Imagine you were where you were fifteen years ago. Yes, I know it has been a long time. However, stop for a minute and think of all the people that were in your life at the time. Reflect on the events of the time. Consider how you viewed life during that period of your life.
In that context, consider just a few of the events that have changed since then. Could you have imagined the current economic crisis? Would you have put the chairman of one of world’s major stock exchanges on the list of potential con artists? Did you see yourself in the relationships you are in now?
For many of us, looking at today from yesterday’s perspective is unbelievable. It is almost impossible that life would unfold how it has. Yet, the odds once the occurrence has unfolded are one to one, one hundred percent. What could not be is. In spite of the odds, the probability now is guaranteed.
Far too often, I try to assume I know how God is going to work. I assign odds, forming an opinion of who qualifies as a saint and those that will never make the grade. I determine hope, hoping that my efforts can help achieve the goals I believe are so important. In the process, I put boundaries around what is possible, believable, and real.
In truth, reality constantly surprises me. The fact is that God works in ways I never considered. As I open myself up to the possibilities of compassion, community, and love, I see God working in every heart no matter how in, acceptable, worthy or not that they might be. One man was open and found himself changed by what happened. His voice tells what happened; “So I started in, talking. Before I'd spoken half a dozen sentences, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as he did on us the first time.” (Acts 11.15)
Today is unwritten. One option is to limit God and our community. Alternatively, God is ready to do the impossible in your life and mine.
