Be still & know that “I Am” God!

Opening:
“Society…was regarded {by the desert fathers} as a shipwreck from which each single individual man had to swim for his life.” - Thomas Merton - The Wisdom of the Desert.

Intro:
Amen! There the end, nothing more to say. Go save yourself.
Got Jesus to back me up on this one. (Paul actually, but close enough.)
1) “Work out your salvation with fear & trembling”
2) “You do not need man to teach you but have the spirit inside

“Then why are you writing?!” you may ask/demand.
Well, because I want to.

There is a difference in writing and leaving bread crumbs on the path you travel, {for fellow travels to see that you have also traveled a similar path to theirs}, and throwing rocks of truth at each person who happens to be passing by your way. The letter is well summed up in my post:Twice the Son of Hell

Where to go from here:
So now that I stated the obvious, that which you will either know or have already been “seasoned by the spirit” to be opened to… - dont you just hate the mystical charismatic sounding words? I suppose they work, if you dont get lost in your preconception of what those words mean.

Let me now state the other obvious.

Busy, busy, busy.
If there is one thing that would seem sure in this world and guaranteed…that would be the ‘fact’ that we are to be busy little bees. This is actually furthest from truth and actually goes to make the Christian like the secular person. Or the Jew like the secular, or the sufi like the secular…or secular like the secular. (not picking on ’secular’ here. Words are pointers, let me now call it “ego”.)

Here is a story from Henri Nouwen that puts this a bit more eloquently and perhaps in a perspective that my audience will relate to better. {Beware, he says the same thing as Eckhart Tolle… Literally. Take the “christianize” out of it and the meat is the same meat thrown down from heaven above for us to devour…in rest of course.

“The basic question is whether we minsters of Jesus Christ have not already been so deeply molded by the seductive powers of our dark world that we have become blind to our own and other people’s fatal state and have lost the power and motivation to swim for our lives.”

“Just look for a moment at our daily routine. In general we are very busy people. WE have many meetings to attend, many visits to make, many services to lead. Our calendar are filled with appointments, our days and weeks…”, etc.

“…we move through life in such a distracted way that we do not even take the time and rest to wonder if any of the things we think, say, or do are worth thinking, saying, or doing. We simply go along with the many “musts” and “oughts” that have been handed on to us, and we live with them as if they were authentic translations of the Gospel of our Lord. People must be motivated to come to chruch, youth must be entertained, money must be raised…”, etc.

“…we ought to be on good terms with the church and civil authorities; we ought to be liked or at least respected by a fair majority of our parishioners’…Thus we are busy people just like all other busy people, rewarded with the rewards which are rewarded to busy people!”

Break:
If you are understanding the above to be a ‘good thing’ or a ‘desired thing’ then you are misunderstanding what Nouwen is saying. He is implying how similar our lives are to those that have not been “transformed by the spirit of God”. Why is this? We are stuck in the false self. We drink babes milk, if even that, for most of us are in self deception that we are “Christians”/”Jewish”, what-not.

“You will know them by their fruit” - bible somewhere, go look it up.

Does your fruit stink? I think it does. Why? Well have you ever noticed that all we do is go about saying how evil everything around us is? We dont want to spend the time realizing the agony and hypocrisy we live in. In short…we live in fear.

“Fear not” - Jesus, Paul, and bunch of psychologist who want to help you.
Your body reacts to the fear even if its just in the mind…we are killing ourselves.

More Nouwen:
“Why do we children of the light so easily become conspirators with the darkness?
The answer is quite simple. Our identity, our sense of self, is at stake.” {I swear Nouwen and Eckhart Tolle read the same book. Well, at least understood what that book was actually saying!}

“The secular or false self is the self which is fabricated, as Thomas Merton says, by social compulsions.
‘Compulsive’ is indeed the best adjective for the false self. It points to the need for ongoing and increasing affirmation. Who am I? I am the one who is liked, praised, admired, disliked, hated or despised.”

” Whether I am a pianist, a businessman or a minster, what matters is how I am perceived by my world. If being busy is a good thing, then I must be busy.” etc

“The compulsion manifests itself in the lurking fear of failing and the steady urge to prevent this by gathering more of the same - more work, more money, more friends.”

Solution:
Well he does offer a solution…the same one Jesus gave and I have blogged about and Eckhart Talks about. Got your interest? Then try to read, with understanding, what Jesus said. He definitely isnt this God of the modern day zealot.

I would like to do more justice and perhaps print more from the book. For now let me reference you to it. Henri Nouwen, “The way of the heart”

Yes he is kosher to evangelical Christians (though you will be challenged to become a true Christian)
As well as Catholics…but you guys know him. Perhaps you should read more from him and Merton. You may learn more about your faith then what you get in your temples. Just a thought…do as you wish.

Conclusion:
Some people will come by, read this and pick it up and feel good. It will then disappear as fast as it came. Others will throw it aside and say it is the ramblings of a mad man who Loosing My Relgion.

It would seem the main point is that Im speaking the truth, and from there its up to you what you do with it. “I wash my hands” - or “Im swimming away from the wreck and you can swim or drown, but I aint gonna be dragged down by you.” {link was to Ayin Ha-Ra article}

Be still…hard to do folks. Especially if you believe that what your doing has a purpose that is beyond the ultimate purpose. {That is what your doing now…that is your true purpose…everything else is illusion and the ego tricking you into a ‘false reality’. Oh, God. I did it. Can of worms opened! HA. Well it will have to wait for another blog, or you can go listen to Eckhart Tolles “A new Earth”.

Reminder:
“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” - yet another Biblical goody that we dont get.
Oh we get it for sure, but we fail to implement it.

You read a good book, hear a good sermon, but you let it fall away. Almost 99% of the time your thinking something. Watch your thoughts and see them buzz by. You cant shut it off I bet. Even when you think your not thinking, I bet if you would ‘watch’ you would see some ‘mental commentary’ playing.

So why not “make his word a lamp unto your feet?” In other words, make a conscious choice what will fill your mind. The tele…cut it off totally. (Its possible, I live year with out one) Dont just take daily devotional time. This is old people. Its time to take that daily quiet time and as you have conversations keep an awareness of that which you learned. And put it to practice. Watch your actions and reactions.

To follow up the last sentence I will point you to Eckhart Tolle again. Im doing this, as this post is to short and yet pointing to many concepts that are better fleshed out in his material. If thats to much pick up Nouwen, but I think the former will be like reading the “new king james” version vs. “traditional king james” Nothing wrong with the latter, if you know the lingo. Im afraid many of you dont even have that down…or you have the ‘role’ down to a tee that you cant see the ‘forest for all the trees’. - Those lovely sayings that dont make sense. So go have your cake and eat it too.

This was a fun post, if your not familiar with my style Im sure you can take it the wrong way. But Im very light hearted, and again…this is your journey…I cant hold your hand. - nor do you want me to, I might pull you under.

Peace

dAlen