I covenant to be patient and to find joy in the process of change.

This fifth and final line of my covenant to you is probably the one that sustained me– and all of us– during the first two years of COVID when we had to change things, change again, and then again, and again. The post-pandemic dust is still settling and I’m not sure we’ve gotten into the groove yet of how the church of the now, the church of the future, works best. Although we might have said during lockdown that we just wanted to go back to “normal”, I think we knew that we never could. It’s requiring a lot of patience to ride out this gigantic wave of change and to try to remember to find the joy in all the new things we discover together. We’ve had to let go of a lot of things close to our hearts. That might make it hard to be patient and joyful.

I have learned (and am still learning) to embrace change. More than just a set of skills, I am seeing through a different theological lens than I was. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown was the impetus for that (and you should still totally read it!). From there, I read some of Octavia Butler’s work, which is post-apocalyptic visionary fiction (a serendipitous thing to pick up at the beginning of the pandemic), and I have been inspired to perceive god as change. God is change, thus:

A victim of God may,

Through learning and adaptation,

Become a partner of God,

A victim of God may,

Through forethought and planning,

Become a shaper of God.

Or a victim of God may,

Through shortsightedness and fear,

Remain Godʼs victim,

Godʼs plaything,

Godʼs prey.

–Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower

Change is the only constant. And we’ve had a lot of it, very quickly. But we don’t have to fall victim to it, lose patience and give up. Rather we can partner with it, helping to shape the kind of world we want. As Octavia Butler wrote, “God exists to be shaped,” and we exist to shape it. That relationship is sacred. I covenant to engage in this sacred relationship patiently and joyfully, and with you.