Chosen: 12 July 2009

Dear Friends,

There is a very large tree just outside the side door of my mother-in-law’s house that the family calls “the bean tree”. It’s the last tree (that I know of) to get its leaves every year and in fall it produces very long bean-shaped spikes that dangle from the branches. Last weekend my grandson brought to me a branch of blossoms from this tree: beautifully delicate trumpet shaped white blossoms highlighted with hints of yellow and purple. Even though we put the small branch in water, the blossoms very soon wilted. So I was glad I snapped a picture of them when they were still in good shape. This branch of blossoms was chosen by my grandson because, as he put it, “Grandma will like this”. And he was right! I do so delight in the beauty of nature.

Throughout our lives we make a multitude of choices. Some are rather ordinary and made almost without being conscious of them – what time to get up in the morning and when to head to bed at night, how far we let the gas gauge in our vehicles head toward “E” before we fill up the tank again, whether to throw a load of whites in the washer before the load of colors or the other way around. Other choices are more important: who we will associate with and call friends, where we will go to school, the type of employment we will seek, where we will go on vacation. And still other choices are much more integral to our life as it unfolds: whom we will marry (if we do indeed intend to marry), how we will raise our children (if we do and are able to have children), if we will dare to follow our dreams and passions at the risk of criticism, ridicule and/or lack of understanding by those we are close to. But making choices is not the same as being chosen.

One year, way back in my grade school days, I was determined to try out for the cheerleading squad. My best friend and I faithfully practiced the moves and jumps for week and weeks every afternoon after school. The day of the try-outs arrived and I thought we both performed pretty well. I remember wanting so very much to be chosen for the squad and had high hopes it would happen. After the try-outs, one of the judges, a very popular girl, asked me in a rather condescending way, “Do you REALLY want to be a cheerleader?” Hmm…it wasn’t so much what she said, but how she said it that caused my shyness and sense of unworthiness to rise up and I replied, “No” (though I really didn't mean it). In the end I was not chosen for the squad and ultimately, at the time, felt devastated. I dare to suggest most if not all of us have had some type of experience that left us feeling let down as the result of not being chosen for something.

Being chosen can take us out of our comfort level. The prophet Amos found that out. Amos lived and worked in Judah (the Southern kingdom) and yet it was to Israel (the Northern kingdom) where he was commanded to prophesy. He came to realize he was not wanted there and the Sacred message he proclaimed was not accepted (Amos 7:12). The “Twelve” were chosen by Jesus and sent off to preach and heal with the warning that there may be places where they and their message and works are not wanted (Mark 6:7-13). Sometimes people cannot or are not ready to embrace the truth or the person sent to proclaim the truth.

Jesus is known by many names, The Chosen One, being one of them. Though we read in the gospels of miracles, healings, teachings, preaching and reaching out to the outcast, in the end Jesus too was often criticized and ultimately abandoned and rejected by many of his own people. But because of and out of his short life of ministry Christianity was born and continues to this day.

We too are chosen by our Sacred Creator; we all have a divine purpose and mission in life. What that is for each of us is unique just as each and every of us is uniquely and wonderfully made. It’s pretty much a given that because of our being chosen we will be nudged (or pushed) to places we would rather not go. Places like forgiving those who hurt or reject us, letting go of our ego and tendency to have it our way for the sake of the other, giving of ourselves – our time and blessings – to show compassion, care and comfort toward others, even speaking the truth as we have come to know it. Gosh, it’s so much easier to just go about not making waves and being concerned only with and taking care of ourselves! But... is that really the meaning of our being chosen?

Peace on the Journey