The Witness Who Gathers- Testimony as Foundation
Yesod of Hod Day 34 of 50 · Foundation within Splendor
The Witness Who Gathers- Testimony as Foundation
The thirty-fourth saying of the Living Christ:
Do not forge your testimony into a chain that binds; let it be a hearth that gathers. Your witness is not a tower built for your own name, but a key to set the captives free. If the people gather around the speaker and not the Work, the foundation is but a cage.
Do not let your witness be a bell rung in a tomb in your own soul. Greed might hoard the word for itself, believing it gives it the upper hand in the marketplace. A wounded soul that is afraid to share its testimony cannot be healed by it. The word heals together, not alone. The word is the seed of the Spirit. It must be planted in relationship so it can take root and grow. If the seed is not sown, it can never grow to fullness in the living fields of the world. A witness does not stay where they saw the wonder, they gather the seeds of that wonder and go to share it. They plant the seed of awe and tend the soil to keep weeds from overshadowing it. If they do not, their testimony’s power stays trapped in the seed, unable to grow. It cannot help the community if they cannot find it in the garden.
Testimony creates community.
When the witness faithfully speaks, they call others to the word they share. The word does not demand agreement or imitation. It awakens the soul and focuses attention so others feel safe enough to name what they have seen. For others, it opens their eyes so they have the courage to see.
Witness is a foundation. It is not a voice that cries out alone. When the witness works from their courageous heart, they prepare the room for others to enter and build the strength of their own hearts. The community gathered around shared testimony is held together by the living, honest witness flowing through them, not the beliefs crafted into idols, from the clay of dead dogmas.
When the tradition lives in the living words of God, it is alive. It does not live in the sepulchers of words given for former times when the people could not bear to hear the truth. Every generation covers its ears so that it cannot hear the words of liberation; they cannot accept them. Knowledge of the truth grows as the field is tended, so it can bear more fruitful and powerful words of freedom. Some heirloom seeds pass from generation to generation because they have stood for the liberation of all. Every seed does not bear fruit in every generation. Those must not be planted again.
Let your testimony make room for the testimony of others.
A firm foundation restores the purpose of the community: to be a witness to the wonder, grace, creativity, and liberation God fosters in the world. The word of God opens the way, it does not close it. It is an invitation to receive grace rather than a cloud that blinds the eyes.
The soul is healed when the witness learns their testimony is not their possession, but a seed for the field of life. The world is healed because a community that sees honestly and speaks faithfully shines the light of God onto the whole world.
The witness who gathers does not build a monument to what they have seen.
They build a school for seeing.
Matthew Fox calls it 1+1=3: one tradition meeting one life makes a third thing no one expected. Creation’s Paths: A Creation Spirituality Primer is that third thing and an invitation to find yours.
