Beloved Friends-
What is greatness?
How do we decide if someone is great? Do we define greatness in terms of power, privilege, and prestige? What do we teach our children about what it means to be great? Do we measure the greatness of someone by the company they keep, or by various outward signs and symbols? Do we look at where someone lives, or what they drive (or IF they drive) or, or, or? Try as we might to stay away from jumping to conclusions or making comparisons, we are often impressed by the visible achievement of some; their accomplishments, degrees, the importance of their profession- the list goes on and on.
This Sunday we will continue our journey through the 10th chapter of Mark and hear a rather heated exchange on this very topic between two brothers, James and John. These two are the sons of Zebedee, or, as it is also translated, the Sons of Thunder, which might mean they were well named as things seem to get loud and windy between them. These two seem obsessed with the question of greatness and how they might obtain it for themselves.
But when Jesus intervenes and speaks of greatness, he is very clear they have missed the mark completely. He schools them pointing out they have forgotten a key facet of what it means to be great in the world of Love. To be great means, without a doubt, to first and foremost be of service to others. Once again, as we have come to expect from Jesus- the lesson here seems to be another moment of “flipping the script” for us all.
This week I had a two-hour meeting with someone who is doing just that- becoming “great” (by Jesus’ standards) by being of service to others.
Leah Cordy is the founder of Hope’s Landing, a non-profit social enterprise started this past May in Tiffin Ohio. Leah had been doing a college internship at Tiffin’s Women’s Shelter when she literally woke up one morning with a dream about starting a program based on the social entrepreneurship model developed by Episcopal priest Becca Stevens at Thistle Farms.
So, she did. It was only a matter of weeks from her dream to fruition. All of the products (bath & body works and candles) are all made by local survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence who have graduated from the partner organization, the Sisters in Shelter’s residential healing program.
From the Hope’s Landing website:
This program will equip survivors with the resources necessary to provide for themselves and create a balanced, healthy lifestyle. Our hope is that we can help break the cycle of poverty and abuse that runs rampant in so many communities.
So this week I heard and saw what “great” looked like, just as Jesus described, sitting right in front of me. It looked like a woman who decided to defer her acceptance into an international master’s program to try to make a difference in the lives of other women. It looked like a woman who is equal parts bold and humble enough to be willing to try something completely new and risk failing because not trying would have been worse. And honestly, it looked like someone I never was at 22yrs old- wise and courageous and eager to give it all away, somehow already knowing at her core she is called to a life of service to others.
There are days when I have a hard time making the connection between the stories we read in scripture and our everyday lives- that was not the case this week. This story from Mark helps remind me of a different way of being in the world, a better way. And I saw that better way staring back at me through the beautiful spirit of my new friend Leah Cordy and the work she has started at Hope’s Landing.
May we all remember we are called to do the same, to put more into life than we take out, to put service to others in a place of honor, for it is in and through the act of service we find our worth and purpose as followers of the One who came to show us that better way.
May you never forget that you are loved,
Lisa