Reforming Everything

This past spring, a group I've been reading (and geeking out) over the Bible with for three years made it to Revelation. No we definitely were in no rush! I also highly recommend taking a journey like that when you can. But I digress!

Now, Revelation is no light lift. Often used to preach using the "fire insurance" method of just how awful it will be for the non-believer, it was a book my group both expressed a desire and a fear of reading it to understand and really see all it was trying to illustrate. Many weeks, discussions were grasping at clarity- "But does it mean x,y or z?!," "Oh so this is going to happen!" or my favorite "That means this thing happening in the news now means it time!" If you have done a revelation study, you get it.

Amidst the "is it" or "isn't it" theorizing that went on, there was an overarching flow, a 30,000 foot them that kept coming up this time for me that I could not ignore, and it summarized the way life can make us feel as we walk through it.

The beginning of John's vision show hints of turmoil in the throne room as he can see rumblings of thunder and lightning. As each thing comes to pass, more and more death and destruction expands across the earth. The rumblings and the storm quicken and strengthen. It is unbearable to read with the thought of those who have chosen the road of unbelief, yet heaven is rejoicing in it all, because they have been waiting for an end to be put to all the pain and suffering of the world's current state.

How do we deal with the things in our lives, in our organizations that feel like dismantling? I've spoken to so many leaders who are worried about sales, and then there are church leaders who feel like things that have "worked" are no long "working" to serve their communities. It can feel disorienting and honestly frightening to lead through these times of transition.

Like in Revelation, there can be grumblings, pain and destruction. Yes, that can sometimes simply be just that, but what is the possibility that something completely new will be formed out of that.

As leaders, we have to train and retrain our brains to look for possibilities, reframe for changing landscapes and release things that don't need resuscitation for the energy to be used on other opportunities.

The plan of Revelation required absolutely destruction for everything to be repurposed into something new and beautiful. If you're holding on too tightly or grieving loss too harshly, what of the dust and ashes is out there waiting to become something new? How could you see growth and change occur? What new and beautiful thing is out there if you could allow yourself to dream, push and stay.

In the end of book, we see a new Jerusalem, a reshaped and reformed experience larger than we can truly imagine looking at it mapped out using today's converted measurements. It's all too much to imagine or fathom in the most wonderful way.

Even in the worst case scenario, there is an opportunity to create something, invite in drastic change you would never stomach without a nudge and ultimately trust God more with everything.

We should approach the turmoil with the open mind that the next possibility could be the bigger win. Ask yourself, "Should we let go of that product line?" instead of pouring everything into the sinking ship, take the same energy down the road of R&D. "Have we clung too tightly to that ministry because it's the first thing we did?" might show you how needs have changed and everything going to meet that one is taking away from helping in ways to which your community can engage and respond.

Whatever that looks like for you today, don't fear the rumbling or the destruction, because something new is simply waiting to come forth.