How the Lion Learned to Roar

I was sitting on Friday in business meeting as the Europe and Middle East Section of FWCC made nominations for the needed committees while we’re here in Herzberg, Switzerland. It’s often interesting to see how other Quakers besides my own meeting do business as my meeting is, admittedly, of a different variety, particularly as it relates to time and conducting business. Our meetings tend to be very simple, straightforward, and as many of us were not brought up Quaker, they are pretty quick as well. One day, our pastor hopes we will have something truly controversial to discuss to see how we handle it, controversial being a deeply relative term for our church. But as of yet, this has not come to be. So I sit in the business meetings of other groups of Friends, observing the differences and the similarities in relation to what I know. 

As an example, here in Europe, when agreeing on an item of business, Friends say, “hope so,” whereas at home we would say, “affirmed." Not understanding what everyone was saying, I asked my neighbor and she later inquired if I was a new Quaker. I told her I wasn’t but explained that different groups of Friends in America reply in business meetings in different ways. It’s a truth important to remember: the ways we know are not everyone’s ways. We are all different. I have been reminded of this several times in the last two weeks.

After business meeting, the clerk ran through the schedule for the next morning. This year, the Europe and Middle East Section of FWCC, the Europe and Middle East Young Adult Friends, and the Executive Committee all met together. I’m not sure of the exact number, but there were over 80 Friends from all over the world in Herzberg. Some things on our schedules were all together and some were separate. Since I had only seen the Young Adult schedule, I had assumed that the morning session where I would be speaking with four other people from around the world was only going to be with the young adults. Apparently not. It was one of the times when we were all together. It’s probably a good thing we had a bit of quiet after that announcement because what was going through my head was something along the lines of, “All 80? All these weighty Friends whom I respect from so many countries? (Breathing) Okay. . .”

My reaction reminded me, on a somewhat smaller scale, of what I felt in Kenya when I was told I would be speaking first thing in the morning to 1,200 people, and as my friend Ruth so beautifully whispered to me before I went up that day, “If you can talk in front of them, you can talk in front of anybody!” But more than this encouragement, that morning had already given me strength that changed me forever. Strength I knew would be flowing through me as I spoke.

On the drive to the Kenya youth conference, something I have never written publicly about happened, I had a conversation with God in the front seat of the van. I was praying for wisdom and that God would supply me with the right words to say and the ability to say them without a translator to such a large audience. I wasn’t nervous about the speaking or even the number of people in the audience; I was quivering a bit inside because of God’s trust in me to speak to so many.

What God told me are words I will forever treasure, words that still bring me to my knees in tears: “You were right.” I knew exactly what was meant. There were times when people told me they didn’t see me in ministry, that they wouldn’t put me up in front of an audience, or didn’t believe in my abilities as a speaker, though I knew without a doubt that is what I was born to do, I was indeed right the whole time. God then told me, “Go and take your rightful place,” which filled me with visions of Simba walking up Pride Rock to take his rightful place at the end of The Lion King. I took that microphone that morning with a steady hand, an iron rod of steel strength up my back which has never left. Around my neck was a lion’s tooth hanging on a beaded necklace, a necklace that was also around my neck this weekend. A lion is a special image between God and me and I sometimes wear this necklace to remind myself of the Truths I’ve been taught.