Looking for God in Messy Places by Jake Owensby

Author:Jake Owensby [Owensby, Jake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Making a Difference. Together.

Each of us has a unique part to play in the healing of the world.

—Marianne Williamson,

The Law of Divine Compensation: On Work, Money, and Miracles

BEING US AND BEING ME

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man

is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

—John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, “Meditation XVII”

She greeted the four of us with a smile of recognition and chatted with us briefly. We were regulars and had spoken to each other dozens of times. At least, she had taken scores of our drink and dinner orders. For some reason, I noticed her brown eyes that night as if for the first time. I saw the tiny laugh lines that framed them on either side and felt the earthy warmth and worldly sincerity they conveyed. I kept sneaking discreet glances while she was talking to my friends. Then those eyes looked directly into mine. She asked, “What will you have?” My throat froze for an awkward moment. In a rush I was feeling—not so much thinking—something like, “I wish you would pull up a chair. Tell me who you are or what you’re thinking or the kind of music you like. It’s just, looking into your eyes, I believe I caught a glimpse of you. And I think you caught a glimpse of me.” After an awkward moment I managed to mumble, “I’ll take the nachos.” That night I had no idea that this cheerful, relaxed person had been a social justice leader since high school, had graduated summa cum laude from the University of Georgia, and had walked away from a successful career teaching high school students to search for something more adventurous in life. At that moment, I only had the vague sense that we had connected.

Some time later, this woman, Joy, and I would agree to get married. No, I did not propose. We discussed it and arrived at a mutual decision. That’s how we roll to this day. Now, when I look into her eyes, I am reminded of all that our eyes have seen together. Joy and I remember, albeit from different angles, the winding road that we have traveled. Our shared road has made her who she is, me who I am, and most remarkably, us who we are. It is the very idea, the living reality, that I am part of a “we” that makes my life worth living. Hope rests in part upon a sense of belonging. As we’ve discussed, hope involves being your true self, and your true self includes being part of a “we.” Philip Newell put it this way: “We come closest to our true self when we pour ourselves out in love for one another, when we give our heart and thus the whole of our being.”1 And while I’ve introduced the concept of belonging by talking about my relationship with Joy, the “we” I have in mind includes more than the romantic attachments between individuals. Being your

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