What If

What If it didn’t take a lifetime to stop putting an opinion upon a pedestal of small thinking?  What If you discovered that if you’re not careful, who you are becoming is killing who you are?  

Gregory Boyle stated, If you read the Acts of the Apostles, it doesn’t say that people “prayed in tongues” but were suddenly able to hear those around them speaking “in their own native language.”  It is, as Marcus Borg points out, “the reversal of Babel,” when languages get confused and division, rivalries, and misunderstanding become commonplace: it’s the polar opposite of kinship, but it’s also the beginning of something: an amazing possibility of reunification.  Somehow the highest praise of God is not in speaking unintelligibly but, rather, in speaking a language of inclusion where barriers are dismantled, circles are widened, and no one is left outside.

I grew up in a very opinionated conservative home with comments and judgments at every dinner table.  Opposing any of those common attitudes was considered rebellious and condemned.  I never felt I was rebellious or determined to resist and create havoc.  I always strived to listen and learn.  But I did have an inner fight that grew and developed everyday of my life to create connection.  Through observing people I respected and loved to be around, I began to imagine what I’d dream of being.  Through those times I definitely discovered more things I never wanted to repeat.  I don’t know if I came up with the saying or heard it somewhere, but this statement became a driving force in my life: “You’ll turn out to be what you hate if you don’t commit your whole self to becoming what you dream of.”

I then discovered that it took just as much energy not being something as becoming.  This is when Jesus began to engage my thinking with creative imaginative inspiration.  I realized He didn’t waste time telling people what not to be, but what to become. I could easily follow that.  In this discovery I became aware of the question of how do I know what someone could become.

I had a best friend in high school that had a very abusive father who told me everyday how much he hated him.  Seven years following graduation, I saw him with his wife and two children.  I watched him interact with his wife and children the exact same way his father interacted and treated him in high school.  I was shocked for him, but more importantly realized I was being called to step into the light of becoming rather than repeating.

Is it possible to measure all that has been stolen through our smallness of opinions, prejudice, or the influence of neglect, hurt or ignorance? It’s hard to be Big when Little has you by the throat!

I believe we are all created to dream, imagine and pave the way of greatness for each other to discover peace, grace, love, joy, and wholeness.  There is a lot of hope left to tap!  As grace expands our existence, we can seize opportunity out of the mud of smallness!

Take a moment to look away from your ideas and opinions long enough to discover what is being stolen.  What If you pursue one another with the thought of what could be!  What If you were created with the capacity to know what someone could become mainly because of the transformation of your own story?

How many sides of any given subject is really worthy of broken relationships, and lonely empty holidays?

What If you could put your finger on one thing that has been stolen from you while protecting and defending an ideology?  Could you believe change is even possible?  I’m not sure repenting and asking for forgiveness is enough? Is there any space you must travel where value is placed upon one another more than the notions that divide you?

What If, your Christ-like self became the bridge to a surprising future of connection, understanding, and the capacity to dream big enough to cause God to smile?

Have any traits of your past that you hated become the blindness stealing away the future you have dreamed of?  Feel invited today to step into the light of Jesus that makes you bigger than self.

Paul