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We Are Mere Participants
In this lies our greatest strength
As a human, I love my righteous sense of ‘doingness’. I love having skin in the game. I think I can do it all (and do it the right way). In my mind, I can single-handedly save the world before noon and pick my kid up from school by 3 pm.
When I take on this humanistic stance, by 3 pm, I’m always deflated…
Here’s the good news: Christianity isn’t about individual human doingness. When we come from this place, we soon find ourselves internally devoid of any connection to the divine. We find ourselves tired. Bitter. Cynical.
God is the subject of the verb.
— Fleming Rutledge
God doesn’t need my help in getting the planets to orbit. Or the wind to blow. Or the sun to rise tomorrow. I can’t single-handedly help God bring forth whatever God wants to do with this thing called life or reality or whatever you want to call it. God is so far ahead of me, it’s ridiculous to think that I can sway the balance of life on this planet any more than an unnoticeable smidgen (if that).
I see my task as running to catch up to wherever God is taking this thing.
God is the acting agent and I’m a participatory passenger along for the ride and doing what I can…
