The Crowded Room

Are you having trouble quieting your mind and shifting into your spirit? Do your running thoughts steal you away and suddenly you find yourself swept downstream? Hey, it's normal.

Our mind is constantly working things out, trying to solve, trying to reconcile on a conscious and subconscious level.

It never stops. Our old self is trying to save us. On the other hand, our new self, our spiritual self-speaks with the mind of Christ we've put on...the wisdom of the endless ages.

What I want to give you is an image of the process of shifting from the labyrinth of our soul into our spirit.

The Crowded Room

Picture yourself in a large crowded room, like a lunchroom with big picture windows looking out on a wide-open peaceful landscape. Conversations are swirling all around and everybody's trying to get your attention, but there's a door on the other side of the room to the outside.

You've got to break from the noise to head outside. The draw you're feeling is God calling you out. But you don't know what you'll find out there. It's always an act of faith going out, but you do feel the breath of fresh air calling you out.

So you cut off the endless conversations and turn to the door. No matter how desperate and urgent the voices are you ignore them and head to the door. We focus on that feeling, that one voice calling us out into the vast stillness of our spirit and oneness with God.

The voices crescendo and cry out to us as we reach the door and turn the handle. We open the door the fresh winds of the spirit rush in silencing every voice and so begins a reordering of our soul. Our soul begins to magnify what it sees of God's light streaming through the door.

Our yearning of love causes the seismic shift from our soul to our spirit. Our heart and not our head is the key to opening the door and leaving the room of noise...to go outside, to enter the vastness of silence, of spirit, of Being...'to walk in fields of grace.'

The fact that after fifty years of meditation,  I still have a head full of noise is proof that I am still a beginner every single morning. That I have to die daily to my old self to awaken to my new self is proof that I still need a daily practice, morning, noon and night.

But such is love that draws us out of ourselves and into the presence of God from where we practice our transformation in Jesus.

I hope this reflection helps you in your spiritual journey!

Embracing Mystery

My heart longs for mystery that is beyond me in every way.

I thirst for mystery that draws me and calls to me...

surrounding, above and beyond me.

A mystery larger and deeper than my wildest dreams...

Beyond all that I could ever have imagined...

in a hundred million lifetimes

Mystery that will unmake me 

And from beyond time and space,

Remake, expand and transform me.

Mystery endlessly completes me 

making me grow

into a wholeness I could have never known.

Timeless 

I am whole and known and beloved.

So I pass by the answers and the formulas and creeds

to embrace the mystery of God alone

I embrace Jesus and I am undone

a good my heart knows

Getting The Horse Before The Cart or How Not To Totally Throw Out The Creeds, Liturgy, and Orders

Let me cut to the chase and fill in the blanks a little later.

When we approach God through our creeds, formula's, and as answers to our questions, it's only by God's sovereign pattern disrupt that we come into God's presence. We call it a spiritual breakthrough and have made it the preferred form for spiritual superstars. But it's rare, and there's a better way. This better way was abandoned to reason during the Reformation by Protestants and Catholic alike.

Our reason and our logic were elevated over our spirit to the point of shutting our spirit down. We were relegated to wandering in the labyrinth of our souls searching for a spiritual breakthrough.

People generally have a breakdown before they have a breakthrough because we cannot expect our soul to do what only our spirit can do.

Here the skinny: As God is Spirit, we must embrace the mystery of God to know him.

There's a letting go of all we know, understand and imagine, so that we can come into a deeper knowing...into the vastness of God...into the intimate presence of beginning to know God as our Father. This letting go is dying to our self, our old man, our soul man, so that we can live to our new self, our spiritual self in God.

It's All About Jesus

Two Huge Stumbling Blocks to Entering The Presence of God

* Creeds, confessions, and liturgical formula's have their place as an outer ordering of an inner grace, but they are the cart that follows the horse. In and of themselves they will never get you into the presence of God. We must release our traditions shadows, however holy in appearance, they are still shadows and not the substance of God. Some would argue with the Eucharist, but even with the bread and the wine, as with the waters of Baptism, we enter by faith and not by sight. We enter into the divine mystery through our spirit and not through our reason.

Now, on the other side of the coin, if you are in the spirit, these creeds, confessions, and liturgical forms can be a means of meditatively working out what God has worked within us. But they aren't exclusive, hence why we have so many wonderfully unique spiritual forms in every single culture where folks have been transformed by Jesus.

*Scripture As God: As to proof texts, Jesus said, "You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!"

As the old carol says: "Cast out our sin and enter in, Be born in us today."

It's Christ in you transforming you. It's Christ's life in you and me that grows the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Our one and only job is to abide.

It's Incarnational Life, abundant life, eternal life and it's God's gift to us in Jesus Christ.

Meditations: Apart From Me You Can Do Nothing

4"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. ~ John 15

This is huge. In all Scripture, Jesus gives us a watershed moment here.

Abiding is dwelling, being at our very core. 'Abiding in Jesus and Jesus in you' is a co-dwelling, a mutual dwelling, a communion whereby we are transformed.

The staggering wonder of abiding in vine is that we enter into a divine mystery, the unfolding of eternal life within us.

Without me you can do nothing ~ Selah

Let the thunder struck of these words sink into your heart and spirit.

Jesus didn't give us a belief system, a creed to supersede the law.

Let me say it again. Jesus didn't give us a set of beliefs, a creedal performance system.

Jesus gave himself, that we might receive himself and live a new life in him and him in us.

Hear it again, Apart from me, you can do NOTHING.

You can't do it on your own. Jesus knows you can't. He wants you to rest in him so that the flow of eternal life will move you, grow you, as a vine grows fruit.

He wants you to enter your rest in him, so that you can work out of that rest, to work out eternal life in our common everyday life.

Some Cool Thoughts on Contemplation

Contemplation is a Being practice.
It is the practice of our spirit.
It's our spiritual practice of dwelling in the spirit.

Our self-help is soul work.
All self-help work is an 'outside in' practice.
It's formation work, temporal work, and it's never ending.
And as we let up, it begins the long slow degrade.

Spiritual work however, is transformative, it's eternal, it never degrades.
All spiritual work is 'inside out' work.
We work it out into our lives, we integrate the transformation God is doing within us.
We liken it to a garden in our heart, growing the Tree of Life (Jesus), or a stream of living water flowing through us, or abiding in the vine. But it always begins in our spirit and it always begins with God.

What Is Chi?

The basic definition of Chi is spirit. As we are a triune: Spirit, Soul and Body, spirit is the essence of who we are.

As I was doing Tai Chi this morning, I felt the practice lifting me out of depression into my spirit. Centering myself in my spirit is another way to say it.

Any practice that puts you in the flow is spirit practice. When you feel in the flow, you're experiencing your spirit.

Now here's the scoop: When you're centered in your spirit, it's one small step to center yourself into God. We bring our heart into the equation and enter in.

We do spirit practices so that we can live out of our spirit and transform our soul.

Our western faith is centered in 'outside in' practices that conform us, rather than 'inside out' practices that transform us through the power of God.

As to Eastern Practices

Now, as to Eastern practices like Meditation, Tai Chi or Yoga, when we strip them of their religious connotations, they are mere body practices that help us to practice our spirit.

Now Get This: In and of themselves, they are morally neutral practices. It's the spirit we bring to the practice (our spirit) that determines the direction we go in.

They are vehicles like driving a car. We determine our destination.

As to Spirituality

As to the spirituality of Believers, we'll all get there eventually. Through grace, we'll all abandon our clever head games when we've had enough of the endless labyrinth of our own soul. But don't let it be on your death bed. It's better to start the spiritual journey now.

The cool thing about this is: Suffering.

Through forgiveness, as we surrender and let go into God, our suffering is transformed into a deep compassion and mercy...bathing ourselves and others. Nothing is wasted.   

    

Awake My Heart and Sing

Religion clothes the reality of God's presence with beautiful veils of adornment. We worship them in adoration. We hold the collective memories of God's presence in shadows rather than substance. They are wonderful and can lead us into God, but memories and echoes are no substitute for being with God. Our danger lies when they become the substitute for God's presence, or the only approved way to God.

Come out into the clear light of day and worship the Living God. Discover again Jesus who will never leave you, never forsake you. When we are faithless, He is faithful. We are the ones who wander. Lay your burdens down again. Turn and behold Him who is grace, and truth and the love of God. Leave your past for the present. For Presence is always found in the eternal present.

Oh Awake my heart and sing...