Life around the chapel is bursting with spiritual, religious and learning opportunities; it’s like a colorful marketplace, where people of various faiths and ethnic backgrounds come not to sell but to share what is most precious to them. And we all grow.
Take me and the Druid fellow with whom I recently connected at a study session. He was asked, interestingly, if he had views on free will and destiny. “Most of life we get to choose our direction,” he asserted. “Destiny is what happens to us, but even then we get to choose our response.” I wasn’t sure I agreed about the balance tipping one way or another (I don’t know how one measures these things), and destiny isn’t a word I’m used to using. Nonetheless I got excited to apply these concepts to the Joseph story, which was on the agenda for the session; it’s found in the Hebrew Bible (and the Quran too).
Joseph’s brothers, you may recall, nursed a hatred for him, and in the story they choose a course of action — throw him in a pit and leave him to die. But then lo! A caravan unexpectedly happens on the scene (destiny!), and one brother gets a fresh idea — maybe we don’t actually have to kill Joseph to be rid of him. “After all, he is our brother,” he reflects. They change course, and sell Joseph to the traders instead. Not a perfect alternative, granted; but it saves Joseph’s life. And the story turns.
We might also call it destiny that the brothers came from a complicated, troubled family, and so perhaps felt powerlessly swept along by its dynamics. Maybe they didn’t even realize that they had choices. If we feel ambivalent about our direction (which at least one brother clearly did), it’s still hard to press pause and redirect when we can’t imagine what to do instead. It was the passing strangers that spurred the fresh thinking. “Thank god for the caravan,” I exclaimed, this time choosing god language over destiny. And thank god for the Druid friend who got me thinking about a familiar story in new ways!
Consider making your way to the chapel this term. You never know with whom you might cross paths!
– Shosh Dworsky, Associate Chaplain