Monday, February 13, 2012

Disorientation is Desirable

Mountains serve liminality
Today I'm linking to a wonderful post by Len Hjalmarson over at NextReformation titled dis-orientation and renewal.  Here are some highlights:

Disorientation connotes liminality and chaos. Both of these conditions root a creative and adaptive response. In The Sky is Falling as in The Shaping of Things to Come, the authors argue that disorientation is a necessary condition to renewal. We generally have far too much invested in the status quo to freely embrace change. A shaking and breaking is necessary. We enter into most transitions only half-heartedly if at all, and most of us are dragged to that place against our will.
 ...

Disorientation and dislocation create marginality. Marginality generates openness to risk and innovation, openness to “the other.” 
...

Finally, the gift of disorientation is the possibility of communitas. In these strange times when the foundations of modernity are crumbling, and Christendom itself is breaking apart; in these times when those things we took as secure and predictable no longer seem so sure, we can react in one of two ways. We can turn more inward, and find ways to buoy up a false sense of security in our sameness. We can look for ways to save our lives and preserve our comforts and privilege.  

Or we can remember that in the Incarnation God became vulnerable and weak. He gave up status, privilege and security and entered our world and embraced us in our sin. He even took our wrongs on himself. 



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