Ordinary mystic ... Rant #2 of ??

So part of my identity, how I operate, is that of an activator. I use the term as used in the Gallop Strength Finder book that identifies thirty-four basic strengths that human beings possess and utilize in their journey through life. One of my top five strengths was what Gallop terms 'Activator'. Essentially, how it manifests in me is that I am unable to live with myself with any kind of procrastination. I dislike lists of 'to-dos'. I seek to stay 'caught up'.  Too often Sandi has mentioned something she may have heard downstairs only to see me get up from the table right then and there to investigate and solve. It can be a strength but it sometimes causes me to go overboard. 

Regardless, when I retired from my career seven years ago I had been reading in John and was freshly smitten by the picture of the branch being connected to the vine. Jesus as my vine, who has all of the elixir of life needed to nourish my earthly pilgrimage.  To ever so slowly transform me into a closer alignment to the image of God in which I was created.

In Genesis we have the picture of a garden, God and Adam and Eve. There was a union that was so complete between these individuals that I believe they were essentially only one person. Until Chapter 3, Adam and Eve were in absolute oneness with God. They walked with him, talked with him, were nurtured by him, walked in nakedness and were unashamed. They did not have any agenda of their own but walked as one with the will of their Father. Of course, Chapter 3 brings us the scene of the pair ultimately buying the lie of the devil and results in the loss of their Godly union and the beginning of now two separate, self-referential lives, guided by their own separate free wills.  The manner of life that was part of the original plan was now broken. 

Within the sixty-six books of the Bible, we read the stories of God's plan and efforts to restore humankind's capacity for oneness with God. God's only begotten son ultimately becomes incarnate as man and is murdered on a cross. A deep mystery occurs...the "deep magic" Lewis describes in the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia. God becomes man that man might become like God. By Jesus surrendering to death, death is ultimately defeated and is no longer the only eternal conclusion of a human life. And amidst these spiritual transactions lies mystery, lots and lots of mystery.

As I understand it, what I have spoken of above was the common understanding of the church for 1500 years. The reformation and the renaissance ushered in some major changes in the way in which many believers approached their faith and how they interpreted the scriptures. But prior to this. all believing Christians believed in and pursued oneness with Christ as a normal part of their walk with God. 

Fast forwarding to today, the word mystic gives the average evangelical the yips. Sounds and feels too close to new age, eastern religion and other cultish expressions of truth. Today, many in the church are unable to embrace that God still speaks to his followers, that we can and will experience God in specific ways along our journey, that union with God can be pursued and experienced on this side of life as a normal part of being a Christian follower of Jesus.

Seven years ago, it made total sense to me to use the gift of time my retirement would provide and use it to intentionally pursue a deeper connectedness with Christ. That mysterious point where branch and vine join and are no longer separate but of one essence. I believe that I will experience this oneness fully when I graduate to the home prepared for me.  No use waiting! Seems to me I should be about positioning myself now for God to have full access to my inner being. To be about giving the Trinity the freedom/access to transform those parts of me that need their touch. That is my spiritual focus today.

Paul wrote to the Galatians:  "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with it's passions and desires".  I have been given the desire to be about that transformative process in the years I have left on earth. We are all being transformed daily. The question is by what or by whom. I want to be found to "be all in" as I relinquish my tight grip on controlling my life. I strongly believe Jesus meant what he said in John 15 ".....because apart from me you can do nothing". To me, that feels like my marching orders to take my focus off of me, me, me and onto Him, Him, Him.  And. as always, it's not about being religious....it's about relationship!

Ordinary mystic....Rant #1 of ??

 Hmmmm...I have wanted to spill out some words regarding things for a bit now. Today's walk in the rain seemed to unlock a door and I heard myself describing some positional/philosophical points that are in my present orbit. I am thinking of Paul Newman in The Hustler when he wanted to play some games of pool "fast and loose". So do I Paul...here, now. Seeking some flow-age, low in editing, ready-fire-aim kind of writing attitude.  Certainly not for the erudite. One caveat: could be some edges with a lack of velvet sheathing. The glint of sharp metal in the sun. Attitude-wise, I have been walking on some pretty constrained paths recently and am aware of a certain "pent-up" posture that I seek to provide some pressure relief in the fast and looseness of 500' Flyby!

So let us commence...

In this free age of self-identification with just about anything, I identify as an ordinary Christian mystic. You might as well give my address to the doctrinal gestapo because they are not going to be too pleased. I sit here writing as an exile from the protestant, evangelical expression of Western Christianity. For decades, I fed from their troughs of the weak gruel of mere belief in the right things. I was part of several strong 'teaching' bodies. They got part of it right but stopped woefully short of daring to preach the essence of the whole gospel truth. 

Belief was paramount...belief in the right things as determined by whichever of the 3000+ denominations I may have been a part of at the time. Belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Nothing wrong with that...it is absolutely true and I bow before him. But what else?  Perhaps a small group, a bit of service, some expeditions to 2 week missions, maybe a stint at Feed My Starving Children. Nothing is wrong with any of it. However, it is just not sufficient to significantly change peoples lives, to bring about interior transformation. To make them more Christ like. Barna has done the measurements... Christians are unidentifiable from the unbelieving population except for having a slightly higher divorce rate!  The Western church of today has just not delivered the disciples of Christ that Jesus indicated he was looking for before he returned to his heavenly home. 

But mere belief has never been a winning strategy. Why even the demons believe. What has it done for them?  What do they do with their belief?  They "shudder". Why? Because they believe Jesus is who he said he was and did what he said he was going to do. And yet, they have absolutely no intention of changing their lives in light of those beliefs. So, they shudder at the coming conclusion of their life's work. They expect it will be less than pleasant.

Jesus never merely said come believe in me. He said come, follow me. He had 12 inner-circle disciples who he did life with 24-7 for three years. He taught them by both teaching and by the example of how he lived his life. And oh my, he taught and preached some very radical things! Things that are just not something one would hear preached in the majority of today's post-modern churches. Take up your cross, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on Jesus' account, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart, in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, judge not that you may not be judged. 

But Jesus was a realist. He knew that man could never successfully undertake such directives through mere assent and willpower . He made it clear that we are the branches and he is the vine. He said to abide in him for "apart from me (him) you can do nothing". In Genesis we read that we were created in his image. But being transformed into that image cannot be accomplished by the mere willpower of man, by mere belief. It must be done by surrender to Jesus as our vine and trust in his Spirit within us to transform us each from the inside out.

It is common today to find hungry churches who offer an attractive serving of programs in the effort to build a congregation that is strong in number. The mega churches of today, with their multiple campuses throughout a metro area,  have huge budgets and depend on massive numbers of giving congregants in order to keep the growth fires burning. 

Marketing 101 dictates that a teaching program that includes frequent references to the inconvenient truth of 'come and die' is never going to play well to the masses. Thus, a tamed-down emphasis on just believing, participating and serving is considered sufficient content for the Sunday-centric gatherings. If, as the clock ticks down to the start of the exactly 60 minute service, the first words of the pastor were "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" the seeker-sensitive crowd would most likely not be inspired to return the next week.

Ok, ok, this might all be fine and good but what does it have to do with the title of this blog,  'ordinary mystic'? Well, let me take a breath or two and I will come back to just that.....