Ever Forward

A Christian worldview will be a unique blend of the teachings of Jesus with individual life experience. If you write, if you paint, if you get out of bed in the morning, you have to do it from a world view. There is no way around that. Maybe the common thread in any Christian worldview is a question: How do I get from my specific little corner of the wilderness, to that far off castle on the mountaintop? The teachings of Jesus show that he spent a lot of energy posing the question, often to people who could not see the castle. My worldview is built largely on that question. At the same time, my worldview is my own. At the same time, I think it's also fully Christian. 

It starts with the pattern of experience as we know it: Life-death-new-life. It's everywhere, and it's been happening since long before Jesus walked the earth. It happens in a moment with the shifting of a mood. It happens in relationship with the passing storms of argument. It's in the job change, the new school, the bankruptcy, the sickness. It's symbolized every day in the world around us by the rising and setting of the sun, the change of seasons. The Jews have it, the Muslims have it, the Hindu's have it, the Sikhs have it, the Christians have it. It's not religious, it's human. The daily dark passage into death and out again—that's the pattern of experience as we know it. Myth is the language of that pattern. To understand the world with a mythic perspective is to have a decoder for how it all works. That decoder enables me to participate in life in the deepest possible way, to seek and find the potential in each moment, to clarify my life's vision, to build my dream, to follow my destiny. 

Every culture has it's Myths, and has had them since before Jesus was born. This is important because it points out that every culture exhibits a basic striving toward ultimate meaning, toward God. I think human consciousness contains a basic structure, like a genetic code, that is sensitive both to what we can know, and also to what we cannot know—but somehow feel. There is right-brain, there is left-brain, and there is myth-brain. That basic structure, that Faculty of Myth, that myth-brain is attracted as if by magnetic pull toward the Absolute. Humans must respond, and our response to that attraction, that pull, is Myth. God gave us myth so we could find him. One of the brilliant aspects of Christianity is that it's first expression, the life of Jesus, was presented according to a pattern that people already understood, and had been employing for thousands of years. 

The story of Jesus appeals to the myth-brain. It's an illustration of the pattern of experience as we know it. So my worldview is heavily mythic. The story of Jesus is to me not only foundationally true, it's also my primary Mythic reference. It's how I understand and engage in the constant flow of life and death. That flow just keeps happening. I tend to step in and step out because it can be wearying. Jesus was onto that. He taught people how to stay with it. His teachings, his ideas, his life story came to be known was Christianity, but it rose up out of and in response to the underlying experience that is common to us all. 

In the end, Christianity is a synonym for Human.

Ever forward. 

Loading mentions Retweet

A person of destiny must trust in the flow of life. For some (I imagine for everyone at times) this is just too darn scary. Risk is called risk because it's risky. My tendency is to think I have to be doing something. I have a hard time sitting back and letting things take care of themselves. The trouble is, sometimes things need to take care of themselves. Sometimes things are supposed to be left alone for a while, so they can evolve. At those times, any effort from me is actually a hinderance. 

Jesus trusted in the flow of his life. He was always balancing the active and the passive. He says things like “My time has not yet come,” and “You have no power over me accept what has been given to you by the Father,” and “Let this cup pass from me, but may your will, not mine, be done.” These are not the words of a control freak. These are the words of someone who trusts that he has done all he can, and now the raw dynamic of his life's destiny must carry. 

The danger here is to confuse well-timed passivity with quitting or giving up. Sometimes passivity is incredibly productive and necessary. Sometimes activity is self-defeating. The trick is to know when to act and when to wait. Sometimes you have no choice, and action rests in making the waiting bearable. Knowing the difference is a matter of following your heart, and fine-tuning your awareness of what your heart is telling you. I think it's safe to say that Jesus never ignored his heart.

Doing all there is to do, then waiting is the formula for success. Resisting the temptation to act at the wrong time can be hard. But a person of destiny has the advantage of commitment; having committed in advance to the achievement of a great thing that he was willing to die for, Jesus didn't turn back even when it got really rough. In those moments where passivity was the right thing, and the result of that passivity was captivity, torture and death, that awareness of purpose must surely have helped keep him going. It provides an indispensable energy.

Trust is difficult. Otherwise we wouldn't call it trust. But mixed with vision, action, instinct and patience, trust enables us to plug into the flow of the universe, to unlock and loose into our lives the very force that created life itself. It enables us to manifest that energy, in our own small way, to add to the tapestry.

It's called co-creation.

Ever forward.  

Loading mentions Retweet

Jesus was patient.

Jesus knew that every choice he made could either forward or hinder his destiny. Three instances come to mind. First, tradition holds that he was 33 when he emerged into public life, and there are few if any written records of his life before that, after the age of 12. Then, when he heard John the Baptizer was on the move, he stepped forward. That's one of the most mysterious and intriguing details of the story for me—that deliberate timing. 

Another example is the raising of Lazarus in John 11. When Jesus hears that Lazarus is sick, he says “This illness is not to end in death, but in the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Then he waits two whole days before making the journey to visit Lazarus. This involved returning to a place where just days before the people had been ready to stone him. This is some razor sharp timing. His friend is dying, but to help him Jesus must put his own life on the line. He waits. When he finally gets there, the sister of Lazarus (Mary) tells him “Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died.” The people standing around get on him, too, saying “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?”

In Matthew 17, Jesus seems fed up with his disciples, because they lack the faith needed to cure a possessed boy. “How long will I be with you?” he shouts at them. “How long will I endure you?” Then he proceeds to make short work of the demon. At a glance, Jesus seems to lose patience. But he doesn't. Instead he seizes the opportunity to push his disciples to the next level. It's a key moment in their training. Jesus's patience is taxed to the point where he must make deliberate use of it—and he does so with strong results. That's a sign of sturdy patience: the ability to wield it under pressure. Here Jesus demonstrates the difference between patience and delay. He waits when necessary, but he also knows he doesn't have all the time in the world to do what he came for. 

This distinction between patience and delay is also illustrated in The Lord of the Rings. At the Council of Elrond, Gandalf explains his motives in dealing with what turned out to be the One Ring. He is hindered early in his search for the ring when Saruman convinces him it will never be found. “There I was at fault,” he said. “I was lulled by the words of Saruman... I should have sought for the truth sooner... our peril would now be less.” But when his doubts are “awakened again to sudden fear,” and Gandalf wonders “whence came the hobbit's ring?” it suddenly becomes wise to wait: “I spoke yet of my dread to none, knowing the peril of an untimely whisper... That was seventeen years ago.”

Patience and waiting can be the boldest form of action.

Ever forward.

Loading mentions Retweet

C.S. Lewis portrays Jesus as the lion Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia. 'He's wild, you know," Mr. Beaver says of him near the end of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. "Not like a tame lion."

Jesus was fierce. Two stories from the Gospel of John, taken together, portray this ferocity. The first is  the Cleansing of the Temple when Jesus snapped on the money-changers and merchants who were doing business in the house of God. The other comes right before it at the Wedding at Cana, when Jesus turned water into wine. In this  sequence of events Jesus goes from life of the party to extreme wet blanket in the space of about a hundred words. Acceptance means nothing to Jesus. He's not out to please people; he's out to show us the boundaries: have blast, but don't hurt others. At Cana, he provides the best wine, and lots of it. It's a party. In the temple, he provides a wake-up call.

That captures ferocity for me. It's the ability to maintain perspective and focus under all circumstances, and act accordingly.

"'Course he isn't safe," Mr. Beaver says. "But he's good." This can be taken two ways. First, he isn't safe to the rest of us. Second, he isn't safe from the rest of us. For a person of destiny, it's a little of both. Building a dream presents a challenge to the people around you, because deep down everybody wants to do it. For many, it causes disturbance in that deep down place. In that way, the person of destiny is not safe to the rest of us. Everyone will have their reactions, and some will not be pleasant. You mustn't even too heavily on the pleasant reactions, or you may start to identify with them. In these ways the person of destiny is not safe from the rest of us. 

A wild animal is fierce because it lives with a constant, total lack of safety. But that doesn't stop it from walking the forest. It just makes it fierce. Temper that with vision, purpose, and compassion for the very things that threaten it, and you've got Jesus. Ferocity of vision is the ability to fight that pernicious tendency of mobs large or small to bow to less demanding standards, and for certain individuals within  those mobs to champion those low standards, fueled by the approval of the mob. If you wander into a mob like that you may be ignored, shouted down, or even killed, which is what happened to Jesus. The mob he wandered into is called humanity. His ferocity is found in the fact that he knew this, and did it anyway.

It takes ferocity to build a dream.

Ever forward.

Loading mentions Retweet

Beginning with the obvious, Jesus was willing to die for what he loved. "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. (John 15:13)" That's an important part of living out my destiny—dying for it. But, hang on a minute, Jesus's destiny was the salvation of the whole human race, past, present and future. I'm just a writer. I'm just trying to make my living by doing what I love. I'm supposed to die for that?

Well, first of all, there have been times and places in human history when artists were persecuted to the point of death, simply for being artists. Secondly, dying for something and being willing to die for it are not necessarily the same thing, and third, YES. But since we live in a relatively free country where freedom of expression is protected, I find it helpful to go back to the metaphorical value of the Jesus story. There are lots of ways to die.

And they don't all involve winding up dead. In fact most of them don't. The act of creating involves lots of little deaths, little sacrifices that result in new life: a painting, a photograph, a story, a family. The death and resurrection of Jesus, even taken metaphorically, offer the ultimate illustration of this basic, natural dynamic. Getting up early is like dying for some people. But what if that's the only time I have to build my dream? Then I guess dying is what it takes. 

I have to be willing to die.

Ever forward.

Loading mentions Retweet

What are the attributes of Jesus? His reflexes and responses? Why should I want them? The fast answer (assuming you believe Jesus was God) is "Who wouldn't want the attributes of God?" But a person doesn't need to believe in the divinity of Jesus to see the metaphorical value of such a goal. Unlocking my best possible self. Who wouldn't want that? The real answer is more complicated. It has to do with my own experience of life and what I would change about it if I could. I'm not talking about having more money or a better job, or no job and lots of money. I'm talking about my insides. What happens in there that I don't like? What is about me that stands in the way of me? Of me prospering, of me thriving, of me hatching and achieving my dreams? Or, to keep in the context of the Christian ideology, what keeps me from loving my enemies? What keeps me from loving my neighbor as myself? What keeps me from loving myself...? Removing those obstacles constitutes the struggle. The goal of the struggle is acquiring the attributes of Jesus. And that has to be worthwhile. Loving my neighbor, loving my enemy, loving myself, achieving my dreams�??these things are all bound up together. I have believed for years now that the best thing I can do for the world is strive toward my dream. It's my little piece of the common good, my little corner of the garden. Sometimes I like to imagine a world where all of us, or even most of us, are doing that work. The result would be a world that I don't think we can imagine, a world that I don't think we'd even recognize. So, what are the attibutes of Jesus? What characterizes a person who loves everyone and fulfills his human destiny? I mean, apart from the fact that he loves everyone and fulfills his human destiny. What are some of the details? Such a big question. And this entry is long enough already. Ever forward.

Loading mentions Retweet

I mean more on worldviews. MORE ON. Of course, that's what I meant. Anyway, I see a difference between a worldview and an ideology. An ideology can be embraced and put on like a coat. But not a worldview�??a worldview is mostly involuntary. As an ideology, Christianity is a regimen for transformation. Like any regimen, the first thing it does is present me with a goal. The result is that I see how far from that goal I really am. Take "Love your enemies," for example. St. Paul writes to the Romans that they should "put on Christ." He reminds the Corinthians that they "have the mind of Christ," and the Galatians that they have "clothed themselves with Christ." It's all another way of saying, "Don't forget the ideology you have chosen to believe." It can be very much like putting on a costume, because so much of what the ideology demands is different from who I already am. It requires me to be far more than I am used to being. But one of the truly interesting aspects of Christianity is its transforming effect. It's an ideology that can actually reshape my worldview. It can give me new reflexes and new responses to life. Christianity on paper is an ideology, Christianity in practice can make a different person out of me. Loving my neighbor isn't just a good thing to do, it can change who I am. To the Ephesians, St. Paul writes "be renewed in the spirit of your minds," and "put on the new self." To Corinth he writes about "becoming the righteousness of God." This vocabulary can be off-putting to modern sensibilities, which is a shame, because what's being said is mind-blowing. The claim here is that through the full embrace and practice of the ideology taught by Jesus, we actually begin to acquire his attributes. We start acting like him and thinking like him, exhibiting his reflexes and his responses to life. And not merely because we're trying to, but because in time, that becomes who we really are. For me, that's the point. Transformation. Ever forward.

Loading mentions Retweet

My worldview is how I see life, relationships, current events, on the job stresses, problems, people, happiness... you know... the world. It's not a belief system or an objective. It's what comes out of me, automatically, when I meet a person different from myself. It's what comes out of me, automatically, when I'm exposed to a new idea. It's what makes me angry. It's what makes me sad, or afraid or happy. My worldview is so present I don't even know it's there half the time. My worldview is what I really think, beneath all my efforts to think a certain way. It's who I am when I'm not looking. It's my Automatic. Privately guaging my responses to things, without pretending they are anything other than what they are, helps me uncover my worldview. Some parts of it are solid, reliable and trustworthy. They help me thrive. But other parts of it are in serious need of repair. They stand in my way. And that, for me, is where Christianity starts to become a worldview. Ever Forward.

Loading mentions Retweet

So much divides us from our talents, and therefore from our dreams. I think a big part of living well, of thriving, is gaining access to our talents. For some of us, just doing the work needed to open the door on our talents is the stuff of a lifetime. But doing that work is every bit as much an act of Destiny as pulling off a best selling book. It�??s just not as noticeable to strangers. In fact it�??s probably a greater accomplishment because of the seeming thanklessness. Hammering away in frustration at something you know you want is about as noble as it gets. Honoring that part of you even while enduring all the painful feelings it brings up, embracing like flotsam at sea the little moments of glory you feel; that's dignity. But as I get older I realize that the little moments, or even a big payoff are not why we do it. We quest for our talents because as life passes we realize, if we're lucky, that we don�??t have time to mess around with not being who we really are. Ever forward.

Loading mentions Retweet