blog first published on April 5, 2017
"Only by allowing life's contradictions to pull us open to the Spirit will we be able to live beyond the dualities that confuse and confound us - the dualities of yeas and no, day and night, right and wrong. Life on the way of the cross is, finally, a life of liberty in the Spirit, a life of salvation or wholeness in which contradictions are transcended. The liberation of the cross frees us not for indulgence and ease but for the discipline of serving truth without fearing the contradictions (Parker Palmer, The Promise of Paradox, 51)".
The Columbia Icefield is the largest icefield in the entire rocky mountains of North American. It is 125 square miles in area, 330 ft to 1,198ft in depth and receives up to 280 in of snow per year. Somewhere between 238,000 and 126,000 BCE, the icefield formed. In human perspective; the first human civilizations began to develop between 9,000 and 7,000 BCE. To say that the Columbia Icefield is ancient is like saying that Minnesotans like hotdish. It goes without saying.
The Athabasca Glacier is but one of eight major glaciers fed by the Columbia Icefields. Ever since I was a small child, I remember hearing the stories of those who traveled to this glacier. Through the use of a giant Arctic transport, you can drive right up onto the Athabasca Glacier. I couldn’t wait to climb into one of these vehicles and experience it for myself.
The snow coaches were even bigger than I imagined. Huge. Called “TERRA BUSES,” these massive buses carry 56 passengers and can travel on all terrains. The low-pressure tires are the height of an average size person. They creep along the rough and steep road that leads out onto the glacier. What an incredible experience! We boarded the Terra bus by ascending a ladder stair. Once underway we traveled slightly less than the maximum speed of 25 miles per hour. That was okay; I was not in a hurry. I wanted to savor each glacial inch.
The Athabasca Glacier is receding at a significant rate of about 16 ft per year. In the past one hundred twenty-five years, the glacier has lost over half its volume. Although the leading edge (it should be called ‘receding edge’) is easily accessible from the highway, it is not safe to walk on it without a special guide. There have been fatalities as tourists ignored the signs and fell into hidden crevasses. The Terra Bus would take a while but would transport us safely onto the glacier.
We need to be careful about how we travel. This truth applies to not only glacial trekking but also our daily spiritual walk. So far, thanks to the insights from Parker Palmer’s book on Paradoxical living, we have been exploring the idea that we live our lives in the midst of contradictions. Between the poles of good/evil, saint/sinner, conservative/liberal, yes/no, the list goes on. Whenever we seek the truth of a particular pole without considering the opposite, we find ourselves in a place that is wanting. Worse yet, we quickly rush to the pole of our choosing without even considering the alternate perspective.
Traveling on the coach of paradox, we slow down and nestle into the tension of opposites that can pull us apart. At first glance, this seems counterintuitive and counterproductive. Why would anyone willingly put themselves in the place where we hear the disheartening sound of cracking ice as a hidden crevasse suddenly appears beneath our feet.
Instead of leading to our doom, however, the crack is a point of hope. In the place of tension is where the cross lives. Here is also where the Spirit moves in and opens for us a place that was previously unavailable. Here is a place for liberation. We need not live in perpetual bondage by the lies and half-truths found at the poles. Instead, a new path opens when the poles tug at our being. This path is a graceful gift. The tearing at the place of the cross is but a prelude to the new life that is born.
I have experienced this new life in my own heart as I have found my frozen and unmovable perspectives challenged. Usually, this happens when my rigid thinking does not align with what I experience with my heart. I might have this hard and fast judgment about a person or a place. When I look into the eyes of a real person, I often see beyond the bondage of my heart. I’m forced to reconsider. At that moment a crack can be heard. The Spirit has broken through the ice, and I enter into a new reality. Creation is not receding but in fact expanding as I find myself available to God and others in a way I wasn’t previously. Resurrection happens not only when we die. Again and again, God raises us from the death of our stubbornness and short-sightedness. Whether it happens overnight or over the course of years at a glacial pace – the Spirit moves in the direction of new life.
Permission granted to share with family and friends. Copyrighted 2017. Walt Lichtenberger