Friends and Clerking: FGConnections, Spring 2004
What’s In It for Me? The Single Most Important Question Any Clerk Can Ask
by Arthur Larrabee
Bruce Birchard (in the back) with the clerks’ caucus at the Executive Committee meeting on January 29–31, 2004 hosted by Atlanta Monthly Meeting. Also known as the “raucus caucus” these Friends provide ideas, inspiration, discernment, support and plain old hard work to make FGC a dynamic Spirit-full organization.We take this opportunity to say thank you, thank you each, thank you all. From left to right back row:Wes Mason,Marianne Lockard, Judy Purvis, Jean Marie Preswick-Barch, Perry Treadwell, Lois Forrest, Penelope Wright,Davild Miller. From left to right front row:Marian Beane, Beckey Phipps,TylaAnn Burger, Deborah Haines. Photograph by Miyo Moriuchi.
I make an assumption that may not be shared by everyone. It is that service to others is corrupt unless the person offering the service can answer the question, “What’s in it for me?”
You see, the universe operates through dynamic exchange. Giving and receiving are different aspects of the flow of God’s love in the universe. If we’re not able to acknowledge and welcome what comes back to us from the service we offer, we clog the Divine circulatory system. The energy of service must flow both ways. If not, the outcome may be spiritual, cardiovascular arrest.
I want to offer the following thoughts, not in the voice of a clerk, but in the voice of someone who is not the clerk. This is what I hope will be the experience of the clerk of my meeing.
Joy
I want our clerk to experience joy in her clerkship. As far as I’m concerned, the more joy the better. I want her to expect joy, to welcome it and to reflect it back to us.
Rooted in our historical, Christian experience, some among us have the notion that the sine qua non of doing God’s work is a painful experience and a dour countenance. Baloney! In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, 5:22, are listed nine characteristics of the Spirit’s presence. The second one of these is joy. Where there is joy, the Spirit is also present.
Disharmony, Conflict and Stress
Concerned that too much talk of joy may ring too much of Pollyanna, I eagerly acknowledge that there will also be disharmonies, conflicts and stresses for the clerk of our meeting. This is no less a part of the human experience than joy. When they are first experienced they will feel painful. But my hope for our clerk is that she will hold the intention of welcoming all of her experience, the disharmonies, conflicts and stresses, with expectancy, with a sense of awe and wonder, no matter how painful. I hope our clerk will ask, “What is the meaning of this experience for both me and for the meeting? How does it enrich my life, as well as the life of the meeting?” In these questions, perhaps, she will find a deeper joy in living God’s present moments just as life brings them to her door.
Rumi’s poem, The Guest House, comes rushing to mind and seems so apt:
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.Welcome and entertain them all
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Now, reread the poem, substituting the word “clerk” for “human” in the first line.
What’s in all of this for our clerk? Is it not the opportunity for growth? Is it not the opportunity to grow into a deeper understanding of God, and the challenge of experiencing God in all things, not just in some?
Connection
When I present workshops on clerking, I often ask, “What, for you, is a spiritual experience?” One of the ways I answer that question is to say that a spiritual experience is a “connecting” one. When I have the experience of feeling my connection with the Divine, my connection with another person, or even my connection with myself, I often feel that it is a spiritual experience. In these experiences of connection I experience a greater knowing of God.
The living of life is the doing of a jigsaw puzzle. The ultimate picture is of God. It is a picture of a oneness. George Fox once taught, “mind the Oneness.” Every time I connect another piece of the puzzle I complete more of the picture. I see more of the Oneness.
Serving as clerk affords opportunities to grow connections in the building of a spiritual community. So it is that energy flows back to the clerk in her experience of more of God’s Oneness.
Finally
As I end this essay, I realize that the question, “What’s in it for me?” is a double-edged sword. It can mean, “What will I get from it?” But it can also mean, “What am I in for?”
When someone embarks on a clerkship, I hope that she will ask, “May I expect that there will be joy for me, opportunities for spiritual growth and the enlarging of connections?” Unless the answer is “yes,” I don’t hold out much hope for the clerk or for the meeing.
I also hope that she will ask, “What am I in for?” I hope the answer, in addition to joy, will be periodic “disharmony, conflict and stress,” and that these aspects of life will be no less welcomed by her.
It’s all of the same cloth. The cloth of living fully the life we have been given.
[Note: As a literary device, I have chosen to use the feminine pronoun to represent both the masculine and the feminine. In fact, I hope we will have as many clerks of one gender as of the other].
