Rob Voyle's Appreciative Way Blog
Additional Articles By Year:
2016
| 2015
| 2014
| 2013
| 2012
| 2011
| 2010
Doing the Unexpected this Christmas
Posted: December 20, 2011 by Rob Voyle
We live in a violent world where the response to violence is to be more violent and overwhelm by force that which frightens us. Sometimes the violence is physical, but in many cases, especially in the church, we commit intellectual, emotional, and spiritual violence on one another often with great theological justification. But that is not the way of love that we get to celebrate at this time of the year. Just when humanity would expect God to do something more violent and rid the earth of each one of us God does the unexpected and comes and lives as one of us. Every element of the incarnation and Jesus' story is one of doing the unexpected. Born of humble and questionable parentage. And then he hangs out with the poor, lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, and any other marginalized group. It's just not what we expected. Yesterday I received in the mail a copy of "Sweet Fruit from the Bitter Tree: 61 Stories of Creative and Compassionate Ways out of Conflict." Its a wonderful collection of short stories of people who have done the unexpected in the midst of conflict to create an opportunity for peace and transformation. The stories were gathered by Mark Andreas from a variety of sources around the world. One of the commonalities Mark notes is that in each story the person maintains their connection with the person they are in conflict with, but with a twist - the connection is at a place of a shared value and not the place of conflict. For example a women is walking home at night and is being followed by a man that makes her very uncomfortable. She turns and says to her pursuer, " I am feeling very nervous, would you walk me home." At which point the man takes her by the arm and walks her home. Sadly later that night the man raped another woman. For the woman in the story her doing the radically unexpected called forth the "gentlemanly" nature of the man something they both could value. If she had done the expected thing of trying to run or escape it would most likely have called forth the rapist nature of the man. When God and humankind are in conflict, God does the unexpected. By living as one of us Jesus is expressing God's deepest valuing of humanity and desire to stay connected with us. When this radically unexpected thing is experienced in our hearts it calls forth the best from us - something that both we and God can value. From my experience, people don't change because I hate them, at least change in the direction I desire. If you find yourself in conflict ask yourself: Is my fear and anger getting me what I want? If it isn't, ask what would be the radically unexpected thing to do. What is something that we both could share and value? I pray that in the midst of doing the unexpected you experience the joy of Christmas. If you would like to read a complete story from "Sweet fruit from the Bitter Tree" or find information on how to purchase it please go to http://realpeoplepress.com/blog/ . For people who love stories and like to "see" processes in action rather than read books of theory this is an incredible resource and very much in keeping with this season of peace. With Christmas Blessing Rob Voyle
See Restoring Hope for healing and change strategies based in the Appreciative Way.
Additional Articles By Year:
2016
| 2015
| 2014
| 2013
| 2012
| 2011
| 2010
|