Walking the Path of Contemplation

I walk the path of silence.
I trod the road of self discovery.
I reflect on the journey in stillness.

The surface everyday noise surrounds me.
But in between the spaces are whispers.
Underneath the commotion is a steady rhythm.

The road ahead curves and winds and I see no end.
The are bends in the path and broken glass below my feet.
The world spins and spirals but there is before me a labyrinth to follow.

The place of solitude is space for encounter.
The unseen presence is mysteriously present.
All the twists and turns move toward the center.

In the center of the labyrinth is a cross filled with secrets.
The narrow way widens as it opens to an invitation to keep following.
Somewhere deep under my skin is the sense of knowing what I have yet to discover.

Blood, tears, sweat and death are markings on this spiral path.
My whole body now moves in the changing rhythms of the narrow road.
There is no where to turn but to keep moving forward.

The earth moves under my feet as shifts take place on the ground.
I kneel, stand, walk, and run but I keep going.
Sometimes stopping but never returning for I am not alone.

Sinless Perfection Revisited

"Meditation becomes contemplation and contemplation becomes humiliation, which leads to annihilation of sin" -  Father M. Raymond

We live most of our life very comfortably with sin.  Either we see ourselves as simply sinners or we rationalize that since everyone is a sinner, sin is just a part of our every day experiences.  But every sin is a betrayal of love and our Beloved.  God desires we live our lives straight with Him and without sin.  We tend to think that everyone is bent by sin so we expect to sin and see others sin.  God is holy and perfect and we are to be holy and perfect as God's children.  The only way we can do this is by the power of God's Spirit within us. 

I was taught that Christian perfection is either impossible or simply high idealism.  We were told to strive for some kind of perfection but we could never live perfectly in this scorched world of sin.  But if I can live five minutes without sinning, then how about five hours?  If I can make it by God's grace, love, and power for five hours, how about five week or even five years or how about fifty years? Surely this can only be accomplished by the indwelling Spirit of God that leads us to abandon our self will and flesh and where we breathe and walk every day by the Spirit of the Living God. 

This does not mean one does not stay in a place of humility or repentance because God's grace is fresh every day.  And if someone thinks more highly of oneself than they should, then surely this is just another deception from the enemy.  But God does not expect less from us than he did from His own Son.  We may be on a slower growth pattern but the pattern is still perfection for God.  So again, I say rejoice, be content no matter what the circumstances are.  Surrender yourself and everything to God and leave all in His good hands.  Walk in the grace and peace of Christ and be free to follow God wherever He leads You.  Whatever life throws at you good or bad, take then all as the hand of God and let God's Spirit give you immeasurable joy for the whole day.

There is a Time for Everything

Meditations and contemplative thoughts on Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Every moment is God breathed, every season is a time of God's purposes.

There is a time every day to be born anew in God's Spirit.
              There is a time everyday to die to self and sin.
There is a time for God to plant deep things within my spirit.
               There is a time for God to uproot any wicked or evil in me.
There is a time every day to kill the old man of the flesh.
               There is a time every day where God wants to heal and restore my soul.
There is a time to weep in my brokenness and need of God.
               There is a time to laugh at the wonder and beauty of God.
 There is a time to mourn with others in sorrow.
                There is a time to dance with joy in the Holy Spirit.
There is a time every day for God to clear away the rubble of my life.
                There is a time every day to gather stones and make my life an altar for God.
There is a time to embrace my pain and suffering.
                 There is a time to let go of my burdens and worries.
There is a time to gain the weight of God's glory.
                 There is a time to lose oneself in the presence of God.
There is a time to keep my soul close to God.
                 There is a time to rid myself of anything that keeps God at a distance.
There is a time every day for God to tear away my worldly attachments.
                 There is a time God weaves my life together like a grand masterpiece.
There is a time to be silent and know God.
                 There is a time to speak and shout praises to God.
There is a time every day to love God with all my heart.
                 There is a time every day to hate the things of this world that takes my eyes off God.
There is a time every day to be at war with the Devil.
                 There is a time every day to be filled with the peace of God.

Whose Got Your Back?

"The are only two kinds of people in the world.  The pushers and the pushed.  Which are you?"

My experience of living on the East Coast bore this out between people who got walked on and walked over and those who were doing the walking.  We feel like we have to push back.  We feel like if we don't shove our way through life, someone else will get in front of us.  We think if everybody else is going through life at a hundred and twenty miles per hour then so must I.  But this is the grand illusion and lies we tell ourselves.  This is not the life God has created us for or has called us to live.

Maybe between all the isolation and loneliness in life, people feel like nobody has their backs.  We have lost our way and feel empty and lost ourselves.  What is the deeper life God is calling us to beyond and above the hustle and bustle of life?  What does the hidden life in Christ mean in a world that cares little for uniqueness and risky vulnerable intimacy?

I am in a season of meditating and contemplating the deeper and hidden meanings from God's Word.  Skimming the surface of Scripture or doing Bible Study simply does not satisfy my soul's deep hunger and thirst after God anymore.  I must dig deeper into the hidden treasures of God's Word if I am to take hold of the life that God has created every one of us to live but so few of us actually experience.

I love the beauty and mystery of Psalm 139.  There is knowledge here that few posses.  God is waiting there to meet us in the darkness to light our path for those daring adventurers who are willing to make the journey.  We discover treasures both old and new and light that shows we are wonderfully and fearfully made.  Are we willing to search the scriptures to know the heart of God?  Will we let God test us and try our anxious thoughts?  Will we change once God has shown us our deepest secrets and sins of our hearts?

What has captivated my holy curiosity are verses four through six: 

"For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before, and laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it"
(Psalm 139:4-6)

God knows me better than myself.  God is beside me, with me, in me, goes before me and has my back.  I can't tell you how many times I would be dead by now if it were not for the love and protection of God who always knows us and the things around us more than we could ever know or imagine. 

The Psalmist loves God and thinks he knows God but he is like Job or Isaiah who has such a vision of God that he realizes he really does not understand or know God like he thought.  As humans, we can know things without loving things.  We separate knowing from loving but not with God.  God's knowing and loving are indistinguishable.  There are great hidden secrets and depth of these scriptures and there is never a moment when God knows but doesn't love, or loves and doesn't know.   In God through Christ I am discovering that knowledge and love are united or reunited in God.  This is a fore taste of seeing like heaven sees and living like a citizen of heaven on earth.

Contemplating the New Atheism

"Every generation gets the atheism it deserves!" - Michael Hanby

So many of the books and articles against the new atheism have been as pedestrian, patronizing, and dismissive mirroring the same kind of rhetoric the new atheists employ against the religious and Christians.  Maybe the sheer hypocrisy and harsh judgments people have experienced from church people leads us to the out right hostility people see coming from the new atheism?  Sometimes Christianity harshest critics are the very people we need to listen and respond to.  Certainly when it comes to skeptics and people who have been hurt by the church, the church needs to pay attention more and listen to the concerns of her critics.  When it comes to the church's own cultural idolatries, these need to rightly be challenged and discarded.

As I have been studying the church fathers, the concept of mystery (more to come in the next post on this), the apophatic tradition and contemplative Christianity, one needs to first understand that God is not an object or a philosophical idea to study.  God is a person to encounter!  I am reminded of the great contemplative Thomas Merton who once said that "the atheist's experience of God is purely negative whereas the apophatic contemplative is negatively positive."  A real difference between Christians and atheists are Christians read the Scripture as an icon, image, and full of Christ whereas the atheists read it as logic, argument, and a flat book.

Besides the gross lack of discipleship and Christian imagination in many churches, the new world we all find ourselves in privileges the modern narrative of interpreting life through the lens of science that reduces all reality to the explainable and natural as well as having little to no room for mystery and God.  The fragmentation we all face as Christians, skeptics, and atheists effects us all.  Fragmentation, loss of identity, and interpretive pluralism rule our brave new world.  In place of the church, the modern state now competes as the sole place at the table to ensure people's values and security.

In the midst of all this, the church seems to resort to name calling and criticizing the world rather than being the place where the world can find refuge and healing.  What the world needs to see is not more apologists combating atheists but more followers of Jesus turning this world right side up with the gospel of Jesus Christ.