Growing up, our family home sat on the banks of a broad river- so wide, in fact, that people often mistook it for a lake. Yet, if you jumped in (which it did often in the summer), the deep and strong current would grab you, revealing just how much of a river it truly was. Having grown up in its waters, we were used to it.
One day, I decided to relax in our small inflatable boat (the “rubber dingy”, as some of us will remember calling them) and soak up the sun. However, I had apparently been distracted when I tied off the rope to dock because in moments I floated further than the rope should have allowed. I had become untethered and began drifting away. Thankfully my brother was there to quickly dive in and tow me back. Who knows where I would have floated?
Drift happens. In this case, it happened because I hadn’t paid attention to my anchor line. As a result, I began to drift away from where I wanted to be, where I needed to be. In the same way, in life, we can often find ourselves drifting from where we want and/or need to be because we have failed to pay attention to that which anchors us.
As I am part of the Generous Space community, a key anchor me is our core values, each with their accompanying generative question:
- Humility – “Might I be wrong?”
- Hospitality – “Whose voices are missing?”
- Mutuality – “Is everyone in our community empowered to make a difference?”
- Justice – “How can I participate with you in dismantling the barriers preventing flourishing?”
Often things like this- our values or mission or vision- can become so familiar to us that we take them for granted. We get careless or forgetful about their importance. And those “knots” come loose and we drift.
In 2020, I want to make more of an effort to anchor myself to these values, not only as a part of the Generous Space community but as a Christian, as a person. I know from experience that doing so not only brings me life but empowers me to bring life to others as well. I hope you will join us in this new year to return to these core values, consider what they mean to you- to us- and find new and meaningful ways to anchor yourself to them.