Saturday, July 13, 2013

Dialogue II

Sometimes when I travel among Friends, it feels like this:

OLDER FRIENDS:  But . . . we thought you would [be on X committee, come to Y event, speak to Z issue].

ME:  Get used to disappointment.

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Possibly related: I have had this song in pretty regular rotation on my ipod since returning from the FGC Gathering.


Blessings, Friends.

3 comments:

  1. Yep, at any given time there is a very small handful of younger Friends that get asked to serve on everything. It's the flip side of the hundreds that don't get asked to serve at all.

    I've sat on FGC committees where someone is named and I have to ask if they have any expertise in the work (personal friends if mine, who I love and respect and know are already over-burdened with invitations). I then name some other people, but they're not known and I don't see the clerks even writing down their names on their notepads. This was years ago now but I don't think the dynamic has changed.

    Sorry to add to your burden, but perhaps one of your jobs now is to use your relative "fame" to lift up others who are being overlooked. I'd like to say that's the job of the nominating committees but in reality I think we have to use these opportunities for education. We need to be building deeper benches of experienced Friends (to mix a baseball and Quaker metaphor!) That's really been a lot of what I've been doing these past ten years.

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    Replies
    1. Hey, Martin! It's always good to hear from you. I agree that part of my task is to raise up others. But since I have been carrying this concern of supporting ministers/leaders in the RSoF for years now, it doesn't feel like much of a burden. Or, rather, it feels like God's burden (the yoke is easy and the burden is light).

      I have been thinking a lot about the distinction between being available for what God wants me to do and just being available to all the people around. I only have so much time and energy, and I know I don't have time for all the people who want a piece of me for their own reasons. But I'd better be up for what God wants me to do, because what else is there?

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    2. Glad to hear you have the right taskmaster in your sights. But then I didn't have a doubt :)

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