Weavings

When I first read E. Glenn Hinson’s article “Elpisizing” in the current issue of Weavings, I read it as a call for individual action.  However, as I continued to read and ponder Hinson’s words, it struck me that I cannot do the work of elpisizing alone. “The business of listening others to an awareness of the Eternal Listener” (p. 22) must always take place in relationship with others, in community. To listen, one must have another who speaks. To be vulnerable, accepting, expectant, and constant one must have another with whom to act out those qualities.

The real work of elpisizing can take many forms, but my most significant experiences of elpisizing have occurred in intentional communities. One such community was a group at my undergraduate university, whose mission was maintaining and uplifting the spirit of the school through service and acknowledgement of significant events for the school and the world with candlelit walks through campus. We distributed scholarships and emergency funds to students in need, giving many students unexpected opportunities to continue their education, to purchase expensive books, to fly home for a family emergency. These actions showed acceptance of individuals and their unique needs while at the same time offering constancy, the message, as Hinson says, that “persons matter more…and what persons become assumes infinite importance” (p. 20). Our candlelight walks also had an elpisizing effect on the school. The walks were reminders of our vulnerability in a world where shootings take the lives of students, faculty and staff on college campuses and where natural disasters destroy lives and livelihoods. The walks also demonstrated expectancy that our campus community could and would stand together to support one another and to make the world a better place.

At the time, of course, I did not think this work as elpisizing. But that is precisely what we were doing. We were listening to the needs of a community, responding with and to vulnerability with acceptance, expectancy, and constancy. Hinson’s article challenges us to look for opportunities to be in true community for that is where the “business of elpisizing” takes place.

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