PREGNANT WITH HOPES THAT ARE THE WRONG SIZE FOR THIS WORLD……
Emmanuel | Friday, March 11th, 2011 | 7 Comments »A quote from Greg Boyle’s Tattoos on the Heart – very highly recommended – was a refreshing gift this morning. As always Greg Boyle captures the heart of the Christian calling with such vivid simplicity. Quoting the American poet Jack Gilbert, he writes: “the pregnant heart is driven to hopes that are the wrong size for this world.” (p. 172)
The quote reminded me (again) of the recent Great Lakes Leadership Institute, and the incredible stories o f hope (“exhibits of new creation” we called them) from leaders like Archbishop Odama (left): ‘my tribe is humanity’; Angelina Atyam: ‘every child is my child’; David Kasali: ‘baptism baptizes everything’…….
All these leaders, indeed, all the leaders I know and admire: Nelson Mandela, Thomas Sankara, Paride Taban, Maggy Barankitse ……they all have this in common: they are “pregnant with hopes that are the wrong size for this world.” This is what makes them restless, even ‘odd’ – never able to fit in with the accepted conventions of what is ‘normal – but always searching for a more, reaching out something better, for a future not yet realized.
Moreover, they are not only (themselves) pregnant with the sort of out of size hope that Boyle writes about, they inspire the same pregnant hope and serve as its midwives in others, including those that society tends to write off.
For the good news is that “anyone in Christ, there is a new creation (2cor 5: 17) – translation: “every baptized is pregnant with hopes that are the wrong size for this world.”
What a powerful reminder with which to begin the Lenten journey! Throughout the season, I will name and claim this good news, while pondering the best ways to nurture and bring to term my own small pregnancy!
Should we assume that ‘HOPE’ is the new way for being fully human? I have read about countless stories of people who find themselves in out of the ordinary conditions, they all carry the same conclusion: we were able to retain our humanity, not because we had human bodies, because even some conditions reduced us to mere brutes, but because we had Hope as the inspiring power within us to withstand all the pains and agonies that our conditions imposed on us!!!
This is so powerful! Thank you.
If I knew what it feels like to be pregnant with an oversize or undersize baby in the biological sense of the word, I would perhaps have understood this even better.
Dear Emmanuel,
I have just been reading Dr. Musekura’s peice on Forgiving as We’ve Been Forgiven and little did I know that I will be coming across the same, exact words in the above posted article. If there are many ways through God takes pleasure in communicating with us, I profoundly convinced of the gift of HOPE as being the most preferable God’s ways for a ship in the harbour is safe but this is not what ships are built for
Greetings from Uganda,
Dave
Hi Emma,
You know what? Your reflection has touched me as I think about my vision of Bethany Miracle Village. Pray for me that one day it may be realized.
Love and prayers.
Fr. Joe
Fr. Emmanuel I love the way you used the metaphor “pregnant hopes” in your reflection. What a powerful reflection Uncle Emmanuel as we kick off this Lenten season! I am reminded again that life is defined by our own hopes. Fr. Joe and Fr. Emma you’re my living examples being ‘pregnant with hopes’ and really believing in these hopes each day throughout the year- making a positive difference in God’s vineyard. This year finds me with lots of hopes and I am counting on your prayers.
Love and blessings,
Godfrey. D
Lakewood, Oh
Pregnancy as an experience that the majority of women undergo, raises in them mixed feelings of excitement and anxiety. For the biggest number of them the excitement is inspired by the hope of becoming mothers, and therefore vehicles and propagators of new life.
However, while this may be the case on their side, there is the lively culture of death that would rather see this hope shattered. In that case, these women are not only “pregnant with hopes that are not only the wrong size for this world,” but I should add, also “the undesired product for this world.”
The powerful metaphor of pregnancy, invites me, for one, like those courageous numberless women in the world who bring their pregnancies to term, not only to be a sentry for the much needed hope in the world, but also an agent of the same, against all odds – at all times. Hope is life!