“The point of experience is not to escape life but to live it. Each of us carries some wisdom waiting to be discovered at the center of our experience, and everything we meet, if faced and held, reveals a part of that wisdom. We have a language of truth growing in our heart that only living can decode. Truth is a seed hidden in the days until watered by our experience. “ *
These words of Mark Nepo unearth a new understanding of how life can work. He suggests that EXPERIENCE is the pathway to truth. We may be given a “truth” from some external authority and then need to make it our own. We run that truth through the testing gauntlet. This is one of the most life-giving UU processes that I have enjoyed since becoming a Unitarian Universalist. Having come from a tradition that defined specifically what truths/beliefs and code of morality I should hold… to one that not only allows but encourages me to create my own theology has been fully engaging. To realize that this formulation of theology was not a fixed space but rather a living engagement of the big questions of life. To understand that as I moved through many experiences, I had the responsibility to see how those experiences informed my belief and to make them evergreen. An evergreen faith is something to embrace… for it allows natural curiosity and exploration to bloom!
“The point of experience is not to escape life but to live it.” *
By Rev. Jim Francek
Community Minister – Pastoral Care
*Mark Nepo, The Endless Practice: Becoming Who You Were Born to Be