What may be holding you back is not the short straw after all. It may be diapause.
You, I feel certain, will be as elated as I am that I have happened upon a new word...that I did not make up.
WEBSTER: D-I-A-P-A-U-S-E; a period of physiologically enforced dormancy between periods of activity.
This is a powerful as well as significant word to our walk. Inherent in the awareness of this word is the excitement of possible transformation. Romans 12:2, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, calls one to move past the delay via inactivity; the short-sheeting belief that at least no movement would create no error.
From what I can gather, hesitancy to transfer from one state to another is called diapause. The idea is a struggle to let go as from a caterpillar to a butterfly. Not so strangely, the Romans word for transformed is metamorphosis or the process of moving from one state to the other. Diapause is the reluctance to make the transition as growth and development are suspended. This happens, as science verifies, because the caterpillar is afraid to let go.
Sue Monk Kidd points out that it seems that at the moment of our greatest possibility in a decision, or an action, a desperate clinging rises up in us. Suddenly we are not so sure. We make a valiant attempt to save our old life as we become fearfully unsure of the promises of the new.
Daniel Day Williams supports her observation. We fear it is all we have. Even its sufferings are familiar and we clutch them because their very familiarity is comforting...Yet so long as we aim at the maintenance of this present self, as we now conceive it, we cannot enter the larger selfhood which is pressing for life.
The call for the renewal of the mind is threatened by human diapause. Fearful of the unknown is likely to keep one in their present condition, even when suffering, because that one would prefer the familiarity of disappointment over the uncertainty of possible success. Men and women, in essence, are suffering from a diapausal state of the mind ruled by fear rather than adventure.
Faith of what can be is our theme. Launching out is a gospel truth for believers. Ours is the choice to live either as a creeping caterpillar or a butterfly in flight. The former is constantly called to let go in order to enter. The matter which would stop us is our own diapause.
Dare to let go...and let God. It is always appropriate to remind us to remove our big toe from the bottom of pool and begin to swim. The church awaits leaders who can let go of earth's certainties in order for us to soar into the wild adventures of great kingdom exploration and experience.
God calls us to live larger than life. May we have the confidence in Him to let go.
No comments:
Post a Comment