God Knows and Loves You Personally

Reader Responses

When has it taken courage for you to follow a leading?

"In the 90s I was running a veterinary practice in a conservative rural town. There was a terrible initiative petition on the ballot criminalizing homosexuality. I felt I needed to do something publicly (thank you Bonnie Tinker) even though it might have negative consequences for the practice. I took out a half page ad in the county paper opposing it as a Christian and got some other signatories. The proposition failed. I may have lost some business. The unexpected consequence was that a very conservative cowgirl client approached me about it some days later. With fear and trembling I did my best to answer her questions. In the end, we became good friends across a great divide, praying for each other's children, etc."

Joe S., Portland, OR, USA

"I was a much younger woman, employed in Salem, Oregon and Clerk of my Meeting's Peace and Social Concerns Committee. Planned Parenthood was opening a new clinic in the city. Recently a person from the state had traveled to another state and murdered an abortion provider. Police, Planned Parenthood, NARAL [National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, now Reproductive Freedom for All] and pro-life activists in our city all feared a potential for violence from those who might believe it was an act of conscience. 

An elder in our Meeting read an article about the Finding Common Ground movement and challenged out Peace and Social Concerns Committee to organize a Finding Common Ground conference. The committee said it was too big a task for us, but the idea would not let me go. I took it to our Meeting, to the Ecumenical council, etc. All said it would be valuable work and they would help, but not organize it. Still the idea wouldn't let me go. 

Heart in hand, I went to the state Right to Life office next door and then called the Planned Parenthood board member who had contacted me and asked each 'If the other side is would meet, would you meet to discuss a Finding Common Ground process?' Each agreed! And brought representatives of other groups on their respective sides, too! We did not have a public weekend conference in our charged environment, but they did unite in their own version of a Finding Common Ground process. Significant work was accomplished. Spirit led and provided the courage to both initiate and shepherd the process. WOW!"

Lesley L., Monteverde, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

"For me, every leading requires some kind of courage. The right thing to do is rarely the thing that seems easiest when you are using your own comfort as a guide. Or even if you are using the comfort of your family, or the comfort of humans in general as a guide, because what makes humans comfortable is too often gained at the expense of the rest of Creation.

Trying to act out of love rather than fear or hate is a good start, but I can't love humans without loving the rest of Creation.

In trying to verify a leading, the filter I use is, 'Does this come from love for the balance of nature?' Loving nature's balance means accepting death and decay, but I am not sure that suffering is a necessity. So I also ask, 'Does this reduce suffering?' I see so many resources being used on increasing human lives (in numbers as well as longevity) and so little awareness of the harm we are doing, that it makes me think that many of us humans are acting like a cancer. And I ask myself, 'How should a normal cell act in response to cancerous neighbors?'

There is scientific evidence that if normal cells communicate with cancerous cells, they can go into remission. So should I speak about human imbalance out of love for life on earth and a wish to reduce suffering? It is so hard to do! 

Or should I stop struggling and accept whatever happens with compassion, like the band that continued to play hymns on the sloping decks of the Titanic??"

Barbara C., Dauphin, PA, USA