Pressure and Time

“Geology is the study of pressure and time, that’s all it takes really, pressure and time. That and a huge poster” -Red from Shawshank Redemption

I drive up to work this morning and I notice the drip line from our roof. It has compacted the soil in a significant way. The kind of annoyance that is enough to create a speed dip but not enough to do anything about it. All I could think about is pressure and time. It amazes me the kind of thing that can happen with a simple drip, drip, drip… over time.

In my recent reflection it reminds me of my current state regarding being conformed vs transformed. Conformed is an external pressure, a drip on me over time. Transformed is change that comes from the inside, led by the Spirit, the same root word we use to speak about caterpillars turning into butterflies. As I take a look at what has shaped me recently, I confess it looks more like being conformed than transformed. My angst about the world fueling the grumpy old man inside of me yelling, “Get off my grass! Why’s your music so loud?” It’s easy because it’s a cultural norm to become Statler or Waldorf. I’m beginning to see how an overexposure to the anxiety in our world is creating a hard drip line, impervious and resistant. I don’t want to be hard, cold, filled with argument to combat the times.

But a life transformed through hope over time becomes a very different soil. Sometimes that soil needs some tilling, aeration, or like the gardener…some digging. But the goal is to be good soil so transformation (growth) can happen. I want to be shaped by God alive inside of me.

Pressure and time has created many beautiful things here on earth. Rock formations, gems, grand canyons, agates are all by products of intense conformation. But the human heart is better guided by transformation. As Ezekiel noted, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

Truth, Grace and Time, vs Pressure and Time