FEBRUARY 2023 -- MESSAGE FROM THE INTERFAITH ALLIANCE CHAIR,
Les Wardenaar, Member of Fremont United Methodist Church
The term “aha moment” is greatly overused, but the experience—a sudden realization, inspiration, or insight brought on by the unexpected —is dramatic. And my engagement in the Alliance and in Shelter Now has produced some of my most special moments.
The most impactful have resulted from immediate contact with those damaged by poverty and seeking to overcome it. I remember the moving life story of Lori, selling Street Roots at Westminster Presbyterian, who spoke at a First Thursday meeting. Her very professional and satisfying life had unraveled due to addiction and she was now working to rebuild it. There was something about her story that struck me immediately and hard – the vulnerability we all share as human beings. I empathized with her instantly. Lori brought a sudden aha moment for me.
More recently, we heard the testimony of Runa, who stated very directly that her discovery of We Shine’s new village at Parkrose UCC had literally saved her life from almost certain suicide. Of course, I conceptually support the work of We Shine. But for me, Runa’s story was beyond concept. Runa brought me a new reality. I felt my heart beat with sudden awareness.
At our January 2023 Interfaith Alliance Meeting, we saw a video featuring Native American children, and learned about the ways in which their lives have been traumatized and forever altered by the many controls our white culture has employed to treat America’s first inhabitants. The emotional impact of the video was visceral.
Some people experience their strongest aha moments in nature, but while I have experienced those sensations, the most compelling inspiration for me comes from language. When Pastor Chris Dela Cruz, speaking at last year’s Roseanne Haggerty event, emphatically called Portland houselessness challenge a matter of “soul,” my body resonated with a rush of adrenaline.
When Pastor Erin Martin recently opened a First Thursday meeting with powerful passages from Isaiah, I again felt such a rush of insight, inspiration and the power of God. I had heard these verses before, but in that moment they completely captured me.
Language, especially metaphoric language, moves me in startling ways. That is the basic reason why I frequently end our meetings with poems. I have discovered that certain poems rock my sensibility. It’s little bit selfish, I guess, but hopefully it has created an occasional aha moment for some of you, as well.
I see these kinds of moments within the context of the Interfaith Alliance as flashes of inspiration and recognition sent directly from God with the intention of shaking us from our dulled-by-the-usual senses. The message typically isn’t entirely new, but our experience of it in that moment is astonishingly clear. It’s one of the many ways that God communicates to us – with messages that urge us onward in our fight for social justice.
Aha moments are direct experiences of God’s voice in our lives. I am grateful to the Interfaith Alliance for enabling me to hear that voice and to feel God’s presence in such powerful ways. Les Wardenaar