This week I’ll be traveling to San Francisco as part of the Next Generation Leadership Initiative, a clergy leadership program I’m part of. One of the things I’ll be doing with my colleagues is attending a Maker Faire. (If you’ve never heard of one, you can check it out here: http://makerfaire.com/)

As the website explains, Maker Faire is “a family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement.” That movement, “offers the opportunity for us to see ourselves as more than consumers; we are productive; we are creative. Everyone is a maker and our world is what we make it.”

Our world is what we make it, and I am grateful for the people who jump in and try to make something good, and just, and beautiful of the world we’ve been given. While it can be tempting to sit back and consume or critique what others create, the makers in my life inspire me to take a risk and be part of those who are seeking to produce a better life for all.

Hanging in a friend’s office is a poem by Marge Piercy called, “To be of use.” It says, “The people I love best jump into work head first without dallying in the shallows… I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart, who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience, who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward, who do what has to be done, again and again.”
When new members join our congregation we tell them “UCG is not a spectator sport.” That means our congregation too is what we make it. Thanks to all of you makers and water buffalo who go down in the muck to create something beautiful here.

Vince