Being Clear on Just what Synergicity Is

OK, here we go with our deeper dive into the third alternative (the alternative to the isolating and prideful notion of Independence). You already know that synergicity is a combination of the words "Synergy" and "Synchronicity." We will define and clarify each of these two words (one this week and one next) and then combine their definitions into the powerful and liberating (and deeply spiritual) concept of synergicity.

The way I like to think about it is this: The idea and notion of Independence has two critical flaws. One is that it can rely on self instead of acknowledging our need for help and asking for it and seeking it from God and from others. The second flaw is that Independence often tries to operate outside of and independent of the bigger picture, with a failure to look for God's plan and God's timing in everything.

Synergy is all about seeking help, both from God and from others, instead of trying not to need it!

Synchronicity is all about seeing opportunities and connections and unexpected timing from God's perspective rather than trying to force everything to fit our own idea of when and how things should happen.

For today, let’s delve into Spiritual Synergy!

Be More Than What You Can Be, and Do More Than What You Can Do

We all have limits and limitations, right? And all we can do is all we can do!

The fact is that we limit ourselves by our ideas of independence. When we depend only on ourselves, our limits are very finite and very apparent. And we often fall so far short of what is needed, of what we need, and of what others need. We suffer in silence, feeling inadequate and sometimes a little helpless and a little hopeless.

And that is the point: Help and hope do not come from independence. Hope comes from dependence on God and Christ, and help comes from that same place and also from interdependence on other people. Once we get over the limiting (and actually somewhat prideful) attitude of independence, we can begin to develop real synergy, with other people, and with God and His blessings.

Working together, sharing ideas, and combining complementing talents, people can do amazing things--more than expected — more than the sum of what they could do individually or independently.

Working with God, and for God, and in harmony with His will and dependent on his strength, people can literally do anything, and overcome everything.

So there is something magical about synergy, something emotional and exciting that goes beyond the practical and beyond what can be added up or figured out. It is, essentially, a way of surpassing your personal capacity, and reaching levels and doing things that are impossible without it.

Let's look at some definitions of synergy — both secular and spiritual.

Definitions

Synergy: The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual parts.

Synergy: pronounced SIN-ur-jee, from Greek sunergia, meaning cooperation or sunergos, meaning working together efficiently

Synergy: (from the Greek synergos, συνεργός meaning working together, circa 1660) refers to the phenomenon in which two or more discrete influences or agents acting together create an effect greater than that predicted by knowing only the separate effects of the individual agents. The opposite of synergy is antagonism, the phenomenon where two agents in combination have an overall effect which is less than that predicted from their individual effects. Synergism stems from the 1657 theological doctrine that humans will cooperate with the Divine Grace in regeneration. The term began to be used in the broader, non-theological, sense by 1925.

Synergy can also mean:

• A mutually advantageous conjunction where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
• A dynamic state in which combined action is favored over the sum of individual component actions
• Behavior of whole systems unpredicted by the behavior of their parts taken separately.

Synergy comes from the Greek word synergia, meaning joint work and cooperative action. Synergy is when the result is greater than the sum of the parts. Synergy is created when things work in concert together to create an outcome that is in some way of more value than the total of what the individual inputs is.

Example: Smoking can cause lung cancer. Breathing asbestos can cause lung cancer. Smoking and breathing asbestos can cause lung cancer at a higher rate than the sum of individual smoking and asbestos rates. (Now there is an interesting negative example of synergy, and the last one we will use, because the positive examples of how we can help bring about cooperation and mutual help are endless.)

Synergistic: The Adjective Form

The secular and scientific definitions are interesting — but not nearly as interesting as when the word takes on a spiritual dimension. Now the word can mean the power and efficiency of working with God!

Actually, broadening our thinking reveals several types of synergy:

1. The synergy between you and other people
2. The synergy between you and God
3. The synergy between your body and your spirit, or between your brain, body, and spirit (whole soul synergy)
4. The synergy between husband and wife (the essential definition of a good marriage)

How to Find more Synergy in your Life

There will be a lot more "how to" on this when we get it rolled into the third alternative of Synergicity, but for now, for starters, let me give you two important keys for how to develop more Synergy:

First: Ask more! When we ask — for help, for advice, for input, for participation when we are teaching a class, for other's opinions — we are creating opportunities for synergy. We are bringing the minds of others into the equation, and the combined result of their thoughts and yours will be greater than the sum of yours and theirs taken separately.

• Asking your spouse more — what he or she thinks, or needs, or feels — will be the beginning of more synergy in your marriage.
  
• Asking your body what it needs, and listening to it — and asking your spirit what it needs — begins a process leading to soulful synergy and completeness.
  
• And of course, asking God is the most powerful of all.

Did you know that of all the admonitions of scripture, to ask is the most repeated? Think about that: Of all the things God tells us to do, the one He repeats the most often is the simple three-letter admonition ask! When we ask God — for inspiration, for guidance, for our righteous desires, we open the way for Him to bless us without interfering with our agency (because we took the initiative to ask).

Parents understand this, because we all long for our children to ask us — for our advice, for our council. We want them to need us. God, as the Eternal Parent, asks us to ask because he wants to bless us, to inspire us, and to guide us. He wants to have synergy with us and with our lives!

Second: Think of yourself as interconnected. As you go about your daily life, think how glad you are that you are not independent — that you are dependent on so much and on so many, and that you are interdependent with everyone, and that you depend on God for your every breath.

Begin to see yourself as fitting into something so big and so wonderful and so awesome that you can scarcely imagine it. Adopt the lovely, humble feeling of dependence and interdependence. This will cause you to appreciate others more, to notice them more, to seek their feedback and feelings and to enjoy and welcome their input and impressions.

Next Week

Thanks for being here (in this column, on this earth, as part of God's plan) I love sharing thoughts with you and getting your feedback (write me at richard@meridianmagazine.com) and I am excited about next week and getting into the other half of the third alternative of Synergicity (the half called Synchronicity). Join me then, and in the meantime, have a synergistic week!

Actually (and please excuse this one last bit of parting advice for this week’s column), it’s not a bad idea to keep a "synergy journal" for a week or so — noticing and jotting down the times when you work with someone, or share an idea, or ask for input, and end up being better off than if you had "gone it alone."

You can also put in that journal what you ask for — particularly what you ask for from God. Some call it an "ask journal" and have testified that every righteous thing they have ever asked for has come to them — not always in the way or the timing they wanted or expected (and that timing is getting into synchronicity, by the way, which we will get into next week) has been given to them!

See you here next weekend when we will swim into Synchronicity.

Write to Richard at richard@meridianmagazine.com

Click here to sign up for Meridian's FREE email updates.