About the Author
Chaplain Paul Slater
By Chaplain Paul Slater
Facing the future with creative anticipation is a challenge for those of us facing hopeless situations. But who says they are hopeless?
I was recently challenged by the term Radical Possibilities of Grace.
The entire concept is that one of the key ingredients for experiencing a miracle from God is that there be what seems to be an unsurmountable problem.
Many of us qualify as candidates for the miraculous. We use terms such as hopeless situation, unsolvable problem, irreversible situation, each with the concept of nothing more can be done.
But such a mindset dismisses from the equation the radical possibilities of God.
Now I do not come to this writing assignment as one oblivious to difficult life problems but as one who is a fellow sufferer. After all, I am a hospice chaplain whose job is to help people face the issues of death and dying, a task I do on a daily basis.
For example, my wife and I, we have chosen the pathway of foreclosure of our home, simply because it is now worth $50,000 less than we paid for it and our payments have soared to nearly $5000 per month. I share those factors not for sympathy but to say we all have heartbreak and challenges.
But our challenges are not health related like some of you may be facing, nor have we been fired from our jobs like some of you. We still have each other, unlike some of you who may have lost your spouse through death or divorce. Our children are alive, whereas some of you have experienced the pain of losing a child through death.
Now I do not presume for a second God owes me a perfect life that is problem free.
For me, my faith is not God's eraser, making the difficulties of life disappear. Faith is employing God's empowerment for facing those difficulties. One of the great concepts of Christmas is that Jesus was referred to as Immanuel, God with us,
Feeling hopeless in tough situations is one option but I know all too well that giving in to those feelings leads to a spiral of depression, perhaps even leading one to give up.
I would rather give in to facing the future with faith in God to help me explore radical possibilities. Perhaps you, like me, need to move from limiting the possibilities available, instead exploring new solutions of faith available to us.
As you explore the lives of the successful people in your estimation, you will find people who had just as many problems as you, perhaps even more challenges to life than you are experiencing. Yet somehow, the radical possibilities of God replace the mindset of hopelessness.
What is there that you are facing that could become the seed for launching a new business venture?
What solutions have you already discovered that could become the basis for a "how to "book or solution focused website?
What changes do you need to make that would free you from the oppressive weight of depression or the paralysis of feeling stuck in that hopeless situation.
As for me, I choose to face the future expecting the radical possibilities of God to make a difference in how I think and act in my present problems.
Would you join me in facing the future convinced that the radiclal possibilities of God will produce within you a new mindset of hope, prompting creative solutions to the negative challenges of life.
Published by Chaplain Paul Slater on December 25, 2007 09:16 AM
