Everything is Connected to Everything Else

Hello everyone!

I'm glad to be sat here, writing this, in my local library given that I know it's been about a month since my last update. I'm trying to return to a more regular schedule with the ideal being to return to BAU, yet that is not as possible as I would like just now.

It'll come. In time.

Meantime, I want you all to know that I haven't forgotten about you, my dear readers however many or few there are out there. It may look that way but remember that appearances are deceptive oftentimes. The way things look in one season is not necessarily correlative or indicative of how they'll show up in the next season.

That's what this is for me; a shift in seasons...

Everything, Everywhere, All At Once

Learning to let go and just let life happen around me has helped me to stop resisting what change I should be embracing in order to facilitate the arrival of my future.

One of the biggest lessons I've learnt this year is that everything is connected, everywhere, at all times. What happens in one season will ripple into the surrounding seasons and, oftentimes, what came before will come back around again just in a different configuration.

Enough abstractions, let me close in on something I've been thinking a lot about this past summer.

Even though it only feels like summer just got here, internally, for me I have been learning to process my grief in such a manner that has helped me to see that the best way for me to set myself up for the future is to remember that every choice I make will create ripples. So every time I act out of character in one season, then there's a good chance that the damage, the fruit, will appear at a later date somewhere else. Furthermore, unless I deal with the issue at the root level, I'll continue to carry dysfunction forward into the following seasons.

I always like to try and have a growth-based mindset given that I'm trying to follow a formula this year that's as simple as A, B, C: -

A lways

B e

C hanging

Change is Afoot

I decided early on that I don't want to be the sort of person to refuse and fight change as it happens around me lest I lose sight of the fact that change is just God moving things into place for me to set the table for my future.

Now, I can fight it and fight it, but that will just mean that I'll end up resisting instead of receiving what God means for me to take into my future. What He gives me is good and therefore I can't afford not to be in a receptive state.

So if I try to hold onto my dysfunctions and things I don't want to let go of but am losing grip of, I will end up creating problems elsewhere in my life. Bill Johnson of Bethel Church reminded me in a sermon I listened to earlier this year that any problem in my life ignored is going to reappear somewhere else. It's reappearance is a reminder that there is an issue under the surface that needs dealing with before I can move on.

Hence my commitment to the A.B.C. Principle: -

A lways

B e

C hanging

I need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable as situations change around me not in a helpless manner, but as a reminder that I haven't got control of everything outside of my green zone. My green zone is the area where my life touches the world and collides with it in a manner that's supposed to bring Heaven to earth in the form of leaving goodness and mercy behind me everywhere I go.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Psalm 23:6 KJV

My suggestion is that you, too, get comfortable with being in uncomfortable situations not out of a sense of danger, but rather of a sense that you are stepping in, willingly, to your purpose that is the answer to a problem in the world. This distinction is made so as not to excuse you or I to wilfully seek out dangerous life situations heedless of the consequence. Some situations are meant to be avoided plain and simple. Others are meant to be embraced and leant into in order to peer into the work God is inviting us into.

Every problem is only ever the application of a solution away. We are that solution.

Final Thought

So for every situation that leaves you feeling trapped or isolated today, think about what you can do to lean into what God is inviting you into by reinterpreting a problem as an opportunity for something good to happen today. If we will only approach it with a solutions-based focus instead of a "woe is me, why's everything bad have to happen?" kind of mentality.

Be the change you want to see in this world.

“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Peace out and remember...

No matter what goes on in this world around you, it can still be turned into something good if you'll only wait a while. God is still good and He is still in control even if it feels like everything is out of control!

===TLP===