From dismayed to amazed
Whenever I catch myself thinking,
I can’t believe he just did that!
Or
I can’t believe she just said that!
Or
I can’t believe we’re doing that again!
I try to stop myself, rest in the pause, and then enter into a little self-talk which always starts like this, “Yes you can. Nothing is truly surprising.”
If I think about my own story and all my missteps and misdeeds, then I think about all the history I’ve studied, I suddenly remember that nothing that any of us does or says is cause for dismay.
I sometimes think that dismay is one of the chief sins of our species.
Dismay is always about control. I can’t control the moment and the people in it, so I become exasperated. I put my hands on my hips in dismay. I am incredulous and begin to tell anyone within earshot why. My dismay takes me out of the flow of life and plants me in the cul-de-sac of my own frustration.
I have been thinking about the shift from dismay to amazement. The plain fact is this: I am amazed that we all made it to this moment. Aren’t you?
When I am about to step off the cliff into dismay, I try to remember these reasons I am amazed.
13.8 billion years ago the universe burst into being with a big bang. In the earliest season of life in the universe the whole place was a dense hot soup of hydrogen, a little bit of helium, and an even smaller amount of lithium. All the hydrogen that ever was or will be was created in the first twenty minutes after the big bang. Hydrogen makes up 10 percent of the human body’s mass. That’s amazing! The hydrogen in your body is 13.8 billion years old. Almost all the other essential elements in your body were produced when stars got old, died, and exploded billions of years ago. So, you really are stardust. That’s amazing!
Here’s another go-to for me when I am perched on the edge of dismay and need to be amazed. Somewhere around 230 million years ago on our planet a series of enormous volcanic eruptions set off more than one million years of rainy days. It rained for one million years! This caused a massive extinction event on the planet which paved the way for the dinosaurs. They ruled the earth for more than 100 million years, then about 65 million years ago a huge asteroid hit the planet causing the extinction of the dinosaurs which paved the way for….us. That’s amazing.
We are a part of a 14 billion year old (and counting) evolutionary art project. Evolution is God’s technique for creation and we are the latest characters to come on the scene. I am amazed that we get to be a part of this grand stream of becoming. My sense is that it is God’s desire that we participate. What is my part to play? What is your part to play?
Dismay is about control. Amazement is about participation. I am amazed that we get to participate in something so enormously beautiful and grand. What a gift, what an amazing gift.