Here is an idea…

Here is an idea… one that I recommend if people really want to have an amazing experience in coming to know the truth for themselves, rather than the parroting of what others have determined.

First of all, drop everything that has to do with how you currently believe for a season of time. Please note that I did not say stop believing. Just set aside for a specified period of time all the trappings and outward practices of your faith. Things such as…

• Put your Bible away
• Stop going to church
• Put prayer down
• Stop devotional times
• Set aside witnessing

…and whatever else has become part of how you normally act out your walk with God.

Do this for a month…. or two months…. Or some definite period of time when you are allowed to simply think for yourself. Truth will not change or become lost during such a season. However, your personal perspective may change. In fact, your ideas about what truth actually is may change.

Just an idea.

Convinced you are “right”?

I really do not want to pick a fight with the Christians.

I really do not want to pick a fight… period. Do I see that tendency in me…? Yes, I can see that such encounters can seem tempting. But as I recognize that motivation, I am letting go of it. Dropping it.

There is no point in becoming snared in a debate where each one is trying to prove their viewpoint right and the other guy’s is wrong. Anthony DeMello says it like this…

“We think the world would be saved if only we could generate larger quantities of goodwill and tolerance. That’s false. What will save the world is not goodwill and tolerance but clear thinking. Of what use is it to be tolerant of others if you are convinced that you are right and everyone who disagrees with you is wrong? That isn’t tolerance but condescension. That leads not to union of hearts but to division, because you are one up and the others one down. A position that can only lead to a sense of superiority on your part and resentment on your neighbor’s, thereby breeding further intolerance.

“True tolerance only arises from a keen awareness of the abysmal ignorance of everyone as far as truth in concerned. For truth is essentially mystery. The mind can sense but cannot grasp it, much less formulate it. Our beliefs can point to it but cannot put it into words. In spite of this, people talk glowingly about the value of dialogue which at worst is a camouflaged attempt to convince the other person of the rightness of your position and at best will prevent you from becoming a frog in the well who thinks that his well is the only world there is.”

Anthony De Mello

From his book: The Way To Love – The Last Meditations of Anthony De Mello

However… that said, it is wonderful to have the privilege of engaging another human being in a true comparison of ideas and deep convictions about important issues. Here “listening” is more important than speaking.

Doubts…

“Honest and conscientious doubts could never be a sin.”

Emma Darwin, devoted wife of Charles Darwin

Friendship

Friendship that insists upon agreement on all matters is not worth the name. Friendship to be real must ever sustain the weight of honest differences, however sharp they be.

- Mahatma Gandhi

Freedom and Selfishness

A Christian friend of mine recently wrote…

“… walking away from the legalism of the Church right into a lifestyle of selfishness is like walking from a slave-field into a prison…No more free than you were before.”

Freedom is very fascinating to consider. In my years as an evangelical Christian I see my viewpoint was not actually what I had convinced myself it was. I thought that we, the real “on fire” Christian community, had the purest, most complete understanding of liberty. However, the way I defined liberty was that we were free to do what God wanted us to do and not what we wanted to do. So when I saw people not living the Christian lifestyle, I viewed them as either “lost”… “deceived”… “selfish”… or just “carnal”. If they claimed to be Christian, but were not passing the evangelical litmus test, ie: faithful in church attendance, Bible reading, spiritual devotion, prayer… these people were using their liberty as “an occasion to the flesh…” I judged them and found them wanting! And I did my judging “in the name of the Lord” for their own good, of course. I never gave any thought to the idea that my judging also gave me a definite sense of superiority.

So was I free? I don’t think so. Instead I was bound to my very deeply ingrained religious conditioning. And this is exactly what happens when your belief system becomes paramount in shaping your viewpoints on life.

Lastly, what is “a lifestyle of selfishness?” Personally, stepping away from all sense of obligation to a belief system (read: remaining an obedient member of the local church…) has released me into a time of important personal growth. For that I am very thankful. And instead of finding myself adrift in some consuming life of “selfishness”, the exact opposite has been developing within me.

Whereas my former mindset was basically one of person insufficiency… wanting to be what God wanted me to be, but never being able to live up to that ideal… I now can live with a deep intimate contentment that I already am exactly who I am supposed to be. The striving to be something or someone more is over. I am free of thinking that I have to do something to please God so that one day, maybe, if I continue to press on and press in, I might just hear the words… “well done my good and faithful servant.”

That is something that is already completely alive within me now, today. It is a complete and perfect work and I am at rest in that.

What Are We?

The Human Condition — Lost In Thought

Eckhart Tolle, “Stillness Speaks”

A TRUE SPIRITUAL TEACHER

“A true spiritual teacher does not have anything to teach in the conventional sense of the word, does not have anything to give or add to you, such as new information, beliefs, or rules of conduct. The only function of such a teacher is to help you remove that which separates you from the truth of who you already are and what you already know in the depth of your being. The spiritual teacher is there to uncover and reveal to you that dimension of inner depth that is also peace.”

Eckhart Tolle – The opening paragraph to “Stillness Speaks”

It seems to me that Tolle is correct. In fact, I think this insight reveals the major difference between true spirituality and religion. Spirituality is illuminating what we already are within, while religion wants us to conform ourselves to a system of beliefs in order to become something we are not.

It is a wonderful thing to come into an awareness of the whole and perfect being that you truly are and always have been. It is in this awareness that you can know your complete and total oneness with all life at the very source.

Staying Present…

I ran in to one of my Pentecostal friends at the grocery store today. Mary and I were doing our shopping… which is something I really enjoy doing with her. I saw my old friend and greeted him with gusto. We had a nice little encounter together for a moment or two and then as we parted to continue shopping he felt the necessity to invite me to one of the businessmen fellowship meetings he attends. I just smiled and thanked him for the invitation.

I do not intend on going. I have been there and have no desire to go again at all. Am I somehow above or superior to the guys who are attending these gatherings? No, I do not think that way. In fact, if the format was changed and there was a real spirit of openness to other viewpoints… well, that would be different.

When we returned home from shopping, we sat around for awhile and watched a few minutes of Christian TV. There was a fellow preaching. He was pouring everything into his impassioned message to the people. The basic idea was one I have heard so many times and even preached myself. It is that God needs men to come forth and be leaders and take charge. The women, on the other hand, knowing how spiritually backward the men are, need to stop criticizing the men and work to build them up. In this way, we men can become the men of God who will go forth and take the kingdom by force.

I am sorry, but this message, impassioned though it be, is truly counterproductive to real spirituality. For one thing, spirituality is not born out of striving to be something you are not. It is not about becoming a faithful church-goer. And it is not about coming to the altar to weep for your sins or reading the Bible or going to the men’s group.

Spirituality is what is real within you right this very moment. It is not your mind or your belief system… it is, rather, your true identity which is actually one with God now and forevermore.

I do not even like to use the term “God” anymore. The reason is because the minute we say “God”, our minds jump right into the middle of everything and capture some concept with which we can identify God and thus boil Him down to a formula. We say “God” and suddenly we see our “image” of “Him”. If we know Bible verses, we begin to quote them as if they are the keys to acquiring the presence of God.

Today I do not seek God. I do not go somewhere to enter into his presence. I do not try to please him and I am not concerning about losing him. I am not concerning about some future judgment where God separates the sheep and the goats and sends them off to their respective heaven or hell.

So, Abraham, you HAVE turned your back on God!

Well, if he is the fearsome angry judgmental tyrant that is condemning people to eternal damnation because they do not have their belief system in lockstep with evangelical Christian orthodoxy… then, yes… I guess I have turned my back on him.

But, of course, I do not believe that God, whoever He is, is any of those things… at all. And in that sense, if I understand the true meaning of these words… I suppose I could be accused of being an “agnostic”, which the dictionary defines as:

…a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.

I am quite sure that if my grocery store friend, or any of my past friends at church, read this (which is not likely anyway) they would be sure that I have fallen quite low. However, if real friendship is based on having a unified correct theology, then I suppose I am in deep trouble… and perhaps we all are. For which one of us… or which group of us, has our theology all correct and true and without rebuttal?

As for me… I will endeavor to “stay present”… and continue to remain open to learn.

Perhaps you have a comment that will help me to understand and see things more clearly. Please accept my invitation to share what you think here. Thanks so much for taking this moment to read and consider.

Do You Need Lots of People in Your Life?

I think my wife hits the nail on the head in her latest post… a must read: Take Another Look

Change Is Amazing

Change is amazing.

The changes I have been experiencing are quite fascinating… at least to me. They are not things I am making happen. I am not even trying to change. It seems things within me are evolving. I cannot tell how this is happening, but I do think I know something about the “why”.

It has been over two years since Mary and I have gone to church with the idea of “looking for a church home”. That decision really flipped the switch in our minds allowing us to begin the most thorough reexamination of our beliefs either of us has ever done before. The resulting “fresh air” in our outlooks toward life has been nothing short of remarkable.

Probably the most definable difference I can see is the release from having to be right. I have no “belief system” to defend or prove or conform to. I think this may be considered by some as a weakness, but am finding it quite precious.

I am finding a greater appreciation for people just for who they are. I have no hidden agenda to “convert” them to my faith or my church or my God. I am not looking for the opportunity to get my message into them. I can accept people without categorizing them by what they believe or don’t believe.

I think this is “metanoeo”… to think differently or afterwards, that is, reconsider… repent. (Strong’s)

When the time came for this “reconsideration” in my own life I was ready to embrace a fresh viewpoint. I could not have done this in the context of church as I have known it. Perhaps some could, but I personally had to release everything I once held dear and that could not happen amid the many expectations that are integral to congregational life.

I simply had to walk away. Which, by the way, was a process that proved much more difficult than either Mary or I could have realized. Especially since nearly 100% of our friendships were based on church involvement. And how many of those relationships have survived our exodus? Precious few… and that is probably a good thing, at least for now.

One other notable development in my own psyche is the liberty I have found to consider other viewpoints. For so many years I had sealed myself off from viewpoints that were broadly considered taboo in the church world. Now I want to know what others are saying and how their views could actually deepen my awareness.

I will share more on that in later posts. Thanks for reading and leaving a comment.