Chapter 3: Born Identity

Hello, book club friends!  Erica here, with week three of Make the Impossible Possible: A Dream is Born.

Where do we get identity? I haven’t spent much time considering this question. But for residents of Manchester’s ghetto following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, the issue of identity was critical. In a nation of heightened conflict and divided identities, poor collided with rich, white collided with black. Violence drove a deeper wedge into an already volatile situation; in the midst of it all the Manchester Craftsman’s Guild was born.

I loved Strickland’s description of the Center’s first weeks. He says, “I wasn’t going to save anyone who wasn’t ready to be saved, and if I was expecting gratitude for what I was trying to do, I was on a fool’s mission–the people I was trying to help hadn’t asked me to help them, and they didn’t owe me anything.  All I could do was share what I had to share with whoever was willing to  listen.” How many times do we run up against this truth?  And how often do we let it stop us?

Despite being young and inexperienced, Strickland refused to let the frustration of fighting against the identity of poverty and defeat stop him from achieving his dream. When people failed to come, he walked the streets in search of people willing to take a chance on finding a new identity.

Maybe I’m projecting here, but reading this made me think of others long ago who faced the frustration and disappointment of working to change identities and lives. These fishers-of-men  went searching for souls as well. Pulling on worn sandals and taking only the shirts on their backs, they set out to offer a new identity to anyone willing to risk releasing the old.

Strickland ends the chapter with a few thoughts on identity that I found inspiring. The first was that  identity “….isn’t something you inherit, it’s something you must discover.” We’re free to make ourselves, to choose our identity despite the circumstances we were born into…and the realization that this is true brings the freedom of discovery and the burden of responsibility.

The second point comes into play as a group of children from Strickland’s program show their pottery in an affluent neighborhood and have the life-changing experience of being seen as “….Someone with something beautiful to show, something valuable to share, some powerful story to tell.” Those words make me think again of those fishers-of-men who offered healing through their willingness to touch, listen, and see even the most destitute among them as complete and worthy people. It should come as no surprise that this approach is profoundly successful in giving despondent people the chance to embrace a new identity.

Light on the Hay photo by Ann Voskamp. Used with permission. Post written by Erica Hale.

From the network:  Laura continues the journey in her post, Dream On,  LL’s post, On Getting It,  takes us in unexpected directions, Marcus blogs about beauty, hope and responsibility, nAncY’s book.club post touches on the unpredictable ways the Holy Spirit guides us, Erica’s Mission Work explores another kind of mission.

Tagged as: Bill Strickland, book club, identity, Make the Impossible Possible