The Privilege of Possibility

The title of this inspirational piece dropped into my mind without warning.  I am not sure what I was thinking about, but there it was: the privilege of possibility.  Immediately, I like the sound of it.  I like packing together words that begin with the same letter.  Alliteration, it is called.  I am not sure when this attraction to alliteration began.  I do remember the first time a friend told me that’s what I was doing.  I had never before heard the word, alliteration.  But I liked it. 

And so the phrase, “the privilege of possibility,” popped into my mind.  I don’t recall thinking about the phrase, so I am willing to accept it as an instant of revelation.  I think all of us get these moments of inspiration.  I suspect most of the time we pay no attention to them, so they are missed.  They simply disappear into the mist of our forgotten history.  Somehow this one stuck.  And now I get to ponder it and play around with it for a little bit. 

I want to think it is spiritual in some way.  That is the reason why I like to ponder and play around with things.  I certainly cannot claim God put it into my head.  God tends not to work that way with my head.  Rather I think God chooses to work with me in an environmental way, as I choose to put it.  Somehow God is always present in our environment.  Usually, we are not paying attention to it and, again, miss all the possibilities.   

I also think we can change or enrich our environments.  We can do this by hanging out with different kinds of people.  We can do it by reading things, watching YouTube presentations, etc.  I suspect we don’t take enough initiative or responsibility for our environment.  We erroneously assume environments are simply given: they are there.  I invite you to think about your environment.  Typically, we have more than one environment.  There may be work environments, home environments and even more.  They are not all alike.  Environments can be healthy or toxic. 

With this last sentence, I realize I am getting close to some spiritual matters.  Who would not want a healthy spirituality?  It is easy to picture unhealthy ones.  I mention cults as a good example of a bad spiritual environment.  I am old enough to remember Jonestown, Guyana, which happened in 1978.  Oddly enough, the leader of that sick culture, James Jones, was born within a few miles of my own place of birth.  I often wonder what environment formed me into the person I am and what environments---or probably environments---deformed him into the monster he turned out to be?  That sad day cost the lives of over nine hundred “believers.” 

That misguided community was not dealing with a privilege.  Instead, the chose to drink a poison of possibility that lead to their deaths.  They may well be in heaven, but it would be by the grace of God and not their beliefs or mortal ingestion of Kool-Aid.  Sadly, nearly a third of those were children.  It was not martyrdom.  It is rightly labeled a “massacre.”  I am not sure, but I suspect “drinking the Kool-Aid” is a phrase that emerged out of that miserable situation.  The morale of the story for me is to be attentive to our various environments.  What Kool-Aid is being offered by my environments? 

Healthy environments offer privilege---real privileges and not privilege masking as poison.  And privilege inevitably leads to possibility.  Typically, we have a view of privilege that is too narrow.  We see privilege as an issue of birth, wealth, education, etc.  And indeed, all of these are privileges.  And certainly, they are not evenly distributed in our American society and that is unfortunate.  But there are other privileges which are more democratic---they are available to everyone.  This is how God works as I think about theology. 

Let’s pursue that a little bit by introducing a metaphor for understanding the privilege of possibility.  I will use the metaphor of a bridge.  The privilege of possibility is our bridge to the future.  In fact, if we have no possibilities, we have no future.  We will be condemned to repeat our past---or even worse.  Some folks think the future will come.  But I would like to talk about the future as that with real possibilities---real possibilities for meaning, love, service, and the like.  If tomorrow is just like today’s humdrum, that is no real future. 

Our privilege becomes a bridge, but we have to cross the bridge.  Only if we cross the bridge, do we take advantage of our privilege.  God can provide us with countless bridges over which we can cross to good things.  But we have to walk across.  We have to walk the walk.  In this sense I see God as an invitational God.  God goes before us.  God privileges us with possibilities; in effect, God beckons here and points there.  Cross over the bridge.  Go to new places and take advantage of new things.   

There is more than you can imagine.  When you have been given the privilege, you have a bridge.  Say thank you and cross on over.  Take advantage of your privilege and prosper.  When I say prosper, I don’t necessarily think of money.  Again, think of meaning, love, a sense of accomplishment and so on.  These make your life richer, even though you may not have one more dime. 

The privilege will be yours.  Cross that bridge.