Stretching

Everywhere I look, it seems that things are stretching and trying to grow. Or, they are being held back because of some resisting force. It is, as if our very beings are struggling to become something more, but there is also aspects within us that are anxious and, therefore sometimes working against us. The same is true for the collective, though it is harder to see and slower in coming. Recently, I heard a metaphor likening our experience to that of a rubber band--at one point being pulled and thinned and then returning to a more settled stasis. While the analogy is overly simple, it does provide a way to explain what many people are feeling. As that rubber band (our experience of growth or change) stretches, it can feel either freeing or dislocating, depending on the way we perceive what is happening. And then when the it returns (when our perception and/or experience of all this stabilizes), the anxiety fades. But what has happened in the process is that the rubber band has actually returned to a "new normal." That is, even though the greater stress is gone, the impact remains. The stretching has had a lasting impact, even if it is not immediately detectable. Additionally, the change--even though it may be extremely slight has, in turn, created a possibility (or, more likely, a range of possibilities) that was not there before. I am not sure how this will strike the reader. Simply talking about this might add to the stress. However, my hope is that it will provide a means of explaining what some people are experiencing. I also hope that by speaking about it, we can get a better handle on what it means--or might mean--and how we can proactively relate to this. For what I am talking about about might not be simply happening "to" us. It might be something that we are more actively involved with than we realize. In terms of traditional theology, what I am talking about here is free will. We tend to think about free will in terms of individual choices and that is certainly not wrong. However, what we do not necessarily think much about is how all those individual choices add up and where they ultimately lead us. Think about it in terms of prayer. Prayer is not merely request. It is intent. It is an effort to pull or push the rubber band in a certain direction. Of course, this is somewhat alarming to consider because we pray to God an trust that God knows what best to do with our prayers. But what happens when God gets many prayers--many efforts to stretch--in a a certain direction? What happens then? (I am still working on this... so don't be put off by what appears to be a sudden conclusion)