"Giving and Receiving" or "The Collective Process"

Linda Moore on Giving and Receiving in Cascade, July 2010 - Cascade Listening Project from Joshua Franklin on Vimeo.

About a month ago I had the honor of interviewing Cascade resident Linda Moore just before she moved outside Seattle to Vashon Island. Linda's years here were eventful for sure, and full of relevant lessons for current residents; one about giving and receiving through the collective process is captured in the snipet above.

I especially appreciate the clay pot illustration. As Joshua has wisely pointed out, having a diversity of opinions is not a problem, but having no process by which a community can work through differing opinions is a problem. So we're advocating for that process, helping to discern it, and along with everyone else, being transformed by it.

Learning how to be a part of Cascade is learning how to have our hands on the turning pot, while resisting the urge to push other hands off or overextend ourselves by thinking that only our own hands are suitable. During this process we are actively working with God and at the same time submitting to the ways that God is working with our neighbors. It's a great pleasure to listen, to wonder how people's stories may intersect with ours, to find common ground, to connect, to get angry, to appreciate, to see people grow, to be in relationship with the cast of characters that make up this place.

I am so thankful that God works through all of us--not taking over the wheel, but deeply knowing and working with the many wonderfully and terribly human hands on the clay.