Transformation can be extremely frustrating. I suspect I’m not the only one who secretly, or not so secretly wants whatever change I want to see to happen NOW. I don’t want to do the hard work that the change calls for. Standing in front of the block of marble I don’t want to have to gently, carefully carve away one chip at a time to reveal the Pieta, I want it NOW.
Scrolling through the hymnal assures me that I am, and have been for hundreds of years, in good, frustrated company. I didn’t do an exhaustive search but there are plenty of hymns that are songs of encouragement, some very old and some pretty new and some that remind us that the only thing in the universe that doesn’t change is God. Everything, EVERYTHING else is somewhere along the transformation continuum. We can either, with God’s mercy and grace, be gradually transformed into the people God put us here to be or we can be transformed by the world.
Moss is something most of us probably ignore, but I would like to hold up the common moss as a role model for change.
Moss is humble. Moss is patient. Moss is flexible. Moss doesn’t make a fuss it just gently goes about its business. Moss supports other life.
Given enough time and a very tiny foothold to start, moss will eventually wear down a mountain.
I am going to try very hard to not try so hard –
to be more moss-like, to be humble, to be patient, to be flexible, to gently go about my business while supporting others,
and to not worry if I don’t wear the whole mountain down today.
– Carolyn Hayes
Director of Children and Young Families
