Coming Alive!

“It’s faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living.” ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, American physician, poet, writer, humorist and Harvard professor (1809-1894)

(Adapted from a story told by Annie Griffiths, photographer for National Geographic)

Annie was looking out her bedroom window as the sun poked its head over eastern horizon. The tendrils of light it produced crept out over the plains. The day was perfect. It would be perfect for the pictures she intended to shoot today.

Still at the window, Annie was finishing her coffee when she heard a rumbling sound. At first it sounded like morning thunder, but it was too rhythmic and it was getting progressively louder.  She leaned out her window so she could look directly in the direction of the sound. Then she saw source of the amazing sound.

Over the crest of distant rise came a herd of perhaps twenty beautiful horses. Though they were coming at a full canter they seemed to glide effortlessly over the ground.

An instant later Annie grabbed her camera bag from the Queen Anne chair in her room. She shot down the stairs and out the door into the morning sunlight. She was headed for the pasture gate. Somehow she instinctively knew that’s where they were headed as well.

Arriving at the gate she slid the camera body from its bag and with smooth, practiced precision she twisted the appropriate lens into place. Annie quickly turned in the direction of the oncoming thunder of hooves and an instant later the herd cleared the brow of the last hill.

With effortless skill she began clicking off pictures in rapid succession. Turning and firing, turning and firing. She could have easily been in the gunfight at the OK Corral, instinctively turning, finding another perfectly composed image, then squeezing off a deadly accurate shot to capture it.

Finally, the horses came to a stop around the edges of the fence. Annie clicked off a few more pictures and then relaxed. Then a strange sensation came over her as if someone were watching her. She turned around. There, leaning against a fence, were four cowboys who had watched her photographic frenzy with mild amusement. One or two of them touched the brim of their hats. “Morning Ma’am,” they each said almost simultaneously.

Annie nodded and smiled back. Then the strange sensation returned. Though she had instinctively grabbed her camera bag, in her hurry to be at the right place at the right time, she had overlooked one other thing.

It was then that Annie realized she had forgotten to dress and was standing there in her underwear!

The great churchman and civil rights leader, Rev. Howard Thurman once said: “Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

When it comes to being stewards of our gifts of talent, each of us is uniquely gifted to help save the world. Each of us is truly one of a kind. This means we are vested with the responsibility to take the time to discern those talents and cultivate them.

Unfortunately, we often limit ourselves to “what is available.” We volunteer out of a sense of responsibility to our church, our community or some organization, and only when the opportunity presents itself, rather than out of a passionate response to the wonderful gift God has made of us.

Conversely, those of us who go looking for volunteers, usually solicit those who have the time, rather those who have the talent. We should be recruiting those who will “come alive” within a given ministry or volunteer opportunity.  People driven by the passion of doing what they love have an uncanny way of making the time for it.

Early in my career as a Deacon, a parishioner asked me to intercede with the Pastor regarding a new ministry he wanted to start. I dutifully made an appointment with the Pastor and started to make my case. Father smiled patiently and put up his hand. “I’ve already spoken with him,” he said. “If he really had the passion to start that ministry, he wouldn’t need to ask you to talk to me. If someone is truly passionate nothing will stop him.”

The world does need people who have come alive. Be passionate. Be so passionate, in fact, that you forget to put your pants on.

Dear Lord: Help me to come alive.

“Chase down your passion like it's the last bus of the night.” ~ Glade Byron Addams

©2012 James E. Carper. All rights reserved.
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