Anderson, South Carolina
Letting God choose His best for us. Suddenly, I am faced with a very real dilemma. How does one find the center of God’s will when the options are suddenly completely unbounded? Alvin Toffler wrote in his classic sociologic masterpiece, Future Shock, that one of the great stressors facing individuals in the mid 20th century was that of having far too many options available. He labeled it an ‘over-choice” crisis. The array of options available in the 1960s was but a tiny fraction of that available now. For example: I have more than once worn myself out surfing the web, exploring cities and countries as possible places to live. There is such wide, deep, tantalizing, and easily accessible information about a million places to be. Attempts at frantic optimization of every aspect of one’s life can be truly exhausting. Alas, I finally figured out the best place to be is the one I already am in. If there is a better one out there for me, then God knows about it and all I have to do is ask. The really hard part for me is sitting down, shutting up, and listening, sans iPod, cell phone, Internet, plasma TV, newspapers, and a million other forms of stimulation.
As wondrous as travel is, planning it can be overwhelming, given the infinite possibilities open to me. Traditionally, one has some boundaries to these in the form of financial, time, relational, and geopolitical constraints. One has to work a job; one has obligations to family; a spouse may refuse to step inside an airplane; you may have just given your last dollar to the accounts receivable office at the hospital. I suddenly find myself without any of these constraints and my only pretense of obligation to community activities is rather malleable.
A month ago I, and several million other frequent flyers, received an e-mail from a large international airline soliciting a short essay on why face-to-face interactions with people were more effective at conducting business than interactions by phone, email, snail mail, or video-conference. I submitted a 374 word essay on why I thought suiting up and showing up made good sense. Apparently, someone in the airline also thought this made good sense. I now have no boundaries to my travel options.
An innocuous e-mail from the airline arrived today, mercifully to my in-box and not my junk mail. I learned that I have just acquired for myself and a companion of my choice free round-trip first class tickets to anyplace on the planet we want to go. It would seem that my seat angel has just wrought the ultimate upgrade of all time. All we have to do is show up in New York on a specified day to begin our journey. We go to London for a two-day business forum in a fine hotel to discuss the virtues of face-to-face connections. After that meeting we are free to go back to Heathrow Terminal 5 and get on a jet to any place in the world. We have thirty days of travel to wherever we wish to go.
What now?
Suddenly I am back on retreat doing an exercise in mindfulness, seeking to hear the still small voice, but down the mountain where the white noise of life can make it difficult to attend to His words. What seems to be clear is that there is someplace(s) on this planet I am supposed to go during a thirty day period, to have some kind of experience or encounter, and I am supposed to invite someone to participate in this for reasons completely unknown to me. I have one week to figure out where, why, who, and what. I have a nine-page form that must be faxed by to the airline with my itinerary details and the biographic information on my travel partner, within seven days. The reality of Alvin Toffler’s over choice crisis is suddenly very real to me.
I so very much want to do the next right thing with the right attitude in the right place with the right person. I have this disquieting feeling that I have been given something very sacred and yet something fragile that I don’t want to compromise in anyway. There is a feeling that this journey will lead to life-long consequences of the highest order. Suddenly, I feel like it is profoundly important that I stay in the light and really try to pay attention. I don’t think that is going to happen by my surfing the web, trying to optimize my life options.
Perhaps the solution is this simple: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you.” On retreat I found out that God is profoundly interested in even the tiniest details of my life. Perhaps it is time to live out faith that He is also interested in the medium and large details of my life and will be as exacting in making sure they come to pass.
Six days ago I was facing the prospect of surgery and rehab for an injury that occurred the day before. Three days ago I was scheduled for surgical evaluations and an MRI. If that had transpired and I had surgery yesterday or today, I certainly would not be looking at making a journey that could take me around the world. The miraculous intervention of healing that has me of sound body and fit to make an epic journey is from the same Source that has provided this wondrous opportunity. It is quite evident that it is important that I be in an as yet undisclosed place for a purpose determined before the foundations of time. “I know the thoughts I have for you, thoughts for good, not for evil, plans that will give you hope and a future.” Suddenly, this verse feels like military cut orders, and I don’t feel afraid of where I am being sent.
I will get to the airport on time. I sure don’t want to miss this ride.
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