..stability

This is the more rational side of my day.

I have noticed that certain themes have been running through my life over the last few months, and I will have certain realizations about them in specific contexts, and then discover something new about them when the context shifts.

One of these themes is stability. This is what I have learned:

1. Stability is a commitment to something bigger than yourself. To commit to staying is to recognize your place in a much larger plan than the simple confines of your life. It also might mean sacrificing something more exciting or more challenging in an intentional effort to create stability.

2. Stability can be a place that is easily confused with compliance or stagnancy, neither of which are required for it to vitally exist. To choose to stay is often to choose to face more difficult problems. Sure, the allure of meeting new people and encountering new cultures may seem to be so stimulating and maturing, but do you really deal with the shit of knowing someone and loving them despite that knowledge? Do you allow people to know you to the point of finding things wrong with you and telling you about them? Complacency is dangerous and to be consciously avoided, but should not be confused with stability.

3. In Camden I learned that stability is the only thing that works. For the people of Camden, support of the passer-by is great but commitment to the long haul is what changes people's lives. Also, in order for people to experience how Jesus is working and the small, minute ways that Jesus is healing a place like Camden, sporadic service projects don't even begin to tell the story.

4. Stability allows for healing. 'Moving on' is often a cliche that gets thrown around when something traumatic happens and people need to heal. I am learning that true healing and reconciliation cannot usually happen when people move on, but happens when people choose to stay. Sure, dealing with your shit isn't fun, but running away from it doesn't mean that shit isn't all over your shoe, waiting to plague you for years to come. Moving on is also the most selfish response to pain. If I don't confront what has happened and work through the situation and just move on, someone else is left confused and our relationship will end by being so undervalued. Also, staying gives you the chance to practice resurrection, watching a dead thing come back to life and that is how I want to experience God.