The fourteenth Understanding of the Lindisfarne Community advocates a willingness to be vulnerable, to release control of the present moment and in this way experience both freedom and suffering as a way of embodying Christ in the world.
Tall order, especially for this perfectionist, as I've mentioned before. And, while pointing to an important quality in our common life as well as our individual lives and ministries, I am inclined to align this Understanding with earlier ones -- specifically #6 on authenticity and #10 on freedom. If we are engaged in being authentically the people God has created us to be, then we will (eventually) learn to release the need to be in control, and embrace the freedom that comes with our authenticity.
The first Understanding described the whole of our Understandings as "shining, precious gems," and this turn toward vulnerability is, I believe, another facet to the gem of our Way of Living. Like the commitments to simplicity, generosity, humility, and equality, it is an aspiration, something that lies both within us and beyond us. I am reminded of the Bodhisattva vows in Buddhism:
Beings are countless. I vow to liberate them all.
Merit & wisdom are boundless. I vow to accumulate them all.
The Dharma is boundless. I vow to master it.
We aspire to be more than is imaginable.
We vow to become all that we are created to be.
In Christ, all things are possible.
May we become the shining gems that our Understandings call us to be. Amen.
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