What is your kryptonite?
Venture further with me into my imagination and what you might notice is the way I am thinking about how each of us shows up in our respective communities in this one particular “way” (virtue) AND when we all keep showing up, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Could this be true? I hope so.
It takes a bit of the weight off, right? When I am faced with the potential to “bear God’s image” - that is pretty overwhelming. But created to hold and carry and share one particular part of the image of God? That sounds awesome.
Additionally, it allows for the need for all of us to show up for community, which I happen to believe with all my heart. But do we have to show up and be all the parts of God? No way! That’s codependency run amok!
Again, I can breathe. Because it occurs to me that if I was created to bear one particular part of the overall image of God, maybe I am uniquely created to thrive in the bringing of this one true thing. But I am NOT responsible for bringing all things. Just one.
For example, I can bring the courage, but courage isn’t the only characteristic of God needed for any and every situation. Our community gathers once a month for a potluck dinner. We have stopped trying to keep lists and control the outcome. Some months we have mostly desserts (my favorite months), other times we make all the carnivores among us extremely happy as we have loads of meat but few veggies. Once a month a potluck is a fun adventure. But on a daily basis, I strive for more balance.
Daring to believe that we all have one primary virtue (don’t drag out the analogy too far, we can at various times be virtuous in other ways too) that our tribe desperately needs us to bring to the table helps me wake up to both my potential and my problems.
In a truly paradoxically and balanced fashion, it turns out that for every virtue, there is an equal and opposite temptation to be lacking in virtue. If my virtue is courage, then I am more prone than others to be plagued by cowardice. See how that works?
This self-awareness can be a huge motivator for further exploration. But for today - think about this: what is your virtue? What is your kryptonite?
