Am I Good Enough to be a Quaker?

QuakerSpeak is a bi-weekly video series. New video every other THURSDAY!

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Filming and Editing by Rebecca Hamilton-Levi

Music: "Ghost Byzantine" by Blue Dot Sessions
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Transcript:

Sometimes sitting in worship can be excruciatingly uncomfortable. The way I describe it (and this came to me many, many years ago sitting in worship): I feel like all the other Quaker’s minds are like old Irishsetter dogs; they come into worship, they circle in front of the fire for a couple of times, and they settle into the silence. And my brain is like a chihuahua with the mailman stepping onto the front porch — just yapping yapping yapping yapping yapping. I later learned about the monkey mind of Buddhism but just constant.. constant chatter, so it’s sometimes very, very challenging and also a gift.

Am I Good Enough to be a Quaker?

I’m Mary Linda McKinney; I live in Nashville, Tennessee; and I’m a longtime member of Nashville Friends Meeting although for the last three years I’ve been on sojourn with a number of other faith communities.

So what does it mean to me to be a bad Quaker? And I actually think I have to step back from that and say what does it mean to be a good Quaker? So I think there are two answers to that: one is cultural and one is spiritual, and I’m bad at being a cultural Quaker. I think I’m good at being a spiritual Quaker.

A Distinction Between Culture and Spirit

I have severe ADD. I always march to my own drummer and my drummer doesn’t play the type of music that anybody around me ever wants to hear. I’m pretty much a misfit in any community that I’m around, and that includes Quakers. I don’t make small talk; I’m blunt but not in the good Quakerly kind of ways of being blunt. Culture is very uncomfortable for me sometimes. But spiritually to be a good Quaker is to seek the will of God as an individual and corporally with others, and from that perspective I feel like I’m a good Quaker because I do want to live my life letting God’s will flow through me and I want to do that in community with others.

Showing Up As You Are

I think God always meets us where we are, and over the decade that I have been a Friend I have been in so many different states of being and meeting for worship was both a comfort to me and a challenge for me but I was being as good a Friend as I knew how to be or was able to be, and being there as my authentic self was what I had to offer to God at the point. So I’ll say that I think when we show up that’s all God requires of us.

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The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.

[Lwr]

I watched and rewatched the last section 'Showing up as you are' over and over again. It really resonated with me where i currently am and brought comfort. Thank you🙏

[annekatrin]

Thank you very much for sharing your experience and thoughts on this. I am very much struggling with the notion of "being good enough" to become a quaker. I went to several meetings for worship (in person and online) over the last years and read a lot and feel very much at home with this community. On the other hand I feel that I do not have the right to really join the friends, because of the company I work for and the fact that I also can be very blunt. I have no job in any kind of service to mankind and these are no times to quit an otherwise safe job :/ It may all sound stupid but I really struggle with this.

[cathylegg]

Great insights Mary Linda! Greetings from Melbourne, Australia

[Hillbilly]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I found them very encouraging.

[hammadoolass]

I was born a Quaker and have never asked myself if I am good enough to be a Quaker, simply because that is what I am and what I have always been. God and I have an understanding - and that's good enough for me.

[larrythepcguy]

I'm not affiliated with the quaker religion, however, I have been strongly influenced introspectively by Isaac Pennington.
I have been to friends meetings both here in Florida and Ireland. Like you I have no time for small talk, and don't fit into denominations, but the quaker meetings need some teacher to lead, as offices of teacher in the spirit, is probably a continued necessary gift to all denominations based on Ephesians 4 to stimulate focus and uplifting discussions.
Shalom in Christ
Silence in solitude! Encouraging in fellowship !
🙏
Oh is there a quaker ZOOM schedule anywhere ?

[michaelerichund]

Very nice, but the video itself could be fleshed out a bit more with other voices speaking to the query "Am I Good Enough to be a Quaker?"

[RodCornholio]

The pacifism makes me a bad Quaker. If someone is trying to kidnap me, my friends or family...my gun's gonna start rockin'.