This blog is about a word I came across while writing my recent masters dissertation. This was a beast of an assignment, but even in the most exhausting of moments, something would catch my attention and take me by surprise. On one occasion the term 'irreversibility' came up. Now of course my first thought was "Hmm so something can't reverse backwards.." but I realised this definition probably wasn't going to cut it!
So after a bit of searching around I soon discovered that it was related to the word 'immortality'. Slightly more interesting! Irreversibility is amazing. Believe me. How does it work and why should you be interested? I'll do my best to explain!
So firstly I'll relate it to my life. All of my life I have been growing and developing as a person. I've learnt lessons, I've learnt skills. I've changed physically, I've changed emotionally. A lot of great things have happened to me; some challenges have come my way. Life has sometimes been easy; other times it has been a struggle. But despite all of these things, I've always had the sense that I'm going somewhere. I think most people, whether they believe in an afterlife or not, live their lives feeling as though they are on a journey and heading towards a finishing post of some kind - growing as a person a long the way.
So, irreversibility essentially means that as we progress through life, we really do constantly progress. There's no digression. We're constantly changing. It relates to immortality in the sense that, we can't degenerate and having become full of life gradually start losing that life and start heading downhill.
We don't have a reverse gear!
As usual, I started thinking about what this means in terms of my relationship with God :)
This is the amazing bit. When I feel like I've stuffed up and made a mess of things, or maybe I've gone through a really hard time and I feel really weakened by it all - none of this sets me back. Say I make a mistake, and then I come to God and he tells me everything's okay and shows me how to move on, I'll feel as if I've taken a step forward. But then I make the same mistake again... and I feel as though I need to take 2 steps back and return to the place I was before. Well, that is not what happens. I can carry on where I left off! My relationship doesn't go on pause while I sort myself out, or rewind back with God saying "Now, we've been here before." I'm always experiencing new things, facing new challenges, but being transformed constantly every brand new second of every brand new day into the person God created me to be.
A guy called Paul described his life's journey with God in this way:
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:14)
There are always greater things ahead, and we're never at a point where God can't move us on in Him. There's never anything we go through that God can't use to make us more like Him.
But we all, with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:18)
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