Editor’s note: During this election season, when our political life in the United States seems especially contentious, Friends United Meeting has invited a variety of Friends to share their thoughts on how to navigate as a Quaker through these divided times. Our ninth installment is by Jennie Isbell Shinn, of New England Yearly Meeting.
Living Expectantly in Politically Charged Times, or Any Time
This election season, a familiar unrest and uncertainty are settling in my bones, again. I feel on edge and vigilant, even against my siblings who have different political affiliations. I remind myself that even the most faithful person cannot see into another’s heart, or fully know how God is at work in the other.
In a presentation to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions in 1979, Stephen G. Cary, then vice-president of Haverford College and chair of the board of the American Friends Service Committee, shared about vigiling for peace in Vietnam outside the White House with a group of clergy. In the group was Cary’s friend Episcopal bishop Robert DeWitt. While the group prayed for peace, another minister, Rev. Carl McIntyre, founder of the Bible Presbyterian Church, and a self-proclaimed fundamentalist, approached the group. He challenged the bishop in an angry, judgmental tone: “Bishop, you know of course, that in doing this you are playing right into the hands of the Communists!” DeWitt responded, gently and simply: “Carl, our aim is to play into the hands of God.” Is it so easy to mistake what is happening in a gathered body, praying? Yes, but to be clear, those caught in the act of praying were not at all confused. They knew what they were led to, and allowed no gap between the leading and the doing. I long for that clarity, but it is not always mine.
Awaiting the 2020 presidential election returns, I was making challah bread with a dozen or more other New England Yearly Meeting Quakers. We were on Zoom, under the loving encouragement of a dear f/Friend, who had sent recipes in advance and was coaching us all in our respective kitchens, with our kids in various states of “helping.” We were kneading, employing yeast, waiting, braiding, waiting some more for untried things to prove themselves. It was a different kind of playing our hopeful selves into the hands of God. We were kept apart by pandemic shutdowns and yet, so very together in nourishing work that was more than bread alone.
It’s not very satisfying to receive this question: What does God require of me, today, right now, right here? in the moments when I would rather receive the “faithful steps to take checklist” instead. But that IS the question at the center of a life that expects God to show up, expecting us to respond to the holy nudges we are given.
Play into the hands of God: Pray. Listen. Yield. Follow.
—Jennie Isbell Shinn
Mt. Toby Friends Meeting
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