{"id":29180,"date":"2022-10-20T18:11:45","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T01:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29180"},"modified":"2022-10-20T18:11:45","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T01:11:45","slug":"a-heros-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-heros-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"A Hero’s Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Joseph Campbell’s book, Hero with a Thousand Faces, I am reminded that those things that I strive for in the area of fulfillment and satisfaction in life will nearly always lie outside of my comfort zone. Campbell cleverly uses mythology to walk the reader through three life stages common to all “heroes” – and not only heroes, but humans. These stages are the Call, the Quest, and the Return. [1]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking of the Call, this is the time in the hero’s life when adventure begins. [2]\u00a0<\/strong>For the Christian, it can be a time when God speaks to one’s heart about a particular ministry. Campbell says that the hero can choose to respond or NOT to respond. This makes me think of Jonah and God’s call on his life to go to Ninevah. Jonah chose to run away. God pursued him anyway. For me also, it was a call to missions during a revival service when I was still a teenager. My heart pounded within me as my adventure in following after the heart of God began at a young age.<\/p>\n

After the Call comes the Quest. [3]<\/strong> Matthew Winkler, in his video, makes reference to a quote of Joseph Campbell’s …<\/p>\n

“In the cave you fear to enter lies the treasure you seek.”\u00a0[4]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Winkler goes on to explain that in our quests we face symbolic caves. These caves could be anything that we fear to face. He gives examples to get you thinking. My own caves are things such as loneliness on the mission field overseas, my health when it is poor, the welfare of my family at times…<\/p>\n

The final stage is the Return. [5] <\/strong>It can be the return to the original starting point. It can also be the fulfillment of your purpose, and the marking of the end of your journey. In that sense, it may even mark a transition from this life into the next life. I work with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. They still keep many of their ancient traditions alive. One of them is that of the “Shilombesh” – or “Spirit”. They believe when a person dies, the shilombesh<\/em> of that person will wander around unless guided into the next world by a bright light \/ fire. Thus, from the time of death until the burial they burn a bonfire to light the way for the spirit. They clean the house and give it fresh paint, and even pack a bag for the journey. No detail is overlooked.<\/p>\n

All of this is to say that it is not just the heroes in Joseph Campbell’s book that are on a quest for fulfillment. We all as human beings are seeking satisfaction in life. God calls each of us to different things. In our paths lie obstacles to overcome. We each have our own challenges. It is up to each of us to rise to the occasion, and to be a hero on a quest!<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\n
[1]<\/strong>\u00a0 Campbell, Joseph. 2008. The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/i>. 3rd ed. Bollingen Series XVII. Novato, Calif: New World Library.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[2]<\/strong>\u00a0 Campbell p.41<\/p>\n

[3]<\/strong>\u00a0 Campbell p.87<\/p>\n

[4]<\/strong> ed.ted.com\/lessons\/what-makes-a-hero-matthew-winkler<\/p>\n

[5]<\/strong> Campbell p.167<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Joseph Campbell’s book, Hero with a Thousand Faces, I am reminded that those things that I strive for in the area of fulfillment and satisfaction in life will nearly always lie outside of my comfort zone. Campbell cleverly uses mythology to walk the reader through three life stages common to all “heroes” – and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[571,1],"tags":[2119,2105,2407],"class_list":["post-29180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography-drama-history","category-uncategorized","tag-heros-journey","tag-joseph-campbell","tag-matthew-winkler","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29180"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29182,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29180\/revisions\/29182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}