Be a Shape Shifter

I am making the whole of creation new…. It will come true…. It is already done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End! (See Revelation 21:5-6)

There is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. In all of the jubilation, excitement and celebration surrounding the season of Christmas I’ve often wondered what or whom gets forgotten. It is quite easy to forget (in our privileged status) that another may not be so fortunate. How do we move from our joy to include those who are suffering, lost, and abandoned? How do we enjoy the gifts of abundance while holding in our hearts the pain of people near and far.

Howard Thurman (1899-1981) author, philosopher, mystic, and theologian has a viewpoint on Christmas that resonates with me; that of work that continues beyond the specified days of the season.

When the song of the angels is stilled, / When the star in the sky is gone, / When the kings and princes are home, / When the shepherds are back with their flock, / The work of Christmas begins: —Thurman’s poem “The Work of Christmas” continues:

To find the lost, /To heal the broken, / To feed the hungry, / To release the prisoner, / To rebuild the nations, / To bring peace among brothers, [ and sisters] / To make music in the heart.

It’s worth noting the depth to which Thurman plunged to extract words that stir our hearts and inspire us toward contemplation and action in the 21st century. In 1944 with Alfred Fish, Thurman co-founded the first interracial, interdenominational church in the United States, Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples. He was an advocate for nonviolence and peaceful demonstration. When he speaks of “the growing edge” or “there is always lurking close at hand the trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace,” intuitively, you can trust that he knows what he is talking about.

His words make me sigh deeply and say ‘yes’ to being more alert, observant, and awake to everyone around me and my environment. Because the pain that we project onto others is nearer to us then we think, nearer in terms of personal suffering hidden in extravagance and consumer acquisition, and nearer in terms of the neighbor that is ignored, marginalized, and not fully accepted as who she is. I ponder with Rumi—

I went inside my heart to see how it was. Something there makes me hear the whole world weeping.

While it may appear that we are getting no where fast, change is occurring in our world in ways we cannot even begin to see visually.

It reminds me of all the time spent in the studio striving for a particular classical shape. When exhausted and frustrated from all the hard work I walk away from the experience no closer then when I began, it seems. But, after weeks, sometimes months one day I catch a glimpse of the image mirrored back to me in the way it was envisioned, in all its magnificence and near perfection.

Perhaps that is what is happening in our world. It is coming and is already here. Maybe, we are all shape shifters, holding our particular vision in place for a better world, contributing positively as best we can and allowing the shape to form in our heart, mind, and body trusting that in its purity it is part of a cosmic vision already existing.

In Franciscan spirituality it is a humbling thought that accepting our simplicity is another’s wealth, that our pain is another’s healing, our sorrow is another’s joy and all of this just keeps circling around and around. It is embodied in our daily existence. Everything we need is in us all the time if we are willing to take the risks to be pulled apart and participate in the life of spirit that calls everyone to wholeness; into the oneness that already exists.