Recently, Dave Lomas began a sermon series on the Theology of the Body, and within this series, he named that our bodies are "our powerpacks for spreading the goodness of God in the world."
Each individual has a body, which also has the ability to impact the larger whole, for better or for worse, For good or evil. Essentially, our bodies can be used to bring about great good or incredible evil in the world. This is exemplified by real-life present day example, Volodymyr Zelensky, the unlikely hero and current president of Ukraine, standing firm against a relentless immoral attack from Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin. It cannot escape awareness that two individuals can respond so differently, that their individual choices can impact the world so profoundly...and yet, they possess names that are quite similar.
The world is emerging (or, perhaps more accurately, hoping to emerge soon) from a global pandemic. The covid-19 crisis has exposed not only cracks in our healthcare system, but virtually every system in which we are willing to acknowledge brokenness. Educational inequities, effecting our society's smallest members. Divisions within the governmental system which have led us farther away from collaboration, and more into individualism. Family systems, romantic relationships, or behaviors adapted within ourselves which impacted for evil and not for good. As we emerge, there is profound opportunity here.
I sense very strongly in my spirit that 2022 brings with it a spirit of shifting. A grace, or anointing, which invites all who are willing to bring about the good of God on the earth to shift into new thoughts, new ways of operating, new ways of being in the world. To bring about good not just for individual gain but for the well-being of the greater whole.
For the past several years, I have been part of a women's prayer group which we have dubbed with a term which means, "For such a time as this." On a semi-regular basis, I meet with two women, whom I am as similar to as we are different, no matter what season (or literal state) we are in, and we speak life into one another. We listen, we burn candles. We pray, and we move forward, always checking back in to "keep an eye on one another."
This little group, this tiny community of three women, with different hair and varying skin tones, have walked alongside one another as we witness each other shift into new seasons. Leaving negative thought patterns behind. Choosing ourselves. Learning to grow large in our lives, no matter what that looks like. Our gathering together as individuals has a positive effect on the group as a whole. We lean in with one another for the good. And we support one another through the confusing! We three women have walked alongside of each other through some seasons...
One of which was a really confusing time from which I have begun to see great shifting and growth.
In early 2020, every door had been shut to me in Seattle, it seemed. The job search was not taking off, and so despite the rich circle of friends and growth I had experienced there, it seemed time to leave Duwamish land, at least for a season. As soon as I arrived in Northern California in February 2020, the global pandemic hit. I had temporarily moved in with my parents while I found my footing again, and suddenly found the CDC and the federal government instructing us to "socialize with only the people we lived with." I was unemployed for the first three months of the pandemic, and these two women stood steady as I continued a lament through the pain of disappointment.
What I could have no idea of was that in May 2020, everything would begin to almost, imperceptibly shift. I was offered a role at the Center on Reinventing Publication at the University of Washington (yes, back in Seattle, from whence I had just come). This role would directly support the center's Director, who told me upon arrival that there was as much room for growth as I hoped for. That promise has not returned void, and two years into my time at the Center, I have gone from Assistant to the Director to Community Engagement Manager to Junior Research Analyst! All because of the partnership of two women working for good in the world and the trust which was formed there (in this case, I am talking about my boss).
During these two years, I have seen a shifting in relationships, whether that meant asking more fully for what I needed within a romantic relationship or investing time to build adult relationships with my parents. I am experiencing an emotional and a financial shifting. I am partnering with the transition from strangers to friends within a group of community based out of our SF church.
Not all of these yeses to the (nearly imperceptible) shifts were whole-hearted during this pandemic season. I absolutely did not want to leave the community formed in Seattle. I didn't necessarily want to make efforts to build community in one foggy city when I had left friendships I couldn't replace in the foggy one I had left. I didn't wholeheartedly want to be an Executive Assistant when I took the job, nearly two years ago.
What I am finding is that God sees through a lens that is different than our own. He has a higher perspective. She has a way of blowing breezes into our lives we could never see coming. So it seems, all God needs to partner with our individual bodies for the Trinity's goodness to be brought about on the earth is not an exuberant, whole-hearted yes, but even an ambivalent one. The Holy Spirit can breathe great things into our lives and the lives of those connected through us even through our simple, "Okay, Holy Spirit. Yes."
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