Facts are like flat tires on a getaway car: you have all the parts but they just aren’t enough. Facts can be business failures, debt, Alzheimer's disease, separation from loved ones, fatigue, and a piece of cardboard for a bed.
Facts can also be good health, faithful friends, paying work, food, weight loss, and babies.
In the past, I packaged facts as good or bad. To appear discerning, as negative or positive. Facts consume our conversations (mostly disguised as complaining) because they reveal our lack of control and our outrage about it. We treat facts as though they are personal, because we honestly believe we are the center of the universe. It all must be about us. Therefore, the person who cut us off in traffic was determined to ruin our day. The terminally ill relative who just doesn't understand how hard it is for us to cope with their suffering. The business closure means I am a failure because I allowed the economy to falter.
The appalling truth is that facts do not transform a single thing. They are merely the tracks of what has already passed us. They do not lead, but lag. They are the stuff of analysis, not growth. I need something else, more dynamic, living. I'm tired of waiting for the other shoe to drop. I want to put the shoes on and run.
What I need is hope: the expectation of good in my life. Hope is searching for resilient purpose, not for relief of pain, taxes or traffic. I'm talking Good, not a delusion. It's recognizing the Divine Network, the Providential that plays out in so many dimensions, most surprisingly mundane. It’s more personal than Serendipity, more caring than Luck. It’s the Source of good which creatively cultivates hope among the rocky facts. Facts that cause friends to respond, "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that!" But it’s Hope that catapults you beyond those jagged rocks into a new country. It's like tripping over a chair and falling through a door into a room you never knew existed. You just discovered your house is twice as large as you imagined because you finally left the kitchen.
Good is when you have flat tire, and find out that the tow truck guy knew your high school English teacher and is working on a novel in between tows. It's learning to lay linoleum because you can't afford to hire an expert and discover you cherish the day sprawled on the floor cutting around cabinets. It's your business neighbor's wife's mom being your customer from 10 years' ago and remembering you.
We swim in facts, but can’t find a drop of hope to drink.We avoid hoping on a Purpose that we don’t control, even a good purpose. Our hope ebbs and flows in response to facts, which are revealed to be frauds, just fragile reactions. Hope leads and moves ahead, while what we experience always lags behind.
Faith, Hope and Love. Which will make the news? Which will ignite the blogosphere?
Transformation, revolution and peace absolutely will not happen without these three dynamic choices.
For today, I am done with facts. Just pass the hope.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment