"I you want to be important, wonderful,
if you want to be recognized wonderful,
if you want to be great wonderful,
but recognize that he who greatest among you shall be your servant.
That's the new definition of greatness.
This morning the thing that I like about it,
by giving that definition of greatness it means that
everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.
You don't have to have a college degree to serve.
You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.
You don't have to know Plato and Aristotle to serve.
You don't have to know Einstien's theory of relativity to serve.
You don't have to know the second theory of Thermodynamics in Physics to serve.
You only need a heart full of grace,
a soul generated by love,
and you can be that servant."

- Martin Luther king Jr. from The Drum Major Instinct 

If you'd like to hear these words spoken, please visit The King Center. The Power of Dr. King's words are so full of energy, all I can do is smile.

YAV India team 2011-2012

Building up Self

Selfhood. Personhood. The notion of the word I. What do I identify with? Academically I can unpack this in the context of social groupings. I can look at the things I currently belong to as the definition of me. This also limits me to a list of achievements. I have a resume, yes, but I am not my resume. 

What makes experiences worthwhile? Why do we place value on specific experiences? Why do some hold more weight than others? We must somehow begin to move from defining ourselves solely in action to defining ourselves by the passion, or lack of passion we have underlying action. There have been some experiences in my life that have been worse than others, but each of them builds upon the other to define my convictions. 

Why do we sometimes misplace self-confidence when defining certain parts of ourselves? For example, I am confident that I work well with power tools, yet I haven't picked one up since High School. How can I be so sure that I am still skilled at that level? The same goes for a lack of confidence in areas where I deserve credit. Such is the human struggle. Possibly just the Western struggle? 

I know this post is filled with Jargon, but school has still got me stuck in my head. On another note, I will be serving as the Youth Ministry Intern at Second Presbyterian Church in Little Rock Arkansas this summer!!!! I am so filled with love for that community! I can't wait to get the summer started!

From one soul to another,

Rachel 

I am currently attempting to drag myself across the finish line at Austin College. The work has piled up as it usually does at the end of the semester and the thrill of paper writing and test taking is in the air. In that spirit, I spent Tuesday being very organized, and Wednesday having deep and meaningful conversations. I stayed up talking with an incredibly diverse, interesting group of people last night till about 4 am. We mainly talked philosophy, but more than anything we talked about the concept of universal truth. We concluded and mainly agreed that 1+1=2.....but what does that mean? Does it mean that there are other universal truths? We ended up with some kind of consensus that yes, all things exist and we cannot escape our existence. I believe that it is this transcendent 1+1 truth and the fact that nothing can be separated from existence that affirms God's character. God entered into human suffering. God created a human Son who was imperfect, flawed, doubtful at times. God created a passionate Son who led a group of people within his own religious framework as well as outside of it. 


I think last night, talking with those men I realized that I can only stay true to my personal narrative by working within it. Keep in mind that the shortness of my words, and the utter incapability I have with language limits my ability to communicate. As Slavoj Zizek said, "Words are never 'only words'; they matter because they define the contours of what we can do." I'm not sure if "normal people" think about the confines of language as much as Austin College students. Maybe just college students in general, but i know that being thrown into the deep end of philosophy was a good way to build some motivation to write a paper on International Human Rights. It was also a good way to get me to think about India, a culture outside of my own that I will soon be finding many things in common with as well as differences. I am fully ready ( partially from my 3 hour nap today) to take on the tiny portion of the world that I inhabit today! I am ready to live inside the tragedy of existence because that simply means that I am human, just like Christ. 


Grace and Peace,
Rachel