greater purpose
WHAT’S THE BEST use of our lives? Should we, as Jesus advises in Matthew 19, sell our possessions and “give the money to the poor” in hopes of a “treasure in heaven”? Or can we interpret this verse in a slightly less extreme way, instead holding up Jesus’ words as a sort of aspirational metaphor?
This question is at the core of The Greatest Possible Good by Ben Brooks.
We meet the Candlewicks, a wealthy but disaffected family of four living in the idyllic Cotswolds in England, surrounded by every luxurious distraction they could desire. Their lives change drastically when the father, Arthur Candlewick, falls into an abandoned mine shaft, sustaining a head injury. While stuck there for three days with his son’s stash of drugs and his daughter’s book on effective altruism, Arthur experiences what he calls his “road to Damascus moment.” The ordeal transforms Arthur, leading him to give away his entire fortune to charity.
In 2004, I was the 40th Korean-American clergywomen to be ordained in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. denomination. Forty seems like such a small number when you consider that in 2011, Korean-American Clergywomen (KACW) will be celebrating their 20th anniversary. However, many Korean-American women are still wandering the desert of the ordination process without a rock, well, pitcher, or even a drop of water in sight to quench their thirst to serve as God has called them. There have been times when we wished there was a Moses to break the rock or the obstacle so that freedom and the ability to serve as a minister of the word and sacrament would gush abundantly, but the reality is that many Korean-American women cannot find calls or find the support they need to find a call.