For all our curiosity, I am convinced that most of the time I am like many who are not really interested in discovering things new. It seems we only want to experience things that are safe to our assumptions, ways of doing things, and values. Discovering the beauty of a new sunset is fine unless it triggers reflection. Finding new ways to get to work is borderline because is changes our normal routine. The idea that new relationships might exist is, in this context, never comfortable.
The day started innocently enough. Full of the same routines, patterns, and sounds’ it was as if we were living in a recording. During the hours that my soul was awake I found myself dealing with the ghosts of yesterday, coming to grips with the changes that come with metaphorical children getting older, and grabbling with how to solve the unsolvable. Everything that came up challenged the assumptions I had picked up with the beginning of the day.
I look around and see others struggling with their own versions of the same questions. Individuals want to make a difference but wonder if they have the ability, inadvertently interpreting fear in the wrong way. Others are reaching out but seem to be pulling back in the same time, scared that someone will actually engaged them in reaching into the unknown. Kids, parents, corporate executives, service personnel, and public servants all face their versions of this demon, responding in ways that try to protect what was because at least they made it through yesterday.
I find the fear living in myself on most days. The fact is that you and I live in time and place where yesterday’s answers will not deal with today’s opportunities. When someone invites us to “come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?” (John 4.29) The only question is how we discover for ourselves. To do nothing is to let injustice win. Life is too precious for this answer.
