Visions
by Beth Orchard, IPS Social Justice
Visions
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
Before you were born I set you apart…”
-Jeremiah 1:5[i]
The word ‘sankofa’ comes from West Africa. Literally translated from the original language it means, ‘it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot.’[ii] Essentially, what was left behind can be recovered, and what was lost can be found. This can also refer to how we review our pasts to inform our present and engage the future. ‘Sankofa’ also means there is always room to collect the ways and being which might have been forgotten to create a new mosaic composed of the old and the new.
It is easier to think of people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Gandhi and others as visionaries than it is to consider the same about ourselves. Although we herald them as modern day saints, each of these great leaders crafted their work over a number of years based on a vision. This vision guided them towards the work they would do later in life and perhaps even adapted and changed over time as they looked back to bring the past into the present and future works they hoped to accomplish.
The question of ‘sankofa’ for me is ‘where have I been, where am I now, and to where am I going?’ Each day as I wake up, I quietly contemplate how great leaders craft their vision one day at a time, piece by piece. It is a great puzzle to look back and see pieces of myself and realize I can mold those into a newer, wiser, and greater vision of who I hope to be in the future.
I felt for the longest time before I began exploring faith, that I was a person without a name; just another person trying to create a life that made sense. As I began reading about visionaries, leaders and prophets like Jesus, I quickly realized that leaders are not born with vision. Vision is something which develops, is molded and shaped by our collective experiences. As I came to faith and developed a new vision and identity for myself, I realized I had not lost any of the insight or experiences I had previously. They merely became a part of a greater whole that God created me for.
Although I believe I was not born with my vision, God knew this vision and I was led on the path of discovery. This realization took me some time to fathom, because I always thought I had it all figured out. By the time I came to faith, I knew where I was going and that vision was all that mattered. After God’s vision for my life became clearer, I realized He knew all along where I was going but He also knew I needed to discover it for myself. He could not place it in my open palm. I had to reach and outstretched hand towards Him to receive it.
‘Sankofa’ is how I describe my vision, and my journey. I must look to the past and realize all that I was in those moments were all I could be. Now, at the present time, I am doing all that I can do and I am living a vision for creating just community and rights for the oppressed. In the future, I will continue to work for justice, aided by my past history including values, mistakes, missed opportunities and relationships which gave rise to all God knew I could be.
To look back does not mean to live in regret, or in denial of our life’s choices and experiences. It is for us to take hold of the life we have been given and receive the blessing of our creation to live more fully. I truly believe when we know better, we do better.
“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child. When I became a man,
I put childish ways behind me.” -1Cor13:11[iii]
[i] All Biblical references are from TNIV.
[ii] University of Illinois at Springfield. http://www.uis.edu/africanamericanstudies/students/sankofa.html Accessed October 17, 2010.