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Go With The Flow
by Commissioner Joe Noland

Excerpt from the book OCTOGENERIAN MUSINGS.

Note: For those who missed the “Introduction,” these musings are taken from contemporaneous notes written during our time as territorial leaders in The Salvation Army. They were inspired by a sign that adorned my office wall. It read: “Use Me O’ Lord, In Thy Work, - Especially In An Executive Capacity” Continuing…

My next two posts will contain the keynote presentation delivered at each of those thirteen command vision consultations mentioned in the last post. Its’ title was…

“Go With The Flow”

The serpent told the Woman, ‘You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.’

When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate. -Genesis 3:4-6

This Garden of Eden faux pas is The Salvation Army’s raison d’être. Except for that original gargantuan error in judgment, there would be no need for salvation and its accompanying charitable initiatives. This defining historical moment set off a series of “change precipitators” that have shaped our destiny.

I have framed them alliteratively for your viewing pleasure, and thereby making them easily memorable:

1. Seethe

2. See

3. Seek

They are merged into what I call, “the dynamic flow”.- Passion (what you seethe) flowing into vision (what you see) flowing into consequential change (what you seek).

It is this dynamic flow that inspires invention. It is this dynamic flow that stimulates innovation. It is this dynamic flow that moves proverbial mountains. It is this dynamic flow that fuels The Salvation Army, one of the most innovative and transformative movements to ever emerge on this planet.

Passion

To feel passion is to seethe. The dictionary defines “seethe” as “To be filled with intense anger.” Allow me to spiritualize this by adding one word: “To be filled with intense, ‘righteous’ anger.”

It was a seething of the spirit that led Martin Luther to announce, “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise! “It was a seething of the spirit that stirred Catherine Booth to stand in that gallery and shout “Never!” It was a seething of the spirit that provoked William Booth’s battle cry: “I’ll Fight! I’ll fight to the very end!”

John Stott, the Anglican cleric, and theologian, wrote, “Vision begins with a holy discontent with the way things are.” I love that. The words, “holy discontent,” are a sanctified version of the word, “seething.” Or put another way, a “holy discontent” is “seething” wrapped in compassion.

Think about it this way. Passion is the precursor to compassion. Its role is to channel that seething (holy discontent) empathetically toward the suffering of another. I love the way it is expressed by Spencer Hope Davis:

“Passion can be seen as desire, emotion, and intensity. Compassion can be expressed as care, empathy, and charity. The differences between passion and compassion can first be conceptualized as internal and external. Passion can be seen as beginning with an internal feeling that manifests itself externally as an expression of emotion. Compassion on the other hand can be seen as something that you extend and give as an act to another person.”

Passion compels us; compassion centers us. It is an unbeatable combination designed to keep everything in perfect balance. Allow me to personalize this combination, illustratively, by sharing with you the gist of a story I recently read in the New York Times:

“At age 10 her mother was killed in an argument over drugs. She went to New Jersey to live with her father; a man she would later say sexually abused her. Intervening years were spent in a rough passage through New York City’s foster care system. At 14, she was dead, battered, sexually abused, and left in the gutter of a New York suburb. Her body was not identified until late October, more than 8 months after she was found.

“‘Her greatest fear,’ her friends said, ‘was that she would be unloved, and nobody would notice if she were gone. Her fear turned out to be prophetic. One of her many foster parents said, ‘If someone had been there for this one, she might still be alive.’”

My spirit seethes angrily toward the parents and foster care system that failed her. It compels me to do something. Sans the compassion balancing part, I might act hatefully and destructively toward the system, rather than with compassionate zeal toward a solution.

The lyrics of that old Albert Orsborn song come immediately to mind; three lines ‘Especially’ highlighted:

But how shall they hear if the preacher forbear

Or lack in compassionate zeal?

Or how shall hearts move with the Master’s own love,

Without his anointing and seal?

It is not with might to establish the right,

Nor yet with the wise to give rest;

The mind cannot show what the heart longs to know

Nor comfort a people distressed.

Except I am moved with compassion,

How dwelleth thy Spirit in me?

In word and in deed