The Beach, the Grandsons, and the God Who Keeps Becoming Me.

Having spent the last couple of days with family, including our two grandsons, I’ve become keenly aware again that meaning, value, and relationship are intertwined. Meaning can be viewed as the unique shape and value of a relational movement.

Relationships are more than the movements between us – they are the movements we are made of. That’s a big shift in perception. So much of our culture encourages a way of perceiving our world in which there are basically two types of “stuff” – things and the relational movements between things. In philosophy, we often refer to substances and accidents. But there is a more intuitive and true way to perceive our world, namely: everything is relational, everything is movement. Things and people are embodiments of those relational movements. In us, these movements take shape and a more durable form, but all we are, are the stories and interactions that made us. We are not things that relate — we are relationships that take shape.

There is a whole branch of philosophy that favors this way of viewing the world. Process philosophy considers events and the intertwining of events as the process that produces everything that exists. Being and becoming are not two different modes of existence; rather, my being consists of my becoming.

So what does this have to do with enjoying my grandkids on the beach? Everything! For these events continue to create me, and I am thankful for it. Instead of considering myself as a changeless being that was created by God sometime in the past, who now happens to have some interaction with others, I consider myself as being in the process of being created by a God who takes the form of every relationship I’m in, inviting me to become more than I have been. It’s a view that helps us see the value and meaning that is possible in the simplest interactions, a view that helps us recognize God in all his disguises.

We’ll explore this creative process of meaning-making in a five-week cohort journey. You can join the waiting list here.