What can love do today?

Perhaps: Nothing.  Just me is about me.  Or am I?  Or should I be?

It is so natural and easy for us to ponder our life experiences as being about us.  Of course they are, it seems, for we are having them.   But looking at our lives as being about ourselves chokes our potential for transformation and chokes the potential for transformation of the human systems of which we are part.

Whether we think of Jesus of Nazareth or George Fox of Drayton-in-the-clay, we recognize that they lived their lives, made their choices, took their risks, and lived and died in service of others. 

They did not sink into self-evaluative thought such as: Why aren’t I getting further?  I must not be doing it right?  How could they hurt me like that? Why don’t they understand me?  – you know – the stuff we sometimes tell ourselves when we are facing headwinds that stop us, or worse yet, blow us back.

Instead, their hearts and minds were drawn to transformative change, and it was a leading so clear to them that their lives depended on following that leading – even if it meant taking their lives.  In the case of Jesus, it clearly did.  In the case of George Fox, his choices and efforts resulting in receiving  awful beatings and life-threatening imprisonments surely shortened his life span.

So what is transformative change?  The Cambridge Dictionary online conveys this:  a complete change in appearance or character, especially for improvement.   We know what improvement is (maybe . . do we?  That is another chapter).  What means character?  Looking online at Cambridge Dictionary we see this: the quality of being determined and able to deal with difficult situations. 

Being determined is indeed character.  It is often described as courage if the determination is in pursuit of what is good for others, not what is self-serving (its about me).

My life has changed as I realized that transformation was possible, is possible, and that transformation is what Jesus of Nazareth and George Fox, and many others, were pursuing for our sake – not theirs.

Now it is our turn.  Our turn to learn and to live the lessons of transformation.  It is one of the hardest lessons to learn in life, for our natural ways of going along are to feel and think about my experiences, about me, and if we are not careful, we spiral down to a pitiful place. 

Quaker practice is to settle and stop thinking.  A miracle happens when we do this.  Words and images come that are about something much bigger than me – understandings, pathways, opportunities, challenges – that when animated – can help us move forward together.  That is Spirit at work. It is about transformation.

Without Spirit, my short life tells me, we are doomed to chasing our fears, our worries, our needs for protection and for winning – and as such – we are doomed to repeat the mistakes that are all around us. 

With Spirit, the way opens to the possible.  The possible of what love can do today is the greatest need, greatest hope, greatest opportunity, greatest gift – we shall ever receive or ever give.

A Friend said recently:  It is time to Quaker up!  What’s next?