown took Jesus for an arrogant man, going above his station to preach to them. They were quite put out with him so they couldn’t get the benefit of what he was saying. So once more we have a lesson in not judging at face value but rather digging deeper for the truth that lies at the heart of people and things.