Inner Child makes the Flying Leap!

This will be a very simple, fairly short, post. A few days ago I posted “How to be Great!”  challenging all of us, Gentle Reader, to increase our awareness of the Intimate and Immediate Presence of God through developing (or rediscovering) simple childlike trust, and applying that to Our Father.

I phrased this thought in a comment below the post, thus:

“[Our Father] has LOTS of children! …  It goes on and on and on. All it takes to enjoy that play… those warm strong arms and hands… is a brisk sprint and the flying leap in His direction, trusting that He catch you. He ALWAYS does. He ALWAYS has. He ALWAYS will.”

Our Father delights in children. I’ve said before that the single unrelenting truth I see repeated throughout the Bible from one end to the other, is the ongoing saga of God seeking to live intimately among His children… to provide for us, care for us, protect us, love us… and our equally unrelenting determination to resist or eventually sabotage His efforts.

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But here’s a critical thing I neglected to mention in the challenge to Trust…

In order to know that experience… of being caught and cherished in Our Father’s strong warm arms and hands… we MUST first make that flying leap of faith.

What’s worse… Only our Inner Child can do that!

Think about it. How likely are you, or me, or anyone else… to get a sprinting running start, and then leap out into empty space? How silly do/would we feel? Ever gone to one of those… (I’ve thought of several adjectives to insert right here, but I’m resisting the impulse)... “Teamwork Building Workshops” in management or an organization? You know… the ones with the obstacle course, the ropes course, the puzzles to work out? The ones where you do the “Trust Fall” and let yourself Nestea-Plunge backwards in the hope that your colleagues and teammates will catch you, preventing a heart-stopping diaphragm-paralyzing fall that puts you in traction for a week? Ever been there? So… how silly does all that feel?

You have to “change gears” to get into all that. You have to “shift into Game-Mode”. Remember the folks who seemed to be having a great time, and did pretty well? Then, remember the grumps who just stood off to the side, arms crossed, shaking their heads at all this “waste-of-time-foolishness”?

What’s the difference between those two groups?

The first have discovered and liberated their Inner Child. The second, have him/her locked in their room for the duration (of life).

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So what has any of this got to do with Prayer, with the Bible, with Jesus, Little Monk?

Just this… does God love us any less when we grieve and confine our Inner Child? No. He loves us just the same.

Is there anything “wrong” with behaving like a mature, sensible adult in our lives? No, of course not… that’s why we bother to grow up at all!

Then what are you talking about?

Our upbringings… our parents, mentors, teachers, school, religion… teach us “Da Rules” to constrain and conform our Inner Child to adult norms of behavior. (That is a GOOD thing. Inner Child, left to his/her own devices can become a selfish little monster.) Inner Child is that essence of the “self alone”, of “me”, of “my”, without much regard for others except as they bring us comfort or pleasure. Our “Inner Parent” is the authority, the Rulegiver, the programming we carry with us telling us all the objective standards for right, wrong, acceptable, unacceptable, and what makes us OK or not.

As we grow and develop, these interactions go along, and we become the “Inner Adult”… the personal voice of judgment, reason, consideration, and decision-making on what we do, what priorities we set, what values we adopt, and how we choose to live.

Sooo… this leads into Jesus… how, exactly?

Just this. We can become utterly addicted to our Inner Adult. We can, gradually, surreptitiously, become convinced that our own judgment… our own thinking… our own reason… is the only trustworthy criterion we have for choosing lifestyle. And, to be perfectly frank… Jesus “won’t fit” inside that paradigm at all.

Jesus can certainly “work with” it. We can “believe” in Him with our head. And we can “confess Him” with our mouth. And thus… assuredly… we can be “saved”.

Is that enough?

Yes. Yes it is. That “saves… from the pains of the second death and fires of hell”. We can say all the Roman Road “magic words”… confess our sins, ask Him into our hearts and lives, declare our willingness to be His, and He is EVER and ALWAYS faithful to take that offer, redeem us, and declare us His forever. Yes.

At that point… at that moment… we are “safe forever” from the Father’s Wrath and Punishment Due Our Sin! Yes.

But again, I ask… Is that enough? Is that enough for you? Was it enough for me?

It was not. I want/wanted more. I want/wanted all God has/had/will ever have for me. I want to love God with ALL my heart, mind, strength… to love as Jesus loves… I want so much MORE than “enough”.

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And then one day, God answered the “desire of my heart”. He issued a challenge, I responded, and everything changed. I’m not going to tell you “how that went down” for me, because such words create an expectation that that’s how it “should go down” for anyone or everyone else, and that’s just not true. HOW such things progress is individual… as the Holy Spirit ushers one’s own soul along the right path.

But here was the challenge…

“Only one’s Inner Child can make the leap of faith… the Trust… that you crave, Little Monk. Put aside, for the moment, all that you know… all that you think… all that maturity and training you’ve worked to endure… embrace your Inner Child, and give that permission to leap… unrestrained… into the Void calling My Name. I shall catch you… every single time. There is nothing to fear.”

[NOTE: Please bear in mind, Gentle Reader… though this should go without saying… I speak here of a Prayer Event… a metaphorical leap. This is an experience of meditation and prayer. This has nothing to do with children’s tying a towel around their necks, and plunging off the garage eaves! Please step off no roofs, climb from no boats in deep water expecting to walk ashore… None of that, to be taken from this post!]

There is nothing WRONG with our Inner Adult. But he/she is “limited” by the horizons and boundaries of our own minds and hearts. Only when we embrace and accept our own Inner Child… allowing him/her access to our prayer lives, will we discover the trusting Leap of Faith.

I am reminded of an instruction oft-repeated to me years ago, long before I came to understand it…

“Please stop trying so hard to be Jesus. Only Jesus can be Jesus. Instead, just try to LET Jesus be Jesus IN you, because only He can.”

Jesus never lost His embrace of His Inner Child. His Inner Child always knew the Joy and Love of Our Father!

Now, Gentle Reader… go “play” for a bit!

 

The Mundane Miraculous

This post follows from Paulfg’s post of today. Something that only happens to “important Christians”, and a brief exchange of comments that followed between us.

I was reminded of a sermon I heard a while back, where the Pastor stood to his pulpit, and authoritatively declared…

“There are only 156 miracles in the entire Bible!”

(If my memory does not betray me… it was 150-Something… I think 6… but I could be off by 4 in either direction, so forgive me.)

He knew this because he had counted them… or some author had and it was in his book… or some professor had and it was taught in his seminary… but anyway… God only intervened miraculously in the history of man 150-whatever times! He was certain of this, because such events would have been so significant (being so rare), that certainly Scripture would have noted additional episodes.

He then went on, in a series of sermons, to show that each of these miracles had the same “prerequisites”, a list of requirements and conditions, that man had to fulfill in order for God to act… and how and why we fail to fulfill them in our miracle-free lives. (Because there’s only 150-whatever!)

The preaching series was actually quite good. The exhortation, the scholarship and exegesis, the encouragement… all really excellent. But there was a flaw… a crucial flaw… that, while I know listeners were blessed and edified by their attention, equally I know this grieved the Father’s heart.

As so often, the problem is in the premise. That first course of bricks is uneven, it may not mean that the wall will be insecure, but the cosmetic flaw may persist throughout.

Here, the flawed premise is actually a “Scriptural Problem”. It is all well and good to say that someone went cover to cover through the Bible and located 150-something recorded incidents wherein God miraculously intervened in human affairs. But that leaves out (at least) one critical verse.

“And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.” [John 21:25]

I offer you, Gentle Reader, a simple question: Have you, personally, ever witnessed or taken part in a “miracle”?

You don’t need to put your hand up, write in, or identify yourself… so there’s no danger here. But truth be told, most people who feel led to read anything like this blog have witnessed or taken part in a surprising number of miracles. Now, I’m not going to get bogged down in issues of “operational definition”, or “juridical specificity”. (I used to, once upon a time. For me, a “miracle” was “any event with a probability of 10,000:1 against, or less.” I kid thee not… it was a very young and exploratory time for me, God challenged me to “name my fleece”, I did… and He just smothered me in events so vastly beyond the probable or likely, that even my doubting self had to admit that it was He doing what He was doing.)

No, this morning I just want to make a simple point in follow up and affirmation of “a ripple” that arose in and from Paul’s post…

We are often accustomed to such “separation of church and state”, that it bleeds over into a pernicious “separation of God from daily life”. Whether morality, mood, love, relationships, or spiritual warfare… we tend to think of “God stuff” in big, overblown, “Ten Commandments — Charleton Heston — Moses/Exodus” terms, rather than the simple day-to-day living we walk through or that we see Jesus walking through among His Companion Disciples.

When I was a young novice, the very first challenge I was given (besides the trial of obedience in general)… but the first real “spiritual” challenge I was given… was to learn to “see God in all things”. Now, that SOUNDS easy, but try it sometime, even on a “day off” away from the office or workplace.

To SEE God, as a vibrant and active participant, in every moment. Setting a table, weeding a garden, sweeping a floor, doing homework, making your bed or doing laundry. Got that down? Great… now add a layer. Driving to work through rush hour traffic. Getting bad service from a fast-food drive-through. See what I mean? It’s challenging!

Now, please bear in mind… just because we CAN come to SEE Him, doesn’t mean we will always respond appropriately to His presence! It just means we are the more likely to address Him, our behavior, our selves… in moments even when we expose our frailties and faults.

And that’s pretty much it, the wrap up, to the ripples I found from Paul’s dropped pebble. That “spiritual warfare” certainly can be the stuff of heroic opera, but it is also the mundane and simple struggle between selfishness and servanthood reflected in gracious kindness, or sour curmudgeonry.

The cosmic and Wagnerian grand scale is all well and good. But the battle between Light and darkness isn’t so much a matter of “Strategies and Objectives of a Grand War”, as much as it is all about “Relationship”.

Do we receive the Love of Jesus?

Do we reflect the Love of Jesus back to God?

Do we refract the Love of Jesus through and around us to others?

THAT is the Spiritual Warfare of the Battle between Light and darkness, Good and evil, God and the enemy. Every moment yielded to love, to grace, to God (thus His will)… is a “blow struck for Light” in that War. Every selfish moment grumbling at our pitiful lacks, or the unworthiness of another… is not an affirmation of Light. That simple.

Sins are simple things… to treat another as less than sacred. Miracles are equally simple things… the expressions of God, His love, His grace, from His heart and hands into our lives.

As I listened to that Pastor that day, declare so authoritatively that God performed (precisely) 150-something miracles, I just had to smile and shake my head a bit sadly…

I wanted to pick up a phone, call him up, saying… “Oh, my dear son! Every BREATH we take, is a miracle. Every heartbeat! Don’t believe me? Too much “science” involved there? Well, ‘science’ can tell us when someone is ‘alive’ versus ‘dead’… but it cannot explain why that is so. No scientist can (thus far) begin with inorganic compounds in a laboratory, and create ‘living tissue’ from it. Even the great strides being made with tissue culturing, no one can yet ‘breathe life’ into a cultured organ, granting it ‘humanity’ or ‘consciousness’ as a person

“Hold a newborn in your arms, and tell me that is not miracle? See a person first see the grace and love of God pierce the misery and history of their life, see their tears of joy and newly discovered freedom as they first embrace Christ, and tell me that is not a miracle? Think of the love of a couple whose hearts have grown closer over 50 years, or the love of the widowed yet in love after separation of decades, and tell me that is not a miracle?”

I wanted to say such things, but I did not. “Grace”… the kind of “gentle touch of God’s hand” involved in such miracles as these… it is hard to see. It takes a bit of practice. Like finding a subtle flavor in a fine wine, a tea, or a delightful dish… it takes time and practice to train the palate. Not everyone can take a year to get apart, be silent, and learn to hear the singing of Creation.

But God is right here all the time, and He is ever about revealing Himself. So, let each of us enjoy that, and develop the sensitivity to touch, the discerning palate, the sensitivity to fragrance… that we learn to perceive Him, His love, His grace, and His miraculous Presence… everywhere and everywhen.

Amen

Grace to thee — The Little Monk

 

Journey – Leaving Trust Behind

But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” [Matthew 28:16-19]

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For some, these have been “aversive verses”... (“averses”?)... for years. “MAKE DISCIPLES” can look arduous, peremptory, invasive, offensive, manufactury… as if we are to invade the surrounding enemy territories… like an infection… and remold sovereign people and consciousnesses into our own image! Hmmm… seems a familiar historical model, no?

Yes. Unfortunately, these verses were used as “syrupy theological veneer” to excuse and justify military, economic, cultural, political conquest for so many centuries… such atrocities have been committed and rationalized under the aegis of these verses… the very  nausea of cultural and physical genocide has created sincere crisis  of conscience for many.

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But if you can set all that aside… if you can ignore all our human perversion and prostitution of these incredibly BEAUTIFUL Word(s) of God… just for a moment…

LOOK at this sequence, that we seldom consider as part of a “whole picture”…

Check this context as perceived and recorded by Matthew:

1. Women arrive at Jesus’ Tomb to find an angel sitting atop the seal stone, after opening the tomb with an earthquake. The angel had appeared in his glory, and the guards fainted away from fear. The angel greets the women (first telling them not to fear him), then announces that Jesus is risen, invites them to come and see (where have we heard that before?), tells them to run ahead to the Disciples and where He will meet them.
2. The women leave in great joy to do as the angel commanded and share the good news with the Disciples, and Jesus HIMSELF appears to them on the roadway. They are overcome with joy, and begin to worship Him, grasping His FEET. He repeats His instructions for the Disciples to them.
3. While the women are traveling, some of the wimpy guards head back to their bosses in town and tell them what happened. They get paid off to lie, saying that disciples stole Jesus’ body… thus covering their jobs and reputations for failing at their task (guarding the Tomb).

OK, so the stage is set….

Now, check out this really cool thing… So often we “abstract” these verses from their setting, like cutting a rose blossom from its bush, or prying loose a gem from its setting.

But LOOK…

Jesus does NOT just say… “Here’s my orders! Go DO this thing!”

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No. Instead, these verses tell an entire STORY! Matthew 28:16-20:

But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated.

Jesus had “left orders” by means of the women, as first articulated by the angel. The women had doubtless told them the whole story. They needed to travel, trusting both the source(s) and the content of the instructions.

When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful.

WHAT? Wait, look at that. REALLY? This says three distinct things: (1) They SAW Him! (Amazing). (2) They worshiped Him! (Understandable). (3) But some were doubtful! (Huh?) Just rest here a moment, Gentle Reader. It says “some”, not “one”, so we can’t just write this off to Thomas alone, huh? Now, they’ve had Jesus’ statements BEFORE the Crucifixion, His miracles at and around the Crucifixion itself, the testimony of the angel, the testimony of the women on the road (not to mention all the surrounding narratives of the other Gospels), they travel (in faith and obedience) to this mountaintop… and THEY SEE HIM. They worship? But some are DOUBTFUL??? Does that make you blink?

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”

I’m really not sure how or why, but these words are usually divorced from the rest of what is often called The Great Commission. Why is this particularly important? Well, first off… because it’s like… *cough*… HERE… and HE SAID SO?! But also, because the next two words to follow are “Go THEREFORE”!!!! So… all the REST only works BECAUSE… OF… THIS!

Huh? So, like… what’s so important about THIS, eh? Well, it’s really a pretty massive statement, and it follows because of and consequent to… all of the Redemption. The whole Incarnation, Ministry, Crucifixion Thing. The Father has chosen to give to Jesus ALL Authority, in heaven and on earth. NO ONE ELSE holds that authority… not the Father (any longer, He has given it over)…. not the Enemy, Darkness, Satan former ruler of this world… but only Jesus. This is a progression even beyond the promises of the Garden, even beyond John 17.

This… is a massive…. statement.  Jesus has pointedly and specifically ordered the Disciples to come up on a mountain so He can announce to them that… HE ALONE is now LORD of ALL.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you;

And HERE, at the kernel of this whole discourse… Jesus uses a “THEREFORE”!!! Jesus does NOT simply “issue these orders” to the Disciples, and (derivatively) to us! He issues these instructions as a LOGICAL CONCLUSION of that which has been said before… He says, “Now that the Father has invested all authority over heaven and earth in Me… NOW this Chain of Grace continues and I invest this authority in you, to continue My Kingdom. GO! Love as I have loved! Speak My word(s) as I spoke those of the Father! Touch with My love and healing and wholeness, doing My work(s) as I did the Father’s. Lift Me up that more may fall in love with Me, as you fell in love with Me! Call them, show them, walk with them, live with them, and cover them up in the Father’s Love, My forgiveness and cleansing, and the Holy Spirit’s infinite and intimate Presence.”

Beyond all this He adds only one more revelation…

and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

He’s said it before. He will say it again. He whispers it in our hearts and minds every second of every minute of every day… because here is the ultimate fear, the ultimate torment, the ultimate terror… the be Utterly Alone in the Void. Here is the darkness that drives otherwise balanced people to take their own lives. The sundering of abandonment, betrayal, alone-ness. HE WILL NEVER DO THIS! He does not, and will never, cut you off and abandon and forsake you. The ultimate assurance… whether we feel Him or not, whether we welcome His presence or not… He promises…. “with you always, even to the end of time.”

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The Essence of Discipleship

An endnote I would leave here is that a disciple is a living testament to a Master. Whether the master is Jesus, or Socrates (who discipled Plato, who discipled Aristotle), or otherwise… a disciple is a field into which a Living Presence is planted, and lives on. Jesus, Living and Very God, is immediately present and not subject to “generations” and “adulteration” over time.

The Key to Discipleship is Living Presence, and Immediate Love. Oddly enough, the Foundation of the Great Commission is in the LAST statement. It is the: “Lo, I am with you always!”

Know this… we can UTTERLY TRUST Jesus in that statement, and it is the hardest statement for us (as humans) to believe of anyone else.

Most if not all the suffering and insecurity in the world is based on the fear that, “If I don’t have… if I don’t show… if I don’t act… THUS, then this person or these people (who I need in my life)… will cast me out and abandon me.” Doesn’t matter if what we must have is money, power, status, control, authority, respect… doesn’t matter. Insecurity is the fear that if we do not possess those things or attributes, then those we value will not find us acceptable.

People then live out their lives trying to accumulate “insurance” against abandonment. They (we) can never fully rest with true peace. They (we) can never truly trust.

Now, it would be nice to say simply, “this isn’t true! People will not abandon you because you do not have or do whatever.” But, truth be told, I, for one, cannot say such a thing. I cannot say, “Trust people not to abandon you. Trust that people will not measure and judge you for what you have and what you do… Trust people to keep their word… Trust that those who say they love you, or treasure you, or will always walk with you… will keep those promises.” I cannot say that. I have experienced too many liars, too many oathbreakers, too many who speak such words falsely… no matter how sincerely they may once have been uttered.

In fact, it has been my experience that the more closely the Lord and I walk, the more truly His word(s) speak, the more like Him I love and touch… the MORE frequently I (and my words and touch) will be abandoned and cast out. He was clear about it. I’ve asked to be blessed, and He has declared this to be blessedness… that to speak His Truth means that it is RIGHT that some I never thought possible have called vile names, found me unworthy of ongoing friendship, or even rejected me from presence in public worship.

People… will DO that. No matter how sacredly you treat them, how deeply you bless them, how truly you deal with them, or how intensely you pray for them. Sometimes, to speak truth to someone… is to sacrifice their very friendship to the Truth. For they will sometimes betray you. He promised it. That should be no surprise.

BUT NOT HIM! NEVER HIM! JESUS DOES NOT, and WILL NOT, DO THAT!

And, by the way, how do you treat the betrayer after they break their word? How do you deal with them after they declare you “unclean”? How do you ever “trust” that oathbreaker again?

Lol. You treat them, love them, speak to them, pray for them, and even TRUST them… EXACTLY AS YOU DID BEFORE! It makes NO DIFFERENCE! All that “Stuff”…. is THEIR “stuff” to deal with before God. It’s not your (or my) “stuff”. The ONLY standard we have for relationship is the standard the Father holds towards and for US. It’s the same old lesson from Sermon on the Mount!

Jesus taught: “The Father deals with you as a sacred person, thusly. THEREFORE… you will treat other sacred people, the same way.” Period, full stop. There is no “transaction” to relationship. You treat “enemies” with the same love as “family”. No difference.

I love, trust, speak… to/for others… because and as God treats me. At least that is the standard… and I (of course) have my own “good and bad days” with the challenge of that.

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Disciple others? Yes… simple… love them, bring the Living Presence of Christ… in you (in us)… to them, and walk with them thus.

Live, each moment, as though “He were with us, even to the end of the age.”

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From my pack, I remove all “Trust” for people… lay it reverently on the fire… and watch it slowly burn to ash. My heart is lighter by the weight of its fear.