Shine

Index - Posting 25 April 2007 Vol. 3:9

…cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding...

Proverbs 2:3 (Amplified)

My posting is late this week for several reasons; mainly my being away from home for a couple of days to participate in a black theology forum in my University city, Birmingham. Secondly because it has been a challenging week, physically and mentally. Only now on Sunday evening, after a long walk in the sunshine on the beach, do I feel recharged and able to concentrate. Matters of the heart, head and spirit have dominated my week and left me “moved” yet encouraged, introspective yet communal and sometimes pained yet hopeful. God sometimes needs to remind me not to repress my thoughts or feelings but to trust my instincts and to strive to be all I can be and not to hold back.

I had elected to prepare an academic paper for presentation to a forum of black religious scholars. My subject was the trickster-hero, spider Anancy, who is spun from the web of Akan-Ashanti folk lore, survived the Middle Passage of slavery, to re-appear in Jamaican folk tales as the gender-bending Uncle or Aunt Nancy. As a metaphor for a trickster-god, Anancy embodies the ability of the weak to outsmart the powerful through the use of one’s wits. His/her exploits are usually narrated lyrically through the telling of stories and through poetry. His/her relevance to theology is the importance of our stories, our cultural tales and our parables being incorporated into our religious text. This is so they can become part of our spiritual expression and a means for the interpretation and demonstration of spiritual truths.

Having defined my context of analysis, critiqued Western eurocentric definitions of religion, discussed the archetype as a racialised construct, identified the African origins of the trickster motif, stressed the importance of folk tales as legitimate story telling and introduced Anancy as a figure of Caribbean folk tales and legends, I suddenly realised that my central point was missing. I had run out of creative energy and I saw my paper going figuratively into the bin. But what to do - I had to present and I knew how embarrassed I would be at it’s obvious weaknesses. So I reflected on how I could salvage the situation. I decided to keep my paper as it was and to explain to the Forum why I had thoughts of shredding it. The response was so helpful and so positive. I realised (again) how well I think in community and need community. There were no adverse criticisms; my fellow scholars spoke positively of many of my ideas and made useful suggestions, which coupled with subsequent reflections, will make for a more rounded paper. I was touched by their support and grateful that God had given me the sense to be honest in how I felt about it. And also the wisdom not to have tried to argue my way through. I also saw how my “excellent paper” could become a “brilliant one” thanks to the dialogue with my peers.

Usually I end with a text from the New Testament but sometimes a cultural text from a contemporary prophet and teacher, carries a similar degree of spiritual insight and encouragement.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be: You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. - Nelson Mandela.

May the Holy Spirit of God keep your light shining.

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