Blog 354 Developing Our Destiny

Blog # 354 Developing Our Destiny

           Once upon a time there was no  penicillin, no radios, no automobiles, no plastic, no nylon, no paint, no TV, no incandescent bulbs.  We take these and a host of other realities for granted today, but there was a time when none of them existed, even in the dreams of people. Yet all of them were possible  before they were thought of, invented, and brought into existence.  Learners, discoverers, inventors, explorers all came on the scene, and new things began to happen.  But from the beginning, all of what we know and have accomplished right up to the present moment was possible.  North America was not known , but was very real before Columbus came. The possibiity of 747's  was very real before the Wright brothers were conceived in 1867 and 1871.
              All of this is true of the marvelous facts we have discovered in recent years and are about to discover in the years to come, about the universe, the size and age of the earth and ourselves, about the human mind, about cloning, and about the other marvelous realities for which we do not even have the words to fit their description because they are not yet carved out of what has up until now existed even in our minds.
               And what we know of physical reality, that the actual is carved from the possible,  is true of all reality, psychological, spiritual, emotional.  Possible to each of us at any one time is joy and sorrow, health, and sickness. holiness and sin.  The present is carved out of the future, the actual from the possible.  Some of what is possible will be realized, or made actual. Some of what is possible will ever remain just that, never imagined, touched, tasted, or seen.
               This is the truth about ourselves and our discovery and use of the world around us, and also of our relationships with other people and with God.  Nothing that exists on earth, and no one but God is entirely complete.  Rather all creation is in the process of being completed, and we are in the process of becoming the person we will finally be, from all of the possibilities that lie ahead of us. 
               Only God is totally actualized.  There are no further possibilities for God. There is no  past, present or future for God.  God simply IS, totally, everywhere, always.  With us, and all creation, however, we were what we were, we are what we are, and we will be what we will be, until the time and circumstances, in God's unique plan and judgment for each of  us we will be all that we will ever be.  It has to be this way for all but God.   There is nothing wrong with it. It is simply real,  the truth about us.
                And so we are on the move, unfinished, going somewhere, becoming someone, part of a process, carving out our eternal name out of myriads of possibilities.  Perhaps we do not think this way very often or ever. And perhaps that is the reason many people are not consciously growing, living with a conscious goal for their lives and happy.  Without such a vision and plan for our lives, we would need a great deal of  sound, color, pleasure and thrills to keep our lives from becoming insignificant, sinful, and boring.  That seems to be the way it is with many people today. Yet in spite of it all the truth remains the truth, and we are all carving our definite future out of the real possibilities that are  waiting.
                   Today, as I write this, we are in September of 2014.   It is the future of our yesterday. We ask questions. Is our spiritual experience of Christian faith all about sin and guilt as some people have told me they thought it was? Certainly not!  Comparing our Christian life to the running of a race (1Cor. 9: 24f), sin might be compared to an injured leg.  The leg must be healed before the runner can run again, but once healed He or she is up again to run.  So it is with sin and the purpose of our faith.  We should consciously keep ourselves aware of our carving out the image of Jesus from our future as it spreads out before us.  I am already just three months short of  being 87 years old...!
                  As a Baptized person  and a member of the Body of Christ, the Church, our effort here is that of a branch on a living vine.  We share the divine life of the vine in our own limited human way.  The name of the vine is Jesus and through with and in Him alone is the person God desires each of us to be day by day and forever uniquely realized. 
                    Come, Holy Spirit, guide us as we travel on our pilgrim way!