This is where Faith comes in. All of us need to take a leap across a chasm. This has been a strange story, perhaps beyond incredible to many of us. I know it was (and still is) for me. Big Bang? Energy and Matter? Hundreds of billions or trillions of galaxies, each with maybe trillions of stars? Mountains and Seas? Humans and animals? Giant Sequoias and exquisite flowers? Love and Remorse? Birth and Death? All contained in a Plan? That’s a leap.

Despite the common refrain, faith should not be blind. It should land with eyes wide open and a mind full of discernment. For some, the chasm between what we have thought to be true and what is calling us from afar to be true, is closed as with a thunderclap. All of a sudden, we are no longer there and are now here and everything has changed. For others, it’s like looking across the Grand Canyon and being tugged to get to the other side and something says, “Start running and just jump. Believe me, you’ll land on the opposite rim.” That’s hard. However, the result is the same. Reality has changed and it’s unimaginable to go back.

This is what Jesus meant when he said we need to be reborn. This is what John the Baptist meant when he said, “Repent.” It means the reality under which we’d existed has shape-shifted, as if waking from a dream to see things in a completely different way.

There are only two possible explanations. Either one has “jumped the shark” if I get that phrase correctly … gone over the top … descended into delusion and oblivion. Or one has finally got it right. I know that my personal journey over the past dozen or more years has confused and even upset some family and people who know me. They are confronted by a man who they thought they knew as intelligent and rational who now has changed and looks at things quite differently, organizing his life and behavior accordingly. This does not sit well. What is happening?

Well, in my case, after spending many decades trying to interpret reality and behave accordingly, I either bought into a fantasy like we think about when we consider people joining some bizarre cult or I came to believe in something that takes one heck of a leap to believe in. For honesty’s sake, there can be no middle ground. It’s that big a deal.

Once we accept at least some close version of the Big Story, we have a choice and that is whether to dive in and participate or stay on the sidelines. I resisted the diving in part for a very long time for all sorts of reasons. In the end, when the master craftsman offered his hand, I gave up my pride enough to say, “you win, I’m in.” As I’ve testified, everything changed. It was like I had been looking at all things through dirty and grimy glasses, only vaguely comprehending observable things, none of them in the intricacies that were now obvious. But, now came the “What do I do about it?” problem. I could see the outlines of The Plan but I wanted to know more and, more specifically, how I fit in. This brings us, finally, to the second part of the original question in Part I.

All of us find that we are pieces in some plan or other. We live organizationally and not randomly, at least most times. Our jobs, our families, our recreational outlets, all are structured around some kind of plan and we learn how to fit in. Whether consciously or subconsciously, we also structure our lives around some kind of grand plan. As we grow and mature, we adopt values and principles that, then, create meaning, which is the fuel to keep us going. Should we lose a sense of meaning, we wither away, seemingly living a life without purpose or direction. We know people like this. The terminal point of this is despondency because meaning is how we are designed.

I’ve been trying to articulate God’s general plan and I believe our job is to fit in. As much as I’ve tried for the past dozen or more years, I can’t identify a more important priority, understanding that this may not be a majority viewpoint. No matter.

So, where to start?

Well, I’d begin with the pronouncement of The Baptist, preaching in his desert wilderness to all who would listen: Repent. Re-think. Re-orient your minds. Toss out your old assumptions and get ready to adopt some new ones. We’re not in Kansas anymore. “You may have thought you knew what was what but I’ve got news for you. You’ve been barking up the wrong tree.”

This kind of pronouncement is generally not well received.

But, it’s accurate.

OK. So what does that mean? It first means that we should pay attention to see if this new information, whatever the source, is worth considering. Does it connect with things that we may have buried or wondered about in a way that invites examination? Is it in some ways consistent with values I hold dear or at least ones I would like to explore in greater detail? As I gaze at the world, what would it be like if this was not just information but a description of reality? How would I respond? Certainly, it would lead me to ask questions, to listen, to inquire. And, if the new information suggested that I pay close attention because it is Big News, then I have a choice.

Of course, I sort of came at this in a strange way. God made a grand entrance that was mind-blowing. So mind-blowing and obvious that I had no choice but to pay attention while simultaneously putting all my chips on the table. “OK. You got me. The kicking and screaming, the holding on by my finger nails to the old way, is over. I’m all in. What’s next?”

For someone who believes Jesus is the real deal and that some form of the four part Story is accurate, the next mental adjustment is to accept that I Need Help. I’ve been hardwired with all sorts of practices and habits, both of mind and body, that need a supernatural chiropractor. Going alone is just not an option. No matter how smart or accomplished I am or think I am, I need help.

Fortunately, help is readily available. I have to say, it was like bizarre! Help arrived in spades, as if from nowhere. Out of seemingly nowhere, I would come up with some idea of a thing that I thought would be helpful and, poof, it appeared. I’m not making this stuff up. And, people. All sorts of people just showed up in my life, some of whom I already knew but in a different context and some who I had never met but felt as close to as family in short order. And, these were really, really good people. None of them were kooks. I felt like I had a rocket by the tail. Everything started changing and most people commented that the changes they saw were for the better. A few people, friends and family, thought I’d gone off the deep end. “Not Brad! He’s one of those?” How? What? I understood because I would have thought the exact same thing winding back the clock a few years. Again, bizarre!

In reflection, I was in something we can call the State of Grace. I was given a series of gifts as ways of helping me acclimate to this new reality and agreeing to be part of the Plan. In the immediate aftermath of the initial God Moment, I described what had happened and my Jesus-following friends told me that there is no greater party in heaven then when a hard case like me surrenders to God. Believe it or not, I felt and experienced that party. It was as authentic as anything I’ve ever known.

To my readers who are parents: Do you remember the moment your first born was put into your arms? This promise became real? “I’m now a parent and my heart is about to burst? I can’t believe it but I really am a father/mother. Now what?”

What follows is a journey and you can’t go back. You can’t be a not-a-parent. What do I need to do? What is my part in this?

For a Christian, it means diving in to the life, death, and meaning of Jesus. It means paying attention to the particulars of the Story and his place in it. Only by learning as much as possible about the master craftsman can we know his will for us and our place in the Story. This is not easy and it is a life-long enterprise but there is no other way and that’s fine.

The first part is the hardest part. The prevailing world view in what we can call the West is that we each carry within us the wellspring of perfection. Each human being is born perfect and that it’s only the layers of oppressive circumstances, largely economic but there are others, that force us into captivity. If only! If only we could cast off the chains of the “isms” we would be free to flourish and each of us capable of growing into the kind of people we are inherently capable of being. Utopia is a place where everyone enjoys perfect freedom and the West has long been enthralled with pursuing it tooth and nail. Literally tens or hundreds of millions have died as byproducts of such a pursuit.

The prevailing view in what we can call the East is that the only Utopia that is possible is the one of the interior human spirit. While coopting some of the 19th century western political ideologies for awhile, the East is a place where people don’t trust in utopias. Survival amidst the great wash of humanity, clustered as it is in China, India, Indonesia, and so forth, is not consistent with the dreams of the French, British, and German 18th and 19th century intellectuals. Rousseau and The Tao are not of the same feather.

So, the first part is to surrender to the knowledge that “I am not in control. Not really. Yes, I do have the ability to affect things around me but, in the end, not in a lasting way.”

Therefore, the Plan for Me begins with an act of surrender. It’s a surrender to both a what and a who. Surrender is not something our culture celebrates. Certainly, not I. No, always move forward. Always take on the next challenge. In the end, I can really only rely upon me. Believe me, in some ways, there is nothing wrong with such a posture in moderation. Surrender does not mean passivity. It does not mean letting the enemy prevail. But it is a conscious act that recognizes who and what is sovereign (a word connoting ultimate authority). In the evolution of societies in the Industrial and post-Industrial eras, this is anathema. We humans came out of the Dark Ages wherein we were subjugated to the oppressive authority of royalty, of kings and dukes and cardinals of the church. We emerged into the Light (Enlightenment), freed from those chains and able to become the masters of our own fate … or at least that was the theory. God gets sidelined in the mad dash for freedom.

Except here’s the catch. We all grant authority over our lives to something or group of things. We are hardwired to submit to idols. All of us. We elevate things to become practically sovereign. Money and financial security. Fame or recognition. The need to be accepted by others. Political pursuits. Childrearing or finding the perfect spouse. Ancestor worship. We attribute to these things a kind of ultimate value and submit to their allure. “If only I had (this), I would be happy and fulfilled.” So, in essence, we surrender to mammon, the stuff that makes us wealthy or fulfilled in that department. Lest I be misunderstood, in moderation these things aren’t particularly bad but only become idolatry at the extremes. The danger is when they obscure the nature of God’s plan for everything and for us.

The what of the surrender is the full acknowledgement that God is sovereign and I am not. Yes, I have limited control over all sorts of things, some people possessing more of this ability than others. But, far more is way out of my control, despite my desire otherwise. As extreme as it might sound, the Christian is called to lay it all down. We are called to hold on to nothing above God. The first of really only two rules for living: Put no one or no thing above God, but love him with all we have. Tough duty but it really, really beats the alternative. “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light,” offered Jesus to his followers. What free person wants to be yoked up like a beast of burden? Ah, but the nature of the yoke offers perfect freedom and there is the rub. So, our job is to abandon the pretense of freedom wherein we are actually enslaved in order to take on the yoke so that we may become free. That’s the what. I think you know who the who is.

We’ll continue this next time.