「心を分かち合える場」

神の似姿に造られた人間にとって全人間的であること、すなわち知性だけではく、感情をみとめることが大事ではないでしょうか。どこかで読んだ本の中にありました。「狂人とは理性を失った人のことではなく、理性以外のすべてを失った人である」。強い人とは感情を押し殺す人ではありません。自分の内側に何が起こっているか(Emotional self awareness)を認識することは大事な事です。「天使を装うものは野獣になる。」という言葉もあります。内側がカラカラなのに、人々の前だけでいいかっこうしていると、いつか急に崩れてしまうのです。自分の弱さも分かち合える正直になれる「場」は人間らしく生きるのにどうしても必要なのです。TMCはこうした真のコミュニティ作りを目指しています。

———　

アメリカの有名なクリスチャン番組　７００クラブのホストの一人、歌手、ライターでもある、シェイラ・ワルッシュ（Sheila Walsh）が１９９２年に語った証より。

ある朝、私はかっこいい髪型とびしっとキメタ服装で全国版テレビ番組のためにスタジオに座っていたの。その夜、精神病院の病棟に閉じ込められていた。でも、それは神様が私に、してくれた最高に優しい行為だった。

病院での初日、精神科医が私に尋ねた。

「あなたは誰ですか？」

「私は７００クラブのホストの一人です。」

「いえいえ、そうじゃなくて、」

「それなら、私はライターであり、シンガーです。」

「そういう意味じゃなくて、あなたは誰ですか？」

「えっ！どういう事か全然わかりません。」

医者は答えた。

「そうでしょうね。だから、あなたは、ここに居るのですよ。」

私は他の人が自分をどう見るかで、自分を計っていた。段々にそれが

私を蝕んでいった。入院する前、７００クラブのスタッフの何人かは

私を止めて、こう言った。

「やめなさい。立場を失うよ。もし、人々が、あなたが精神病院に入って

　薬の世話になっていると知ったら、すべて終わりだよ。」

私は言った。

「どうせ、すべて終わりなの。そんな事、考えても無駄。」

本当にすべてを失ったと思った。家も、給料も、仕事も。すべて。

でも、私は自分の人生（I found my life）を見つけたの。自分の一番

最低の状況の中で、真実の自分を発見したの。神様は知っていたんだわ。

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー　

“Success in Life?”  by Henry Williamson

After growing up on a small farm in Evergreen, North Carolina, I found out in college and graduate school how hard work and achievement could bring me the success that I wanted.  What I didn’t find out until I was 27 years old is that those successes along didn’t bring the happiness I had hoped for.  When Jesus said, “life does not consist in the abundance of things that men possess….” He was talking to me.

I played baseball and basketball in high school.  When I went to college at East Carolina University in l965, it opened up a whole new world to me – one of possibilities and achievement.  I was a good student, graduating with honors as an undergraduate and an MBA.  While giving serious thought to getting a PhD, I finally decided to go to work instead, being employed by Branch Banking & Trust Corporation (BB&T) – a bank holding company.  Carrying the “achievement drive” with me to work at BB&T, I poured myself into my work and into achievement, into success and getting ahead. 

I soon left BB&T’s management training program and was transferred to Fayetteville, North Carolina.  Things were going very well – a new daughter, one of the youngest officers promoted to Assistant Vice President at BB&T, bought our first house, and was beginning to make a little money.  Things really seemed to be going pretty well, but I wasn’t happy and satisfied.  Why?

As a young professional and father of a new daughter, I thought that going to church was a way to insure this success and expose my child to good influences.  Little did I know that my whole belief system was about to be challenged by a Bible study teacher who defined success completely different from me ---doing the will of God, whatever the cost.  She was the wife of one of the pastors of the church.  We had debated about whether community charity contributions counted as part of a Christian’s offerings to God and about what it really meant to have a quite time with God. 

Then one Sunday morning as I sat in the Bible study class with a cup of coffee and a doughnut, this teacher announced to the class that she and her husband were moving to Bogotá, Columbia as missionaries.  I was shocked?  Why in the world would anyone do such a thing?

Soon after that, I was at the country club at a bank social function – sitting with a mixed drink in my hand, the music was blaring away in the background, people were all around me talking and laughing.  Then, just as plainly as anything I have ever heard, God said to me – “Henry choose.  You can’t have both!” 

There it was.  If I was to be a disciple of Christ, I had to follow Him and not just my own desires.  I believed what Jesus had offered as a way of salvation, but until that time, I was committed only to my own goals.  When Jesus said in John 3:16 that whoever believed in Him would have eternal life, I thought that was for later.  He said in John 5:24 “I tell you the truth; whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

At the age of 12, I believed in Him and asked Jesus to come into my heart and save me from the penalty of sin, which the Bible says is death (Romans 3:23).  I asked Him to give me the gift of eternal life because of my trust in Him as the Savior from my sin. 

Yet, I was to learn at age 27 that eternal life was mine for right now.  In John 17:3 Jesus said: “Now this is eternal life; that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”  In that country club, at that moment, I made a promise, a commitment to God to submit myself to Him and to stop resisting and fighting Him – to dedicate myself to God.  That commitment began a journey that has taken me up to this very day.

Now that I am following Christ, the question that I try to keep before myself is this --- knowing that I am a spiritual person as well as a physical person, where is my achievement and success?  Am I a spiritual person who wrestles with physical issues or a physical personal who wrestles with spiritual issues?  I find that question keeps me on track and helps me to discover even more of the eternal life that is mine through knowing Jesus Christ.  And by the way, that’s what I was looking for all along.

——————————————————

■ ヘンリー・ウィリアムソン（Henry  Williamson）
Former COO BB&T Corporation (Retired in 04) 

２００４年まで同社のＣＯＯ（最高経営責任者）
（現在はファッカー家具取締役、フォリス・メディカルセンター基金理事、其の他）

このHenry Williamson氏（元BB&T副社長）がこの１１月、BB&Tの現役行員でクリスチャンの数名を連れて来日します。彼らは過去１０年間、東京のビジネスパーソンを励ましたいとの情熱をもってTMCを助けてくださっています。

BB&T Corporationとは
ノースカロライナ州ウィンストン・セーラム市に本社を置く全米11位の金融持株
会社。1872年設立。ノース,サウス,カロライナ両州、バージニア州、ジョージア
州など南部諸州を中心に1,400以上の支店を持ち、総資産は1,005億ドル（約10兆
円）。1989年以降58の地域金融機関、70 以上の保険代理店会社、23のノンバン
クの買収を行い成長中。

—————————————

BB&Tウエルカムパーティの申し込みは閉め切らせて頂きました。

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

東京を神の街に・・・・

asktmc@gmail.com （栗原）