Let Your Life Speak
There’s an old Quaker saying, “Let your life speak” and this is also the title of a book by Parker Palmer. This name was chosen for our community’s initiative towards spiritual growth because it embodies our personal and communal aspirations in a rich and profound way.
God’s image within each of us is inherent and irrevocable. As we grow in God’s likeness, we each are a unique expression of that image, and God is inviting our full and conscious participation. Spiritual growth is about discovering and growing into our “True Self”. To do so, we need to first be aware that our lives are not our own. God’s Life is within you. This means we don’t have to figure it out or fix everything by ourselves. All we have to do is participate in this life we have been created for.
Parker says, “Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening…That insight is hidden in the word vocation itself, which is rooted in the Latin for “voice”. Vocation does not mean a goal I pursue. It means a calling that I hear. Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am. I must listen for the truths and values at the heart of my own identity…Vocation does not come from a voice “out there” calling me to become something I am not. It comes from a voice “in here” calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God. Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic selfhood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be. As we do so, we will not only find the joy that every human being seeks— we will also find our path of authentic service in the world. True vocation joins self and service, as Frederick Buechner asserts when he defines vocation as “the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.”
We can help each other move towards growth and authentic selfhood. Telling our own and listening to each other’s lifestory is a spiritual practice that we can engage in as a community, as we seek to grow together. This can be a loving and life-giving practice when you are:
- Reflecting, paying attention and being aware of where you are presently
- Learning to express your joys, struggles, needs, etc. and
- Listening to others with care and compassion, as we hold space for one another’s journey and growth.
This Advent leading up to Christmas, we would like to invite you to share your stories of struggle and gratitude around the Advent themes of:
- Hope
- Peace
- Joy
- Love
- OR any part of the Christmas story that resonates with you most this year!
You can do so with those in your cell groups, ministry groups or if you’d like us to match you with a group, please email us at info@freecomchurch.org.
(Click below Guidelines to view details)
Guidelines for Telling Your Story
Before meeting your group, do take some time to reflect on and write out your story. Each person will have 5 minutes to share their story and 5 minutes for responses. Some suggestions for life-giving storytelling:
- What has been your greatest struggle and/or joy this year?
- Where are you in the story now?
- As you reflect on Christmas, what is the next chapter about?
- Relate your experience/story to the group. You can also share your completed tile if you like.
- After you have completed the telling, listen contemplatively to the responses from the group.
- Respond to the responses in a way that deepens and expands your experience.
- If you would like to ask questions of the listeners about what they heard, feel free to do that as a way to hear your own life more fully.
Guidelines for Listening to Others
As you hold space for one another, some suggestions for loving and life-giving listening:
- The purpose of listening is to help deepen and expand a presenter’s experience (especially, their experience with God) and our sense of connecting with the other person’s experiences.
- In this kind of listening, we are not waiting for a chance to speak, hoping for an opening to deliver some morsel of wisdom. Rather, we are attending to what is happening in the moment of hearing another’s experience – and in doing so, we are acting as a ‘sounding box’ to expand the experience of the presenter.
- We are not looking to give or receive consultation on “doing it better”; we are not looking for affirmation of our way or our wisdom; we are not looking to win an argument or make a point; we are not looking to give or receive therapy or to “fix” ourselves and others.
- At the most basic level, this process simply involves receiving what another person says with gracious, open acceptance, so that we might reflect it back without the weight of our own agendas. In this way, the group becomes a safe receptacle for hearing experiences into greater life.
- Attend to whatever you notice about the speaker and the experience.
- Attend to your own inner life, noting your thoughts, feelings, and desires as they arise.
- Acknowledge and name them and place them in a safe holding place.
- This includes criticisms and desires to fix or help.
- Call yourself back to the present (and the presenter) if your listening to the presenter takes you into a similar experience of your own (i.e., drawing your attention away from the presenter).
- After the presenter has finished sharing, you can respond with:
- How you feel about what was shared and any encouragement to them
- Clarification questions or what you noticed about what they said
- Resist any temptation to tell a piece of your own story in response to the story that was shared. Our responses are meant to keep the focus on the presenter in order to expand their experience, rather than to draw attention to your own experience.
Christmas Stained Glass Project
As you share and listen to one another, you are also invited to express your story through writing and your art on a tile, and together we will add to and create an FCC Christmas version of our stained glass project. For instructions on creating your stained glass tile, please refer to:
https://freecomchurch.org/stained-glass-how-to/
These are ways we can worship and witness as a faith community. Worship as we express our sense of awe and wonder at who God is in our lives. Witness as we tell of our stories of God and us through our art and writing.
Let our lives speak together of God’s love and shalom!
Submission
Submit your completed physical tile by dropping it into the box near the church entrance by 19th December 2021. Then email your story together with a photo of your tile (so we can match the tiles with the correct story) to witnessproject@freecomchurch.org.
If you prefer to use initials, a nickname or stay anonymous for your story on our website gallery, please let us know in your email. Thank you!