"Go, make something happen.” That was Seth Godin's
charge to his first graduating class of nine in his informal MBA program. Godin
is the author of TRIBES, a highly regarded marketing book.
That phrase reminds me of the times I’ve talked to
psychotherapy clients who were trying to “make something happen”—but it wasn’t
working. They were trying to get a spouse to call them if they were going to be
late to dinner, or trying to change a culture at a workplace, or trying to change
their own addiction to porn.
Making something happen didn’t work because,
though my clients had some responsibility, they couldn’t accomplish the task alone. If a
husband kept forgetting to call, his wife couldn’t make him do it. If a worker
tries to change how the intake process works at a nursing home, but it’s been
done that way for twenty years, she needs to persuade many co-workers of the
wisdom of her plan. Addictions require our attention to the temptation process.
But what stops the process at the beginning is the power to imagine the
aftermath of shame.
“God, make something happen.” When we want to create a new process, we need God’s help. It’s not that we have no part, it’s that we must
not ignore God’s part. Life with our Papa-God is a both/and process. He’s the
one to convict the spouse, to change the co-workers, and at the point of
temptation, to give power to imagine consequences.
We can influence. We can obey what we sense the Father speaking to us. We can understand our own vulnerabilities and educate ourselves about a
process of growth. But, let’s not forget, it’s the Holy Spirit working together with us
that will make something good happen.
Sweet Jesus, Dear Father, Holy Spirit. You have invited us
into your intimacy so that, together, we can bring good into this broken world.