So, what comes after surrender? What comes after the recognition that “I am not sovereign and You are?”

No doubt about it, things can get messy right away.

There is a widely-held belief in Christian circles (and by non-Christians looking in) that once we surrender, that’s it. This has many variations but here are the basics: If I submit to God (for Christians this means buying into a reality that Jesus is actually God and he means what he says), then we will be given eternal life. It is common to believe that that eternal life is experienced in a place called Heaven, wherever and whatever that is, and is definitely not in a place called Hell, wherever and whatever that is. In this telling, we are Saved by Jesus’ Redemptive action (especially on the cross) and that he beckons us to follow him into perfect eternity. I don’t mean to make light of this piece because there is a lot of evidence that something like this is the real deal. But, it’s not quite so simple, I’m afraid.

What I just described is a very cursory definition of the theological term called Justification. It’s a big fat idea that, through Jesus and our surrender to him (and despite our sins and fallen nature), we are “justified” or made whole in the eyes of a Holy God. Our individual set of scales has returned to the created balance. There are some Christian denominations that believe that our job is to continue to work to earn God’s favor (this is Good Works theology). I am not a fan of this for a number of reasons, primarily because God cannot love me anymore than he already does and I can do nothing to earn his favor. (I’m a big fan of the theology of Grace.) For those who believe that, once justified, our job is done, I will object and here it gets a little tricky. Because if we believe that we can’t work to curry God’s favor and we’re already “saved” by the redemptive act of Jesus, then what is left to do? Some Christians will say, in effect, nothing.

Thousands of volumes have been written through millennia to address this issue. A huge part of the New Testament bible is dedicated to it. In other words, after surrender (and Justification) what is left?

In my own experience, having lived thoroughly in that immediate Justification phase, I didn’t emerge thinking, “Well, that was nice. Now that God showed me a glimpse of eternity and my place in it, I’m all set. Hit the cruise control.” No, it wasn’t like that. Instead, there was a massive urge, greater than any instinct I’d ever had, to grab ahold and and hang on for dear life. Everything had changed and now my job was to learn, make sense of it, and see what partnering with God would be like. I was in for one heck of a ride.

When Jesus said, “follow me,” he was actually setting out to show them how things had changed and what that meant for how to live the rest of their lives. Let’s not forget that Jesus was, by profession, a teacher, a rabbi. He certainly didn’t spend a lot of time saying, “hey folks, let me tell you exactly what heaven looks like and what life will be like for you for eternity.” No, he spent a ton of time trying to get people to understand that the “Kingdom of God is at hand.” It had burst through into the present earthly reality and by fully understanding what that meant, individual people could be completely transformed, from the inside out. (That last piece about the inside coming first is a huge deal.)

The operating principle is Transformation. No, we are not going to be transformed into angels upon death. Sorry. But, by submitting to God and by following Jesus, we can be transformed in the here and now into something more closely resembling Jesus himself. (I wrote thousands of words a year or so ago in answer to the question of why the world is not filled with people who really behave like Jesus, given the billions that profess him as God. It’s an excellent question but I’ll let my former answers stand for now.)

As I just said, Jesus was and is a teacher. In fact, he is the Teacher. And a teacher’s job is to get one’s students from here to there and it doesn’t happen by waving a magic wand or saying an incantation. It takes effort. It takes discipline (hence the word “disciples”). The plan for each of us, therefore, is for us to become disciples, attaching ourselves to Jesus so we may learn and grow with the help of the Master. If any of you who are reading this can remember a single teacher, coach or adult, who you can point to as almost singularly bringing out a transformation in you, then you’re getting a small glimpse of a major reason why Jesus came.

The theological term for this growth towards more “Christlikeness” is Sanctification, wherein we can slough off the old and put on the new. One of my two or three favorite theologians said basically, that if one had followed this path with a singular purpose, then it is possible to glimpse heaven on this side and one may not actually know the moment of death. The phenomenal nature of reality with God is available here and now.

I know one or two things about transformation and I’m not just speaking of personal or spiritual transformation. I spent my entire professional career in the service of transformation. First, as a teacher of students and, later, as a teacher of teachers (the most important job for a principal, in my opinion). I also did significant graduate-level work in the field of epistemology, or the philosophy of knowledge. Together, I acquired a pretty keen sense of how and why people get from this level of understanding to that level. To put a fairly generalized lens on it, that transformation requires a thing called metanoia, the Greek word for “changing one’s mind.” This can come via a lot of hard work or may occur in a flash of insight. Whatever, we discard the old and wear the new. Now, maybe this is something so relatively trivial as solving a math problem that then opens up new realms of possibility. Or, it can be coming to grips with the fact that a lack of maternal love should no longer hold sway over how this adult lives his life. In this latter sense, to recognize that a childhood voice is no longer a representation of what is true. Regardless, transformation is a part of all of our lives and, whether it arrives easily or after a massive struggle, we always emerge changed.

Christianity is about that.

This raises two scenarios.

The first is that an old way of thinking was that, by following a long list of rules, we could curry God’s favor. In other words, rule-following is the point. The only truly transformational dimension to this is whether we behave as active rule-followers or rule-avoiders. The followers please God and the avoiders cause him displeasure, to put it mildly. This creates a completely binary system. One is “justified” by the effort put into nailing the rules spot on. Should one deviate, there is, perhaps, hell to pay. Thus you have the ins and outs. The clean and the unclean. Many Christians and most non-Christians who have an opinion of Christians buy into this narrative.

On the other hand, Jesus ushered in a new narrative. It really wasn’t (and isn’t) about following rules. Certainly, by following rules or precepts, God’s favor is not curried. He doesn’t want our minds burdened by judgmentalism as we parse and parse away, nitpicking and nitpicking to discern the right way of living. No, he wants our hearts. As I’ve said many times, really there are very few rules, with the most overriding one being to live within the ultimate reality of Grace.

Oh, the mind-blowing nature of this. In order for society to function, we all learn rules. Rules and more rules. (There is nothing wrong with rules. But there is something seriously wrong if we think that the manufacture and keeping of rules is the preeminent goal for our lives!) But grace is the anti-rule. It is flipping the concept of justice, a thing ingrained in all of us, on its head. To continue with the mind-blowing, the fact is that Justice and Grace live side by side. Justice is people getting what they deserve, good or bad and grace is giving something to someone who is definitely undeserving. (Grace is not to be confused at all with Charity.)

The transformation that Jesus sought in his followers and all of us is to leave behind a false reality and move into a new reality that is truly reflective of the nature of God and what he intends for us. When Jesus taught variations of “The Kingdom of God is at hand,” this is what he meant. “You’ve lived under false assumptions and pretenses. Cast off the old and put on the new and I’m here to show you what that means and how to do it.” The Gospel is exactly that. Discarding the old and putting on the new. The Good News is that the key is available to one and all.

Transformation (or its theological expression, Sanctification) is the process whereby we can look around and see that we’ve been missing the point. We can open our eyes to the shimmering vitality of all that is and learn to see all of it through God’s eyes. This does not mean to judge … in fact it’s the exact opposite.

But, theres’ a catch. Actually, there is more than one but we’ll start with this one.

And the catch is that this is not a mind game. It’s a heart game. Knowing a thing is not the same as absorbing it into one’s being, expressed in feelings. When we are immersed in either deep love or deep fear, we are not just processing attractions and threats in a calculated way. Our bodies are reacting viscerally, instinctually, meta-cognitively.

This is what Jesus taught and this is where we shift from postures of judgment to ones of grace. It begins with the heart. And, the way to unlock the heart, freeing it up so the eyes can truly see (eyes of the heart), is to point our attention inwards so as to expose the ways we’ve gone in the wrong direction.

(This is not the same as eastern meditation or self-actualization, which are traditional methods by which people seek to lose their individual consciousness and merge with the Great Consciousness, thereby transcending this reality and going to another. This world is very real but we are looking at it with cloudy lenses and the goal is to reorient our perspective so as to see it through God’s eyes.)

Let me use a classic example. Probably Jesus’ most famous set of teachings is from a long sermon he gave on a hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilea. It’s often called the Sermon on the Mount. It’s long and very detailed. You could say it’s where Jesus gave all of his hundreds of listeners a primer on how the Kingdom of God is different from the reality they’ve been living by. To say that it was a radical picture would be an understatement. No one had ever spoken or taught like this. At the beginning of this teaching is a piece that is referred to as the Beatitudes. (It should be noted that many people who do not profess Jesus as God, really like this stuff because it contains strong messages in support of the poor and oppressed.)

Well, part of Jesus’ practice is to set one common narrative up (a narrative that has typically governed people’s thinking and behavior) and then shoot out a zinger that explodes that original narrative. (I did this a lot when I taught history, trying to open students’ eyes to a much deeper and more realistic view of a thing of some import.) Early in the sermon, after the Beatitudes, Jesus let loose a zinger that said, in essence, “You know there is a law against murder.” (Referring to one of the foundational commandments handed down by God). To which they would all have nodded and thought, “Yeah, of course.” “But,” Jesus continued, after setting them up, “I’m here to tell you that if you hold anger against another, that is the same as murder.”

What the …?”

I am certainly not alone with wrestling with this. Every Jesus-follower I know has wrestled with it. What’s going on?

Well, in my view, there are only two possible explanations. Either Jesus is telling us we’re all truly guilty of murder (a very, very bad thing) or he wants us to think of the concepts of murder and anger differently. I firmly subscribe to the second one.

Where he is going is a heart thing. He is telling us that the same motivation that goes into a murder is in operation when we let anger get control of us. In other words, letting anger reign is setting up the conditions by which murder, ultimately, becomes possible. Left unchecked, anger transforms to contempt and once contempt gets a firm foothold, we reduce the other person to an object to be despised. And, God despises no one. In fact, he loves everyone equally. Put differently, we are rapidly moving away from seeing others as God (and Jesus) sees them, creating a false reality that is the opposite of love, which is the essence of God.

Sanctification is the process of transformation whereby we move away from our fallen nature into the light and truth of God’s nature and plan for us. It is not a one-stop confession and promise to do better, to behave more appropriately. No one ever stopped contempt by a sheer act of will. The source of that contempt has to change. The perspective needs adjusting. This is the perspective of seeing and treating people differently, a perspective only gained through a melding of mind and heart through practice and with God’s help.

I was in a group of committed Christians one evening a couple of weeks ago. About 20 or so, only a couple of whom I really knew at all. I was there as a kind of observer and guest, invited by the leader. The purpose of that evening’s discussion was to hone away at the meaning of the Gospel. Now, this would seem pretty simple for a group of committed Christians but, as I expected, it wasn’t. It was challenging and a lot of people did some excellent thought work and discussing as they processed the topic. I bring this up because part way through the sharing, one man confidently said something to the effect of “We can’t forget the Law.” It was hard for me to refrain from being judgmental but I didn’t think he was referring to the two “commandments” Jesus put out: Love God and love others fully, etc…. To which, I couldn’t help but reply, “Jesus said he came to fulfill the Law. And, by fulfilling, he meant breaking into this reality with the overwhelming love and grace offered by God and through him.”

This is the plan for us. To absorb what it means for us to participate in this kind of fulfillment, to admit that we need transformation and the help to bring it about. We need someone to share with us, “This is what you’ve heard it said but, I tell you …”

As I move to conclude this segment, I want to say that there is nothing blind about this. There is nothing here that should not be subject to examination. I fully realize what a tremendous leap it is for people to accept what I’m describing as actually the real deal. However, it does hold up to scrutiny as many people will attest after setting out to prove it wrong.

So, what is God’s plan for us? It is for us to be actively engaged with him in the Restoration of the world. To be his human eyes, ears, hands and heart as we team together. This is a glorious life. An incomparable life. Maybe I’ll conclude this series with one last post next time.

Thanks again for listening.

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.

We are moving on to the fourth and final chapter of God’s general Plan, after which I hope to explore what this means for each of us. So far, we’ve discussed God’s nature and intention, both of which are critical to understand the basis of his plan. If this is a story, which it is (some stories are completely true while others are fantasies … you know where I stand on this one), it is a story with four chapters, the first three of which are Creation, Fall, and Redemption.

The fourth and final chapter actually begins while Chapter 3 is unfolding. There is an overlap and they continue to work in concert going forward. This may seem confusing but let’s try to work through that. While we are taking them in sequence as we should, they operate synergistically. (At the risk of getting too abstract, in actuality all four chapters are in motion at all times.)

So, to briefly recap and set the stage, a rational and all powerful God decided to bring into existence a reflection of who he is. We call this Creation and he had a plan for how that would unfold and develop. With respect to humans, he created us with the ability to make choices (we call that Free Will), knowing that it would be risky. We of course, chose to move away from God and continue to do so, breaking our original covenant, or contract, with God on how we should best relate to one another. We call this the Fall. Things got really messy and, despite God’s attempts to right the ship, humans kept on the pathway of rejection. God had two choices. He could kick us out of the house permanently, fully severing the relationship (there are all sorts of ways to describe what this could look like), or he could make one last-ditch effort to put things back on track. This latter effort would be to physically move the balance of the scales back from where one side had dropped by doing something supremely radical. With that radical act, discussed in Chapter 3, God set out to Redeem us back to him.

But, the story doesn’t end there. In fact, it’s being pulled back towards where it was always supposed to be. It’s as if the needle on the compass had stopped pointing to true north, was now wavering all over the place, and now there’s been a reset. The needle again points to true north.

So, what is True North? It is the title of Chapter 4: The Restoration.

Imagine the most beautiful vase you can picture. You truly treasure it. Perhaps it’s a Ming, constructed of the finest porcelain possible. It is adorned with the most exquisite scenes, perhaps of tiny birds and flowers, beautiful images. It’s simply breathtaking. But, not taking proper precautions, you pick it up to move it and you drop it, shattering it into hundreds of pieces, where they lay on the floor. Yes, you can still make out individual images in the big pieces and they are pretty but it is truly broken, unable to be the perfect vase it once was.

There is sadness and regret when contemplating what once was and what now is. You long to gaze on that thing of beauty again but it seems beyond repair. It is lost and you can feel it. It hurts. You save the pieces but as time goes on you think of them less and less as they collect dust or are hidden in some old paper bag on some obscure shelf in your home. You even forget the vase and never really recapture the experience you had when you used to gaze upon it. There remains but a faint echo of a thing once held dear.

Then, years later, a man shows up unexpectedly at your door. Curiously, he says that he has learned of your vase and wants to help. You find this incredibly odd and more than a little disturbing. How did he know? What does he really want? Can you trust him?

Something makes you listen and he says he can fix the vase. He can make the broken pieces whole again. You have no idea how he can do it for, of course, hundreds of pieces, some of which are large and some so small as to be difficult to see, can never be reworked to their former exquisite beauty. Any attempt will result in obvious scars. The vase is beyond total repair.

For some inexplicable reason, you are led to trust him, to give him the chance, to say yes to his offer to help. After all, what do you have to lose, especially since he says he will do it for free? You don’t have to do anything but to let him in and trust him. He says he’ll have to move in and this will take some time, which might be a little disruptive, but he promises that the disruption will be completely worth it. And, as he gently speaks, you begin to recall that precious vase, even if with just a vague sense and you agree to take the plunge. Perhaps for the first time in a long time you have a little bit of hope that things will be put to rights.

As you observe in the days that follow, you don’t really know how he is doing it. There seem to be things you can’t see as he fits the pieces together. You actually don’t even see how they are connected. There is no scar or glue that you can distinguish. You begin to marvel at a level of workmanship you could never have conceived as possible. Never. In fact he does something incredible. He takes your own hands, placing the individual pieces into them and, along with his hands, you watch as the entire process unfolds. Your trust deepens. You begin to feel joy and your hope blossoms.

Finally, there it is. There is no scar. No sign of brokenness. Perfect beauty reborn from shattered pieces.

This is a picture of Chapter 4. The Restoration of Creation. Bringing reality back to a place it was first designed to be.

Once redeemed, the big things that were out of whack can now be reworked to reflect their original purpose. The broken pieces are now available to be reformed. Their innate “brokenness” is no longer their defining characteristic. Remember about the vase. Their brokenness was even out of sight and out of mind for a long time. But the master craftsman called them back to mind, perhaps rekindling the knowledge of both what was and what happened. The master craftsman says “I can turn the nature of those pieces from being broken to being whole. Just trust me.” In essence, he says, “I am the Redeemer. Now, let us team together as we partner to restore things to where they should be.” You look everywhere and the enormity of the task seems impossible. But you have seen bits and pieces of what is possible so you say, “Yes, I accept. I want to help. I need you, though, by my side because I don’t know how to do this on my own.”

The four chapter story shouldn’t just be viewed as linear. Another way of thinking about it is to create a full circle. A kind of clock. As time goes forward, we move through the phases until the hand moves back up the left side and, once again, 12 is 12. Or, the arrow on the compass rose comes full circle back to true north. These are just visuals, of course and don’t come close to fully explain what is happening but they help give us a frame of reference.

If it is a circle, what defines the beginning and the end? Well, it is when we are in full communion with God. We live in the full presence of God and it is a thing of infinite beauty and joy. While God is wholly other than us, his unconditional love for us is 100% manifest, received, known and felt. Nothing can stand against it. Nothing. We cannot imagine it being different. The most beautiful image or event in our earthly life doesn’t even register on the scale of what is possible. The Restoration is complete. “It is finished.”

So, this is the story of God’s Plan. A fairy tale, would say some moderns. A delusion, would say others. But, what if it were true?

But, we are not done yet. For, as the master craftsman and you or I, with intertwined hands, bring this particular piece back to life, he turns and says, “We’re just getting started. You up for what comes next?” You can’t conceive of rejecting his offer so, with a heart full of love and hope you give the only possible reply. “Yes. I’m in.”

With that we move from the realm of God’s general plan to what the plan actually means for each of us. What God intends for me.

Next time.

At this point in the story, things don’t look good. God’s plan for creation, with us in it, has not turned out particularly well. Life is a series of sufferings, while we try to carve out ways to contend with them and even be happy or content for various periods. For people who believe that this is all there is … that there is no supernatural reality or permanency to existence … the final arbiter of this life is death and that’s that. There is no plan other than to make do with the things this natural world offers, hoping to find lasting love and some semblance of prosperity. This makes me recall a powerful school of thought that captured the attention of Europeans and the designers of a young America called Deism. Born of the intellectual and scientific movement in the 17th and 18th centuries known as the Enlightenment, this posited that God did, indeed, create everything but he then distanced himself and now just sits back and lets us carry on all of our own. The image is one of a Watchmaker, carefully creating the mechanism and then releasing it to do what watches do. This school of thought isn’t particularly common today but still exists in some form in practical terms. I mean that there are people who believe there is a God who is all powerful but this God doesn’t really interact with me and, certainly, is a distant God because why else would there be so much suffering? I can understand this viewpoint easily.

This is not the Christian view, nor the Judaic view for that matter. Instead, God is very aware and caring for people, both generally and individually. He never stepped away and there truly is an explanation to why, all powerful as he is, he allows evil and suffering to continue. (I believe I have written of this before but may come back to it again.)

If things are not fuzzy yet, they will be soon. It’s no wonder that heads shake in disbelief that the fundamentals of this story could actually be real. So, in the telling, God chooses a people to trust him. It was a curious choice. Nowhere in humanity thousands of years ago was there a group of people who believed in a one all-powerful God. But in a region of the earth that is often referred to as the cradle of civilization there were a people, a culture and clan, that were so inclined. One of these people was a man named Abraham who somehow knew God and trusted him. To make a long story short, his trust and surrender to God’s will became the source point for the flourishing of a people later to be known as Jews. Four ages, these Jews had an up and down relationship with God, enduring a cycle of belief and unbelief, surrender and rejection. This went on and on with the account of all of this contained in a series of books which collectively came to be known as the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament (in this sense, “testament” is another word for contract). Full of stories, poems, wise teachings, and historical accounts, this collection is actually simply a depiction of God’s relationship with his people, a people with whom he had a contract or an arrangement with their best interests in mind. Another way of putting this is that this collection shows what makes God tick and what makes people tick and how the two relate to one another.

Unfortunately, things were going terribly. As hard as it is to stomach with modern sensibilities, God is a Holy God, not just a Loving God. Now, there are all sorts of ways we can define the word “holy,” but one of them is “perfect.” He is perfectly good and does not like bad or its supernatural reflection, evil. In fact, God really, really doesn’t like evil and when people choose to follow a pathway set against his plan, there are consequences. Now, this raises the specter of a God posture that really, really runs against modern sensibilities and that is a thing called Wrath. Christians are all over the map on what this means and we’ll go there in a moment. For now, imagine if you had a beloved young daughter who was seduced into following an adult predator, who stole her away to do unspeakable things to her. Your response towards this perpetrator and the situation would invariably be one of wrath. Yes?

So, Creation and Fall. A separation of God from his people. A people who just didn’t get it, despite God’s constant attempts to get their attention that life with him is what it was all about.

I don’t know about you, but I constantly look around in amazement and wonder at so many things. The symmetry of things both infinitesimally small and immense beyond comprehension. The incredible beauty of things that just shouldn’t actually exist in that form. We use the term “miracle” to represent circumstances that seem beyond extraordinary. Being a person who has partially lived within a supernatural reality since early adulthood, I have experienced the inexplicable. Seen, and lived on rare occasions, things that can have no natural explanation. None. I have sought objective scientific explanations and there can be none, other than there really does exist a supernatural reality.

I bring this up because I believe there are three supreme miracles that shape all of human reality. They are both mind-blowing and, together, provide a clear view of both God’s Grand Plan and his plan for each of us. There can be nothing more important.

They occurred in a narrow timeframe, separated by only a few decades two thousand years ago. With respect to our story, they comprise the foundation for Chapter 3 in our story, entitled Redemption.

This is going to be hard. Sort of like capturing lightning in a jar. Let’s see how to put this.

Basically, to redeem is to make things right. It’s the action of compensating for a transgression. It’s righting the scales of justice. It’s satisfying a debt. We’ve all been there in some way. An act of forgiveness is an element of redemption. We know the feeling when we’ve committed or experienced a wrong and a sense of that wrong is relieved. We are released from the power of that wrong. It disappears. A weight has been lifted. The slate is clean.

This is redemption.

Chapter 3 begins when God basically decides enough is enough. The people just don’t get it despite every attempt so far to bring them fully back into the fold. God had a final choice and it was binary. Cut his losses (who knows what calamities that would bring about?). Or, to do the seemingly impossible. Inject himself fully into humanity to show them what’s what. One last ditch effort to make things right.

We all know what purportedly happened. God became man. The sturdy fabric separating God’s place of existence from our place of existence was momentarily torn in the most unexpected way.

A brief detour but it’s important. In the Judaic tradition there was prophesy and belief in a thing called a “messiah.” This would be a man who God sent to “deliver” the nation of the Jews. A king of sorts, greater than any previous king who would usher in a permanent era where the Jews would no longer be oppressed and forsaken but would enjoy the full support of God forever. By the dawn of the first century, this was taken to mean that the messiah would effectively lead a revolt to overthrow Roman authority (the contemporary version of the historic Babylonian empire). He would be similar but greater than Moses, who with God’s support had “delivered” the people from slavery and captivity in Egypt into the “Promised Land” of milk and honey. This new and expected messiah would lead a second Exodus, but this time a permanent one. No one anticipated what actually happened.

Of all of the religions in human history … of all belief systems before and since … there is only one that holds that the actual God of all creation fully “incarnated” as a single human being. Some, like Hinduism, believe in “avatars” or examples of the many gods who end up taking on human or animal forms. This God/Man was simply not a consideration by anyone. Talk about cognitive dissonance. Talk about a game changer.

Most people in the current west and South American, half of Africa and increasing numbers of people in Asia, have some knowledge of what purportedly happened. (I say purportedly because there are many who have heard the story but believe it is myth and fantasy). And that is a baby was conceived by God in the womb of a woman, who gave birth to that baby on a day we now celebrate as Christmas. And that this baby, named Jesus (Yeshua in Hebrew or Joshua in English, meaning “salvation”) would grow up to do things that would change everything.

So, this was the first miracle: God becoming man. But the chapter on Redemption was just getting started and had a while to play out. About 33 years by the best guess.

And so, this young Jewish boy grew up in a very remote part of, itself, a remote part of the world. A backwater village called Nazareth in a distant outpost of the Roman Empire in a place we can geographically call Palestine. A lot was going on in that area and in the life of this boy at that time. I won’t go into it here. But around the age of 30, he decided to go public with his calling, ostensibly wearing the mantle of a gifted rabbi, or teacher, in the tradition of his people. And, so he found his way south from the area of the Galilee (the most notable feature of which was the large lake bearing that name, also known as Lake Tiberias to the Romans) to an extremely desolate region near the Dead Sea where he met his first cousin, John, a desert monk of sorts who had been preaching the coming of a new Kingdom. John “baptized” Jesus in the Jordan River, after which Jesus emerged to live out the reason why he was here in the first place.

Remember that this is the third chapter of a four part story, this portion being its own story about a thing called Redemption. What needed to be redeemed, of course, was a people to their God. Nothing had worked so far. People rightfully ask, if Jesus really is God, why did he come? Great question. Well, to redeem us is all. Oh, and to set in motion the entrance of the fourth and final chapter which will complete the Plan.

The first part of any redemptive act is to get the facts straight. Let’s not bury things under the rug or rationalize our way out of the predicament. We can’t set things right if we’re not willing or able to see them on the merits. This is what is supposed to happen in trials, with judges and juries seeking to analyze evidence in order to make things right. If they assume things that are not true, they will wander off and interpret things in ways inconsistent with reality. This was the plight of the Jews (and all of us, of course, but that’s getting ahead).

John, known as The Baptist (distinguished from one of the original twelve followers of Jesus with that same first name), said famously, “Repent! For the Kingdom of God is at hand!” The word, “repent,” as translated from the Greek translation of the Aramaic, basically means “Re-Think” or “Change Your Mind.” John is telling his hundreds or thousands of listeners that “You have it all wrong! Get ready to have your socks knocked off!”

To which, Jesus follows with the same retort and stays consistent with that theme for the rest of his life: “You have heard it said … but I tell you …” Both the Baptist and Jesus said the same thing over and over: “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” In other words, God is fully alive and in charge right here, right now. God is not sitting by doing his thing in a heavenly realm. He’s absolutely present and here’s what that means.

If to repent/rethink is the first step towards redemption, then the second step, according to Jesus was to “follow me.”

Let’s take a moment to see what is going on here because this is really important. It’s a giant clue into the nature of God’s entire plan.

To his early followers, they recognized something special about this rabbi, this teacher. And it was common for such scholarly men to gather followers who sought to learn and grow in his presence. In the accounts of his life, you’ll come across Jesus being referred to as Rabbi or Teacher on a regular basis. He was so accomplished, incredibly learned with a photographic memory of all of the Hebrew scriptures, coupled with a fascinating ability to unpack their meaning. But, his growing band of followers found it increasingly difficult to understand who this man really was and what was the significance of his teaching. In essence, their minds were being blown. This was no normal rabbi.

Instead, through countless ways, Jesus taught and modeled the character of God, he who was behind all of Creation and very much in evidence right now. Time after time, he said in various ways, “I am the deliverer.” “I am the Redeemer.” “I have come to set things to right.” He spoke to the arrogant and powerful religious leaders of the day and he spoke to the worst cast-offs in society, the wretched and the sinners. He feasted with both and said that his message was for everyone. He announced that redemption was possible for everyone if they just accepted this new reality. All sins could be forgiven and would be forgiven. In fact, he could do that. Just “follow me.” (In other words, surrender to God.)

Talk about blowing people’s minds! This was blasphemy to the religious leaders and tonic for the soul for the downtrodden and lost. To the religious leaders, this supposed rabbi was committing the capital offense of saying that he had the power and authority of God. Not even Moses said he could forgive sins, for goodness sake! And, well, you don’t get any higher in the pecking order than Moses. Jesus was a threat to the entire structure of things. The Judaic existence hung in the balance if people actually believed this rubbish. He had to die. He who claimed he arrived to usher in a new era and foster a whole new way of thinking needed to be killed.

There are four main accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, known to many as the Christ, directly translated as the “anointed one.” They are known as the four Gospels or books authored by early disciples Matthew and John and later followers Mark and Luke. The word “Gospel” means Good News. Anyone wanting to know what Jesus really was all about, what he said and did, should read one or all of these books carefully. They changed the world. So, what is the Good News?

Well, it’s both very complicated and very simple. Sometimes, we can get a very full understanding of the whole news story from a single piece of Jesus’ life or teaching. On the other hand, we can spend a lifetime unpacking the nature and characteristics of the Good News. In fact, as an aside, the former Jewish religious leader and persecutor of early Jesus followers (a man known as Saul of Tarsus, later “reborn” as Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles or non Jews), provides the bulk of what we call the New Testament (story of the new and rewritten contract or covenant between God and his people), which is an unpacking of who Jesus really is and what this Good News is all about. (Sorry for the run-on sentence.)

Again, so what is the Good News? Well, here are several early highlights.

1. God is here and present to each of us. We don’t need to go through anyone else to get to him. Just as Jesus was actually personally present to each of his followers, so is God to everyone.

2. It doesn’t matter what we have done or did not do. It doesn’t matter how good a life we’ve led or bad. By “following” Jesus, by surrendering to him, we are made whole. This is through a brand new concept called Grace. The Gospel shares the Good News that we cannot “earn” God’s love and favor. We already have it. No child needs to earn the love of a parent. It’s implicit in the relationship. So it is with us and God. Grace is God’s perfectly loving response to our surrender. It is a key element in the redemptive process.

3. Furthermore, God’s love for us is unconditional. We always had it and always will. No human being is “unloved” by God. God may detest particular human behaviors and there are always consequences but that does not affect his love for us. A parent employing the practice of “tough love” understands this at least a bit.

4. With Jesus, we will all exist for eternity in a physical reality in the presence of God … in a place reflective of the original created order, only magnified. More on that in Chapter 4.

There is another major piece of the Gospel (and Chapter 3) that we’ll consider now.

As the crowds following Jesus grew into the thousands and as stories of his miraculous powers spread everywhere, Jesus continued his teachings, constantly pointing people to the reality of God, who he is and what his plan for them entails. Finally, the religious leaders had had enough. As most of us know, after a final dinner (the Last Supper of fame) with his twelve main followers or disciples in a place in Jerusalem now know as the Upper Room, Jesus shocked them with the knowledge that he would be leaving them now. This was not new news but it must have been terrible to think that the time was here. He said to them as they ate the bread of the traditional annual Passover meal (it was Passover, of course, the traditional celebration of the Jews deliverance from slavery and now Jesus was telling him that this was the new Passover), Jesus said some version of “take this bread as (a symbol of) my body, broken for you.” Then he raised his glass of  traditional Passover wine and said some version of “drink this wine as (a symbol of) my blood (or life) shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

Shortly after, he was betrayed by one of the twelve, named Judas, who was probably really disappointed that it looked like this “messiah” Jesus was never really about leading a revolt against Rome, so turned him over to the religious leaders for a pocketful of cash. Jesus was put on trial in front of both the religious court and the Roman governor during the subsequent night and morning, tortured terribly throughout. Eventually, he was condemned to death for political reasons, as the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, found no fault in him but gave in to a mob that had now turned against Jesus. The fact is that Jesus always knew this was going to happen and now he had to endure what appeared to be his final act. So, he was flogged and beaten through the streets of Jerusalem, making his way, carrying the cross they would nail him to, to the hillside outside of town where crucifixions were commonly performed by the Romans. This last phase in the earthly life of Jesus is sometimes referred to as The Passion.

But, perhaps the most important element has yet to come in this third chapter of the grand story. And that is the second and third miracles, events that defy comprehension until we recognize that there is no alternative to their validity.

The second miracle occurred while Jesus hung on that cross, the true Messiah, Son of God, beaten, scorned, and forsaken by the very people he came to save. Discarded on the dung heap of humanity and history. A failed messiah, a naked and broken shell of a man, completely devoid of any kind of power and authority. Dust to dust. His message ultimately meaningless because, after all, it was grounded in the knowledge that he was God come to life and, of course, no all-powerful God would end life in such a manner. No chance.

But …

Everyone understands how cruel crucifixion is. It’s a tortuous and awful way to die. But, some people wonder why the especially big deal with Jesus. Why do Christians point out how awful this is in light of the many other equally or even more tortuous ways we kill one another (including faithful followers of Jesus who were later “martyred”)? Very good question.

The answer is that the true pain of Jesus’ death was not the physical pain of being nailed to that lumber, slowly suffocating as his body broke bit by bit. No. It was infinitely worse. Infinitely.

And it all comes back to the theme of this chapter. Redemption.

You see, the Man/God Jesus, the human being who knew what suffering was, came to correct the scales of justice, to make thing right between God and a completely fallen humanity. He did not just come to teach and model what the Kingdom of God is like and can be for each of us. He came to set things to right. And here is where it gets downright fantastic and incredibly hard to fathom.

Jesus, we know as the Son of God (another story altogether), voluntarily separated himself from the perfect God in his dying moments, a divorce of nearly infinite pain. With this act completed, he was truly broken, more than anyone before or since in history and, because of which, he cried out, “My God, why have you forsaken me?!” In essence he was in Hell, fully apart from God. This was a torture far greater than the mere physical reality of being crucified.

So, what gives? If this is true, what is this really about anyway? Why did he do this and what was he trying to accomplish?

The answer is that, in that moment, Jesus took on all of the Evil and sin of every person and all pieces in all of human history, of all reality both natural and supernatural. He took that on as a cloak or burden heavier than anything conceived at any time. It is commonly said that he “took on the sins of the world.” And, by dying, his sacrifice was the ultimate Atonement or setting things to right. Something had to be done to even the scales. Justice demanded it and justice is a permanent feature in God’s reality. Love demanded it and love is a permanent feature in God’s reality. Jesus once said that there is no love greater than that of a man laying down his life for a brother. Jesus is everyone’s brother while also being the one who is our Savior, the one who saved us from the consequences of our rejection of God. And, of course, Grace demanded it and Grace is a perfect expression of divine love and a permanent feature in God’s reality.

This act, for those who believe in its authenticity, is nothing short of miraculous and of cosmic significance. Billions of people are either supremely deluded or on to something of supreme import. It has to be one or the other. Many modern minds cry “Foul! What a crock!” To which many other modern minds respond with equal verve, “More true than anything you can know!” Talk about a difference of opinion that can get one’s juices flowing.

As the story goes, with his last earthly breath, succumbing to the ultimate burden, Jesus sighs, “It is finished,” and dies. Now, many people jump to the conclusion that what is finished is his life. Certainly, that is what those of his few followers and the soldiers standing beneath him must have thought. No one, not anyone, would have reason to think differently. But everything he lived and taught pointed to a different conclusion. The “it is finished,” is the gulf or separation between God and mankind. Evil played its best hand, battling tooth and nail to expel the Son of God from humanity’s reality. In the end, the sins of man overcame the loving presence of he who was without sin. The earthly perverted sense of justice had reduced love and grace to the trash bin.

Or not.

No, the story mentions that the sky turned dark and the earth shook. The most important immediate result is that the immense thick curtain in the Temple, separating where the people could be from the Holy of Holies, the large room where Jews believed God resided in some form, ripped in two. In other words, the veil between heaven and earth was rent and God was now available to all on a personal basis, just as Jesus demonstrated in his life. Jesus is the intermediary, the rip in the veil, come to save mankind.

There is only one more miracle left. The one that makes all of the others relevant. The one without which Jesus would never be remembered and his words just another set of moral teachings. It is the final miracle of Chapter 3.

His broken body taken down off the cross by distraught family and a few followers, this failed messiah was taken to a cavelike tomb where his corpse was rapidly clothed in linen and laid to rest. This was the end of crucifixion Friday, curiously known as Good Friday (for the reasons just mentioned) and Day 1. His followers, all being observant Jews, had to get this done before sundown, for the Sabbath rituals demanded it. The following day, Day 2, was the Sabbath (the Christian Sunday, so to speak) when work ceased. They must have been in a state of utter and complete despondency. Nothing made sense. They knew their lives were now at risk and expected full purges to follow (they did).

Until early on Day 3, several women went back to the tomb, the entrance of which had been guarded by elite Roman soldiers and blocked by an immense stone. They intended to seek permission to enter the tomb to wash the body and anoint it with preservative spices and oils as was the practice. There are various accounts of exactly what occurred but what is consistent is that there were no soldiers (the absence of which would have meant the death penalty for them) and the large stone requiring many strong men to remove, was rolled away. While the linens remained on the slab, Jesus was gone.

It is worth reading the various accounts of these moments and also comparing them to ancient prophesies. This had to be received as another horror by the women who undoubtedly believed a vicious desecration had occurred .. someone had stolen their Lord. However, in all accounts there is a young man (believed to be an angel) who tells them that “Jesus is risen.” In other words, he has defeated death and is alive.

The women race back to their small band (of men) and tell this news. Moments later, Jesus appears in the flesh and the rest is history.

So, the third major miracle in the Jesus’ time here on earth is called The Resurrection. The body brought back to life after having clearly died. Many people flirted with or believed that there could be some after life but no one conceived of a fully resurrected physical body like that demonstrated by Jesus on the third day.

What is the meaning of this third miracle? Well, it completes the act of Redemption. On the first day, Jesus defeated sin and evil, while on the third he defeated death. As the proclamation of the ancient Hebrew prophet said, “The wages of sin is death.” No longer. Through the life and death of Jesus, sin and death were vanquished and humankind now had a clear pathway to full redemption.

Fantastic? Of course. Impossible? Maybe. But, what if?

It is said by many Christian scholars that there can be no Christianity without acceptance of the fact of the Resurrection. Without the resurrection, we are left with another hollow religion, ultimately incomplete. Belief in the actual resurrection as well as its significance is the cornerstone upon which all reality is based. It is also a fundamental piece of God’s Grand Plan and his plan for each of us.

I have to say that I knew a whole lot about Christianity for many many years without giving much thought to the resurrection. I now firmly believe it happened. It has been proven to me beyond a reasonable doubt and I’m a critic at heart.

Jesus, the for-real Christ, is alive.

Well, hats off to anyone who managed to wade through Part I! The goal of that posting was to explore the various ways we humans think about plans, especially with respect to plans intrinsic to nature and those that may be part of a supernatural reality. I tried to be objective but obviously have a perspective I think best fits the facts and my experience.

I left off while coming to a place where I believe there actually is a rational being who has multiple types of plans. I call this being God and I believe he is omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all seeing) and omnipresent (existing everywhere all of the time). (This latter quality does not mean that he is IN all things, like what many eastern faiths believe … for instance, I don’t believe God is IN a rock or tree.)

I understand that some people reading this will not be comfortable with the idea of such a God. Some may gravitate to philosophies and religions common in Asia and found increasingly in “spirituality” movements in the west, that don’t match with monotheism. As I mentioned before, the concept of “energy”disassociated with a singular being in these perspectives is pronounced and manifests in various forms. The thinking goes, if only we could tap into that energy, use it for self-actualization or project its power on to things and other people for good, then we’d have found some version of “the secret.” All sorts of practices are designed to do this in some form. Yoga. Meditation. Feng Shui. Crystals. All are parts of a humanly-constructed plan to get from here to there by learning how to influence and use a thing people loosely describe as energy. While I tried to incorporate some variations of this thinking over the years, ultimately I found them to be insufficient to explain a reality that I couldn’t dismiss. Simply, there is a design to reality and it is rational. Since rational can’t come from irrational (perhaps debatable but that’s what I believe), there had to be a solution.

Eventually as everyone who reads this stuff knows, I couldn’t escape the recognition that a God actually exists. In fact, I discovered that this God has a grand plan and a plan for me. This was no small revelation. In the end, though, I didn’t have to make a huge leap to get there. The signs were extremely obvious and actually had been there all along. I was just too obstinate and self-absorbed to see them clearly.

With that, we arrive at my second question which is really a two-parter. What is God’s plan and what does that mean for me (or any of us) as individuals?

As you know, there are three main monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All three share some similarities while addressing those two main questions.  Each believes in a rational and single God (set aside the trinitarian concept of the Christian God for now, please) who is behind all of creation, knows each of us inside and out, and seeks for us to follow him and act according to his will. There are other similarities but there are also some firm differences. They absolutely do not say the same thing. (Having said that, Judaism and Christianity are much more closely aligned than either is with Islam, for obvious reasons.) Fundamentally, each believes God has a grand plan and a plan for each of us. The most fundamental job for every human, according to these faith traditions, is to know what these plans are. Fortunately, for each of these, there are gazillions of clues, some of which are bold and obvious and some of which are extremely subtle and largely obscured. But the clues are there for the taking, only needing a lens or key to unlock them, a discussion of which may require an entirely different essay.

While there are plenty of people who disagree, I believe that the evidence supports one conclusion and that is that the Judaic worldview was brought to completion and fulfillment in the life, death and resurrection of the itinerant rabbi from backwater Nazareth named Jesus. He is the Christ, the long-awaited anointed one of God, sent to save humanity. I get myth and I get science and I get belief and I get doubt. I live in a world where each of these is present in force. But put them all into the pot and I continue to get just one outcome and that is the one I just stated.

So, moving on … what does one who accepts this about Jesus (a Christian) believe about God’s plan for everything and for me, specifically?

I’m going to try to make this as simple as possible and in a way it is. But, it’s actually incredibly complex when taken in totality and I can’t possibly go there exhaustively.

First, God has a general plan. Let’s start with his first objective which was to create a reality that reflected who he is, in essence. (Not unlike an artist gazing at a subject and then painting it in a way that reflects his or her inner self and thought life.) As we all know, there are many different “creation” stories. All religions have one as do naturists and atheists. (Nearly all scientists believe there was a moment we call The Big Bang where an infinitesimally small thing … much smaller than the proton of an atom and containing all of the mass and energy that is now present in our universe … spontaneously exploded and everything now present in the Universe is the result. All of these scientists recognize peculiar patterns in our universe, some of which are explainable and some of which are not. Many scientists who deny the existence of a “supernatural” reality believe these patterns have no rational beginning or plan. Stuff just happens through often random action of particles and energy. Like life on earth. Some scientists are now subscribing to a theory that there was actually no beginning. The fact of the Big Bang was just another moment in an infinite timeline of expansion and contraction. Or, some believe that there are nearly an infinite number of universes … the multiverse theory … and we’re just one, nothing to write home about, in the face of that!) Anyway, these creation stories (or experiments) are designed to help us know where we came from and why we are here. I think deep down nearly all of us want to answer these two questions although many people avoid doing the work to get to that point.

The Judeo-Christian story is that God decided (notice the presence of rationality) to create this vast thing. The question is why? Well, as I stated above, if his objective was to make something that would reflect his essence, why did he need to do that? He was God, of course. What was missing that he needed to go about creating?

The Christian answer, in my opinion, can be contained in the two concepts of Love and Beauty. These two things are closely related and absolutely necessary for understanding the character of God, his plan for his creation, and the reality in which we live. Let me say this: There is not a belief system in human history that does not emphasize some aspect of these two concepts (set aside some very small extremist cults that promote sadistic and highly destructive behaviors).

The Christian concept of God is that he is a God of Love and Truth. While we can sort of grasp the love part, let’s not equate Beauty with Pretty. There is truth in beauty, with beauty pointing to the truth. (I recall memorizing the romanticist John Keats’ famous poem, Ode on a Grecian Urn in high school English, the final stanza of which says, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty. That is all you know on earth and all you need to know.”) The concept of Beauty is deep, just like Love, and has many dimensions. There is a thing we can equate with beauty via our five senses … think of how … and there is a thing we can equate with beauty that is extrasensory or metaphysical. It’s a thing of essence where patterns of meaning coalesce to where we are struck by profundity (deep insight) as in moments of overwhelming kindness or compassion, seemingly superhuman patience in the face of intense trial, or amazing grace where none is warranted. And, a natural byproduct of Truth is Justice. Perhaps for another day is the way that Truth cannot exist without Love and Love cannot exist without Truth (and how the concept of Free Will co-exists in this economy).

Where does all this come from? The Christian answer is that these are manifestations of the nature and character of God. And, his plan was to create a vast multidimensional and living artwork wherein these concepts would extend fully and indefinitely.

Here, we return to the question of “for what purpose?” Why did God want or need to do this? And the answer is not dissimilar to some of the reasons many of us want to become parents. If your answer falls somewhere in the neighborhood of (A) We are hardwired to create progeny and/or (B) We seek to share love and life with beings we created, then that’s a step toward understanding the well-worn phrase that we are “created in God’s image.”

At this point, it’s hard to avoid some fundamental Christian theology which is another way of saying understanding the message and meaning of the Christian perspective on all of reality. I recognize that most people are not all that interested in theology, at least on really technical levels. But nearly everyone even subconsciously formulates some sort of theological vision, even if it is to deny the existence of a “theos.” In our case, in this highly scientific modern world, the theology of God’s grand plan may be hard to stomach. Believe me, I’ve dissected it from countless angles, poking and prodding, trying to sift fact from fantasy. Try as I might, I keep coming back to the reality of a four chapter story, during which God’s main plan develops and unfolds. Later, our job is to dive into this story and figure out how each and all of these chapters best informs the meaning of our lives and what we are to do about it. You can take these four chapters as concrete or metaphorical. Most practicing Christians will recognize these chapters while the pieces will largely be unfamiliar to those less aware of basic Christian principles.

The story goes like this: First, God set in motion his Creation. We won’t get into the weeds about how long this took but suffice it to say that it was a thing of beauty, the apex being the creation of male and female, the human species. (Some modern naturists believe the apex of creation is overall nature … often described generally as the Earth so to speak … with humankind being just one among thousands of integrated equals. This is not the Christian worldview, understanding of course that an authentic Christian view holds the natural world in very high esteem!) He created humans in his image: To be alive, to love and enjoy the beauty of creation, sharing all of this with one another and with him. Setting aside for a brief moment the theology, can we acknowledge that we inherently seek love as expressed in relationship and that we find joy in things we consider beautiful? As I previously said, our job is to figure out God’s will or plan and part of that is to figure out how we are created as some kind of image of God (don’t take the word “image” completely literally but consider it metaphysically). As you know, we could go on forever dissecting this first chapter. But, leapfrogging through, we go to the second chapter.

While virtually all historical belief systems have some kind of creation story, at this point things diverge. The Judeo-Christian worldview entitles this second chapter The Fall. Now, almost everyone has heard of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, a tree, a piece of fruit and a snake. Some take this literally. Others take it metaphorically … a piece of God-inspired literature to make a point. I toss my hat in with the latter group but I think the differences are overrated and tend to keep us distracted from that main point. And the main point is that humans chose and continue to choose rejecting God. Start unpacking this and you’ll spend a lifetime figuring it out in detail. But the basic thing is the basic thing. We were created to live within God’s will for us and part of that “duty” is to keep our end of the bargain. We get to enjoy love, truth and beauty but it is “only through him that this is possible.” When we try to find truth and meaning apart from God or set ourselves above or apart from God, things fall apart. As the story begins to unfold, that byproduct of Love called Free Will, allows the possibility of making bad choices. We were comfortable and continue to be comfortable making bad choices. This sets up a two part problem. That is (A) We all have a basic innate sense of right and wrong, perhaps unknowing where that comes from and (B) we are unable to keep from doing things we know are wrong. Christians will say that this is because we keep pulling away from God, refusing to surrender to his will. One of the highlights on this reel is the myth/reality (I happen to believe it’s real) that one specific member of God’s created order of angels (supernatural beings which I absolutely believe exist) became incredibly self-absorbed. Being so self-absorbed, he began to wish he was God’s equal and should be in control. His biblical name is Lucifer which means “bearer of light,” presumably because of his majestic bearing. If there was ever a classic example of a rejection of God it was Lucifer and the result is worth considering. As the story goes, he shot for the moon and lost, buying into his own power and import separate from God and ended up paying the price. Kicked out of God’s presence, he and his followers become the anti-Gods, embracing characteristics diametrically opposite of God. They value destruction over creation, deceit and lies over truth, arrogance and self-absorption over humility, revenge over mercy and, ultimately, evil over good. These are the devils and demons in the supernatural realm if you believe in that. In the Genesis story in the Bible, Lucifer appears as a serpent whispering to Eve (with Adam standing passively by) that these two humans could have the power of God and don’t really need him. Once such a choice is made, the God-human contract or relationship is broken with all sorts of results. One of those results is a thing we call sin, an act or posture whereby we choose to avoid God’s will in the pursuit of our own. That’s it. People popularly think that sin is doing bad stuff in the eyes of God. If people think either there is no God and objective morality, then there is no Judgment of our behavior beyond how it is received in human society. But a God of Love and Truth, like any parent, wants what is best for us. Running away from home so we don’t have to live with certain rules designed to help us flourish is not the answer. There are all sorts of things we do and think that are inconsistent with God’s will for us. Put a little differently, these things don’t fit into God’s Plan. And, while we can come up with lists, suffice to say that the worst transgression we can demonstrate is to give in to Pride.

To summarize to this point. There is a God and he had a plan from the beginning. Part of his plan was to create a people in his image so that they could share love in relationship with him and with one another. Also, that they could flourish in those relationships, experiencing the many beauties in creation (both physical and metaphysical). But a love without a choice is not true love. And love requires trust. So, he created us with the ability to choose, knowing full well that we could always choose not to trust him, which we did and continue to do regularly, thereby separating ourselves from him with bad consequences to say the least. The Fall is that result. Now, this may come across as fantasy and mythology to some, certainly to people who for all sorts of reasons doubt the existence of such a God or are uncomfortable with a God described so far in this story. I understand. I was the poster child for this position for many many years. It just seemed too strange, too manufactured, too unrealistic. But, that all changed, which makes me either delusional or on to something that, while unrealistic, just may be completely true.

With that, I’ll end for now, picking up the last two chapters next time.

(I wrote what follows yesterday, in two separate sittings. When I started, I didn’t know how long or deep it would go. I just had the prompt. By the time I was running out of gas, I obviously realized that this would take more than one essay. As I’m posting this, I’m largely through Part II, written today, thinking there will be a Part III. But, for now, on to the beginning.)

What is God’s Plan? How’s that for a simple question?

During my quiet time this morning, the idea kind of just popped into my mind. I guess that’s not much of a surprise because some variation of that occupies regular space there.

In order to address the question, I’m led to break it into two parts: (1) Is there such a thing as a God plan? And (2) If there is, how do we consider it in terms of the big picture while also examining it in terms of our own individual lives?

So, for starters, let’s look at the first piece. In order to do so, of course we have to arrive at a point where there’s the possibility of a supernatural, all powerful being who can, and does, exercise some version of both rationality and intention. To be careful, we shouldn’t leap past these things or take them as simple conclusions.

As I’ve written about many times before, there are many people who practice a form of religion which recognizes something we have to categorize as “supernatural” power. Without going into too much detail, I think we can largely agree that that means a force or power that is difficult to quantify and organize using normal practices of observation of the natural world … the world apprehended by our five senses and analyzed by all sorts of scientific methods. This is the biological, chemical and physical world of which we’ve always been familiar. Anyway, the vast majority of people on earth have always believed and continue to believe that “what we see is not always what we get.” In other words, there is something or Some Thing “out there/around us/in us” that has an energy or power that “transcends” our natural condition.

People have significant differences of opinion on the nature or character of this energy/power. Some believe it exists but is the opposite of reason (see Zen Buddhism). Some believe it exists somewhere in a realm that includes both the very abstract and the manifested concrete (see Hinduism). Some believe it is a kind of shapeless/amorphous thing that does not include a thing or thing called deities which are basically supernatural beings (see Star Wars or contemporary spiritualism). And, of course, some believe it is concentrated in the essence of one or more actual supernatural beings, the most dominant of which is the belief that there is one singular being a thing we call God (the mono theism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam). There are, of course, variations of all of these, including the animism of indigenous cultures and splinter sects carving out unique particulars (see Wicca, Magic, etc…). Finally, we have people who deny any kind of force outside of observable nature and reject the concept of supernatural reality (see Atheists and Naturists). Interestingly, to varying degrees, all of these groups (which really encompass virtually everyone) believe in some kind of “Plan.”

That may come across as a curious thing to say, especially to an atheist or naturist. But, in fact, even those who don’t subscribe to the belief that there is or are such things as supernatural beings, most of them believe in the scientific dogma of evolution. (I need to be clear that the word “dogma” should not be received as a pejorative. It merely is used to describe a firm set of beliefs and principles that stand up well over time.) And, of course, evolution is a natural plan, the nature of which is contained in the myriad forces affecting organisms in the realm of biology, chemistry and physics.

Almost all other peoples who believe in a supernatural reality, conceive of things in terms of good and bad. They believe there are good ways of thinking and behaving and bad ways of thinking and behaving. And, in some ways, these thoughts and behavior are tied to an overarching reality that governs both the natural and supernatural worlds. Even the most “non-theistic”(to coin a word) world views such as Zen Buddhism, recognize the realm of order that is contrary to the many ordered things that normally occupy our earthly realities. Most “spiritual” non-theistic people also believe in a version of supernatural good. Many of them like to send or project good or positive energy to friends and loved ones facing challenges. Some of these people “pray” to a “Universe” for actual help and assistance or to seek guidance. There was an immensely popular book ten or so years ago, entitled The Secret, which purported to explain that the key to a prosperous life was to recognize that each of us, through an act of will, could make the supernatural power that exists everywhere, do our bidding. In other words, if we truly believed good things would triumph over bad things, all we had to do was just truly believe it.

I’m really not trying to be judgmental here but to state some objective truths about the things and ways people actually believe in things (I have some knowledge and/or personal experience with a lot of this). But, of course, I’m biased and I do make personal judgments, about which there is nothing wrong. We all have biases that reflect our individual sets of knowledge and experience that create the lenses through which we look at reality and act accordingly.

So, my point which should be pretty obvious now is that nearly all people who think about these things (of course there are many people who don’t think about these things but if push were to come to shove would probably line up somewhere in one of these camps or at least close by), buy into at least some kind of plan and that that plan carries an essence of good. (For example, in evolutionary biology, the “good” is that natural selection operates to strengthen positive characteristics that help the organism while weakening negative characteristics that are not so useful to the organism.) I’d be open to a debate on this set of suppositions but I don’t believe I’m going too far out on a limb by saying that, generally, most human beings accept that life unfolds in some measure as part of a plan. (The retort would refer to true anarchists who are basically just saying that freedom is an unalienable right … from where? … and people who see the defining nature of reality as chaotic … something I don’t think I’d have that much difficulty in disavowing.)

Ok then. I’ve hopefully at least raised or confirmed the belief that a fundamental part of reality for most people is that there is a “plan.” So, what?

Well, a plan assumes some form of rationality. It’s a sequential operation. It involves motion and steps that can be understood and articulated in some form. Even raising the specter that the nature of all of reality is in opposition to rationality (looking back at you, Zen and the practice of zazen), involves a form of rationality. The human mind is expected to process that this or that way or activity, for instance, is better than another way or activity and that by choosing (notice the word “choose”), the person can participate in the development or unfolding of a specific plan. There can be no plan without “purpose” or direction, both of which involve rational processes. A plan is a means of going from here to there, either theoretically or physically. The resulting pathway gives form and function to the plan and the ultimate results. Everyone, and I mean everyone, plans. And we plan with a purpose (or, of course, with many many purposes that may or may not be organized under one overall purpose … more on that later). This is intensely rational and raises the question of what that means and implies.

Hinduism and its offspring, Buddhism (together of which can claim billions of people), believe in the reality of a cosmic force that reverberates through all things. They believe that this force is actually largely obscured by the physical world, a world holding us captive so we can’t see the ultimate true nature of all of reality. This force has been described by the name or sound of OM, a kind of background feature that, should we be able to escape the hold this world has on us, will allow us to permanently transcend into a state of permanent bliss or euphoria. It’s also described as a vast Emptiness of all things where differentiation ends and we all merge into the great Nothingness of reality, which is supposed to be the terminal objective, as if, while on a rowboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, you took an eyedropper and dripped one drop of water into the vast ocean, its unique characteristics no longer contained and differentiated but now fully belonging to something far greater and deeper. However you cut it, though in these traditions, we are asked to take rational steps to overcome rationality. (I’ve always found one feature of Hinduism curious although I haven’t sat down extensively with an expert on it … but maybe will someday … and that is source of the extremely rational principle of cause and effect … Karma … that is definitive of all of human reality. Who or what set those rules? But, I digress.)

This actually brings me to a fundamental point and that is, what is behind or the cause of any kind of supernatural plan? If someone believes that life carries any real meaning, there has to be a plan, otherwise meaning can’t exist, it would just be an illusion, a fact of which almost no one actually lives by. And there has to be a source. Again, there has to be a source. Even accidents happen for a reason. No scientist has ever come up with how life came from non life or why the conditions for non life were such that life is possible. (There is a whole line of thinking around the Fine Tuning of the Universe. Look it up if you’re interested. It fascinates me.)

It’s one of the strongest arguments in our modern, increasingly secular and religiously scientific culture today that ancient people created supernatural forces (deities and gods) to explain things they couldn’t comprehend. Modernity extrapolates this to mean that all belief in such things is a form of myth making and are irrational. Just as mankind came to understand that the sun was not a form of a god or that the earth was not at the center of the cosmos, through science all supernatural explanations will be exposed, given time and scientific progress, as illusory (irrational). Despite this, there are some extremely bright people in scientific fields of biology, chemistry and physics that remain completely convinced that there is a rational force behind all of this. They are scholars beyond repute whose judgments cannot be dismissed. I’m not talking about purported “scientists” who I consider to be on the fringe (for instance Young Earth Creationists who adhere to a belief that the earth was created only a few thousand years ago, that the dinosaurs either didn’t exist or existed with humans and that carbon dating is not practical).

I have to admit that I fought through all of this for many, many years. Decades of thinking and scrutiny. And here’s my bottom line. I can’t effectively arrive at the fact of rationality independent of a source for rationality. At the risk of putting too fine a point on it, actually I CAN arrive at that conclusion but only if I conclude that there is no “meaning” to the rationality. And there is the rub. We can assume rational processes as the result of non rational forces (what I can loosely describe as the conclusion of strict naturists whose belief is fundamentally in “particles and progress”). In other words “reason” is a uniquely human characteristic but there is no overriding and objective meaning we can draw from subsequent reasoning. If I am merely a biochemical organism alive in a physical space, determined by purely biological, chemical and physical laws, then “reasoning” does not allow us to arrive at the conclusion that, for instance, love is good, other than to say it’s a fiction to help us propagate our species.

While I accept that there will be a number (even from those reading this) who cannot make the leap I’m making, I’ll argue that there is no more likely conclusion than the one I’ve arrived at, given the facts. That’s a conclusion I can make on purely rational (not experiential) bases. And, that is that there is a rational being behind all of this. This being is full of force but is not just a Force. Yes, we were all thrilled when Luke listened to his mentor at the end of the first Star Wars movie and “Let Go.” He listened to/surrendered to/gave into the Force which then directed the impossible shot to save the day. But, there can be no good side or dark side of a force without conceptualizing good and bad/evil and getting to its source. And “forces” are results of conditions that must have antecedents (precursors). I always invite everyone to deeply consider these things. Oh, there are a lot of reasons not to. It’s too complicated. Too deep. “It’s hard enough just managing my life. I don’t have to understand all of it.” But, “What if?”

If you’ve made it this far, you’re unbelievably patient! Here it is. Yes, there’s a Force. Yes, there’s a Secret. Yes, there’s an Emptiness and a Unity. Yes, there most certainly is a plan, for which we should all be grateful. But, none of this is disembodied and the plan is not especially obvious. In fact, the plan has a basis in so much that we take for granted but, in fact, is counterintuitive. (To put this differently, the plan is based upon most things we accept as a regular part of our reality but involves elements that don’t on the surface make any sense.)

What is God’s Plan? Well, yes, there is a God and he/she/it (I have thoughts on the nature of God’s gender but let’s not go there now, although I’ll use the familiar He because he is, in essence a person which is a whole other essay), is both rational and intentional. This God is all-powerful and all-knowing. This God is the source of all that exists, including the conditions for Free Will and Evil. And, like us, those he created “in his image,” he has a plan. In fact, he has a lot of them, just as we do.

Yes, to answer the first question at the top of this essay, God does have a a plan. I’ll pick up with what that means next time.

In a former life, I routinely paraded out one of my secular versions of the Bible. I had several of these, believing they best explained the overarching reality of my life. At least the life away from home and hearth. The one that comes to mind is a very insightful book by the 80s management guru, Tom Peters, entitled Thriving on Chaos. Now, I actually believe a large part of living in this time and place involves the concept of chaos. When I think of it, chaos represents disorder, unpredictability, constantly shifting conditions and an aversion to identifiable patterns. Things are just not as they seem and get used to it. Heck, learn to thrive in it. A synonym for thrive is flourish. Full disclosure: I loved a remarkable photograph of a man standing firm in the lee of a lighthouse as a massive wave stood poised to overwhelm his perch.

The opposite of chaos is order. Interestingly, Peter’s purpose in his (very thick and detailed) book is to give us tools to manage the chaos, as thriving or flourishing is only possible if can “use” the chaos to function effectively. That is, bring a kind of order out of chaos. Perhaps another way of saying this is to locate the rhythms within disorder that allow us to function best. This is, of course, a spiritual prescription as well as a means to effectively manage one’s professional situation.

There’s a popular religious movement that has gained a whole lot of traction in our society of late. We can loosely call this “spiritualism.” While those who align themselves with this would probably reject the label as being “religious,” of course it is. It’s a set of beliefs and tenets to help explain reality. One of the driving forces of this is the strong motivation to “calm things down,” “control the energy,” “become one with one’s surroundings,” etc… There is nothing new about this, it’s all a variant of Eastern philosophies and practices that are built around bringing order out of an unordered world. There’s a lot of truth in this. I bring this up because most of us are hard at work trying to do the same thing.

Which brings me to my topic (bet you didn’t think I’d ever get there!)

A thriving life, in my opinion, is one in which there is a sense of balance. An understanding of equilibrium. This is far from easy, perhaps impossible, in some situations. Two images come to mind, as I experienced them in the past 24 hours.

The first one involved about 15 minutes listening to perhaps the most beautiful piece of music ever composed (again, my opinion). I was alone in our home, quietly watching the sky, clouds and light of the day with the movement of our garden in the foreground … gently swaying shrubs and trees, the color of the flowers and the to and fro of small birds and butterflies. I called up on our nice living room speakers a piece called, A Lark Ascending, by the British composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, in the early 20th century. The composition was an attempt to put to music a poem by George Meredith about the song of the skylark. One critic termed the poem,

“matchless of its kind, a sustained lyric which never for a moment falls short of the effect aimed at, soars up and up with the song it imitates, and unites inspired spontaneity with a demonstration of effortless technical ingenuity… one has only to read the poem a few times to become aware of its perfection”.^[1]

Perfection from inspired spontaneity. Hmmmm. The musical composition is technically a violin concerto which means a single violinist is supported by a full orchestra. Perhaps because I was a violinist, I never tire listening to it. When so much of life is about bringing out things that are not good or healthy, how do we carve out moments when we are truly called higher and deeper … where we can set aside space to consider beauty?

I imagine some of you who are reading this are not drawn to that thing we can loosely call “classical” music. While I’ve never seen A Lark Ascending performed, I have listened intently to every note more times than I can remember. I found a performance on YouTube and invite you to set aside the 15 minutes or so to watch it. Seeing it performed in all of its fullness, from the sounds of the instruments to the movements of delicate fingers, directed by nerves and muscles, to the facial expressions of the performers as they give themselves to the piece, I cannot image that emotions of anger, resentment, and contempt are possible in that space. The opposite of beauty is a thing we use words to describe as ugly, repulsive, dark and foreboding. The song of the lark, rising up, surrounded by the elements of a melodious life, is that antithesis. If you can make it, stay with it to the end.

One commenter, after watching this piece said it, “Evokes the deepest longing for the light and joy that C.S.Lewis tried so valiantly to describe in his writings.”

However, both the poet and composer performed their respective artistry fully aware and conditioned by the nature of the war that began in 1914 and only truly ended in 1945. It is with that backdrop that last night I pulled up and watched an early segment of the well-known television version of Stephen Ambrose’s great book, Band of Brothers. The book and the series are the true account of E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne of the U.S Army as they parachuted behind enemy lines on D Day and made their way through major battles and skirmishes until the end of the war. If there is beauty in this telling, both written and visual, it is of the camaraderie or brotherhood that blossomed out of all of the brutality and inhumanity of their circumstances, a kind of flower in a dystopian landscape. The death and destruction, the deep animus that drove men to slaughter one another almost indiscriminately on the muddy, bloody battlefield, is present in far more subtle forms in our own relatively peace-filled existence.

As Jesus said in Matthew 5:21, a piece of his most well-known teaching:

“You have heard it said, ‘You shall not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother will be subject to judgment.”

I do not want to open a can of worms in order to try to fully interpret what this passage means and the context in which Jesus spoke it. But suffice that it is a caution note that the same thing that drives us to murder is in operation when we let anger take control of us. Unbridled anger ultimately breeds both contempt and hatred, the state of which drowns out nearly every semblance of beauty, which itself is a wellspring for joy, a state for real human flourishing.

I write in the shadow of our country being ravaged by divisiveness and incivility. Colleague against colleague, resorting to the kind of invectives we haven’t seen on this scale maybe since the Civil War. Leaders and dominant personalities litter our lives with venom, not so well clothed in high minded ideologies, conjuring up dark images in the human hearts, poisoning bonds of family and friendship. Beauty quashed in the interest of pursuing some crusade that, in itself, demands full allegiance.

We are out of balance.

Perhaps like you, I live in two worlds that are represented by somewhat different but related features. In one, I am called to battle while also called to peace. The tension between these two things is strong. As such, I strive to find a rhythm through which both can be accommodated.

My friend Paul spoke recently about the importance of restorative health. While his context was ostensibly about balancing the mutually important activities of work and rest, his key point in my take away was that, absent restoration, we are captive to forces that cause us to wither away, whether extremely or subtly.

Perhaps the most well-known verse in the Book of Ecclesiastes is 3:18.

To every thing there is a season,

and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate;

A time of war, and a time of peace.

When, seemingly, battle lines are constantly being drawn these days and discordance is the dominant feature, do we awake each day to say, “No, you will not own me. I will choose today to be a means of bringing beauty into this reality, to touch another human being so that they may get even the slightest hint of what the violinist is demonstrating.” We are created for good. We are created to be a restorative force in this world. We have the power to choose. Who or what controls our hearts, which are the font of our behavior? The world can be a dark and foreboding place. I cannot change that. But, I can choose to introduce a flower into a troubling landscape. I can choose to guard my heart against judging others, against letting anger and discontent form a firm beachhead. Today, I will consider the nature of restoration, where patience, kindness, compassion and hope find their nourishment. Ascendence is available for each of us.

Thriving on chaos? Perhaps. Better, perhaps, thriving amidst chaos by introducing symmetry and the patterns of beauty that are anything but chaotic. They are the true wellsprings of life.

Thank you for listening.

So exclaimed Carrie, our angel of a nurse, at Sharp Memorial Hospital three weeks ago.

As (bad) fortune would have it, falling hard on the concrete on one’s side, smashing an elbow into the rib cage, is not something that’s particularly healthy. So, Diane and I found ourselves back in the ER of our large metropolitan hospital, a not-at-all unfamiliar place. Multiple X-rays and a CT scan conclusively showed an acute rib fracture and a punctured lung, known in the medical parlance as a pneumothorax. Immediate result: an invitation to stay in the hospital while things got sorted out. The big question was whether I would have to have surgery to implant a chest tube into my right lung which was partially collapsed. To put it mildly, this whole thing was more than a little painful.

Those of you who know me, know that Diane and I have been down some variation of this road many times. In fact, while I’ve been on a kind of writing hiatus, this blog began shortly after being discharged from the same hospital two and a half years ago. With a long and detailed medical history, we are accustomed to both major illnesses and the ways of doctors, nurses, and all other staff who are charged with the care of patients.

We are also accustomed to how we should face these kinds of things.

In short, just because circumstances are especially challenging and may involve suffering, we do not believe such things should alter our daily trajectory. By trajectory, I mean the fundamental principles by which we govern our approach to things.

Admittedly, this can be difficult. There are some types of suffering that are just too much to handle, the fact of which forces us to our knees in an act of surrender. We can be so clouded by pain or fear that whatever principles work most of the time are just not going to apply.

So, what am I talking about?

For starters, I have two principles I try to live my life by. First, try to be a blessing to others each day. Actually, this should not be all that hard but I’m not sure it’s a particularly common objective, even among those who would recognize it as a fundamental tenet of their faith. Perhaps more on that in a moment. Second, to be thankful each day for the gift of that day, a fact that is probably much easier to invoke in theory rather than as a matter of consistent practice. There are many other principles I ascribe to but these are definitely biggies.

So, staring around my room that painful first night, hardly sleeping, I couldn’t miss the standard white board opposite my bed. You hospital veterans know it’s the one where the patient’s name is noted, along with the names of the attending nurse, floor charge nurse and the assistants who make up the care team. These teams usually work long 12 hour shifts, with the names and faces changing accordingly. But, also on that white board is a place to write the patient’s goal for the day. In my recent visits, including the care for two different very good friends, I did not see that last category filled in, nor have I heard it discussed. That night, I knew that we would fill it in and I also knew what it would say.

So, when Diane returned early the next morning, just as the shift was changing, I asked her to write our goal as “Be thankful in all things.”

As I write this, I’m reminded of a Twila Paris song entitled, “Thank you for this Thorn.” You see, thorns can focus us in curious ways. We can go, “Why me? Why do I have to endure this pain, this disruption to my life, this load of bad stuff that makes it hard to breathe, get out of bed, face a dark world?” Or, perhaps we can see the thorn as an opportunity to change the equation.

No doubt about it, a large part of life is about dealing with suffering. I think that some people who don’t see it that way are probably missing the point. Oh, things might be going just peachy right now but come on, it hasn’t always been that way and it certainly will not always be that way in the future. And, of course, unless we are excluded from the physical and thought lives of other people both near and far, we have to acknowledge that suffering is one of life’s great realities.

It comes down to what we do about that.

As I write this, it’s easy for me to conjure up the images of three women I know who live with seriously debilitating illnesses. Each with the diagnoses that no one ever wants to hear. Each technically incurable by normal scientific methods. However, I see them constantly with faces aglow, forging through life, serving others and praising God. I can easily extend this to a host of others who regularly shoulder malady but do not give into cynicism or self-pity.

“Who are you people?”

I know people who daily look for those who are ignored. They notice people who go about their lives unnoticed. It is the easiest thing for them to approach strangers and offer a kind word and a helping hand. No hustle or bustle gets in the way. Opportunities abound at every juncture to open the door to beauty, to reorient a way of thinking and feeling.

Jesus said to his closest followers that they will be known by their love. Professing Christians clearly know this. Yet, we also know that this is much easier said than done. But, it is the easiest thing in the world to brighten a stranger’s face with a smile, a kind word, simply engaging in discussion to show that they matter.

Lest I be misunderstood, this is not an artificial prescription for behavior, a chore or kind of daily checklist. No, actually, it’s the product of accepting Jesus into one’s life and letting him help mold us into the kind of person he wants us to be. The byproduct is the result.

I think that Carrie, our dear nurse, sensed something in our smiling, our laughter, the way we showed care for her and others who came and went from our room amidst an admittedly trying time, that was somewhat uncommon. I say this with no boast, as I know full well how poorly I measure up to the standard set before me. Diane would second that about herself in a heartbeat.

So, in answer to the question, we are people who follow Jesus because there’s no better way to live one’s life. We take him at his word and his example. This is certainly not easy but the alternative is so much harder. We recognize there are many pitfalls along the way and there are many who self-claim as followers but do not walk the walk.

The answer is, “You will be known by your love.”

So, I had the good fortune of traveling with eight other Uncommon [good] team members to a conference called Catalyst West last week. It was held up in Irvine as we joined some 3,500 other participants to consider the theme entitled “Of Good Courage.”

All in all, we listened to about twelve remarkable speakers, each of whom took a bit of a different stab at addressing the general theme. Of course, we ended up participating in a wide variety of other activities but I couldn’t help but transfer some of what I took away to these pages. I should mention that the purpose of this annual gathering is to strengthen leaders in the many faith communities represented. So, it’s not just about courage but about how leaders should live out and nurture in others this thing. I should also mention that I had to be in the eldest 10% of those attending, if at that. This was a very nice thing to see!

So, what’s the deal with courage and what is “good courage?”

Rather than repeating what they all said, I’d just as soon draw from their collective wisdom, coupled with my own experience and understanding of courage.

To begin, I think true courage is something extraordinary, not ordinary. This means the attitude and behavior is largely surprising to the casual observer who must wonder what exactly is going on. To act outside of the norm is to embrace risk because the norm is usually risk-averse. And risk is a curious thing. Taking a risk means that the likelihood of success does not appear to be particularly strong. (Well, at least in the normal way we think about risk. I guess anything could appear to entail risk if the chance of success is less than 100%.)

Which gets us to think then about the nature of risk. What are some of the common things we risk that might lead others to feel they are observing something courageous? Well, certainly, things like personal safety and security come to mind. And, of course, security comes in many forms: Physical, financial and psychological/emotional for starters. We take risks when we choose not to protect what gives us security but to, instead, reject security as the prime motivator of our behavior.

It would be reasonable to ask why any of this is important to us on a regular basis. I mean, we often delegate the risks of this world to others. Soldiers, fire fighters and police immediately come to mind. We kind of gaze curiously at entrepreneurs in the business world who take risks, well aware of some of the vast financial rewards available but we often don’t hear stories of the many more failures. Legends are comforting, especially to those of us not so inclined.

One of the speakers related the story of Hercules, the great god-man warrior, as powerful as anyone alive as he battled monsters of all stripes. He is the archetype of a courageous man, defying the odds, proving that a single person can overcome the most extreme and outrageous challenges. We cheer that hero and our culture can be seduced by this version of what courage is. This is not to say that men and women who enter the fray to battle bad things against all odds are not courageous. Heavens no. But the point is that this picture (observed by those of us whose lives are not punctuated by such things) can distract us from the ways that we can be courageous in a good way in the normal course of things.

If courage is about leaving comfortable behind, to what end do we do that? I’m here not to advocate for courage in and of itself. Arguably, it takes courage to do some very bad things in the pursuit of certain ends. I don’t have a specific window into why the organizers of this conference chose the theme “of good courage,” but I imagine it’s because of the nature of good.

As in courage in the cause of good. Now that’s something to think about.

What is good? As we look around at both our immediate world and the world on a larger scale, hopefully we can identify certain kinds of personal attitudes and behaviors whereby we would be “doing good.” One way to easily describe these is by recalling traditional virtues like kindness, patience, humility, compassion, honesty and such. I say traditional because they are largely applauded and accepted by the broad swath of society, if not practiced in reality. (Imagine someone standing up and extolling others to be mean, short-tempered, arrogant, heartless, dishonest, etc… That would be a difficult sell). My point is that “good” may not be all that difficult to define as a set of ideals, if not as a set of specific actions.

Which brings us to courage in both thought and deed.

I think it begins with vision as most things do. A vision that is cast around the belief that I can act to make this world a better place. Each and every day. And, by world, I mean specific things, like the people I face, not as an abstraction but as real, breathing human beings with names and stories … stories of life and death, of joys and suffering, of triumphs and defeats. This vision says that I possess certain tools that help others (as well as my own self) to flourish and be the kind of human being God calls us to be.

Layer in the courage piece and things can get really interesting. Of good courage means stepping out to take risks, real risks, in the pursuit of implementing good. It doesn’t mean joining a crowd at a demonstration. It doesn’t mean getting all fired up with one’s opinions. It means being truly willing to sacrifice something. Now, as a step, that thing being sacrificed might not be all that substantial but, then again, it might be, in which case an apt description would be courageous.

As a long time high school principal, I’m reminded of a couple of programs we ran, whereby hundreds of kids were challenged to step out of the comfort zone of their natural peer groups to seek out others who were marginalized, thereby risking status which (as most people know) is a pretty big deal for teenagers. They had to give up the comfort of relaxing downtimes (lunches, after school, for example) to step out and into the unknown with other kids who didn’t fit … to develop relationships that were largely unnatural given prevailing culture. That takes courage.

For all of us, it’s standing up to bullying in its many forms and I’m not really talking about political bullying here (although that’s a problem) but the various ways bullying goes on right in front of our faces. It takes courage to say, “This should not be happening. Stop it!”

It takes good courage to look serious illness in the face and say, “You do not define me. I will not let you take away my humanity and my purpose for being.”

It takes good courage (as one of the speakers said) to stay when it would be much easier to leave and to leave when it would be much easier to stay.

Once again, it’s being grounded in one’s values and principals that are hopefully built upon eternal truth(s) that have survived the test of time and choosing to follow them at some or great personal risk.

I’ll toss it out there that, in the end, there is no complete rest for the courageous. Yes, there is temporary rest and hopefully much comfort. But, there cannot be complete rest in the midst of a world that is so broken and full of suffering. Yes, we must rest because we are made of flesh and blood and it is natural and good for us to rest. Yes, we can rejoice in the bounty that is around us, we can find things each day that may urge us to break out in song. Yes, we can feast, have fun and join arms with all sorts of other people, some of whom we didn’t even know a minute ago. But, our work is never done. I live a reality that says we are asked to be courageous each day, about which I will say one last thing.

To be courageous is to be bold, but what is bold? I throw it out there that the most courageous thing we can do is to surrender … not to the ways of this world but to the One who was most courageous of all. That may require the greatest leap we’ll ever make. I should know. I avoided it for thirty years, despite many acts that others would equate with some form of courage and risk-taking. Being of good courage means stepping out of our protective shells into a thing and place that is not fully known but beckons nevertheless. A place so good that one cannot help but be courageous in its cause. In this place, ironically, some deemed truly courageous may respond in all honesty with something akin to “not at all. It’s nothing.” Worth thinking about. Thanks for listening.

I have written on this topic before. In our culture, where do these things exist? Yes, some people are wowed by celebrities who are larger than life figures, belying the fact of who they really are. They project manufactured images, rarely tempered by humility, or representing authenticity.

Many people are attracted to glitz, even giddily so. The latest tech tool that beckons and promises. Super animated games of fantasy and violence. With artificial realities soon to become ubiquitous, we will be able to immerse ourselves deep into unnatural worlds. Why emerge?

Competing with this are the things of life that inspire without help. Of these, some rise to the level of remarkable or even greater than that. They are things that cause us to stop in our tracks, not wanting to move lest the moment be disrupted and vanish. They are things that are felt deep in our chests as a kind of longing, perhaps even affecting our very breaths. Do we know these things?

They are not commonplace and rarely arrive bidden. They just appear and we are struck, perhaps, speechless, searching for words that express what we see, feel and experience. Our desire is that these moments do not expire but last far longer than they do. They are so powerful they are imprinted indelibly in our memories and serve to ground us in the things that are most important in this life.

My words for these are often awe and wonder. I wonder how these things are possible or how they have so affected me. To me, the wonder is the mental process that tries to make sense of the thing, to place it into context, to recognize its meaning. “Really? That’s my son, my first born, fresh into this world?” “I know. I am looking at the rings of Saturn, clearly delineated, through a telescope in my backyard. How is that possible?”

But, then, there is the awe. To me, the awe is a visceral response to the thing that we see as remarkably wonderful. It is an act of reverence, of such deep appreciation that this is actually happening and I’m a part of it. I guess I would say that awe is a first cousin to joy. Both are transcendent as they connect us to something so great and profound that the meaning of our lives is set up in stark relief.

So, the first question is, do we have these experiences? If so, when and how? If not, why not? The second question is, what do we do with them when they arrive which, hopefully, they will from time to time.

I have had these experiences from time to time. While similar in nature, they arrive with different levels of intensity. As I implied above, they don’t arrive on schedule but appear as from around a corner: One moment not there, the next moment, Hello!

I don’t know about you but I have two very different responses when the wonder rises up to the level of awe and the awe rises up to the level of … well, I don’t know how to describe it.

One response is to be struck sort of dumb, lacking the desire and ability to speak. Just take it in and don’t move. The other is the opposite. I feel the need to shout in exuberance, to reach up towards something beyond my reach, stretching my mortal body to engage what I perceive to be beyond flesh and blood. This latter one can be perceived as perhaps a milder version of hysteria, hysteria being something akin to uncontrolled emotion … and uncontrolled emotion is not something you should regularly mess around with. So, what gives?

I think it’s in the realm of what it means to abandon something for something much greater. When our eyes are open to the majestic in a way that is immensely stirring, why do we repress our emotions? Perhaps I can admit to being on the dramatic side (full disclosure: I tear up easily, especially in certain movies). I tend to feel things strongly anyway … which is an interesting counterpoint to my tendency to a hyperactive mind.

Drawn into the depths of things where the only outlet is to let what lies deep express itself outwards as opposed to staying contained, rattling around as a caged energy inside a locked box (not conducive to mental health, by the way), in my case this oftentimes manifests as exuberance or heartache (which can be good) or tears or all of the above.

The contemplative, the mystic, the stoic might look at this differently and I’m really good with that. These postures are still going deep but their emotions are largely restrained and if they are still available to wonder and awe then that’s great. But to contemplate something that does not deal in the realm of wonder and awe is not something that strikes me as consistent with what I believe to be true. No offense intended for those who have every reason to disagree.

Back to culture and reality. First of all, do we position ourselves regularly to be struck by wonder and recognize it as awesome? I may be going out on a limb but I’d bet that such phenomenon are less available within they hyperlinked milieu that increasingly typifies our existence. As we cram more and more information into shorter bits of time and space, our ability to step outside in contemplation that allows for meaning to flourish gets reduced. No wonder (no pun intended) that artificial reality is such a draw and may become the overriding reality for many of us in the very near future. I believe we are hardwired to wonder and to be awestruck and most of us will seek it one way or another. As mentioned before, we’ll evaluate people (celebrities, athletes, politicians) into the role of superhuman and marvel at their prowess. What’s worth remarking upon, however, is that we then elevate their beliefs to the level of the sacred, while they may have little clue as to the true significance of things. In this sense, our wonder and awe are misdirected, at least in my judgment. We can marvel at good athletic or acting skills but let’s leave it at that. There is a difference to me, in the matter of degree, between sincere appreciation and the conscious experience of something that is transcendent to normal human phenomenon. And, I think that something delivers a level of meaning to our lives that is not just deep but reflects an echo of who we are in the very best sense of what it means to be human.

I readily admit that I lack the sophistication of a highly trained philosopher, psychologist or theologian so I’m sure these opinions are probably faulty in some respect. I also recognize I’m only touching the surface of things that deserve much more delineation not possible in this format. But, they are my thoughts as I contemplate the nature of my own experience and the experience of others with whom I am familiar. I’ll leave it there for now! Thanks for listening.