2023-04-29 A Meditation on Cataclysm
“But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Pe 3:13 ESV)
As Christians eschatological, possessed of a faith that epochs come and go, calmed by a radical expectation of the apocalyptic, eschatons near and codwelling with us, Armageddon the necessary trend of this understanding of history; as these things, we expect the cataclysmic. We expect all life to turn on a dime, overnight, no luscious cakewalk either, but stark goodness somehow ushered in, and unbecoming pain, obstacles, old modalities, wrested away from the devil and his grip on our hearts.
We expect the perseverance, our calling unto radical faith, to survive us through this time. We expect this world, and all that is in it, to be Garden and playground, art studio and training ground, for a New Generation. This world shall be redeemed, not some hushed promise of extractions and disappearances, but this very world in patience and in determined love, gestures of kindness, intentional living and intended outcomes for student and colleague alike, shall one day announce: God has come; cataclysm has marked us for life with an Experience like no other, still radical to believe, still keeping our eye on that Prize, still laboring, though tempted to sit this one out.
That is, it is a gentle thing and yet a stark thing, the ways times come and go, our one life raft being that same Cross that spoke an early and good Word to us. No lackeys for false prophets or false Messiahs who preach ease, we expect in our lifetimes to see things we will only be able to explain to a next, blessed, fruit-receiving, generation with a joke or a popular song, a manifesto that meant so much now just so much water under the bridge.
Our times have been-a-changing. We are not hasty to take credit, knowing it is a project cocreated like no other. It is in no man nor woman’s mind the Big Picture; only God knows how and why like waves of positive culture washing over our fields and cities, our suburbs and our rural outposts, positivity will hush and determinedly change the cumulative mindset. Thus, some victories are His alone, as we His people remain agents, soldiers of the Cross, the prize rephrased and reframed, the victory giving no time to celebrate, for a new Era is upon us with all new rules, ciphers of meaning, and new decisions to make in prayer.
Only in all this, is meant simply to be an overcoming. An overcoming of our plight and our pain. An overcoming of our stasis so hurting and in need. An overcoming of our wish simply to plead with a loving Parent; we are good folk for believing God hears. We are good folk for the faith that the Cross abides, through victory and defeat alike; not ones to lord it over others, sometimes our own frame of mind—positive and heartbeat of the soul—is already a victory, though facts on the ground seem otherwise. Therefore we keep an eye on what is pure, and what is revealed. Each of us has this pure mentality: intention and heart in the game, good and noble and true, regardless of how browbeaten and on our last legs we do feel. Regardless of others scoffing at our distasteful poverty or our laggard ways. Each of us can keep an eye on purity and revelation. And that revelation just may be of a silent heart-change across some microcosm of society, some inner “set”, some movers and shakers at the forefront, people easily dismissed for their slog and beleaguered workdays. These are those who will change the world. These are those who know a thing or two about dependence on God, on having a faith despite social deprivations, about being easily dismissed.
He shall turn over the work to reveal new sides and modalities. He shall save us in the place of jackals, in no-man’s land, in a place arrived at by pure intentionality gone awry: we wanted to do good; we wanted to make others proud; we wanted to find our place in this crazy society; we wanted to be people of thanksgiving, for what progress and social boon does exist. But all this could not speak the Good Word on a new belonging ushered in, a new formative experience motoring and alighting upon us, determined to save, certain we are the intended recipients, almost “deserving” if only we weren’t so attentive to our flaws. But in God’s eyes it is His intention to gift us and to make us His beloved and deserving Children.