Firefighting v. Firestarting
God works in unmysterious ways, too.
I cannot number the many crises — macro and micro — where I’ve heard some probably well-meaning person try and fail to make sense of something by attributing it to a Super Mysterious Way of God.
I’m working at an institution of higher education at the moment where hardly a day goes by that some insecure administrator disturbs the relative peace with some new policy or act of performative handwringing. In toxic spaces like this, every day is a crisis. I have a sense that this is going around in workplaces generally, so maybe we have something in common.
Elsewhere in my life, I encounter organizations or interpersonal relationships somewhere in my network where something is on fire. All the time. And the vigilant and responsible among us find ourselves compelled to go firefighting every single time. It’s exhausting.
The well-intentioned but misguided among us would suggest that every toxic situation or flare-up is a Mystery of the divine, some signal or expression of God’s intent for how we ought to be. Or some cue in a series of things that will result in a purposeful, meaningful story down the road.
Such thinking treats God like a trickster who mischievously runs before us laying traps that will build our character. Hence, the Mysterious Ways.
We needn’t find meaning in everything. Sometimes, it isn’t there.
But we can, perhaps, make meaning with whatever we have available. This is the Unmysterious Way. The same fire that reads as a catastrophe can be the one around which we gather and share burdens and stories. The Unmysterious Way involves us engaging intently in the persuasive acts of God: listening, being with, sharing, envisioning, creating, chasing Possibility. This incarnational and embodied approach shifts us from first responder to firestarter — and therein lies all the difference.
We can be burned or we can do the careful burning.
What kinds of shifts are necessary within and among us to move from firefighter to firestarter?
Quick note: If you’ve been with me over these last several weeks of Lent, you’ll notice that I’ve had almost a song a day. Here they are so far gathered in a nifty Spotify playlist. Enjoy.