Change: the Only Constant

What response does the word ‘unfamiliar’ bring to mind?

… Fear? Discomfort? Adventure? Interest? Excitement? …

Change seems to be all around us. We see it in the yearly change of the seasons, the growing of families, the varying life cycles of the ecosystems, as well as continual personal growth, and the development of new paradigms and perspectives. Is change an enemy, ally, or just a neutral factor? Is it more likely that it happens because of us, or in spite of us? Take the analogy of a sailboat: does it move because we put up the sail, or because the wind blew? Does the sail have to be made of a particular material for the vessel to move? Certainly, some intentionality may be necessary in this decision, but then again, how important is perfection for some simple forward motion? 

Let’s take a moment to ponder the role our personal agency plays in this. If the world is a stage, as the poet Shakespeare describes, then there must be multiple narratives playing out at all times, with the characters weaving in and out of each other’s stories. Plots and subplots change and evolve. Is my only option to just blindly play my character’s role, or is there an element of choice involved? Can I modify my own drama and choose to step out of the comfortable rhythm of the story I know and love so well? Reflect on the example of Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) in the movie, The Matrix (1999). At a critical moment of decision, Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) offers Neo a blue pill and a red pill. If he opts for the blue pill, Neo chooses safety, comfort, life to continue as he has always known it. On the other hand, if he chooses the red pill, his eyes will be opened to the world beyond the illusion, to the unfamiliar, to life on the edge, to a reality that is, as of yet, hidden from him. What if we all have that choice? What if I would step out of the predestined plot of my story and become alive? What is the plot of the story I have been living in, and what opportunities might open up if I step into unchartered territory? 

Jesus is quoted with the famous line: “The Truth will set you free”. But, you argue, truth is elusive. What even is ‘truth’? Is there a Truth that is the same for everyone, that underlies race, gender, religion, background, economic status? Is there a Truth that can indeed “set us free”? Consider the following themes that many of us find ourselves living in: rationality, fear, mindless transaction, narcissism, result-driven competition. These contractive realities seem to prevail in our old story lines. Glimpses of new possibilities, however, reveal a way that is daring, expansive, love-based, celebrating process and growth, understanding the natural reciprocation of giving, and ultimately realizing that the universe, our home, is designed for the good of all. These are portions of that freedom-bringing Truth. 

This new story I describe, however, is not simply a replacement of the old story, but rather an expansion, a broadening. Consider a set of nesting dolls: when you hold the smallest one in your hand, it seems complete and whole. Place it inside the next one, and it once again is complete and whole. This in turn fits into the next size up, continuing on to the biggest one. Likewise with our understanding of the world. The paradigms I currently hold seem complete and whole, but I know from past experience, that there is always a bigger ‘whole’ to know. The adventure is always before us: to learn, to grow, to dare, to step out, to become whole. 

When Jesus walked the earth, he showed people this new way. He didn’t force it on them. But he also wasn’t afraid to tell them, although a lot of what he said and did blew their minds and was certainly outside of their ordinary day-to-day life. He knew that the Truth he brought was the way to freedom. Interestingly, if you look back in history to 30 AD, many aspects of society were comparable to current times and conditions, including people of all backgrounds, walks of life, and belief systems. In fact, as volatile as American society seems now in our 2024 election year, back in Jesus’ day tensions were similarly high between Jews and Romans, Pharisees and lay people, tax collectors and fishermen. Would anyone be open to the new way of living that Jesus presented? “Give not only your shirt, but your tunic as well.” “Love your enemies. Do good to those that hate you.” These words were backwards to the laws of Moses that the Jewish people lived by: “An eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth.” Jesus, however, did not come to lay out a bunch of new rules for the people to follow, but rather to demonstrate and explain the natural laws of life. Living by the promptings of the heart, in a way of love, trust, and daring, reaps the natural consequences of freedom, love, connection, relationship. 

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and do as you please.” St. Augustine’s clever twist to this well-known line is often misinterpreted as a bypass to Christianity’s ‘hard way of the cross’, but is actually meant as a guideline for the new way that Jesus demonstrated: if you truly do love God all the way, then what you please to do will naturally be what pleases Him. It’s called being in alignment with the universe, with God. God is not dictating every move we make- he gave us free choice so that we can choose whether or not to live in that alignment. Indeed, that very free choice gives us space to make mistakes, but through them we learn the life lessons we need for growth. 

A saying attributed to Henry Ford goes like this: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got”. Do I want what I’ve always got? Or am I willing to let change happen? Will I put up my sail?

The Crux of Spirituality

“There’s one major turning point in your spiritual growth where there’s a total paradigm shift. When you cross over from the beginning point, to that point, your whole life changes. Everything changes. All of your outside work changes. All of your inside work changes. Your entire perception of what’s going on changes. Your relationship to yourself changes. Everything changes. So let’s draw that line and talk about that point. It’s actually very, very simple. It happens when you shift from whether you are living your life and having your thoughts and dealing with yourself from the perspective and point of view of: I want to make me okay. I want to get things, do things, think things, say things - I want everything to be done in a way to take care of me, that makes me okay, that makes me better. That’s one phase of one’s life. It’s generally the entire phase of everybody’s life. The turning point is when you wake up and you realize: I want to do everything I do, everything I say, every experience I have, every thought I have, every single thing: to get rid of me, not to take care of me. Not to get for me, but to get rid of me. That is the crux of spirituality.” Michael Singer

Our enemy is not our self.

When we want to let go of our constant concern of our self, we must turn toward love and a new pattern of what true love means. Our enemy is not our self. The self is only a prison cell that holds us from being Love and inhibits us from experiencing the manifestation of Love in everything. God offers us the key to the door of our “self-prison” that will bring freedom and find our true meaning and purpose.

Love implies trust – a deep reliance on the leading of my life from a source that is not mine to order. It is a deep reverence for the source of our thriving. Trust implies a dependency on others, including God, to guide me into becoming the beautiful and fulfilled person that I was created to be. Trust embraces every experience as a teacher, not an enemy. Love recognizes this connection to all of creation and to every person. Love not only freely receives, but its nature is also to freely give.

This interdependency that I enjoy then, redefines Unity, not as a surrender but as a partnering with all people and all creation. To be a partner with God and with my neighbor embraces my responsibility to become something that is usually seen only as a list of virtues that require self-discipline to fulfill. Instead, my Unity with everything brings me into the experience of patience, kindness, goodness, forgiveness, perseverance, faith, hope, and joy. These become a part of us; they become our identity and our legacy. This is our purpose and the target I allow to work in me. This is what it means to become a spiritual being. This is our “WHY”.

Christmas…So What

The last 100 years have redefined holidays like Christmas. Today we look at Christmas through very different eyes than our grandparents and great grandparents. What used to be a more solemn religious time focusing on the Christmas story, has become a mostly secular celebration with friends and family. The rise of Santa Claus and his evolving story of magical transportation and ability to “see you when your sleeping” (my son says, “that sounds creepy”) effectively drowns out and replaces the original manger story.

So what is the meaning of Christmas today? Is it important to celebrate Jesus’ birth? Or is it another secular holiday that offers some time off from work and days with our family? Would you be open to a deeper meaning of Christmas?

First, we need to recognize that the early church did not celebrate Jesus birth for at least 250 years, until the teachings of Jesus fell on harder and harder hearts. Ancient worshippers of evil and dark mysticism carried out celebrations of the darkest day of the year (northern hemisphere) complete with human sacrifice, in some cases. The authorities at the time sought to counter these dark festivities by inserting a celebration of the birth of Jesus. So what if we let go of the “let’s celebrate Jesus’ birthday” program as we would an eight year old child’s? What does that leave?

I believe what gets lost in the tinsel and ribbon is the worldwide revolutionary paradigm shift that God decided to author. God, not only in the Jewish understanding, but in most every religious culture throughout the world, was seen as a transactional god. IF you follow this way, IF you do these things, IF you say these prayers, IF you form a priestly group of leaders, then you will mollify the anger of god(s) and keep them from punishing you in this life and the one after death. The “give me worship and then I’ll be nice to you” transactional god was all the people, especially the Jews, ever knew.

packages… presents… holidays…

Would you be open to a deeper meaning of Christmas?

However, by sending Jesus to this earth, not as a conqueror or king to rule his subjects but as a baby in a manger birthed to an average low-income family, clearly the intention was not to make a big splash and impress everyone with God’s grandeur. The stories of the announcement of the angels to the shepherds and leading the wise men from the east do little to counter the obvious conditions of his birth in relation to government, prestige, and world reaction.

In sending Jesus as a baby to an unwed virgin of a very conservative religious culture, God and Jesus were beginning something much more revolutionary than providing a feel-good story of underdogs winning. The purpose of Jesus coming was to establish a new relationship with humankind, a relationship of Love, Peace, and Forgiveness. This relationship would create a unity and an identity between God and mankind, tear down the long-standing ways of worship and replace them with a chance for us to voluntarily follow God; the chance to follow simply for the Love and the Life that He is and not out of a seeking for advantage or profit. This relationship by nature is viral because it seeks replication in us toward others. In this one historical act, God not only changes the narrative, but creates the reality of a people who become awakened to a completely new Way of Life! We become a people drawn so tightly together with God that He lives within us and us within Him. This Unity of our Creator and His Created is now the deepest and most clear expression of Who God is and Who we actually are. Jesus, born in a manger, was the beachhead for this grand and seemingly impossible quest: that God and Mankind would become One, that Healing became available to all, that Peace was offered to all, that Love would guide us. This then could manifest in a genuine and authentic life, the realization of that which we were sent to this earth to live out even before we were born.

This message was and still is very difficult to accept and participate in. The old ways drag us into the ancient ruts of worshipping false gods – gods who must be appeased, gods who by nature are distinct and separated from their creation, gods who care about themselves and their egos at the expense of their creation, gods who are so mystical and ethereal that they are hard to believe they exist at all. Many of us were born and raised with these paradigms. Our egos are quick and eager to argue, with the help of our human reasoning, against any ideas of God other than these.

We stand at moments of decision like Zachariah and Mary before the angel who told them what would happen to them. One said, “How can this happen, it’s impossible”. The other said, “I believe you and am curious how it will happen”. Can we believe in Him and His Way of Life? Can we claw out of the old thinking patterns and reach up to embrace a completely other experience of God and Love and Life? Intellectual ascent is one thing. Inner conviction and the adoption of a new purpose for living is completely different.

The greatest miracle of the Christmas story is not that God was born in a manger or that Jesus was born to a virgin, or to all the associated stories of wise men and shepherds. The greatest miracle is when men and women lay hold of the new world of God and His Cause in response to Jesus’ coming. The angels proclaimed to the shepherds that night, “Peace on earth, goodwill toward all of mankind.” Do you hear them now?

Motivation

What motivates people?

What is intrinsic motivation? Where does it come from? Is it inborn? Is it selfish? How do you acquire it? Does it make you happy? 

What is extrinsic motivation? Are external rewards beneficial or detrimental? 

Google's definition:

“Intrinsic motivation is defined as the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for some separable consequence. When intrinsically motivated, a person is moved to act for the fun or challenge entailed rather than because of external products, pressures, or rewards.”

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs points out the different levels of human necessity, starting with the fundamental needs such as food, water, health, and safety. Once we have acquired those, each of us look to fulfill our need for belonging, self-esteem, and finally to experience self actualization- value, meaning and purpose in life- which can also be seen as intrinsic motivation. This is a widely accepted base for understanding what motivates people.

Author and spiritual thinker, Eckhart Tolle, offers a compelling argument to this conversation by speaking of our ability to tap into the ‘power that runs the universe’, or the present moment. It is impossible to predict the future, even the next millisecond, and it is more peaceful to live in the present moment and do things out of that peace. 

“Through the present moment, you have access to the power of life itself, that which has traditionally been called “God”... Even belief in God is only a poor substitute for the living reality of God manifesting every moment of your life.”

“...outer purpose alone is always relative, unstable, and impermanent… you should connect [your outer purpose] to your inner, primary purpose, so that a deeper meaning flows into what you do.”

I am reminded here of the importance of Being over Doing. If I learn to be who I deeply am, then whatever I do will be aligned with my inner purpose. That will be my motivating factor. What does it look like to go through a day fully present, looking to be fully me in every moment? What can I hope for each encounter?

Another point to consider in this conversation is how both types of motivation (extrinsic/intrinsic) actually interact everyday, as a yin and yang of life. We can certainly use extrinsic motivation as a means to meet our goals and accomplish things that need doing. However, to maximize our energies, this needs to be balanced by actions that utilize intrinsic motivation factors. For example, if I spend every evening solely studying for a college class, it becomes a dry exercise, and I may find myself more drained than filled. Alternatively, I could step away from my studies for an hour to write a poem or journal for a while. Though these activities seem externally less productive, they are more likely to fill my internal reserves of energy and enhance my focus for study (and my quality of life). 

My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. ~ James 3:12

Why does an apple tree bear apples or a cherry tree bear cherries? Do they do it to avoid pain? To gain pleasure? For fear of punishment? For profit? And yet they bear abundantly, more than is needed for their own reproduction. It’s just what they do. What if the same applies to humans? What if we are supposed to just be who we are? What if out of that being, everything we do matters. 

Jesus talks about ‘going the second mile’. Why does he ask us to do that? What would be the motivation for doing that? It seems to be coming out of a completely different place than mainstream thinking. Jesus’ life displayed a way completely opposite to the way of popular culture. He did not align with the business model way of operating. The parables he tells do not align with a profitable approach to life. He tells of the shepherd that notices that one sheep is missing, and leaves the ninety-nine to go find it. Why care about the 1% when you still have 99? He also speaks of the prodigal son’s father who watches for his wayward son to return and rejoices when he does. Does he do that for his own profit? Jesus himself lived a radical life, dying young and leaving only 11 disciples, plus a few other followers, to show for all his efforts. Was his motivation to have a ‘profitable’ business model? Maybe He just wanted to demonstrate that a way of love is possible.

Thoughts on Negativity

One of the most important paradigm shifts is to embrace and accept reality. Reality simply is. It is not affected by my attitude about it. It is not changed by my thoughts about it. However, the way we view Reality determines how well we can embrace Love, Joy, and Peace.

When we refuse to accept reality, we choose, consciously or unconsciously, to allow negativity into our lives. We are convinced that our thoughts and emotions about something is simply true and justified. Our ego leads us in this illusion. Eckhart Tolle writes,

“A person in the grip of ego, however, does not recognize suffering as suffering, but will look upon it as the only appropriate response in any given situation. The ego in its blindness is incapable of seeing the suffering it inflicts on itself and on others…the negative states such as anger, anxiety, hatred, resentment, discontent, envy, jealousy, and so on are not recognized as negative but as totally justified and are further misperceived not as self-created but as caused by someone else or some external factor.”

If the weather turns rainy and cold, we call it “bad weather” without realizing that the weather is not “bad”. It is what it is. What is so debilitating is our reaction to reality. Shakespeare wrote, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” “Whenever we are in a negative state, there is something within us that wants the negativity, that perceives it as pleasurable, or that believes it will get you what you want.” (Tolle)

Shakespeare

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

Negativity is also present in many common forms such as being perplexed or being “fed up” with something or someone. Irritation with life (with reality) creates an underlying fundamental unhappiness and resentment. This state is fueled by fear – fear of how reality wants to hurt us and keep us down. Depression feeds off of this perspective. Thoughts seem to drag us down and manipulate our emotions and feelings. We become “victims of life”, pawns, or puppets on a set of strings pulled by someone or something. This confusion with reality is orchestrated by our egos and then it tells us, “Well, that is just who you are. You can’t really change your reality. Others may, but not you.” Sometimes the ego (that voice in our head) says, “Maybe at some point in the future I can be at peace, if this or that happens.” Or it may say, “I can never find peace because of what has happened to me.” In this state we exist and bring to all around us our creation of hell on earth.

The only answer to all of this is to find peace with the present moment. Tolle says, “There are three words that convey the secret of the art of living, the secret of all success and happiness: One with Life. Being One with Life is being one with the Now. You then realize that you don’t live your life, but life lives you. Life is the dancer, and you are the dance.”

Personally, I finally became convinced that my perception of the life I was leading, had experienced, or would be my future was an illusion. Up until that point I was convinced by my logic and my view of reality. But when I let go of this illusion I found myself as a partner of Life, not an adversary of it. I still had things that didn’t go “my way”. But through acceptance, forgiveness, and most of all, Love, I took more and more steps out of my established patterns of reactions, emotions and thoughts and found myself aligning more and more with the Life that God has designed for all of mankind. I wanted to judge everything, especially the stuff that happened. Not through one heroic act, but holding on to the simple truth of accepting reality as it is, I became more and more aware of the debilitation and underlying anger that had fueled my negativity and I choose one thing at a time to break free.

The first words I heard from Jesus, as an atheist, are in John 14, verse 18. My journey is embracing real trust and a confidence that neither God nor Life is out to get me. We have no reason to fear, we are One with God. And the message of Jesus actually being in us and giving us everything we need to live in Peace and Joy and Love is contained in these words of hope:

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. …The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. ~John 14:18-21

All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. ~John 14:25-27

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” ~Mat 6:34

“The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.” ~Rom 8:6

Mark Nepo writes:

We begin so aware and grateful. The sun somehow hangs there in the sky. The little birds sing. The miracle of life just happens. Then we stub our toe, and in that moment of pain, the whole world is reduced to our poor little toe. Now for a day or two, it is difficult to walk. With every step, we are reminded of our poor little toe.

It is the giving over to smallness that opens us to misery. In truth, we begin taking nothing for granted, grateful that we have enough to eat, that we are well enough to eat. But somehow, through the living of our days, our focus narrows like a camera that shutters down, cropping out the horizon, and one day we're miffed at a diner because the eggs are runny or the hash isn’t seasoned just the way we like.

When we narrow our focus, the problem seems everything. We forget when we were lonely, dreaming of a partner. We forget first beholding the beauty of another. We forget the comfort of first being seen and held and heard. When our view shuts down, we're up in the night annoyed by the way our lover pulls the covers or leaves the dishes in the sink without soaking them.

In actuality, misery is a moment of suffering allowed to become everything. So, when feeling miserable, we must look wider than what hurts. When feeling a splinter, we must, while trying to remove it, remember there is a body that is not splinter, and a spirit that is not a splinter, and a world that is not splinter.

Thoughts on Vulnerability

Brené Brown describes vulnerability as "uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure." It's that unstable feeling we get when we step out of our comfort zone or do something that forces us to loosen control.

The True Gift of Vulnerability is Allowing Others to be Vulnerable as Well. To truly be vulnerable is not an easy thing. It is the courage to share our deepest shame, fears, or doubts. To tell someone our story of pain can be painful.

“Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it's having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness; it's our greatest measure of courage.”

Being vulnerable is an act of open love that draws together. It is not sharing with others in order to get something in return – pity, favors, or profiting from knowing an exclusive secret – that would be “over-sharing”, and is not being vulnerable. It is an act of realness and honesty that lets go of our attempts to create a “perfect” self-image (or a “pity-filled” one) and allows others to see us as we really are. Our worldviews are so full of self-created illusions, of egoic creations, that want to control the way others see us, irrespective of true reality. Vulnerability is a chance to take back some of those false images and opens the door to real love from others and change within ourselves. It is a drastic but necessary action that pulls down the veils we have created, or think we have created. Vulnerability is the key that allows ourselves and others to simply be who we are. 

Why is this important? Because we, all of mankind, are created to be ONE – one with God, one with each other, and one with creation. Life is more symbiotic than we realize. That oneness can only be experienced through an honest exchange of our souls. The joy of finding love and acceptance in return for letting go of our false sense of projected selves is enormous. This joy unleashes a freedom from fear and a new sense of identity that is more true, more wholehearted, more genuine. This is the essence of true community.

But vulnerability requires an attitude of respect for what is being shared when others become vulnerable. An honest response in love is never rejected. But judgement, hate, and separation will destroy a healthy openness among us. This respect does not allow for gossip at all and trusts that the person who shares with you will share with others when and if they decide the time is right. And you, in love, can also encourage them to share with folks that can better help and support them. This commitment and mutual respect is essential for any close relationship to develop trust and good fruit. 

Some questions to consider:

1. Take a few minutes to quietly imagine yourself being completely vulnerable. What are the things that make that kind of openness difficult? What do you think would change about yourself and the way you also look at others in a new time of vulnerability?

2. Being vulnerable is not just about telling things that you did wrong. Moreso, it is an opportunity to share what is difficult or challenging with others who you trust will listen, care and be supportive. What is something that you find challenging today? 

3. What things can change about yourself or about your relationships with others that would create a better environment for vulnerability to thrive in your life? 

Letter to a friend

In response to the Nelson family tragedy, and how to address the social needs of the day and point to a more comprehensive response than simply a common purse, or religious words, to solve the world’s emptiness and despair. 

This is a terrible tragedy. But I do not see it being avoided by a more intense mission effort. My thoughts go to what we could have done if we were living next door to this family. While a completely different lifestyle where people pool their incomes and help each other does, on the surface, seem to answer this particular need, I do not believe that this and every similar situation that is going on right now in this country can be avoided simply by offering a new economic system. 

In the question of how to reach more people in this predicament, and in considering how the idea of communal sharing presented in Acts 2 and 4 offers a different way free of economic worries and Mammon, I see two important considerations.

1. What is the deepest need of this family (and the millions in similar despair)? Money? Friendship? Medical intervention? Family Counseling? or something of a different dimension?

2. What do I see as the reason for us to live such a lifestyle that looks so economically different? That is, why do we live this specific economic recipe? 

A long time ago, I used to think that communal pooling of our assets and lifestyle was the answer to mostly all of humanity’s ills. That if people only would give up their private bank accounts and all could share equally in a common purse, that every need would evaporate since, I thought, that every need was somehow connected to money. I saw the actions of the apostles in Acts 2 as the proof of that theory. Now I see my insight was wrong and very shallow. I had funneled the Gospel of Good News through a small tube, ignorantly misinterpreting humanity’s deepest need and Jesus’ greatest offer. I boiled down the “world system” into economic terms and worse, boiled down Jesus message into mostly economic effectiveness. Consequently, I saw the need of humanity in ignorantly simple terms and their hope as lying in the mere adoption of Jesus’ “economic community of faith”. So the fact that masses of people did not recognize this “reasonable and obvious” opportunity to turn their life around, as if it were some magic elixir that they refuse to drink, caused me to slowly begin to recognize that I was terribly missing the true need of people and terribly missing the true message of Jesus. 

I do not see the obvious “economic worries and Mammon” as the real cause of the Nelson’s tragedy any more than the bullets that caused their death. Our country, and perhaps we can include western civilization, is suffering from a long-term disease of separation – separation from each other, separation from God, separation from reality, from reason, from faith… and perhaps most of all, separation from who we are. The inner crisis that Victor Frankl so importantly chronicles in his book, Man's Search for Meaning, has become a pandemic as people question their place in this world, their meaning, and their purpose. They search for answers in education, power, mammonism, status, and especially, in religion, which all fail to give them the answers they seek. The Christian church in particular has failed in this country to believe and be what it says it believes, and stand for what it claims to represent. Blame, shame, guilt, judgement, impurity, injustice, and ignorance has gutted Christianity’s message and witness. There are individual exceptions to this assessment for sure, but from a big picture perspective, there is little practical cultural impact from today’s Christianity. The witness and impact of the few thousand members of the Early Church that shook the Roman Empire and the world, has faded into memory, useful only in creating statues and appointing saints. 

This is not to suggest that the responsibility of the Nelson’s tragedy lies solely in the failure of the Church. Where was the government and educational institutions who loaded on such a crushing debt – a debt that would finance more elaborate and ostentatious college buildings and fill government coffers? Where were the medical institutions who failed to offer solutions to Brian’s debilitating headaches and Brittney’s  gallstones and seizures –would they have been differently treated had their social status been higher? When will this culture of separation and hate take responsibility for the political rhetoric and anger that is tearing our country apart, which Brian seems to have imbibed like an alcoholic? And finally, where was Love? Love from the neighbors who excused themselves and “respected their privacy”? Where was the Love from local schools who excused themselves and “respected their choice to homeschool”? Where was the Love from the social agencies who excused themselves and were so “underfunded and overworked” to offer any meaningful help ? 

The question of Christianity’s failure to help the Nelson family is not because of a lack of intention and interest (though it seems there may indeed be lack in this case). I am concerned, if we, as followers of Jesus, actually have the tools to help families like the Nelsons. Would money to pay off their debt have answered their need? Perhaps for a short time, but not long-term. Would simply living nearby “solid” family neighbors who tried to connect with them, have solved their problems? Would getting Brian and Brittney medical help have solved things? All these things are facets of the Love that they needed, but I don’t believe they would have addressed their deepest needs. For their tortured souls that felt separated, lonely, meaningless, and empty desperately needed deep spiritual healing. Becoming aware of our lack of tools to heal the hell people find themselves in is a crucial recognition to this dilemma. For it begins with an ability to see and understand what they were suffering from; and without rushing in to “fix” everything, calls for us to develop relationships of trust and of truth. Then comes the patience to wait for the moment when people in crisis are ready to hear and awaken to Jesus’ offer of New Life. Following that awakening is a long walk, side by side with them, through valleys and hilltops, until a new pattern is born in their mind and soul. I am not at all an expert in accomplishing this, but I believe a people equipped with these tools are crucial to lead people out of their hell- no magical scripture verses, no quick fixes, no simple monetary intervention or social program. 

So community of goods, as wonderful as it is, does not, in my opinion, have the capacity to answer the deepest need of many in this culture of separation and hate. However, a community of people with these tools of understanding and healing is a big part of the GOOD NEWS that will shake this world. A community of people gives a space for the miracle of new life to happen, one broken life, one broken family, at a time. I could be wrong, but this is what I am longing to be given on this earth again. 

To be "in Christ"

What does it mean to be “in Christ”?

II Corinthians 5:14ff. “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again… Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.”

Rom 6:4. “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

Rom 8:19. “For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.”

II Corinthians 5:4. “For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.”

Rev 21:3-5. “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”

Which is the true you: who you think you are according to your ego, or who God knows you are? The ego you made. Christ is God-made. The ego is the extension of who you think you are. Christ is God’s extension of who He is. To recognize who we are, deeply within our essence, is to understand the difference in nature between our ego and our true identity. Our identity is not based on that which is temporary for the 80 or so years we are on this earth as the ego unceasingly tells us. Our identity is who we always have been and will forever be. We are “in Christ”, and to establish our identity while here on this earth is to end the reign of the ego.

“The butterfly, although it may seem more beautiful, is still the same being as the caterpillar.”

Knowing our identity in Christ is not the negation or loss of our unique essence. It is the acknowledgement that the “Place” I belong is from and in God Himself. We have no problem understanding the nature of families, or heritage, or tradition and how they (in a human way) influence our perspective, our environment, and our systems of thought. Yet we resist (or should I say our ego resists?) embracing our true family heritage – one that is not exclusive of any part of God’s Creation, not separating from any one or any thing, one that is not limited by intellect, environment, or pride. These are the ways the ego tries to sell its wares to us. But our true identity is a reflection of His Life on us, not overshadowing but enhancing our uniqueness so that we are intricately connected to the God and the greatest power of the Universe, Love.

Obviously, the nature of God is different than the nature of man. God does not have physical form and does not produce physical offspring. God does however have a son, a child, an offspring, who must exist in some form like unto the Father. Jesus was God’s son before he was born, while he walked on this earth, and after he died and resurrected. This comes close to the truth in a form that we can understand. Jesus is simply the “the firstborn among many brothers” for us (Rom 8:29), the life that demonstrated what it means to be God’s child.

Just as there is a part of you that believes you are undeserving and made for suffering, another part of you knows this is not true. Something in you realizes that your life has a higher calling; that you are not everything you are meant to be. There is a part of you that rages against injustice, pain, and horror, and does not accept that these things are intended neither for you nor for mankind. Yet there remains a nagging voice telling you that the world has always been like this and there is no escape from it. This voice convinces us that our hours and days just naturally pass endlessly in toil: the price of our survival here. We continue to believe in the laws of this world, and yet are frustrated, knowing that there is more to Life. We lament that we see one “reality”, one real world while “heaven” has to wait until we die. This illusion chokes out Truth and Love and Life in the name of so-called “reality”. When we embrace our identity in Christ this insanity, becomes illuminated for what it actually is: a belief in an illusion because one’s perspective has no true basis. This insanity is illuminated when we quit seeing the world and ourselves through the eyes of the ego, for we let go of the lie that creates the false interpretations of ourselves and embrace His Life with a new mind and heart

“The caterpillar did not cease to exist; it simply transformed into what it always was.”

When we do not know our true Self as who we really are, fear rules. We fear the future, we regret the past, we fear our failure, and we map our journey accordingly. When we grasp who we really are our nature experiences a volcanic shift. We leave behind purposelessness. We leave behind powerlessness. We leave behind small mindedness. Instead, we experience the greatest Power in all the heavens: Love. Love empowers our hearts, our minds, our souls, and our bodies. Christ in us becomes our teacher who wants to teach us to do the things we were created for. We experience miracles, and the first miracle is to discover the reality of who we actually are. This is a “new mind”. This is “a new creation”. This is “new Life”. Because who we are is birthed from our Father who says, “Behold, I make all things new”.

The Christ in you is your shared identity. You are eternally one with Christ. That is where you belong. Just as you cannot view Christ only as a man who did this or that in history, you cannot see yourself simply as a man or woman in a particular time in history. Christ in me. I in Christ. I am an eternal being, not because of my own efforts as if I have earned a certain status, but because Christ is within me. To believe otherwise prevents you from seeing yourself as you truly are; and just as importantly, from seeing who everyone and everything else truly is.

“To tell someone, even a young child, that a caterpillar becomes a butterfly is seemingly unbelievable. This does not make it any less true. The butterfly, although it may seem more beautiful, is still the same being as the caterpillar. The caterpillar did not cease to exist; it simply transformed into what it always was. Thus it would seem as if the butterfly is both butterfly and caterpillar, two separate things becoming one. You are well aware of the fact that if you could not see the transformation take place “with your own eyes,” you would not believe that the two seemingly disparate creatures were the same.

Someone telling you this story of transformation without being able to show you the proof that you could see would be accused of making up a fairytale for your amusement.

How many of you see the story of your own self in this same frame of mind? It is a nice fairytale, an acceptable myth, but until your body’s eyes can behold the proof, this is what it will remain. This is the insanity of the nightmare you choose not to awaken from. It is as if you have said, “I will not open my eyes until someone proves to me that they will see when they are opened.” You sit in darkness awaiting proof that only your own light will dispel.”

–Anonymous writer

All we have to do is follow the butterfly.

We all have a deep desire to grow, to change, and to transform. Yet why is it every time it seems we only make very small steps, when our hunger is so great? It is because we are lulled to sleep by the ego’s compelling story-telling and complex illusions. We learn a better way and then over and over and over again we let the ego come and take from us all that we have learned . It is ingenious in its ways of getting us to turn back again, as if we are continuously going around a revolving door. We need awakening!

This is true: We are in Christ and Christ is in us, has always been in us, and was sent here to teach us how to live- really live- a Life of Love and Creativity and Purpose. A Life that transcends our egoic nature and lets us become a co-creator with God. This is Good News. It is possible. It is for us and all peoples. All we have to do is follow the butterfly.

What is my life for?

“When you find more meaning in life, you become more contented, whereas if you don’t have a purpose in life and are searching for it unsuccessfully, you will feel much more stressed out.” According to Dilip V. Jeste, MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at UC San Diego School of Medicine, the reasons we live and work are fundamental to our quality of life.

Since the beginning of humankind, the quest to find meaning and purpose, has been manipulated, misguided, deluded, and used to accomplish much along humankind’s spectrum, from the greatest acts of humanity right down to the darkest moments in history. Politicians, educators, orators, and religion itself has used the universal search for meaning to manipulate people to further their own agendas. The failure of these greedy motivations has caused needless stress while we seek to find meaning ourselves.

Many find themselves so caught up in the business of life and ambitious pursuits towards “a better life for themselves and their children” that they do not get a chance to even ask the question, “What is my Life for?” They mistakenly seek answers of the material world. Nor can I tell you what your life is for, for truly the integrity of the question comes from deep within us. Therefore, I will try to tell you a few of my own personal thoughts on the matter in the hope of pointing toward a Source who can help you answer it for yourself.

If I define “Life” as the period of time elapsing between my physical birth and death on this earth, and if I define “better” as bigger, more money, more power, and more stuff, (like I used to) then I will never find the “better life”. Most of us know this, most of us say we understand it, yet our lives – and the choices we make—have as much to do with ‘stuff’ as anything else. Our striving for this “better life” motivates us but it actually functions more like a carrot on the end of stick, always just beyond our grasp. I in no way wish to pass judgement on those who sincerely strive for these things, thinking that through them they will be satisfied. The world’s systems have taught them that “happiness” lies just over this mountain. They are only doing the best they know to do.

They are only doing the best they know to do.

I personally came to a place where I realized my pursuit of this “better life” directly and inextricably contributed to a terrible and dark war waged against mankind: a war that steals from others; a war that leaves them to struggle for the basic necessities of life; a war that perpetuates this illusion that if one works hard, they can have anything they want. I saw how my gain was at another’s expense, and how I had learned not to care. I saw how this economic/political/environmental injustice was at the root of all war and conflict and I, no matter my intention, was partially responsible. It deeply saddened me, and convinced me that there must be another way.

In my new understanding of “Life” as part of a much larger experience and greater expression of who I actually was created to be, the words “having” and “doing” are replaced by words like “becoming”, “being”, and “growing” as part of an ongoing, never-ending process of Creation. “Life”, then, is something deep within my soul, something eternal, something outside of time and even material space as we know it; it is not privately defined but it is seen as a stream that I enter into, with currents, rapids, and a huge collecting system of all of creation, all galaxies, and all universes, both visible and invisible. This definition of life teaches me that the things I have, I must hold loosely because they are not mine but part of all. It also teaches me that I must become awakened to what is real and eternal... and walk away from the illusion of achievement and success. However, while my responsibility and choices are personal and individual, this “Life” points me to a paradox: Though I personally choose this “Life”, I can find fulfillment only with and in direct connection with others. This is the definition of Life that I am coming to understand. I have seen glimpses of it, and I long for more.

Along this way, I saw Jesus differently from what theologians and teachers describe. From a young age, I was taught that my reason for living was to obey and believe God. If I did this, my reward would be eternal happiness in heaven. I was taught, too, that if I did not obey and believe, I would be punished with eternal damnation. Alternatively, if I were not too bad, I would suffer a portion of eternity in torture until I had paid for my sins. I was taught that the Bible is a book of rules that defined the boundaries of my actions and thoughts, and that Jesus came to appease my angry heavenly Father by dying in my place so I could be forgiven and not go to hell as I deserved, and where our heavenly Father was planning to send me. My ultimate motivator was fear and worry about where I would spend eternity. I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

The real Jesus that aligned with the one who first came to me, began to take shape through my seeking for real meaning and purpose. This Jesus is creating in me a completely different worldview and perspective from which I view my personal life and the lives of every human being. As I re-center my life on the development of my soul and my responsibility to become part of spiritual truth, spiritual reality, and spiritual experience from an eternal perspective, I see all people within this context. The search for the true self, the recognition of the ego, the illusion of this world based on fear, the struggle to become a person who is aware of his thoughts and actions, and the pursuit to become someone who can point to another Way, now brings Jesus into focus. Jesus did not come to earth as a conqueror nor dictator, not as a spiritual policeman nor as a prophet of doom, and not as a lawgiver nor a judge. Jesus comes to us as our Creator, our Brother, and our Savior who points us to a completely new Way and new Life of genuine Love. When I am born again, I can differentiate between flesh and spirit, between illusion and reality, and between old paradigms and a radically different Way. My motivation for change now is my “becoming”. I have chances to point to a Way of Life not incentivized by “greatness” or the need for coveting, acquiring, protecting, and increasing possessions. Instead of planting seeds of war through materialism, I can imagine a world where, to quote the chorus of a song, “No man is an island, no man stands alone, each man’s joy is joy to me, each man’s tears are my own.” This no longer seems impossible to me, for my part is simply to love all as God loves all.

My part is simply to love all as God loves all.

This hope honors God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, for they come to us, not to conquer, but to invite all. What is my incentive for Life? To become all that I was sent here by God to become what God intended me to be on this earth. “Greater things than these you will do…” “That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you”. This is what I know my life is for and I need you to help me find it.

A question like this calls for at least a small smattering of things Jesus said. Consider these words from HIS perspective:

from Matthew 6:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Luke 12: Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

John 11:25-26: Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

John 14:27: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Romans 8:38-39: For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

“I will not leave you as orphans”

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. 

“If you love me, keep my commands.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—  the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.  John 14: 12-20 

I was an atheist, convinced that God was a myth only believed in by weak people. I hated God, I hated myself, I hated just about everyone…except my future wife, Tami, and her parents. Tami’s Mom, Judith, asked me to read the bible in spite of me explaining that I did not believe in Jesus or in God. I loved Tami and her parents and, in the hope of finally getting this “god-issue” silenced, I read the bible…every night, trying to get all the way through it in one year. I read my way from Genesis on. It was absolutely meaningless to me, a bunch of stories that had serious scientific “holes”. I slogged on only because Judith kept asking me to do it. I made it through the Old Testament, through the gospels and the more familiar “religious stories” of Christmas and Easter completely bored, just trying to get it over with. 

The very first words I ever really “read”, the first one that really affected me was John 14:18, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you”. In that moment I was struck by those words very, very deeply and in the next moment Jesus stood in my bedroom. I would be happy to tell you the whole story, but that is not what I am trying to point to now. 

Up until that one moment in time, I lived in a very violent, hate-filled, abusive, and soul-deadening house with my parents. It made total sense, a few days earlier, for a thought to cross my mind saying, “You really are like an orphan. You have no real parents. They clearly don’t want you.” And for many years after that encounter with the Living God, the Creator of the Universe, and my Savior, I thought “orphan” described me at that time and I didn’t consider anything further. I now know it not only describes me, but all of humanity. 

Have you ever asked yourself why Jesus, right in the middle of his very famous discourse, with no real introduction to the idea, interposes the statement, “I will not leave you as orphans”? The idea of his followers being orphans could not be rationally defended. James and John (the writer of that Gospel) were the famous sons of Zebedee. Simon Peter and his brother Andrew were close to their parents. And, in general, in that culture and at that time, family was a main component of the network of social interactions. Why did he say that they were orphans? Could it be that Jesus was identifying some fundamental characteristic of all humankind? A human dilemma that most all of us never really face? 

Without getting too thick in the weeds, the Greek word “orphanos” is derived from the root “orphos” which means “deprived” or “bereft”. Culturally, it meant to be deprived of a father or teacher due to their death. It was often linked with “widows” and represented a segment of the population who were usually of the lowest socio-economic standing, without any social net. 

I have come to realize that we are all orphans, that in the big scheme of things, we grow up struggling to make do without experiencing the sense of belonging that makes sense of everything. Then Jesus comes along and invites us to become real, to become part of Him, as He created us to be. We balk. We appreciate the offer but somehow we have gotten used to our plodding through our own lives. Our egos convince us that our condition only needs a bit of “assistance” to find real joy, happiness, and meaning. Jesus is more like the life-saver/life-guard who sits in the tall chair on the beach and lets us know if we are straying too far from the swimming area. If needed, he rescues us from trouble and maybe drowning. He is our “Fixer”; and we live to swim another day. 

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you”. Sounds much more than Jesus offering himself to us as a fixer. What if he is saying, “You have lived your lives deprived of your true Father, and I am here now to show you who you really belong to – what “family” in Me really means – and it will be totally different than the struggle and plodding you have experienced until now”? What if He comes to us and shows us what real Love means, what real Life means, what Truth actualized looks like? 

I have brought to you the idea of belonging – that Jesus refers to us as sheep who need a Shepherd. Now add to that Jesus calling us orphans. You see, He is not that person on the high chair at the beach. He is the one who drags us out of the water as dead, and not only administers CPR and gives us breath (His Spirit) but also invites us to come to live with Him so we never have to drown again. So that we can be one with Him, so that we can become “in Christ”. 

Have you ever felt like an orphan? Can you imagine the possibility of belonging to God so much that your IDENTITY, your meaning, your joy, and your love becomes a mosaic of living like you never dreamed before?