Temporal Complexity
October 04, 2006
We live in complicated times with complex problems, challenges, and questions. Each topic has its proponents who would move it to the top of the list of current concerns.
"If we could solve this one," they imply, "all others would soon fall in line."
For instance, the doctor said that the reason my arm hurts is that I have tendinitis (aka: tennis elbow). So, he gave me a brace. After two or three hours I had a deep insight into how it works: It feels so good when you take it off.
It is a change of focus.
Where should our focus be? If we address one pivotal concern will all others pivot with it (say it fast and it will sound clever)?
"All you need is love," we used to sing. "What the world needs now is love, sweet love; it's the only thing that there's just too little of."
What about public morality? Personal morality?
Will one lead to the other?
Which crisis is most threatening and thus, most in need of our attention? AIDS? Terrorism? Moral decay in America? Sleep disorders? The Diabetes epidemic/ Global Warming?
And given that Christ is preeminent in all things, what does that imply in relation to our problems?
Are we crisis driven or purpose driven?
Most of the issues of our day are so complex, complicated, timely, and intense that we could start digging about anywhere and hit a mother-load of sewage. We live in a leech field of unwanted complications.
And like an onion, we keep peeling back layers to find more.
I was wondering today if there had ever been such a time as this where so many were aware of the magnitude of threats to our well being, where one big issue out of balance could upset all the rest and forever topple the delicate balance that holds the world together.
What do we do?
At the risk of sounding ding simplistic, I'll venture a list:
1. Make an independent, prior, and irrevocable commitment to what is eternal and purposeful. Consider what is not disturbed no matter how hard everything else is shaken and commit to it. Let that commitment be your prior decision about all unknown contingencies and stick with it. If God is really God than God will still be God when everything else is rubble.
2. Lead with the Word, the Spirit, and the heart. Fully engage yourself in a search for truth that is first theological and then, open-ended, rooted in the Word of God (Living and Written). Then, engage your spirit with the Eternal Spirit of God, seeking, seeking, seeking, listening, and obeying. Finally, engage a heart of compassion, love, and brokenness for the brokenness of the world.
3. Take your assignment and do it. You are not called to solve ill. You may be called and equipped to do work that is largely invisible and seems insignificant.Do it anyway. Every assignment is vital. Do what you can.
4. Pray. We believe in the Sovereignty of God, not fatalism. We are not privy to all the outcomes. resignation is not the pathway of faith.
5. Relax and celebrate life. Your depressive negativism will not make the world a better place or enhance your joy while you are here.
Let's work together to find our way out of the maze.