I met an author I admire this summer. I have bought and read many of her books. I even took a class from her years ago. She’s smart and insightful. In the course of the conversation I shared with her that my book had been nominated for an award and she asked after my book. I shared the title, A Gracious Heresy: the Queer Calling of an Unlikely Prophet.
“Who’s the prophet?” she asked.
“Me.” I answered sheepishly and was promptly dismissed with a not-too-subtle eye roll.
Damm. Here’s the thing. I don’t call myself a prophet out of any sense of:
1- success;
2- exceptional job done, or
3- any claim of spiritual insightfulness.
Maybe I shouldn’t have included that prophet thing in the subtitle.
But it really is a part of my story of speaking truth to power, as they say. I claim it from an educated view of prophetic speech that is not in any way about the one speaking. Still, it was hard to be taken down a notch.
So let me share a few words from my book to clarify:
“A prophet? Are you kidding me? Thirty years ago I would have been right there with you. Believe me, I would never have called myself a prophet. Prophets are special. I am not. They have a direct line to God and the go- ahead and where-with-all to do all kinds of miraculous things. I do not. They rail at people for being idiots. Well, sometimes. They declare impend- ing doom. The most I can claim about impending doom is that I’m often scared. Prophets occasionally foretell the future. Not me. They are righteous in the extreme and above the fray and trials of this messy business we call life. Again, not me. Not in any lifetime. Not on any planet.
Boy, was I wrong. In seminary I learned just how wrong I was. I dis- covered that prophets are wonderfully flawed and chaotic people. Just like me. Folks often thought they were crazy. True here. Eventually I got to know the prophets as chums who spoke passionately and acted hyperbolically. I identified. I am not above the bedlam of life. I am neither a soothsayer who predicts the future nor a miracle worker. I am not particularly righteous, though I have been known to be self-righteous. To be honest I am a flock of flaws, surrounded by a majesty of misunderstandings, hobbled together with an impediment of imperfections. I am not special in any way to anyone except, maybe, to my mom and dad and daughter. I don’t have a direct line to God and when the party line is open, I often don’t hear—or more truth- fully, don’t listen—to what God is saying. I am strong willed and sometimes lazy. I get stuff wrong. A lot.”
So when I’m taken down a notch I need to remember to smile. Someone once told me my spiritual gift was humility. If that is true then it is only when I smile at myself.
Only when I smile.
Connie, you are one of my favorite prophets!
Yes, one of the many good traits you have. I love this part of your book too.
Gosh darn it. It seems that the person who “took you down a notch” really doesn’t get it. At all! A prophet is a person with a special message… Gee Connie! That’s YOU! In your book you make it abundantly clear that you are frail, humble, commit foibles regularly, and that you are like all of us. Yet you have a vision. You have wisdom that you share. You have superb talent in how to express it. Sometimes people smack us with a fist in the gut for no good reason at all, don’t they? Stand tall, Sister! Be proud of what you say and who you are! A prophet? Yes, indeed!!! Move on up a few notches today.