Shape God.  This is the second tenet of Earthseed. God is Change. But God is also malleable.

God is Power—
Infinite,
Irresistible,
Inexorable,
Indifferent.
And yet, God is Pliable—
Trickster,
Teacher,
Chaos,
Clay.
God exists to be shaped.
God is Change.

Change is neither good nor bad. Change is potential, potential for benefit or harm.

Any Change may bear seeds of benefit.
Seek them out.
Any Change may bear seeds of harm.
Beware.
God is infinitely malleable.
God is Change.

God is Change
And hidden within Change
Is surprise, delight,
Confusion, pain,
Discovery, loss,
Opportunity, and growth.
As always,
God exists
To shape
And to be shaped.

We have choice. We can choose how to react to Change.

A victim of God may,
Through learning and adaption,
Become a partner of God,
A victim of God may,
Through forethought and planning,
Become a shaper of God.
Or a victim of God may,
Through shortsightedness and fear,
Remain Godʼs victim,
Godʼs plaything,
Godʼs prey.

Change is unavoidable, but we can sometimes shape the direction or speed of Change.

Chaos
Is God’s most dangerous face—
Amorphous, roiling, hungry.
Shape Chaos—
Shape God.
Act.
Alter the speed
Or the direction of Change.
Vary the scope of Change.
Recombine the seeds of Change.
Transmute the impact of Change.
Seize Change.
Use it.
Adapt and grow.

God is Change, and in the end, God prevails. But thereʼs hope in understanding the nature of God—not punishing or jealous, but infinitely malleable. Thereʼs comfort in realizing that everyone and everything yields to God. Thereʼs power in knowing that God can be focused, diverted, shaped by anyone at all. But thereʼs no power in having strength and brains, and yet waiting for God to fix things for you or take revenge for you. God will shape us all every day of our lives. Best to understand that and return the effort: Shape God.

All successful life is
Adaptable,
Opportunistic,
Tenacious,
Interconnected, and
Fecund.
Understand this.
Use it.
Shape God.

∞ = Δ

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The text on this page is excerpted and adapted from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) and Parable of the Talents (1998).