I'm reading a book called, This Here Flesh by Cole Arther Riley with two of my favorite people in the world.
We started a Lenten discipline of reading a chapter of a book together and Zooming on Thursday afternoons to discuss it, and then we decided to keep going, post-Lent. This Here Flesh is our second book.
In the first chapter called "Dignity," Riley writes: "Our dignity may involve our doing, but it is foremost in our very being - our tears and emotions, our bodies lying in the grass, our scabs healing. I try to remember that Eve and Adam bore the image of God before they did anything at all. This is very mysterious to me, and it must be protected" (pp 11-12).
I've been marveling over those last two sentences, especially the "very mysterious to me, and it must be protected" part.
In our do-ing oriented world, it's hard to imagine the mystery of being beloved because we are human be-ings, not human do-ings.
She also writes, "We cannot help but entwine our concept of dignity with how much a person can do. The sick, the elderly, the disabled, the neurodivergent, my sweet cousin on the autism spectrum—we tend to assign a lesser social value to those whose “doing” cannot be enslaved into a given output. We should look to them as sacred guides out of the bondage of productivity. Instead, we withhold social status and capital, and we neglect to acknowledge that theirs is a liberation we can learn from." (p 11)
And then she summarizes the chapter by saying that the very idea of being valued and given dignity only for what we can do or produce, "I disagree with those who say we bear the image of God only, or even primarily, by living out our faith in our labor. The thought is reductive, and it evidences that we are content to exclude those who will never work, who may never speak, who no longer make or do. Their image-bearing is not dispensable; it is essential." (p 12)
I say all this because I can't think of a better argument to, as Kate and Jessica say, HOP OFF THE TREADMILL.
And remember that yes, the world will keep spinning without us.
And that we are "loved, loved, loved. Not for what we do, but for who we are" (Bowler, p 101).
Pastor Allison
I'm curious:
In the "A Good Enough Step" section, Kate and Jessica write: "Take a moment to be curious. What are the non-negotiables of your day?"
So, what ARE the non-negotiables of your day - the things you can't live without, that day isn't complete without?
Here's a chance, they say, to hop off the treadmill ("the myth of hyper-productivity or of bottomless energy or need-to-say-yes-to-every-request-that-comes-your-way may not be serving you like you once thought" p 102) and re-define the non-negotiables and to make room for them in the jar of your life.
