sing
November 18, 2018
1 Samuel 2:1-10
I don’t know about you, but I’ve reached the conclusion that the journey of self-discovery is no quick trip. There are some who apparently know and claim who they are from the beginning of their life, but for most, discovering and then claiming who you are in this world takes time.
In my opinion, the fact that society has a weird obsession with labels makes this journey of self-discovery even harder. Maybe I’m unique in this way, but I’ve thought a lot about labels in my adult life. There have even been times when I reached positive conclusions about their use. For instance, labels allow us to feel like we understand the things we are seeing and interacting with. The belief is that by labeling things in our midst, the world will be more orderly, which can be of great comfort when everything around us feels so chaotic.
Mostly, though, I’ve concluded that labels are pretty negative, especially when used on people. You see, when we label people, we are putting them inside a box of our own creation, and then using that box to dictate how we interact with them. And while everything might appear OK inside that unseen box, the truth is this false sense of comfort only serves to strangle any and all modes of creativity.
After practicing law for a few years, I decided to stop introducing myself as a lawyer because I knew what happened when someone new to my world found this out. Everything about this new relationship would change. Now I’m not saying the change was right or wrong, I’m just recognizing the fact that everything changed. Without any input from me, I had become an attorney first and that meant I had to talk a certain way, look a certain way, be a certain way because my life was now being lived inside a box someone else had created for me. Over these past two years, this feeling of being boxed in has doubled because now I’m not only a lawyer, I’m also a pastor and most people have no idea what to do with that knowledge.
The thing is, from birth I’ve been on a journey of figuring out who Jason is. As I thought about my journey this past week, I came to better understand why I loved my days at Elon College so much. You see, Elon College, while admittedly a separate kind of boxed living, was the place I felt most free. It was the place where no one boxed me in. It was the place where I literally felt free to sing. Then that all got derailed when I became a lawyer. Jason, the person, had now been replaced with this nameless
person everyone except me seemed to know… a lawyer. And the thing is, my ability to consent to, or even have a voice in this identification process, never mattered, because the voices of public opinion had done the work. I didn’t know it then, and it has taken me a long time to figure this all out, but this is why labels can create myths.
********************************
In his book, Recalling Our Own Stories, Edward Wimberly writes about the impact myths have on a person’s spiritual life and renewal. For him, central to this mythology are “the beliefs and convictions that we have about ourselves, our relationships with others and our roles in life. It is these beliefs and convictions that “shape our lives and our behavior.” And while we all can have personal myths when you add the stories that others project onto us about who we are and how we should act our lives stop being our own and start becoming someone else’s entirely. These projected stories can have devastating effects as they oftentimes take center stage in our lives and rob us of our own true authentic self.
This true authentic self is who God always calls us to be, and so some of us start down the path of re-authoring our stories. That, to me, is what Hannah had to do. From the beginning of the Book 1 Samuel, we are told that Hannah had been boxed in by the label the patriarchal society had given her and other women experiencing something similar. You see, during those times, being labeled a barren woman reduced you to being an unproductive and useless person. So much so, that your husband had the right to take a second wife, which Hannah’s husband did. And whether typical or not, this second wife just adds to Hannah’s pain. This second wife bought into the idea that Hannah’s barrenness fully defined who she was. So, the second wife provoked Hannah and mocked her suffering and such provocation and mocking was probably acceptable because being barren meant Hannah was useless.
In everyone’s eye Hannah’s life had been reduced to a label… everyone except Hannah. Hannah had determination. Hannah could envision a future. Hannah re-authored her story and Hannah sang. She rose above the ridicule of society. She rose above the myths being projected onto her. And it all started with prayer. At the heart of this prayer, Hannah took the opportunity to realize how much her mind was blocked, her freedom alienated, and her will destroyed by a society that granted no place to a woman without a child. And for Hannah, coming to this realization is a perfect reason to sing. Even more than that, I can think of no better response to being set free from the constraints of the myths being projected onto you. Singing in whatever for you choose.
Hannah’s is a story of the power in re-authoring. When the societal narrative says one thing about who you are, re-author and sing out. If you don’t then your life becomes reduced to a life that is not your own, and that is not the life God is calling any of us to live. Take your Que from Hannah who prayed, listened and participated with God in the re-authoring of her story. Take your Que from Hannah and sing out however you choose.
************************************
When I was a sophomore in college I lived with three other guys in a two bedroom apartment. A couple of us had very similar taste in music while the other two had their own unique style. Rather organically, this tradition began where one of us would put a CD in, crank the volume up and sing as loud as we could. Everyone would join in and when that first song ended someone else would put a song of their choice on, and the four of us would again sing as loud as we could. Ultimately the order would be established and when one song ended another began. No matter what, all four of us sang with every song being played.
I’m not exactly sure why, but time always seemed to stop during those four song rotations. So much so, that it was not uncommon for us to still be singing as loud as we could some five hours later. The freedom each of us experienced during those singing sessions was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. And just like that the school year ended and our lives moved forward. The last time any of us got together was in 1997 for my bachelor party and just like old times, our song rotation began again. This time though, there were a lot more than four yet each person there sang as loud as they could even if they didn’t exactly know the words.
It is hard to believe that the last time I did that was over twenty years ago and it makes me think about how fast life goes by. I hope my old roommates have continued this practice because it is so important to have those spaces in your life where you feel that free, and it’s equally as important to be the one who creates those spaces for others.
The journey toward self-discovery can be hard, and it can be made harder by those who seek to box you in by placing a label onto who you are. Don’t let someone else’s labels define who you are. Love yourself enough to participate in the re-authoring of your story, just like Hannah did. Break free from the box others have put you in and each time you do, sing, or dance or do whatever you want, and know that our loving God is with you every step of the way.
Amen!
1 Samuel 2:1-10
I don’t know about you, but I’ve reached the conclusion that the journey of self-discovery is no quick trip. There are some who apparently know and claim who they are from the beginning of their life, but for most, discovering and then claiming who you are in this world takes time.
In my opinion, the fact that society has a weird obsession with labels makes this journey of self-discovery even harder. Maybe I’m unique in this way, but I’ve thought a lot about labels in my adult life. There have even been times when I reached positive conclusions about their use. For instance, labels allow us to feel like we understand the things we are seeing and interacting with. The belief is that by labeling things in our midst, the world will be more orderly, which can be of great comfort when everything around us feels so chaotic.
Mostly, though, I’ve concluded that labels are pretty negative, especially when used on people. You see, when we label people, we are putting them inside a box of our own creation, and then using that box to dictate how we interact with them. And while everything might appear OK inside that unseen box, the truth is this false sense of comfort only serves to strangle any and all modes of creativity.
After practicing law for a few years, I decided to stop introducing myself as a lawyer because I knew what happened when someone new to my world found this out. Everything about this new relationship would change. Now I’m not saying the change was right or wrong, I’m just recognizing the fact that everything changed. Without any input from me, I had become an attorney first and that meant I had to talk a certain way, look a certain way, be a certain way because my life was now being lived inside a box someone else had created for me. Over these past two years, this feeling of being boxed in has doubled because now I’m not only a lawyer, I’m also a pastor and most people have no idea what to do with that knowledge.
The thing is, from birth I’ve been on a journey of figuring out who Jason is. As I thought about my journey this past week, I came to better understand why I loved my days at Elon College so much. You see, Elon College, while admittedly a separate kind of boxed living, was the place I felt most free. It was the place where no one boxed me in. It was the place where I literally felt free to sing. Then that all got derailed when I became a lawyer. Jason, the person, had now been replaced with this nameless
person everyone except me seemed to know… a lawyer. And the thing is, my ability to consent to, or even have a voice in this identification process, never mattered, because the voices of public opinion had done the work. I didn’t know it then, and it has taken me a long time to figure this all out, but this is why labels can create myths.
********************************
In his book, Recalling Our Own Stories, Edward Wimberly writes about the impact myths have on a person’s spiritual life and renewal. For him, central to this mythology are “the beliefs and convictions that we have about ourselves, our relationships with others and our roles in life. It is these beliefs and convictions that “shape our lives and our behavior.” And while we all can have personal myths when you add the stories that others project onto us about who we are and how we should act our lives stop being our own and start becoming someone else’s entirely. These projected stories can have devastating effects as they oftentimes take center stage in our lives and rob us of our own true authentic self.
This true authentic self is who God always calls us to be, and so some of us start down the path of re-authoring our stories. That, to me, is what Hannah had to do. From the beginning of the Book 1 Samuel, we are told that Hannah had been boxed in by the label the patriarchal society had given her and other women experiencing something similar. You see, during those times, being labeled a barren woman reduced you to being an unproductive and useless person. So much so, that your husband had the right to take a second wife, which Hannah’s husband did. And whether typical or not, this second wife just adds to Hannah’s pain. This second wife bought into the idea that Hannah’s barrenness fully defined who she was. So, the second wife provoked Hannah and mocked her suffering and such provocation and mocking was probably acceptable because being barren meant Hannah was useless.
In everyone’s eye Hannah’s life had been reduced to a label… everyone except Hannah. Hannah had determination. Hannah could envision a future. Hannah re-authored her story and Hannah sang. She rose above the ridicule of society. She rose above the myths being projected onto her. And it all started with prayer. At the heart of this prayer, Hannah took the opportunity to realize how much her mind was blocked, her freedom alienated, and her will destroyed by a society that granted no place to a woman without a child. And for Hannah, coming to this realization is a perfect reason to sing. Even more than that, I can think of no better response to being set free from the constraints of the myths being projected onto you. Singing in whatever for you choose.
Hannah’s is a story of the power in re-authoring. When the societal narrative says one thing about who you are, re-author and sing out. If you don’t then your life becomes reduced to a life that is not your own, and that is not the life God is calling any of us to live. Take your Que from Hannah who prayed, listened and participated with God in the re-authoring of her story. Take your Que from Hannah and sing out however you choose.
************************************
When I was a sophomore in college I lived with three other guys in a two bedroom apartment. A couple of us had very similar taste in music while the other two had their own unique style. Rather organically, this tradition began where one of us would put a CD in, crank the volume up and sing as loud as we could. Everyone would join in and when that first song ended someone else would put a song of their choice on, and the four of us would again sing as loud as we could. Ultimately the order would be established and when one song ended another began. No matter what, all four of us sang with every song being played.
I’m not exactly sure why, but time always seemed to stop during those four song rotations. So much so, that it was not uncommon for us to still be singing as loud as we could some five hours later. The freedom each of us experienced during those singing sessions was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. And just like that the school year ended and our lives moved forward. The last time any of us got together was in 1997 for my bachelor party and just like old times, our song rotation began again. This time though, there were a lot more than four yet each person there sang as loud as they could even if they didn’t exactly know the words.
It is hard to believe that the last time I did that was over twenty years ago and it makes me think about how fast life goes by. I hope my old roommates have continued this practice because it is so important to have those spaces in your life where you feel that free, and it’s equally as important to be the one who creates those spaces for others.
The journey toward self-discovery can be hard, and it can be made harder by those who seek to box you in by placing a label onto who you are. Don’t let someone else’s labels define who you are. Love yourself enough to participate in the re-authoring of your story, just like Hannah did. Break free from the box others have put you in and each time you do, sing, or dance or do whatever you want, and know that our loving God is with you every step of the way.
Amen!
