What New Thing is God Doing? -- A Newspaper Column

I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19)

There are some things that remain constant. People will always be complaining about elected officials and public services. Alberta weather will always have some new curve to throw your way. Online political discussions will quickly become people talking at each other from hardened positions and not listening to each other. And then there is the one thing we have long been told remains constant – change.

The world is constantly changing. Everything in the world is constantly changing. Sometimes those changes are earth shatteringly big, Sometimes they are hardly noticeable. Our task is to figure out how we will respond to those changes. And to do that we need the gift of discernment. Which changes are healthy and need to be embraced and encouraged? Which changes are problematic and need to be questioned and challenged? Which ones are ahead of their time and which ones are long overdue? As a person of faith I also try to ask where God is in the change. How would God have me/us respond to this particular change? Is God’s will revealed in this development? How?

Many years ago, in my last year of seminary, we had a discussion about how as clergy part of our role was to be change makers and change managers. Because it was becoming more and more obvious that the old ways of being the church were no longer working. The same can be said about many parts of our society. I think that is still true of my calling. Change is inevitable. So where is God in that? Over the years I find myself asking more often what new thing God is doing. After all many times in Scripture God does new things, that is often what drives the faith story forward. Every Sunday millions of Christians around the world pray “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as in heaven”. As that happens the world will be changed.

So what new thing is God doing in your life? In your community? In your church? How do you react?

There is a challenge of trying to open people to the new thing that God is doing. People don’t like change. It upsets the routine, it makes things different, it requires adaptation. We might have to do things differently, or give up a privileged position, or admit that maybe our old assumptions and attitudes and understandings were wrong. And yet, as people of faith we have to admit that God calls people to new understandings throughout the Scripture story. God routinely challenges people to think and act differently. Some of them continue to find meaning in old patterns and understandings, some take the leap of faith and enter a different world.

I turn 50 next year. In the (almost) half century I have lived on the earth the world has changed drastically. I don’t just mean technologically, but also in terms of how we exist as neighbours in this global village. As a community our understandings of sexuality, race relations, interfaith issues, morality, and social responsibility have been challenged multiple times. Some of those challenges have brought needed corrections. Some have been squashed few times. In every case there were those who thought the change was good and those who fought tooth and nail against it. Some are fights we are still having. I believe that God is behind many of those changes and challenges. So I still have to turn to the question of where God is in this, what new thing might God be doing? That needs to be what guides my response.

God IS doing a new thing with, within, and amongst us. Our understanding of how God acts, of who God is, of how God wants us to behave has changed over the millenia before us. Our understanding of how to live with our neighbours has changed multiple times over the millenia of human existence. It will continue to be like that because one of the only things that remains constant is change.

So the question is this: how will we, individually and collectively, respond to the new thing God is doing? Will we fall victim to the desire to keep in our comfortable routines? Or will we take the leap of faith and try out a new way of being? We might lose some things, but we just might gain things we didn’t know we were missing – and we might not miss what we lose.

Let’s just listen for God to give us a hint of which way to go.