CALLING NEW RECRUITS
“Are you the new recruit?” said the invisible chief... “All right. You are engaged.”
Syme, quite swept off his feet, made a feeble fight against this irrevocable phrase.
“I really have no experience,” he began.
“No one has any experience,” said the other, “of the Battle of Armageddon.”
“But I am really unfit—”
“You are willing, that is enough,” said the unknown.
“Well, really,” said Syme, “I don’t know any profession of which mere willingness is the final test.”
“I do,” said the other—“martyrs. I am condemning you to death. Good day.”
I am rereading Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday - my favorite book of all time.
On a first reading, it can seem simply a delightful and wild romp across England, at the beginning of the 20th century.
But it is actually a novel about suffering and trusting God even when we cannot at all perceive him.
That's the call for the believer. As Bonhoeffer famously wrote "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."
LinkedIn isn't really the place for that, is it? LinkedIn seems to be this place (sorry, "platform" 😂 ) where we are primarily tempted to project brilliance and success. Goodness, I know I feel that temptation and probably succumb to it more than I'd like to know.
But that's a trap.
When I think about the career moments that have mattered most to me, it has been the exchange of ideas and experiences with people whom I like.
I remember sitting in SHOES CUP & CORK in Leesburg Virginia with a brand strategist whom I deeply respect talking about our careers, a couple years ago, and he said something like "Yes, but this is the good stuff, right here, right now - our talking together about these things."
He was absolutely right. That's the good stuff. Lovely, meaningful fellowship around ideas and passions, in admiration of truth, goodness and beauty.
It is worlds away from bylines, followers, stages and awards. There's no pressure to impress or to live up to a status. There's just being. Just exploring. Together.
That's the good stuff.
If that sounds like the good stuff to you, then you should look into Illumination Community. It's simply a group of marketers, fundraisers and program professionals who get together monthly to explore various unconventional ideas about how we might inspire more people to take righteous action with Christian organizations.
It's not for everyone. Last meeting, while yes we discussed the "Giving Crisis", we also explored what we can learn and apply from the first two chapters of The Magician's Nephew, as well as an article claiming a "romantic backlash to the tech era."
We're exploring together. It's the good stuff.
As we've expanded Illumination Community to two different days per month, we are taking "new recruits" (no plans for "Battles of Armageddon" though).
Apply here: https://www.sublimity.co/illumination-community
PS - At one moment in The Man Who Was Thursday, an excited policeman with the "New Detective Corps for the frustration of the great conspiracy" realizes that Gabriel Syme is an ideal recruit and urges him to join immediately, for "A moment more, and you may lose the...glory of dying with the last heroes of the world."
While that's the level of excitement I feel about Illumination Community, I can assure you that we have no plans for the "glory of dying."
Chestertonian sky courtesy of our Creator this morning.
