As I travel the country speaking about the need for loving care I wonder what it is that actually causes change. On my old national T.V. show, Life Choices (1987-1995) I once asked Dr. Bernie Siegel about this. "The only way we change is through trauma," he replied. "It takes a significant emotional blow to cause anyone to change over a short period."
If this is true, what is the value of all the other change efforts that we launch so often? Even something as simple as a diet is typically something with a short-lived effect. Why, then, do we think we can achieve major change through reading or listening to any writer or speaker?
Perhaps the answer includes understanding the kind of change we seek...
A tyrannical boss can change the surface behavior of any compliant employee. Over time, he or she may even break the independent spirit of a human being.
But more meaningful and more positive change can be brought about if we can appreciate the notion of epiphany. Epiphany refers to a dramatic awakening, a soul shift so pronounced that it may feel like a sort of trauma.
Many believe that our epiphanies occur because we have, either consciously or unconsciously, been engaged in a pressing search for a new truth. Over time, this search works like a gradual force in the opening of a large door. For years, there may seem to no movement. But the energy is at work in the same way drops of water eventually mark a stone.
One day, the large door finally cracks open and in rushes a shaft of light so bright that we see as we have never seen before. Elation may follow.
The question becomes whether we can sustain the impact of our epiphany. Can we keep the door open so that we make the kind of meaningful shift that happened, famously, with the Apostle Paul, or more obscurely with the millions across time who have experienced, in obscurity, their own epiphanies and found new ways to engage with the energy of the world?
We cannot create our own epiphanies. We can only ready ourselves so that, if we are fortunate, we will recognize that God is always present, if only we can see and receive Love's gift.
-Erie Chapman
