I have met many people over the past couple years that seem to have set sail from places of familiarity to find something real...something beyond what they were experiencing. To say these uncharted waters can be a rough ride is an understatement to be sure.
What has been so amazing to me is how things begin to look so differently as one begins to emerge from the place created by denial on one hand and over exaggerations of confidence on the other.
Fear and shame seem to be two of the most difficult and destructive things one must face . I have come to believe that denial and excessive exaggerations of confidence are expressions grounded in fear and shame and lack of trust. They are manifested in many different ways in our lives. We have been duped into believing they are necessary barriers we must construct around ourselves for protection. They actually become prisons and places where acts of denial masquerade as reality.
Grace is the power of God to break through these barriers and God is always at work to accomplish this in us and those around us. But most of us are fighters and until the fight is gone the bars of the prison stand in place keeping us from the thing we all long for. The peace that passes all understanding.
I say, let us set sail for home and put off the fear that binds us and keeps us trapped in a cycle of fight or flight. I have a feeling we will find that many of the people we have been in a struggle with are longing for the very same thing.
12 comments:
excellent post kent! god is really helping you to go further and further with articulating the liberty that god is stirring in your heart and mind. i love it!
Me too Kent! What a wonderful expression.
What might be "the fear that binds us and keeps us trapped in a cycle of fight or flight?"
I believe it's fear of an angry God who is withholding something from us and is therefore a rival and can't be "home."
That's why "The Shack" is a very important story. Paul Young did such a great job of capturing the God that Jesus revealed.
Kent, it's a rare treat for me to be able to read your musings.
Good stuff, Kentster.
An image came to mind of a baby who is tired and needing to go to sleep, who is fighting off their parent trying to settle them and rock them to sleep. We fight against losing our prisons in the same way.
But of course we do. If they are the only thing we have known, how can we envision life without our "protection"? Thank God he can :) And will not rest until he frees us.
Sue, that is a good analogy and you are right about him never giving up on setting us free.
And thanks to all of you for the kind words of encouragement.
And Diane, I love what you added....until the scary fearful understanding of an angry God is pushed out of our lives by his overwhelming unconditional love and acceptance of us we won't feel safe and will not ever really come home. I hear stories of this happening with folks all over the world.
I had two conversations with clients today that I had given The Shack to. One an attorney, raised in Christian Science, the other raised in Catholicism. I saw in them both two people on their way home to Father walking along side Jesus.
Kent,
Off topic a bit..
I'm wondering what you think of Arcade Fire's new album Neon Bible and what you think of the title song.
I'm not one who gets poetry well and I'd love to hear your perception.
Jennifer, I love the song artistically and musically. I really appreciate Arcade Fire and their sense of doom that they see in the world and the path the world powers are dragging things. They seem to be pointing to God as the way out and the reason for hope? But it's hard to find much hope in lot of their songs. They seem to hate the use of God's name by a religious system that seems to be playing the same game the world is playing.
Neon Bible is an intense song that says explicitly that there is no hope left if the Neon Bible continues to be what everyone looks to for guidance. The Neon Bible is the script that has taken on a sense of sacredness in the world today...the script being: consumerism and all that comes with it. It makes me think of what Walter Brueggemann calls; technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism. Do a word search on that if you care to. I've also heard McLaren refer to it as Theocapitalism.
That is how I interpret the song.
Oh, and their cover of the 'The Clash' - 'Guns Of Brixton' is so amazing and full of emotion and feeling.
Thanks Kent.
I've been looking into what little they have had to say on the subject but they don't spill much do they?!
..oh my goodness I'll have some looking up to do. I haven't entered into the discussions about the practice of "Theocapitalism". Thanks for the lead.
Great pic, by the way. Feels mysterious and mystical to me, that pic. I wish I was there right now *sigh*
Sue, this post came about because of that picture. I was looking through images on google that would capture what I have been seeing happen in my life and the lives of others I know. It seems as of late that many people I know are sensing big changes. Hope renewed. But some are still struggling with the fear and disorientation that they are feeling at this moment. This change seems to be about leaving places we have lived for so long (where we have been stuck) that have been familiar but have left us still longing for something more. Many I know are coming to see that it isn't just little adjustments they need to make (our lives are full of that kind of thinking)but it is a much bigger move that needs to happen. It really does feel like an invitation to leave where we have been and to begin a new journey, a journey where we never stop and pitch a permanent tent ever again.
So, this idea of moving from a dark place where lies, illusions, and denials took on the feeling of being real and we just accepted it that way.....to now, many of us beginning to move into a new spaces where we feel the Spirit is inviting us to come, seems to me to be a pretty good description for what is happening.
So, the picture in this post came first and I am with you in thinking it would be cool to be there....but then again in a way we are. The picture really describes how I am feeling. I have no idea what awaits around the next corner, but such is life. But I have never been more sure that staying in the same place is not the way of following Jesus and I have never been more aware that he is with me and is inviting me to continue on. I think many more wonderful, indescribable veiws into what this life hidden with Christ in God is all about are still up ahead for us all to discover and share with those around us.
With you all the way on this one, Kentster.
All. The. Way :)
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