Getting sliced open for spine surgery is much like Adams’ experience in Eden. You both are put to sleep not knowing what waits for you post-op. You both wake with less bone. Adam gets the perfectly paired partner and you got eight titanium screws. The big picture outcome for both operations is a flourishing life.
No nature or nurture debate for these two. The opportunity
for Adam and Eve was for exponential development. Basking in God and nature the
world was theirs. They could be their full selves. We on the other hand (thanks
in part to those two) struggle to integrate soul and spirit. Increasing in soul
formation and personal flourishing is always a battle.
“We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land,’
is a chorus from Godspell. The ground for growth is always available. The
internal decision to flourish or atrophy (life on cruise control is an
illusion) is one made minute by minute. I’m entering into a season of that
choice now. Some days I don’t work the croft and the crop suffers.
In the face of death let us be deliberate. The seasons come
with challenge; children, money, sickness, depression, celebrations, birthdays
and weddings. Flourishing means showing up for surgery. Searching for openings
and walking through them. Per Pressfield, “We have a job to do, a calling to enact, a
self to become.”
Photo by Wim van 't Einde on Unsplash