The Pronouns of Lent

Somehow it seems that the simple fact that God looked at Adam all alone in the Garden and declared “It is not good for the man to be alone” would suggest that God is not fond of us humans using too many singular pronouns! Unfortunately, Christian vocabulary seems to ignore (maybe disagree) with that idea.

I hear a whole lot of I, my, and mine and a lot less of we, our, and ours. The plural pronouns we do use seem to be more in the realm of “us v. them” instead of “we.”

In Jim Henderson, Todd Hunter, and Craig Spinks’ The Outsider Interviews, Todd Hunter writes a section titled “Everything I Learned about Dialogue Since I Knew It All.” In the brief chapter, he lists six things he learned over the years in trying to create dialogue among Christians and “outsiders,” the authors’ term for people “outside” the Kingdom. One of his six is “We need a little less us and them and a little more we.” (page 169)

The “It is not good for the man to be alone” creation idea makes me think about Jesus’ comment in Matthew 18 where He says “Where two or three come together in my name, I am with them.” Despite the temptation to think “If I could just shut the office door . . .”, it seems clear that the Lone Ranger syndrome is not born in the heart of Jesus. That surely implies that whatever gifts for ministry and service I have as an individual, they only work, matter, and help change the world because of the “we” with whom I’ve gathered around Jesus.

As you are reading this, I am in Tacna, Peru, teaching for Seminary of the Nations. “I” could never do this were it not for the dozens of women and men whose lives have impacted mine – from parents to teachers to mentors to . . . And, of course, had I not married well, such a trip might not happen either. If many, many believers didn’t invest in Seminary of the Nations, there would be no funds to get me there. And, if Dr. Steve Hooks didn’t manage those funds well and invite me to go, it would never happen. Were it not for the work of Christians in Chile and Peru and missionaries like Doug Kallestad, even if I got there, there would be no indigenous pastors to teach. So how could I ever be comfortable just thinking “I am going to Peru?”

None of those questions even begins to exhaust the list. If I’ve read (and been taught by lots of “we” kind of people in my life) the Bible correctly, I surely shouldn’t leave out God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the “we” of my life.

On this Ash Wednesday, 2011, I’ve decided, with the help of lots of people around me, that first person singular pronouns need to be less frequent in my life and I should start recognizing the power and reality of “we.” I want to eliminate the tendency we sometimes have to look at the world in terms of “them” and “us.” I want to remember that whatever the “I” that identifies who I am means, it means little or nothing without awareness of the “we” that has contributed to that person.