TRANSFORMATION
This conversation begins on January 1.
The two chapter for discussion are
“The Alchemy of Effort and Grace” and
“Fitness for God’s Mission”.
_________________ + _______________
As we shift from practice to the fourth stage of the identity cycle, transformation, we confront the open-ended question, “How Are We Changing?” Managing change is a constant challenge and directly informs, reforms, and perhaps transforms our sense of identity. You may be familiar with the old saying that change is inevitable but choice is always an option. The essays in this chapter explore various perspectives of change and the choices we can make to manage our lives and live into a greater sense of wholeness and well-being.
—William S. Craddock, Jr.
from All Shall Be Well: An Approach to Wellness
_________________ + _______________
In “The Alchemy of Effort and Grace,” Brian Taylor says, “When God doesn’t seem inclined to slap us upside the head with instantaneous transformation and when we can’t transform ourselves through our own efforts alone, there is a third way available to us. It consists of a mysterious interplay of human effort and divine grace.”
_________________ + _______________
In “Fitness for God’s Mission,” Mark Hollingsworth says, “When we hear the term fitness for mission, we may think in terms of a narrow measure of moral purity. This is a mistake. When we ask, “Am I fit for God’s mission?” we should not be questioning whether we are worthy of it but whether we are up to the task.”
January 4, 2010 at 2:33 pm |
I am really taken by Brian Taylor’s image of surfing as metaphor for the way effort and grace combine in transformation. I am also very thankful for the alchemical experiments he suggests at the end of the chapter.
I am in the midst of several transformations at the moment – some personal, some to do with ministry- and Taylor’s words in this chapter have helped me affirm what I am going through. Thanks to him and to CREDO for sharing this chapter.
I can hardly wait to read what Mark Holingsworth has to say – but that will have to wait until lunchtime tomorrow.
Happy New Year!
January 4, 2010 at 3:56 pm |
Thanks, Martha. I’m often struck how we are trained in “either/or” thinking. In this case, either you are “active” (making everything happen with reason, planning, and will power) or “passive” (going blank, waiting for something to happen to us).
There’s a third option that holds together both activity and passivity. Like a cat in front of a mouse hole! Like a contemplative: still, but attentive. Engaged detachment.
Brian
January 8, 2010 at 8:19 pm |
As a kid, growing up in Southern California, I spent a great deal of time on the beach, so it is not surprising I also resonate with Brian’s surfing metaphor. There was a neighborhood couple who quite often took a station wagon full of kids, including their own 3, to the beach. They taught us first to body surf and then to use surfboards. There is a picture of me, probably 8th grade or so, holding a 7′ Hobie board. It was heavy and, as the picture shows, it was awkward to hold. But once in the water, with someone to guide me, all that changed. Like Brian, I learned to catch the waves, eventually to stand up and at times even found myself within the curl, coming out the other end… still standing!
Fast forward to a few days ago, I was back on a beach. About waist deep in the waves, both in wetsuits, was a mom and her elementary school age son. Mom was teaching him how to use a boogie board: how to hold it, how to catch the wave, how to turn and stay in front of the break. Our unfolding conversation on Transformation came to mind. Using Brian’s words about the “mysterious interplay of human effort and divine grace,” it seems to me the “human effort” portion is not only our own effort but, at least in my experience, the effort of others on our behalf, who act as catalyst, as guide.
Have there been others around when you have gone go into the curl and come out the other end, still standing but with new life? If so, I wonder, are the guides in our lives, those who seem to be play a role in transformational moments, part of the “human effort” or the “divine grace” portion of the equation? Or are they not either/or but both/and?
January 12, 2010 at 12:33 pm |
Celeste,
Now that you bring up the question about how we distinguish between effort and grace, I think your last answer is right: both/and. When I try to grow past our spiritual/emotional limitations, or to risk new behavior, when another person helps me to do that, it seems that grace infuses the effort from the get-go. Grace motivates us, gives us necessary insight, and provides the energy to see it through.
To return to the surfing metaphor, grace is in the desire to put on the wetsuit, and in the eyesight, neurology, and muscles used to catch the wave.
This makes me think about how, from a contemplative point of view, we are paradoxically both one with and “separate from” God. From our seemingly limited human position, we must strive “towards” God; but the very road we walk is illuminated with God’s light.
April 16, 2010 at 2:21 pm |
Look around you. How can you offer false hope in a God that does not exist? Shame