Not impressed with a God that creates

Across denominations and religious traditions, the idea that God is creator is very clear. The idea of God as creator may be one of the handful of characteristics about God that every religion agrees. 

Which is why is may come as a surprise when I say, I am not too impressed with God as a creator.  

We all can create stuff. That really is not that impressive to me. The ability to create something new, while difficult, is much easier than the ability to transform something.  

Transformation requires not only the ability to see something for what it is, but also to see what it could be. Transformation requires that when we look at something we are not bound to the predefined limits of that object.  

For instance, in the amazing TED Talk by Ken Robinson, he brings up the paperclip question. Here is the section of the talk animated by RSA: 

You see most of us see the paperclip for what it is. We are bound to the predetermined limits of the paperclip. So we can think of 15 examples of uses of paperclips. However, with imagination we break out of the predetermined limits of the paperclip and see alternate uses if the paperclip was transformed in some way (200 feet tall). 

When God creates, God really is transforming. This is really quite awesome. We are impressed when we see something new - say a new house or a new car. But we are blown away when we see something transformed - say a car that was rebuilt after a crash.  

Transformation is so world changing that it may be worth noting that Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead but we do not have a religion of Lazarus. Both he and Jesus were brought back to life after they died, but only Jesus was understood to be the Son of God.

Why? 

Because Jesus was not brought back to life. Jesus was not resuscitated like Lazarus.  

Jesus was resurrected. Resurrection means you are different - transformed in some way yet recognizable.   

Creating something is great. But transforming something is earth changing.  

Alzheimer's patient never forgets love

A friend of mine (also named Jason) shared a memory he had with his grandmother who was dealing with the memory loss that comes with Alzheimer's.  

My friend walks into the room where his grandmother is. She is a shell of her former self, but looking at her he sees flashes of her younger self. He knows that her days are scary and full of strangers. He is saddened not only with the quality of life that she currently has, but he is keenly aware that the shared memories they had are no longer shared. He is the sole care taker of the past they created together. It was a humbling experience.  

She slowly moves her head up from her spacey daze that she falls into for so much of the day. He wonders what she is looking for in those blinkless stares. Is she trying to make sense of her surroundings? Is she wanting to say something but cannot find the words? Is she looking for her name? 

Before he is able to get a word out to greet her, she looks right into his soul and says, "I don't know who you are, but I know that I love you."  

And that one sentence is the only memory of his grandmother that he guards and protects with his life. It is the the one memory that trumps all the other memories that he is the care taker of. It is the one memory that tells him all he needs to know about his grandmother. 

Why conflict management should not be taught

Ministers are trained and expected to be decent at conflict management. Generally people who are in conflict are okay with a minister walking into the room because it is thought that ministers will not, at the very least, escalate the conflict but hopefully help manage the tension in the room. 

This is an important skill set to have and cultivate when you are in ministry and, well, life.  

Most of the time, I have experienced that we ministers forget that we are not in the conflict management business. Oh sure, we can and do help manage conflict, but this is not what we ought to be about. 

Surely you know this as well, but maybe you just don't know that you know. 

How about a parallel example. 

Doctors can give you things to manage the pain you feel in your life, but doctors are not in the pain management business. They are in the healing business, and while doctors can address pain, they are much more interested in healing the source of the pain.  

Ministers are not in the conflict management business, we are in the wholeness business. We are not there just to manage conflict, but to work at conflict resolution.  

We can manage all the conflict in the world but the source of that conflict will remain and wounds will continue to reopen if we forget that we are, like doctors, in the healing not just management business.