On April 10th my horoscope read: "You can come up with bright ideas on your own, but bouncing off of another luminous mind produces the truly brilliant ones. Get together with the smartest person you know to start the ball rolling." I so loved these words that I clipped them out of the paper and have carried them with me ever since. That morning I was meeting with one of the smartest people I know and I shared this little directive with him. We agreed we were up for what ever work our meeting required of us.
Today I shared this horoscope with my co-workers at our weekly staff meeting. I told them I had adopted it as my ‘daily’ horoscope, at least for the time being, and I implied that I looked to them as luminous minds I could count on. For me these words are advice to get up with every day. I can most certainly come up with some fairly ‘bright’ ideas. But the truly brilliant ones are those that rise to the top of a boiling pot of a multiplicity of ideas born out of gathering around tables, dreaming, discussing, asking questions, a little argument here or there, a prayer or two…and probably lots of coffee. Those are the places where brilliance is born.
When the apostle Paul described the community of believers as being like a body where every part was important, I think this is the concept he may have had in mind. Each of us, equipped with unique gifts, bring to any situation, any community, the raw potential needed to solve any problem, realize any dream. So many times, we sit by and let others design the show and don’t offer what we have beating in our heart. Or other times, we are so filled with our own ‘bright idea agenda’ that we railroad our way past the luminous beings heating the seat next to us.
I’d be happy to share my horoscope with you. As a Gemini, I can generally say we like to share. So if you are about to embark on a new adventure, a new life plan or you just need to figure out what to have for dinner, I’d suggest phoning a friend for a bright idea. Together your luminous minds might attain brilliance. I’m pretty sure that’s how it works.
"The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enter into the exuberance." 1 Corinthians 12, The Message, Eugene Peterson