It’s one thing to talk about transformation, and it’s
another to actually transform. For those of us who have lives that are fairly
comfortable—and even for many of us whose lives are terribly uncomfortable—it is
challenging to do something different and risky, even when we know that it is
the right thing to do both for us and for our world.
In some ways, our reluctance to change is hard-wired.
Unless we’re being chased by something, we’re likely to stay camped out exactly
where we are, doing the same things that have fed and sheltered our families
and loved ones quite well up to this point.
In addition, our cultural institutions—especially including
our religious institutions—are organized in such a way that meaningful
transformation is unlikely to take place at all, or only at a very slow pace.
This reluctance on both the personal and institutional
levels is where we have to start because that’s where we are. It is useful to
notice this reluctance and consider whether it is worthwhile to overcome it or
not, to consider whether or not we are willing to pay the cost of discomfort in
order to co-create something better than the status quo.
I’ve been feeling a great deal of reluctance in recent
weeks as I prepare for some major changes in my life. After having lived in the
same community for my entire adult life—30 years—and after having worked the
These changes are both terrifying and full of great
promise. I have worked like crazy for the last three or four years to get to
this place. And now that I’m here I’m feeling that familiar reluctance about as
strongly as I ever have. And it is exactly in this place that much of the
challenge of transformation lies.
As a minister, I will ask people to work to transform
their own lives, their religious communities and their world. If I am to have
any hope of succeeding, I must begin with my own life. And I must begin with
this particular moment of reluctance—because this is where transformation
occurs.
Moment by moment, each of us has the opportunity to try
to keep things just as they are (which is, in the end a futile endeavor) or to
work to become an agent of transformation (which is almost always risky and
uncomfortable).
Of course, things aren’t as either/or as I am depicting
them. There are moments of comfortable perching even in the wildest flights of
transformation. And there are certain risks that must be taken just to remain
in the nest.
However, I have chosen to fly. I invite you to do
likewise. Just beyond our reluctance to change is something greater than we can
now imagine.
Beautiful, thank you for the post, and best of luck to you in this big move!
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