{"id":40451,"date":"2025-02-06T09:56:56","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T17:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=40451"},"modified":"2025-02-06T09:56:56","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T17:56:56","slug":"compassion-for-unlikely-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/compassion-for-unlikely-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Compassion for Unlikely Heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I could tell you about the time my Tata Pablo<\/em> was buried alive, trapped in a copper mine collapse. I could tell you about the journey my maternal grandparents took, leaving their middle-class existence in the Midwest to try and launch a new kind of incarnational ministry on the U.S. southern border\u2014full of trials and ending with something of a whimper. Or the story of how my Nana Idolina<\/em> left school at just seven years old to care for her siblings and would always long to return for education. Maybe someday I\u2019ll share those with you–they are family stories that the G\u00f3mezes tell to remind ourselves of where we\u2019ve come from and to see God\u2019s faithfulness at work even in the most challenging circumstances.<\/p>\n

We all long to be part of a bigger story\u2014to know that we\u2019re part of something greater than ourselves. Who among us hasn\u2019t sensed the stirring for adventure and purpose? In the small and still moments just before sleep, we can sometimes hear the niggling whisper of, \u201cThere must be more than this.\u201d Campbell\u2019s The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em> reveals how deeply rooted this longing to be part of a bigger story is within humanity[1]<\/a>. Each of the family stories above echoes the arc laid out by Campbell\u2014at least when they\u2019re told in the fullest and most compelling ways.<\/p>\n

While Campbell might say the story of Christ reveals or echoes the metanarrative of the Hero\u2019s Journey[2]<\/a>, one could argue it is actually the truest, fullest fulfillment of that story–one that every other mythology points to. We read that God has \u201cset eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end\u201d (Ecc. 3:11, NIV). If so, our longing for this story is imparted in us by God as part of the gift of our humanity. Perhaps this is a sacred invitation to participate in that greater story and receive its treasures.<\/p>\n

One of the elements that struck me in Campbell\u2019s work is the thresholds that must be crossed\u2014moments where there is no turning back and everything changes, often in a way that brings greater complexity. I\u2019m processing how, as leaders and doctoral researchers, when we invite people into transformation, we are inviting them to cross thresholds of understanding[3]<\/a>. The struggles inherent in engaging with threshold concepts might look like tests<\/em>, require helpers<\/em>, and result in emerging<\/em> with the concept in such a way that they can share it with their world. I have found this a beneficial frame in appreciating the inherent disorientation that happens when we invite people into these thresholds. Threshold concepts are, in some ways, little hero\u2019s journeys for those willing to traverse them. This changes how I invite others into and journey along with them in their liminal spaces. I think it helps awaken compassionate curiosity toward the one on the journey\u2014it is a challenging, sometimes dark journey where we need true friends.<\/p>\n

A point of tension for me is that in interacting with Campbell\u2019s monomyth<\/em>, we may be tempted to see ourselves as the main character. No doubt, we all have been and will again (and again!) be called upon to play heroic roles in the story we\u2019re a part of, but we aren\u2019t the <\/em>Hero of the <\/em>Story. Neither are we the only ones walking the journey; those we do life with, those we serve and lead and call to more, are each themselves on their own journeys in this grand narrative. This again invites compassionate curiosity and requires us to move outside of our own story to fully participate with others.<\/p>\n

To be wholehearted in our participation in the story God is writing is certainly the invitation, but with it comes the need to recognize, \u201cFor now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known\u201d (1 Cor 13:12, NIV). I wonder how much holding on to faith, hope, and love (the virtues we are pointed toward on the heels of 1 Cor 13:12) allows us to walk with open-handed joy as we traverse our heroic journeys, even as we trust they are part of the bigger story God is telling in the world, though we may not be able to see it.<\/p>\n

When my Tata<\/em>, Nana<\/em>, and Grandma each passed away, I was grateful for their stories. Theirs are the stories of unlikely heroes–stories of risk, loss, rescue, and redemption. They are stories that live on beyond them and point to the living hope of the Hero who has offered us the greatest rescue and won the fullest redemption.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em>. Third edition. Novato, CA: New World<\/p>\n

Library, 2008.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> “All the Gods Are Within Us.” Joseph Campbell Foundation. January 24, 2023. Video, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KULwoop94cQ.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Land, Ray, Jan H. F. Meyer, and Michael T. Flanagan, eds. Threshold Concepts in Practice<\/em>. (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2016), xii.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I could tell you about the time my Tata Pablo was buried alive, trapped in a copper mine collapse. I could tell you about the journey my maternal grandparents took, leaving their middle-class existence in the Midwest to try and launch a new kind of incarnational ministry on the U.S. southern border\u2014full of trials and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":227,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[1],"tags":[789,3397],"class_list":["post-40451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-campbell","tag-dlgp04","cohort-dlgp04"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40451","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\/227"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40451"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40454,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40451\/revisions\/40454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}