Taking the Time to Make a Difference

It was one of those rare instances when I could acknowledge, “I see what you are saying.” More than words on a paper, or even PowerPoint slides projected on a big screen, a gathered group of people served to illustrate some obvious facts. At the risk of using an over-applied cliché, what happened at this recent workshop “was not rocket science,” it was more like “show-and-tell.” The Reid Group from Bellevue, Washington, recently presented two workshops in our diocese, on the theme, “Growing Stronger in Changing Times.” I went to one of the sessions. At one point, John Reid pulled forward about 15 volunteers to the front of the room. He had them hold hands and lock themselves into an oval configuration. It would have been a circle if there had been more space for the exercise. Reid had them take a few steps backward, and they realized how they were stretched. He had them walk clockwise, then counter-clockwise, and they noticed how every member of the group had to be in step with the others, and how clumsy was the reversal of direction. He had one member of the group come forward to meet another member face-to-face, and everyone realized how the viewpoint of each participant was different, how what happened to one had an impact on all. Looking at the mass of human bodies, linked, stretched, pulled along or pushed, face-to-face or side-by-side, I could see what he was saying. The bell tolls for me and for thee, in any transition. Or the bell peals out in joy, for me or for thee. I am no island, alone, unaffected by what affects my spouse or my neighbor, my child or a stranger across town. Do you see what I am saying?

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We survived “Y2K” and we are already drawing to the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century – even before we know what to call these years. We will move into the teens and the twenties, but where are we now? In the oughts? The twenty-ohs? Maybe we call them the transition years. We have a new president-elect in our country. We have a new pope. We have new relationships with people of other cultures, people of other faith traditions, people whose skin is not the same color. And every change in one aspect of the world has an impact on everyone.

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Nothing will ever compare to the transition wrought by our God, who sent his son to be one of us. And not only are we changed by this event, but we have some new responsibilities. As it says in the Second Letter of Peter, chapter 1: “He has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature, after escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire. “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, “knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, “devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.”

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That should be the path through any transition, if you see what I am trying to say. Through any transition, change, time of joy or time of sorrow, the Christian is called to follow the path of faith, to live a life of virtue, to seek knowledge, to have self-control, endurance, devotion, mutual affection and love. Take the time today to examine the changes in your life, in your family or community. Have they led you to virtue? Self-control? Mutual affection? Love? Or in a contrary direction? Bear witness to another of your own faith in the loving providence of God who invites us into the irrevocable transition from human failing to divine participation. Your faith has an impact on everyone in your group. And your group is the whole world of God’s people, where you can make a difference.

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