C
cwmatt
Guest
Kristen Johnson Ingram writes, “You almost never see a goose alone; they apparently know they require community. And when they’re in formation, at least one other accompanies any sick or hurt goose that goes down, and they stay together until the one is healed. They never abandon each other.” Perhaps the geese teach us what Unity is all about.
As I look back on my childhood and teenage years I am so thankful for my parents who raised nine children. It must have been very difficult for my parents to see each one of us fly out from underneath their wings. It was a time for my parents to “let go” so that my brothers, sisters, and I could continue to grow and bloom in a way God meant for each of us to do. Even though I live outside my hometown with my husband and family, my roots will always be there in the town where I grew up.
In our humanness we struggle in the darkness of faith to “let go” - to “accept change.” In her book Dear Heart Come Home, Joyce Rupp writes, “Transformation is a process of death and rebirth. Change is a prerequisite for growth. It involves a “dying” of some sort if new life is going to burst forth. Unless others give us room to grow, we may wither and die or choose to bloom in another field.” Life is about letting go and change. Sam Keen open his book–Beginnings Without End–with a beautiful story about hope. Keen tells about a dream that changed his life. In the dream, a man walked into his room: “He was strong and beautiful, a seasoned man who fought many battles in the dark jungles of the world.” This man came over, sat on the edge of Keen’s bed, and said to him: “I have learned one important thing in life-how to begin again.”
Are we willing to “let go” and allow God to make the changes he needs to make in order for New Life to burst forth? St. Paul tells us “We are called to Unity-but to be careful, or this Unity will provide an opening for self-indulgence. Serve one another, rather, in works of love, since the whole of the law is summarized in a single command: Love Your Neighbor as yourself. If you go on snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces, you had better watch or you will destroy the whole community” (Gal. 5:13-15).
Perhaps change is God’s way of renewing the face of the earth.
As I look back on my childhood and teenage years I am so thankful for my parents who raised nine children. It must have been very difficult for my parents to see each one of us fly out from underneath their wings. It was a time for my parents to “let go” so that my brothers, sisters, and I could continue to grow and bloom in a way God meant for each of us to do. Even though I live outside my hometown with my husband and family, my roots will always be there in the town where I grew up.
In our humanness we struggle in the darkness of faith to “let go” - to “accept change.” In her book Dear Heart Come Home, Joyce Rupp writes, “Transformation is a process of death and rebirth. Change is a prerequisite for growth. It involves a “dying” of some sort if new life is going to burst forth. Unless others give us room to grow, we may wither and die or choose to bloom in another field.” Life is about letting go and change. Sam Keen open his book–Beginnings Without End–with a beautiful story about hope. Keen tells about a dream that changed his life. In the dream, a man walked into his room: “He was strong and beautiful, a seasoned man who fought many battles in the dark jungles of the world.” This man came over, sat on the edge of Keen’s bed, and said to him: “I have learned one important thing in life-how to begin again.”
Are we willing to “let go” and allow God to make the changes he needs to make in order for New Life to burst forth? St. Paul tells us “We are called to Unity-but to be careful, or this Unity will provide an opening for self-indulgence. Serve one another, rather, in works of love, since the whole of the law is summarized in a single command: Love Your Neighbor as yourself. If you go on snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces, you had better watch or you will destroy the whole community” (Gal. 5:13-15).
Perhaps change is God’s way of renewing the face of the earth.