Find Yourself In The Faces Of Others
Written by John van de Laar : May 12, 2008
Who are you? What makes you who you are? How comfortable are you with the person you are becoming?
These questions grow ever more urgent in a world where the media and society seem determined to form and shape us according their ideals, their demographic categories and their fashions. Increasingly, it seems, who we are is defined at the surface level – body fat percentages, smoothness of skin, awards on shelves, zeros on bank statements. I can’t help wondering, though, how we can really know ourselves without giving attention to our souls. And how we can know our souls if we focus only on ourselves?
In South Africa we have an indigenous word that has become somewhat overused since the birth of our new democracy in 1994. This word is Ubuntu and it means, “I belong, therefore I am” or “I am a person because of other people”. Ubuntu affirms the connectedness of all human beings with one another, and acknowledges that individuals can find little meaning or truth in isolation. It reminds us that we can only really find ourselves in the faces of others.
This truth lies at the heart of Christian spirituality. We proclaim that our God is both One and Three, that God’s essential nature is community, is relationship. God has never existed in some isolated, divine individualism. The essence of God is love expressed and received – diversity brought into complete unity. The challenge of worshiping this Triune God is to live out what we pray and sing in relationships. We cannot love the Trinity without also expressing God’s nature and purpose in communities of love, service and shared life.
And if we will embrace this call, we discover a hidden gift of immense and eternal value. As we join with others to love God and live out our faith, we discover that we are truly connected – that the universe and everything in it is an expression of God’s Word, and is filled with God’s breath. And, as we gaze on all these ‘others’ – God, people, creature, thing - we find our place, we discover our souls, and we learn to know who we really are.
So, let me ask again – who are you? Who are the people that help you to know the answer to this question? And what would happen if you expanded your community to embrace those that you might prefer to exclude? Let me encourage you, in the weeks ahead, to seek God in your community. Not just your church community, but that of your town, your country, and even the world. Seek God in those that you disagree with and those you are afraid of. Seek God in those you consider your friends, and those you consider your enemies – for they are all created and loved by God. And as you find God in these others, as you discover your connection with these others, you may experience a surprising thing – you might just see yourself looking back from their faces.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and forever shall be. Amen!
Author Bio:: John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.
Comments