God is change itself
The world as we know it is in continual flux, a state of uncertainty and uncontrollable circumstance that reminds us that change is the only constant. The terrain of human experience is facing unprecedented pressure to conform to new ways of being as we move into a future that seems to be driven by a mysterious agenda outside of our control.
‘God is change itself’
The very nature of change has an underlying eschatological agenda, a trajectory that has been set by the powers that be, implicating us in their plans. In the biblical narrative there are numerous stories of fellow journeymen who found themselves entangled in the divine milieu of providence. In the later years of his life the apostle Paul finds himself taken captive by the local authorities and shipped off to face his accusers in Rome. His life handed over and his fate in the hands of others he is forced to travel through tumultuous storms and is shipwrecked on foreign soil.
“It looks like I’m going to have to let go of what I expected and enter a mystery.” - Eugene Peterson
His journey mirrors for us how change is our faithful guide, a mysterious spiritual guardian who leads us into the uncharted waters of turbulence towards unusual places of discovery and meaning, the possibility of unusual kindness waiting to greet and invite us into a new way of being. Handed over to the enigma and ambiguity of change, the conundrum of uncertain outcome carries my life on the currents of time towards moments of meeting that will change everything about how I see the world.
“I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.’
I should think so — in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!”
Change is an adventure that is dangerous, messy and uncomfortable, an inevitability that few will choose to submit their lives to for fear that the loss will outweigh the gain. Words like the Shakespearian prose of his famous ancestor Job, he assured others with deft tone, “Methinks he hath no drowning-mark upon him” - Gonzalo: The Tempest After running aground on Malta and stranded in unfamiliar territory he comes face to face with the other side of mystery, the beauty of kindness that surfaces in an uncertain times to meet him at his point of need.
Nietzsche argued that kindness and love are the "most curative herbs and agents in human intercourse”
Kindness is a foreign virtue that welcomes us into a new way of being, an opportunity to overcome our bias and prejudice and experience the fruit of change. Meeting kindness will change your life forever, it will implicate you in its agenda and move you to a munificence and magnanimity of epic proportions. She is the divine touch point of new experience and adaptation, helping us face the discomfort of changing times and the relational awkwardness we feel when are face to face with stranger danger. Kindness heals the divide, restoring the balance of life and releasing the capacity to move on towards our future.
Change is your friend in unfriendly times, one who will never leave you or forsake you, committed to your betterment and maturation. Let her lead you to your destination wherever that might be…
Selah