Becoming

Living our lives is the most important thing we will ever do. Deciding how to live our lives is the most important thing we will ever decide. What are the things that you allow to influence your decision making? Have you intentionally thought about this? In my example, the things that influenced my decision were my experience and love of music and my relationship with God as shaped by the teachings of my community of faith. I had other things that I was good at, in fact I excelled at: languages, math, and cooking/baking. But my heart was with music, and I was convinced that this was a God-given gift. I could have been successful in any of the fields, but my passion was for music. People often say that they know that something is the God-given path because everything just falls into place. I cannot say that. My mother did everything she could to clear the path for my music during my childhood. She had to run interference for me with my father and even with some of the people at my church. Then my decision to go to college met with all kinds of obstacles. My parents had no money to help me with my education. I had to find scholarships, grants, jobs, and loans to pay my way through. I was the first person in my family to even go to college. Getting accepted into the music program was only the beginning of my struggles. After graduating with a teaching degree and a Pennsylvania teaching license as a band director, I discovered that school districts in the Pennsylvania Dutch community were not too keen on female band directors. So a very good question is: what is it that made me believe so fully that this was what God wanted me to do? The “tried and true” belief that if God wills it the whole thing will come easily just didn’t prove true for me. Once again the question becomes, how did I know this was a direction that God was leading me in and not just what I wanted? Ultimately, when I’m trying to discern the appropriate action, decision, or behavior, the question that I try to always ask is: What is the best life-giving decision for all involved? I focus on life-giving because if I had to choose one characteristic of the divine that is all encompassing, it would be “life-giving.” God, Creator, Source of All Being, Redeemer, Wisdom: these are all names we use that point toward life-giving characteristics. Divine guidance always leads us to true living, full living, life-giving experiences. As we continue to grow in our relationship with the One Who loved Us into Being, we develop the gracious gift of spreading that life-giving love to those with whom we relate. We also begin to accept the responsibility to share that life-giving love with the relational creation around us. I also believe that my decisions, actions, and behaviors must always include others, because just as our Creator is relational, so are we. Even though, I literally live on an island, I can’t possibly live like I’m an island to myself. Life cannot possibly be lived in a vacuum. Not only do we need one another, we need creation itself and vice versa. Even our understanding of God as the Triune God expresses our belief that within God’s self there is significant relationship.