Sacred Threshold ::

The Wall :.

Hagberg and Guelich, in the book The Critical Journey, describe a place in the life of faith as "the wall." It is a disorientating place where what was once known about God and God's ways is shattered or dismantled. In class yesterday, we bantered about the question if everyone experienced "the wall" as a place of suffering and confusion in their spiritual life. Most people said "yes" it was normative to experience "the wall" and most of the time it manifested in suffering. I disagreed.

Here are my thoughts...

First, I don't think everyone hits the wall as named in the book. Maybe everyone hits mini walls from time to time, when a portion of one's idea of God and how God is in the world is challenged but the wall is small and in the end the change is needful but is an adjustment of one's thinking and affective response to God not a transformation. Second, if we understand John of the Cross' description of the dark night of senses and of the soul correctly, these experiences are normative for those who are proceeding in their relationship with God. Not everyone advances in their life with God nor wants to. And third, Teresa of Avila, John's dear friend, also does not talk about the dark night ("the wall') in her writings. Her sixth mansion in the Interior Castle describes mystical graces which transform the beloved into a experienced sense of union with the Triune God. Although Teresa did suffer during her life through illness, persecution and misunderstanding, she does not equate these in the same way as John does whose life story includes intense suffering and persecution at the hand of his companions.

As I sat in class, I wondered what most understand faith development to be to hold to the idea "the wall" as an everyday experience for all Christians. I know many people who have come close to a wall experience in their lives but I honestly know few who have traversed to the other side. Most people camp out in the shadows of "the wall" for a while and then get real busy doing many things to avoid the pain and confusion of what is happening. Even when suffering comes as an external visitor, an unwanted guest, pushing the God seeker's nose to the wall, hemming them in, there are a sore lack of guides to help them stay attentive to the experience however long they need to wait at the wall's edge. So, in the end, the opportunity to discover the other side is lost or given up on. And the tales of those who are gently lifted up and over "the wall" to a new land of experience with God are usually found in books and not in the person who is sipping their coffee with you at the local cafe who wouldn't dare utter a loud what is experienced in secret unless they really trusted you and your understanding of how God works in the soul.

If we only knew how much more was possible would we be willing to continue in trust with God throughout all of life's journey?

Being Willing :.

Being willing takes on lots of forms and shapes in our lives. Standing up for what we believe in, speaking the truth, our truth, even when it may offend someone we love, surrendering our heart to God in a secret place no one sees, going to places faraway, leaving behind what is known to venture into the unknown, all take willingness. Our willingness comes not in a soft gooey package, but is solid, secure and forthright. When encountering someone who does not like what we are doing or is hooked by their own inability to not do what you are doing--such as go a grand adventure to a place they have always dreamt about--there must be a continued solidness in decision and discernment coupled with a willingness to objectify and help the other embrace willingness in the place they are hearing (or not hearing) God's voice for them.

The bottom line of willingness is to stay willing--willing to listen, willing to stand, willing to change, willing to follow. Willingness does not stop in a willing decision but is a way of life in God for all those who are willing.

Advent Resource :.

Would you like to know more about the season of Advent? Do you need help forming and shaping your preparation for Christmas?

Creighton University has a great web resource including daily prayers and rituals for your soul during this annual time of reflective waiting.

The Baton :.

Gracefully passing the baton from one generation to the next is the task of those in leadership whether it be in corporate realm or in the church. Read here George Barna's commentary on the potential pitfalls and challenges ahead for the Boomers in empowering those who are to follow them in leadership.

Off Road Faith :.

Read Alan Jamieson's intelligent article about stages of faith in Off Road Faith.

Circles :.

Some say God writes straight with crooked lines. Some others believe there is one line, one very straight one, that if you find it, there will be God's order and will for your life. I, on the other hand, believe God writes in circles.

As I reflect on the working of God in my life, it seems God always gathers up left behind threads, tossed out bits, and all in one intentional moment, weaves them ever so gently into the weft and warp of my life. Nothing goes undone. My work is to wait patiently, then there it is, circling back before me.

I have experienced God's healing this way. When I thought all was loss, when I gave up and surrendered to the largeness of what God is wanting to do, it was in that moment, an opportunity arises, or a person pops back in my path, or a gift of renewed hope is given and something deep down in my heart gets re-adjusted and comes back around. It is as if God keeps me turning until the right cog is connected and then there is movement that is connected to something larger, and then every thing falls in place.

This circling movement is odd. It seems to go against all that we are taught. As I have tried to put words around it for others, they tilt their heads in puzzlement as I explain my experience of God to them.

But then comes another confirmation. Today I read:

.....a circle is the shape most of us tread out in life: whether we live alone or are busy with the many tasks of family life, routine in the stuff we all work in. Days, months, years--the pattern repeats as regularly as the moving of the hands of the clock. Through the ages, the monks have been characterized by the regularity of our way of life. The whole of monastic life is founded upon patterns of repeated experience--the routine of daily prayer at set times, the times of work, of relaxation with the community. The recurrent cycle of the liturgical seasons as the year comes and goes is another, larger scale version of the same pattern.

A monastery can seem a world apart from the lives most people lead. Recognizing the circles we thread out, though, can make of monastic spirituality, which could otherwise appear distant to those who do not live behind monastery walls, a spirituality relevant to anyone who has to cope with a pattern of repeated experience.

The monk's day in any monastic community is structured around the liturgy of the hours: these are times of community prayer that follow the circle of the day. Vigils is the pre-dawn office of readings and psalms. Lauds, the morning office, begins the working day. The Midday Prayer occurs at noon, and Vespers is sung as the evening comes. The night office, Compline, takes us into the dark again. These moments constitute a framework for the spiritual life of monastics, a series of steps along a path by which we cross the hours of the day (Crossing: Reclaiming the Landscape of Our Lives, 6-7).

Here they are again--circles, repeated experiences creating life. I long for my experience of way God lives in me to become the pattern of how I live in God. It seems so simply profound. Does our modern striving for bigger and better, looking for the straight path ahead of us, get in the way of our living large in God, spinning in time with His music in our lives? I so want this congruency and integration. I want to live into the reality of this encircling rhythm. Ordinary, everyday, repeated patterns--this is my experience of God. I want this to be the form of how my common life with others in God is shaped.

See...God does write in circles!

Whale Rider :.

One of the most influential movies for me in 2003 was Whale Rider. In the story, the young girl Pai learns who she is called to be despite tribal limitations of the ancient way. In response to the song of the whale, she hears and begins to follow a new path, paving a way for community and new beginning.

Now almost two years later, I think about the story and how it undid me...changed me forever in the deep places within. Curious to know now if anyone else was blogging about the movie back then, here is an old post I found on Emergent Kiwi's blog. The words made me smile.

A Boughten Field :.

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field--and to get the treasure, too!"

Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables. This fulfilled the prophecy that said,   
    "I will speak to you in parables.
       I will explain mysteries hidden since the creation of the world."

                                           ~~From the tales of the Master found in Matthew 13~~

 

Photo courtesy of Felinda

A Churchless Faith :.

Where have all the people gone?
Long time passing...
Where have all the people gone?
Long time ago...

Link to article on a churchless faith...

Link to article reviewing the book A Churchless Faith...

Wonkavator Reprise :.

The wonkavator is a delightful work of Willy Wonka's imagination and a prime symbol for access to transformation in the new movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Not only can it provide transport within the large mysterious chocolate factory but anywhere else a button on the elevator's console defines.

In the old movie, it was the glass ceiling Willy, Charlie and Grandpa soared through. In the new movie, the wonkavator is the choice vehicle in returning to the "past" while propelling into the "future." No longer is "up and out" the final destination but complete restoration and redemption of both Willy and Charlie and all they love.

The new movie has a realistic modern twist on healing and wholeness that the old movie lacked. Even Willy is caught in his own story and follows its leading to the end. Charlie settles for nothing less the good of all even when it may cost him everything he dreams of. Reminiscent of the story of Esther, where God is not named as a primary character but is the providential hand of grace guiding the characters, Willy, Charlie and Grandpa are drawn up into a larger story of the return of hope and love for all. Through their joint "yes" to simultaneously claim the past and grab hold of the future, the world and all its chocolaty goodness is saved and brought to new place of imagination and discovery.