Who is my family?
Out last night to the leaving do of three work colleagues: two who have been with the organisation 30+ years and are retiring soon; another who has been with the office 15 years and is moving to our Manchester office.
We’ve known of the retirement coming up for a few years; celebrated the guys’ 60th birthdays with them a few years back etc. The office move for S has also been known about for a few months too.
The speeches included mention of a few of their foibles, and a lot of care for and support of others, some of whom really needed the chance to make what they could of their lives, through the education work that I too am part of.
Today, my mind is full of images of the previous night: the smart frocks (for a change), the dancing, the people who made a big effort to come back and who we used to work with a few years ago.
BC tends to be likened to a family, and it’s certainly an image that works. Around 100 different offices; the chance to step into a new country and have people to relate to who have the same kind of goals as you. The chance to meet more ‘family’ when there’s someone you are both connected to; or to regain family when someone comes back.
I’m aware that this kind of family is a bit like the kind professionals often find - a surgeon working in country X may have more in common with his counterpart in country Y than among his neighbours. What was also special was the number of ‘externals’: people working in related organisations who value the colleagues we were honouring; who through shared activity and goals have become part of the family too.
I wanted to say something today in the blog about the mix of ideas that goes around my mind for these people. Like family, sometimes they are the last people we want to be with. We see them too often. We seem to have the same goals - but very different interpretations of them. We are meant to be going the same way - but we don’t necessarily like doing it together…
And yet, and yet. These are the people I spend so many hours of my days with. The ones known to Dan through many conversations, some of whom he’s met. We share each others’ aspirations, frustrations, sorrows and joys.
Whenever we are asked to look at the pictures of the church in the Bible, and to deal with a similar situation of people we are thrown together with, but who are part of our family, I am challenged to look at how Christian community is different. Many of my colleagues, with a different faith, or none at all, are out making a difference in a way sometimes I feel I only aspire to. They are the ones who notice quickly when I am weak. They look out for me, with no Biblical message to spur them on to doing so.
I am grateful to have this situation, to learn from them and to continue to ask: how am I viewing this ‘family’ I’m placed into? How am I communicating with them? How much can I learn from them for how I can interact with my church family?
A Bible verse came to mind today: Matthew 12: 46-50, where Jesus is told that his mother and brothers are waiting outside, after he has been meeting with a crowd. He responds, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” He concludes that the disciples with him are also family, as are any that do the will of God.
Who is my family? Perhaps particularly strongly for me today, my family includes those I work with, who I am called to be with. Whether or not they know God, whether they are trying to follow His will, they are the ones around me. And at a time when there’s a lot of change, a lot of people leaving, I feel more of a sense to stay, to be there for this family too.
Add comment March 17th, 2007