Two things about Leeana’s story stick out to me:
1. Leeana had previously heard about the difference between desire and duty, but it wasn’t until she had an impactful experience that she really understood it.
2. Instead of dismissing what the tour guide had to say based on their differing beliefs, Leeana found value in what the woman shared.
Has an experience ever triggered understanding for you?
When have you found value in something said by someone whose beliefs don’t match up with your own?
Updating…
Leeana Tankersley is the author of the book Found Art: Discovering Beauty in Foreign Places and blogs at gypsyink.com.
yes, an experience has triggered understanding for me!!
i was working as a midwife in kirema, uganda, with a laboring woman whose baby was in distress. in a western hospital, she’d have had an emergency c-section, but in this up-country clinic, it looked as if her baby was going to die, and there was nothing i could do. i screamed at god, loudly, in the jungle behind the health center, telling him he had f***ed up the world to let it become a place where babies and mothers died because of where they happen to be. i had just examined the mother, and her labor was not progressing, and there was thick meconium (a sign that the baby was in distress)
when i walked back in from my praying, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl! i learned that god listens to me and cares for people, even if s/he doesn’t order the world as i think s/he ought!!
Leeana,
My wife and I spent a year teaching at Modern Knowledge Schools in Bahrain. We lived literally across the street from the back of the Grand Mosque and I wanted to say that we had very similar experiences visiting it. I often say that my Muslim sisters and brothers taught me to be a better Christian. Thank you for sharing and I glad others have shared the wonderful experience that my wife and I had.
this is pretty cool.. esp the sincere desire not obligation thing.. it would be interesting to visit the mosque.. I too love to find comparatives in others beliefs, faith, and systems… but after that I find that looking at the differences, especially discussing the weaknesses and honest “dunno’s” provides a different context.. a vunerability, in order to actually glean a deeper layer of meaning and connection… would love to hear about others experience of that too
It’s *got* to be … 9:40 AM on the East Coast. Darnit where’s the new one??? I don’t want to wait up any longer =)
Patience, Benjamin Ady:-) It’s on it’s way! Lately things have been so chaotic that I’ve considered skipping a week here and there, but figure better late than not at all! This week’s video should be posted in the next couple hours.
This reminds me of an experience I had with a Sikh friend. She had this little room in her house that I GUESS was some kind of prayer room or sanctuary. I went in there with her (after covering my head, of course), and I felt so safe and so at peace. It was kind of strange, actually. And then I listened to her explain her faith with this passion that was lacking in my own spiritual life.
This is what I took away from the experience: 1) Our Gods were probably one in the same, just interpreted and worshipped differently, 2) You should always be open to other peoples’ beliefs b/c you just might learn something about your own, and 3) I wanted to be as passionate about my beliefs as she was about her’s.