This reflection comes from my retreat with an emerging community known as A Place Apart. There will be more reflections coming...
Something happened. For the first time in years I felt as though I was becoming alive. The numbing that had occurred over the past few years began to wear off. I had feeling again.
Something happened. For the first time in years I felt as though I was becoming alive. The numbing that had occurred over the past few years began to wear off. I had feeling again.
Gathering for worship seven times a day in the midst of creation. Walking barefoot through the forest to commune with nature. Paying attention to the rhythms of the day. Living in community. Tracking animals in the forest. No longer afraid of being afraid. Sharing my longings with others who have those same longings. Learning to build a fire without matches or lighters. Feeling more like a Native of this land than a resident alien. Dancing unafraid.
See, I did not know that my Spirit had atrophy. Just like in the film The Matrix, when Neo awakens in the real world and ask why his eyes hurt. Morpheus tells him it is because you have never used them before. This is why Jesus came, to show me that my pseudo life was not really life at all. He came to illustrate to me that there is a new way of living in the Reign/Dance/Dream/of God.
This aliveness does not depend on how much I am entertained by North American Christianity. All they are doing is demanding my attention while defending their systems and beliefs. It is a system of emptiness based on the old rules of the right way to do church. The North American Christian Church will die defending those very systems and beliefs. They have forgotten who Jesus was, who he is. There are many of you who feel the same way I did. You feel as though you are plugged into their system. This is what we have to walk away from. And it may hurt because it is all we have ever known. We have to begin to look at what Jesus was really about; no matter how much that fits into our capacity to understand. The time to awaken from our slumber is now. Jesus shows us how to be alive again. No more atrophied Spirits. An ancient yearning begins. Where will you be?
Awaken
Life is meant to be full
Dare to live it
Our souls have been damaged
By a culture that demands our attention
In every waking moment
Now step apart
And become a part
Of all that was
And all that is
And all that is meant to be 1
1 Taken from Warrior, Mystic, Monk: A Training Manual for Being Fully Alive pg. 10.
This aliveness does not depend on how much I am entertained by North American Christianity. All they are doing is demanding my attention while defending their systems and beliefs. It is a system of emptiness based on the old rules of the right way to do church. The North American Christian Church will die defending those very systems and beliefs. They have forgotten who Jesus was, who he is. There are many of you who feel the same way I did. You feel as though you are plugged into their system. This is what we have to walk away from. And it may hurt because it is all we have ever known. We have to begin to look at what Jesus was really about; no matter how much that fits into our capacity to understand. The time to awaken from our slumber is now. Jesus shows us how to be alive again. No more atrophied Spirits. An ancient yearning begins. Where will you be?
Awaken
Life is meant to be full
Dare to live it
Our souls have been damaged
By a culture that demands our attention
In every waking moment
Now step apart
And become a part
Of all that was
And all that is
And all that is meant to be 1
1 Taken from Warrior, Mystic, Monk: A Training Manual for Being Fully Alive pg. 10.
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