A thought occasioned by Bishop George Councel’s meditation on loss in the time of natural disaster:
We live in the illusion that we can adapt and change the world to our purposes.
Rather than recognizing that we are made to adapt and reorganize ourselves the world’s changes.
We used to know differently.
(A meditation given at the Spring 2013 House of Bishop’s meeting in Kanuga NC.)
I see it as a control issue and a bit of a paradox. On the one hand we are expected to take the reins of our life and do what we can (e.g in re to gun control or violence in the home, just as we bring our children up to be in charge of their lives. Otherwise they will be forever infantalized, stunted. Then once they have successfully “broken away from us” we hope that they will come to understand themselves in the context of their family, their heritage, and the Beloved Community. Similarly, once we have taken the reins of our lives there’s more work to do as we learn to see ourselves in the context of our relationships and finally our relationship with God. We do what we can about things like family dynamics and world peace, and we may even be justly proud of ourselves, but in the end, in order to be really real, we must offer it up. Just a thought.
Thanks John.