Affect & Effect in Existence.....

"I suppose it is comfortable to think of an unchanging world, but change is fundamental to existence. The stability paradigm offered a false hope of a world devoid of major challenges. History sometimes reaches turning points, and we ignore them at our peril. The question then becomes whether we will seek to shape events or be shaped by them, to lead or to stand aside."

~James S.  Robbins

"Existence is the very nature of God. It is the thing that truly characterizes God and not us. If we did not exist, if we were never created, He would still be. If He were not, nothing would be. We have our being, our most constant predicate, from the One who alone constantly is.

God has no beginning, no middle, no end. There is no difference whatsoever between God at one point and another, because God does not exist within time. God does not exist merely “forever,” because He exists before forever begins and after it ends. He exists in a realm where questions of time cannot even be brought up.

To make a long tangent short, the complete otherness and pure existence of God requires that He be above everything and unaffected by it all, which is very difficult to maintain without error. Yet therein we will find the stability we seek."
~Michael Anthony Abril

Affected - adj.

1. Acted upon, influenced, or changed.
2. Emotionally stirred or moved.
3. Infected or attacked, as by disease.

Effected - verb

To bring into existence.

To produce as a result.

To bring about.

How arrogant are we in this world, somehow thinking that we can "affect" the long-term direction and shape the outcomes of this world and the events of this world??? Or how desperate can we be to develop a picture of God that is disconnected and "unaffected" by the world He created when in reality He loves us so much that He invaded the space-time continuum to become a man and "effected" our rescue from death and destruction by offering His own Life in exchange for ours....who loved us in action and sacrifice so much, so that He came to win us back???

It has occurred to me on my travels this past month that the struggle to understand God's eternality and existence and His "otherness" has left this world in a sense of hopelessness and despair and a worldview that is characterized at its deepest level by the Postmodern perspective that there is no truth and all that is considered truth is relative. And that we have so detach God from this world, so "otherize" Him in our feeble attempts to clarify Who He is that we are losing the deeper essence of His character......Love. If existence is His very nature....then Love is that existence.

Our hopelessness in this age of Postmodern thought is steeped in this belief....that there is no God, and if there is, He is "unaffected" and therefore we are still on our own.....adrift on this planet created by a God who has better things to do in the Universe than be "affected" by us and our little problems.

We, however, are completely "affected" by this disease called sin.....it permeates our entire being and we have no cure in and of ourselves. No mantra, no exercise to get ourselves "centered" or course to help ourselves completely eradicates the reality of this disease. As all disease....its eradication requires the "affect" of an "uninfected" source to permeate the existence and "effect" the cleansing of the "affected" person, without becoming "infected" itself. Hence, God's character and existence outside of time and space left Him as the only solution for our freedom from this disease.

 

AND yet.....I find myself in response to this deep truth still seeking that cure in my daily relationships.... through the response of those around me, the actions and attitudes of those who I love and say they love me....or at least like me, and the recognition that I am important to them somehow coming from them in some sort of meaningful way. And this morning I once again sense the reality of God's feelings....that all He is asked of me is to respond to His great love for me, acknowledge Him throughout my day, recognize that He is important to me in some sort of meaningful way  and be completely "affected" by Him who has been so "affected" by me.....hence experiencing the only cure for my disease.

 

Transformation is the "effect"....the journey I am on with Him is clear only to Him and I can rest in the truth that He is "affected" by me and at the same time the only Source that "effects" my transformation....that wholeness I seek, that security I struggle to gain, that surety that I am so lacking....that Love that is so available and yet so last on my list. It is such a scary thing to surrender ALL of it to an unseen and yet so powerful God, who I can't understand or even grasp the reality of His eternal existence.....without that very surrender. It is a fleeting experience....I have known it for only seconds at a time and can not conjure it up for the life of me on my own....and yet the reality of Him is more real than anything I can see in this every day life....and He brings peace beyond explanation when I fall into His arms.

 

This is the way God put it:

   "They found grace out in the desert, these people who survived the killing.
Israel, out looking for a place to rest, met God out looking for them!"

God told them, "I've never quit loving you and never will.
   Expect love, love, and more love!

And so now I'll start over with you and build you up again, dear virgin Israel.
You'll resume your singing, grabbing tambourines and joining the dance.
You'll go back to your old work of planting vineyards on the Samaritan hillsides,
And sit back and enjoy the fruit—  oh, how you'll enjoy those harvests!
The time's coming when watchmen will call out from the hilltops of Ephraim:

'On your feet! Let's go to Zion, go to meet our God!'" 
~Jeremiah 31:2-6 ( The Message )

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