Our theme for weekly service this year has been something along the lines of "If one does not tend to the roots of the family tree, then the tree will whither wilt." At our final reflections for the first semester we are thinking about the branches of this family tree. What does this mean in terms of community service? Last night I ruminated about this and so I'm going to try and relate what I said to this blog.
Branches are the parts of trees that reach out to the world. In spring they have life, in summer they peak, in fall they begin to wilt, in the winter the leaves fall and everything is barren. The leaves and seeds fall off the tree in winter and they leave their marks on the ground in piles of leaves and small seeds that hold future promise. Then the branches are open to the world, still reaching out, but this time they have nothing on them.
This parallels the way I think people experience community service. In order to build relationships and grow from the experience (grow the branches), we must ourselves become vulnerable and allow our coverage to fall off. Once all of this stuff is off of us, only our lives will be open to those who want to share in it and try and understand it. We leave all of the parts of our lives open for all to see so that we can plant the seed of hope inside of people. In the same way, those who we serve allow us into their lives so that we may learn from them.
Our vulnerability leads to solidarity with all who want to join in. The challenge is to allow our leaves and our seeds to fall off our branches so that we can partake in this solidarity.
Hope everyone has a good Christmas break!
-Jeff
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
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