FootprintsintheWind.com

To my good friends–

I wrote this morning:

I have come to be changed.

But I wanted to ease the words somewhat, lessen their import by saying What if a leader stood in front of you and said this? What if you were challenged to say this? But the fact is that the words came to me unadulterated. I have come and am going to be changed. I do not want to leave you behind, Lord, and you will not leave me behind. But these people will change me, and perhaps more than most. Who knows? But it is something we need to be aware of and open to: when we meet, we will be changed, we will not be the same, we will grow, we will lose and we will gain. I have come to be changed.

Whenever persons meet, since they come into being by virtue of their meeting, then those persons are changed. They are changed from potential persons to actual. They are changed from whom they thought they were to whom they are in this person’s presence. They are changed from whom they were in that person’s presence to whom they are in this one’s presence. They are changed from nothing to somebody. They lose a piece of themselves. They gain a piece of the meeting that is between them. They lose data and gain wisdom. They lose fiction and gain truth. They lose assumptions and gain personhood.

Every day I’m different. I move from what I thought, believed and beloved yesterday to what I think, believe and belove today. I do not repeat myself as much as I thought I would; I contradict myself more than I consider safe. Once I saw this as a defect of my character; now I see it as near the center and good: when I find I do not repeat myself I know I am moving. Herein, growth. Herein curiosity. Herein life! I have come to be changed!

:- Doug.