“It is up to every Christian to preach the gospel. Even with words.” Francis of Assisi would have said it, and I’ve been thinking about it constantly for the past few days.
Because rarely was there a group in the house with so much positive (‘evangelical!’) energy. They left this morning and I’m still bouncing in my chair. 25 young changemakers from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, each in their own way committed to promoting dialogue, empathy, intercultural understanding and a world with less conflict. Brought together by Changemakerexchange in ZeeVELD for peer to peer meetings and conversations. And the encouragement to explore the possibility of new partnerships and projects together, across all borders.
What moved me so much: how the participants were driven almost tangibly by the same motor or desire. Which immediately turned a group of ‘strangers’ into a group of relatives. But I thought it was just as special to see how everyone’s ear for the inner voice resulted in a tremendous, outward-looking decisiveness.
Optimism, joy, hope, zest for life, cooperation, wanting to improve the world, all those qualities that I always call to be the essential characteristic of a spiritual attitude, were present in abundance in this group. And that while the word spirituality was not used at all. Well, apart from the times I couldn’t help but bring it up…
The blueprint for the future of the foundation and ZeeVELD sees it as our mission to facilitate (inner) transition processes. Not because being able to travel with the spirit of the times, especially now, is so important, but because the possibility for continuous inner and outer change and renewal is what makes a person human.
Are robots a threat? We will if we don’t unlearn how to behave like robots. As prisoners of our software and conditioning.
To be able to do the same thing very differently is not ‘a’ human possibility, it is another word for what it means to be human.
What is the great threat of our time? Globalization? Inequality? Nationalism? The growing gap between rich and poor? Secure. That and more. But most of all it is fear. The fear of being overrun by developments. Can’t join. In an existential sense: to no longer exist. Not to be there anymore.
The interesting thing: that fear is completely justified. For the ‘I’ we think we are, endless thoughts with which we identify about good and evil, individuality and community, masculinity and femininity, alien and proper, property and power, life and death, rest on quicksand. Are simply not ‘true’ in an objective sense. And so will be taken from us.
Anyone who fears that man as we now think of himself will perish is right, for the simple reason that he has not been given that right to exist. It is not ‘designed’ that way. Our civilization isn’t going to survive because it isn’t civilization at all yet.
The man of the future knows the other. Everyone else. And behaves accordingly.
Thank you, dear guests of Changemakerexchange, for lifting the tip of the veil. In the distance I saw the new, unbreakable, human being.
