I had lunch this week with leaders from the congregations of southern Maryland, all of whom have committed to exploring collaborative ministry among the 22 parishes of lower Prince George’s, Charles and St. Mary’s counties.

The leaders spoke with excitement of their collaborative process thus far, which the Rev. Greg Syler summarized in an essay for the Episcopal News Service.

For all the struggles of their congregations, there was an energy and excitement in the room. Several leaders described how they are learning to reframe their challenges into opportunities, and in the midst of hardship, discover hope.

Listening to these faithful ones, I was reminded of a radio interview that I heard years ago with Carol Pearson, the author of several books on heroism. The interviewer asked Pearson which of all the heroes she had studied did she like the best? Her rather surprising answer was Sissy Hankshaw, the protagonist in Tom Robbin’s 1990 novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Sissy was a remarkable young woman who was born with oversized thumbs. As a child she was subject to all the awkwardness and prejudice that a physical deformity entails. When she was a teenager, her family arranged for her to have plastic surgery on her thumbs, and she looked forward to that.

One day in her adolescence, she looked in the mirror and realized that she was quite lovely. She knew that if she had the surgery, she could have the normal life that others wanted for her, and that she herself wanted. But in that moment her thumbs started twitching, as if to invite her to live life on a deeper level if she dared. So instead of cutting off her thumbs, Sissy went on to become the greatest hitchhiker that ever lived.

In one scene, Sissy’s psychologist describes to a colleague Sissy’s uncanny ability to hail cars from the other side of a four-lane highway. The other psychologist comments on Sissy’s obvious success in transcending her affliction. Sissy’s psychologist replies, “Oh no, she hasn’t transcended her affliction. That would suggest that there was something wrong with her that needed to be transcended. She transformed her life by affirming her thumbs.”

Reframing our challenges into opportunities and finding hope in the midst of hardship is something like Sissy’s affirmation of her thumbs. It is the freedom that comes when we honor who we are, to see in our bodies, our circumstances, and even our weaknesses the raw material from which to live loving, fruitful lives. As we discern God’s call to us as individuals and as a church, it’s good to remember that God calls us, thumbs and all.