detangling life (pt.2)
I imagine myself talking to someone else about simplifying life, and right away, I hear them saying, "Isn't that just a kind of escapism? Aren't we supposed to be engaging the world around us with the gospel?" Is a life of simplicity "escapism"? You stop doing so much. You say "No." to good things. You lose touch with some friends. You stay in with your family instead of going to see the latest 'culturally relevant' film. You can't "make a difference."
Sure, but how many of the "many things" that constitute our busy-ness do we do well? What if an integrated life (which is one part of what I mean when I talk about simplicity) is one part of embodying the life of the age to come? So what if I escape certain things so that I may be fully present and engaged in a few important things?
Understand that it is my better self that is pulling the rest of me toward this. I am often restless when I am at home. I want to go do things and watch films and hang out in the cafe. But when I have submitted to the Spirit's direction to stay home and spend a quiet night doing 'nothing' with Torie (because she is the one through whom the Spirit spoke), I find great resonance with Foster's experience: "I had touched the margin of simplicity, and the effect was electrifying."
More, please. And less, please, too.
Sure, but how many of the "many things" that constitute our busy-ness do we do well? What if an integrated life (which is one part of what I mean when I talk about simplicity) is one part of embodying the life of the age to come? So what if I escape certain things so that I may be fully present and engaged in a few important things?
Understand that it is my better self that is pulling the rest of me toward this. I am often restless when I am at home. I want to go do things and watch films and hang out in the cafe. But when I have submitted to the Spirit's direction to stay home and spend a quiet night doing 'nothing' with Torie (because she is the one through whom the Spirit spoke), I find great resonance with Foster's experience: "I had touched the margin of simplicity, and the effect was electrifying."
More, please. And less, please, too.
posted by joel at 8:40 PM
3 Comments:
I think of my own situation. I have refocused my energies on the disciplines. Prayer, meditation, and reading have occupied my time. However, this focus has led me into a much clearer dialogue with the Spirit. This should be the goal, right. Well, I was warned, rather gently thankfully, of being lured into the addiction of religious experience. Wow, I thought, I am going down that road? I realized that I must constantly refocus my energies on the here and now. How does what the Spirit is saying to me change me as a husband, father, friend, ministry leader, teacher, etc. Getting a proper focus on where the Lord is keeps me from dealing to much in ascetic practices in order to gain some mystical experience. This is so hard, though, because those moments are the ones everyone seems to want to hear about. The moments God wants to hear about are, "I encouraged my brother today." "I washed my wifes car today." "I changed my babies diaper while singing a Third Day Worship song."
"We storm the walls of our own imprisonment when we struggle to overcome self-centeredness, when we stretch to build avenues of communion with reality beyond our own self, whatever it happens to be...With each step of life comes the background question "What is reality asking of us now?" challenging us to respond wholeheartedly, willingly. We escape and leave behind the self that is holed up with its own concerns, and breathe the fresh air of otherness."
(The Monks of New Skete, In the Spirit of Happiness, page 87)
Yeah, it takes vigilance to remember that the disciplines are not the goal--nor is a spiritual experience. The goal is to become the kind of person who easily and naturally cooperates with God's work in God's world--including changing diapers, dressing wounds, listening to others, serving tables, and resting from your work.
Thanks for your thoughts. I was just thinking about that tension on my way home today.
Yes, vigilence is a good word for it. There will always be that constant pull away from my center in Jesus Christ. I feel this pull from compulsions, stress over the future, ruminations of the past, and feelings of being wronged. I even, and mostly probably, feel it from "good" pursuits. Journaling, meditation, prayer, reading, and blogging. I am constantly wanting to pull away from the reality of God's presence. Why? I think it is because His presence is so real and penetrating. It illuminates thoroughly and unequivically and this is oftentimes uncomfortable. However, it is also transforming. His light dispels my darkness. His light and love rejuvenate me with a fresh dose of reality. I am now beginning to realize that Christ is constantly calling me to follow him from a quiet center grounded in the reality only he can provide. It is in that center of my being that he calls to me in the midst of my preoccupations. He continually whispers, "be still and know that I am God". It is my response to this call that makes the fruits of the spirit and the kingdom for that matter wide open to me. This realization has profoundly affected my relationship with my wife, my work, and my service in the church. I am still, yes, yet I am far from being isolated. What an empowering feeling this is. This reality can only be found one place. The stillness of being centered in Christ and knowing that He alone directs my paths.
Without such an alert consciousness, we will repeatedly drift into unconscious ways of acting, habitually making the same mistakes, and being chronically unhappy. When we correctly and wisely will to love, we progressively leave behind the sense of isolation brought about by exaggerated individualism and self-protection. Our intentional thoughts and acts of love create a further readiness to love within us, which in turn, enables us to form the habit of loving, to practice the art of loving. This fosters our own spiritual integration. It makes us better able to give our best in each situation of life, to change things for the better. This is the challenge of a fully human life, of an authentic and spiritual inner life, and the real meaning of happiness.(The Monks of New Skete, In the Spirit of Happiness, page 250)
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