In stage five: both spiritual abundance and need

Continued from a previous series of posts on the stages of spiritual growth . . . In Stage Five, you are now moved by the Spirit outward again in love, a love that compels you into an experience of abundance you've not know up to this point. In the past, it was mostly your head that directed you--"shoulds" and "oughts" kept you moving forward, caring for others, keeping your practices. But now, in Stage Five, your heart directs you, and your head serves your heart of love. There is, as Jesus promised, a "stream of living water welling up inside you" (John 7.38).

In this stage, spiritual guidance is necessary to help you discern what this Power within your is impelling you to be and do. You sense God's greater purpose for you, but what exactly that means may not be clear to you.

You will still suffer in this stage as much (or even more) that you did before. But now you draw strength from the unfathomable resources of the Spirit, and from your real experience of ongoing union with Christ. You may even sense an "unceasing prayer" (1 Thessalonians 5.17) beginning to form in your heart--an expression of communion with the Trinity that flows within you without your effort.

Lastly, you may find yourself struggling with a nagging frustration despite the presence of God's love in your heart. Your love for God and others, combined with your commitment to God's righteousness and justice, may lead you to do things that are perceived as odd, dangerous, and sometimes counter to the mainstream of the society around you. In addition, you may be disinterested in things that interest most other people, and your passions and interests will probably not be shared by most of those around you. This can lead to a sense of loneliness and isolation even in the midst of a strong community.

In this stage, you will need to seek out others who are emerging from Stage Four and the Wall, people who share your experiences and who can serve as companions as you journey deeper into the fullness of Christ.

To be continued . . .

Practicing Relinquishment: An Interview with John Gabel

Distraction is epidemic. You don't have to look at the driver texting in the car beside you to witness this truth. You are distracted--much more than you'd like to be. Real focus, concentration, and the kind of awareness that brings us back to our senses spiritually, bringing us happiness and meaning, requires some degree of relinquishment.

In this interview, John Gabel talks about what relinquishment means in his life and how this neglected spiritual practice is enriching his daily experience.

An interfaith prayer for 9/11

Here's the invocation I offered tonight at the 9/11 Commemoration Service to an interfaith group meeting at the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno.  Note, I was asked by the director of the center to pray specifically as a Christian and not minimize my theological/spiritual convictions.

Almighty God, we call upon you tonight as memories of September 11, 2001 weigh heavily on our hearts. We recall our horror and shock when buildings tumbled and planes fell and people perished.

We remember our fear and anger our confusion and despair, the sense of vulnerability and insecurity that's been with us ever since.

The world has changed, and we have too.

But today, we come, resolved to be people of faith, taught by our sacred texts, comforted by your presence, instructed by your Wisdom, given hope by the friendship we share despite our differences, and committed to work together as people of peace, working for the reconciliation of the world, to you and to each other.

Come among us now, awaken us to your presence within us, drive fear and suspicion far from us-- for they are not the fruit of your Spirit.

Instead, open us to the power of your love, that we may love you with all our hearts and souls and minds and strength, and to love each other, for we are all made to be "partakers of your divine nature" (2 Peter 1.4)

So, may we turn our grief into action for the sake of your love for us and for all your world.

We ask this of you whom we call by many names, you, who have revealed in Jesus-- who lay down his life rather than take up arms-- what it means to live a life pleasing and honorable to you who call us to love one another.

Amen.

Spirituality and parenting older teens

From a note to myself when my sons were in their late teens.  I was struggling as a father to give them the direction they needed while learning to step away and let them find their path.  Never as easy dance!  But parents must learn to adjust parenting approaches as kids develop.  That adjustment requires a spirituality that enables the shifts to take place, an experience of prayerfulness that make releasing our kids possible:

Why do I try to manage the path my sons take? Managing them isn't really about them; it's about me. I'm only projecting my anxiety upon them, fueling their self-doubt, their resentment. Their life is their life, not mine. What they most need is my love, my confidence and wisdom when they ask for it, my presence when they approach me.   So, don't answer questions they're not asking. Don't do for them what they don't want done. Don't suggest what's not on their minds. And don't protect them from their mistakes---even their serious ones. Remember your youth. remember that you've not learned anything worth learning without pain. Tend to your own life, prayerfulness, wholeness---your own path. There's enough work in that alone. Love what is, not what should be, could be, or would be if only . . . .  Crucifiy your illusions, idolatries, ideals. Delight instead in everything here and now. This is life. You have no other.

They know your values. They know what works, even if they're unconscious to it now. Let them fail and put their own practices into play, learning their own values---which may or may not be yours. That is success. But keep pushing and demanding, and you'll not only push them away, you'll cripple them.  Do what you want and need to do. No more. And keep watch over your wounds that can quickly turn to stifling, oppressive demands that make us all into losers.

Leadership models from the 4th century

From my journals.  Monday, May 21, 2007 St. Macarius Monastery, Wadi Natrun, Egypt

Merton writes that we won't find the likes of the desert fathers and mothers today---not even in Skete. What the fathers did had not been done before. With them "you have the characteristic of a clean break with a conventional, accepted social context in order to swim for one's life into an apparently irrational void."

The examples and sayings of the Desert Fathers have become themselves conventional stereotypes, models for the accepted social context of monasticism which is no longer shocking.

"We are no longer able to notice their fabulous originality," writes Merton. "We cannot do exactly what they did. But we must be as thorough and as ruthless in our determination to break all spiritual chains, and cast off the domination of alien compulsions, to find our true selves, to discover and develop our inalienable spiritual liberty and use it to build, on earth, the Kingdom of God. We need to learn from these men of the fourth century how to ignore prejudice, defy compulsion, and strike out fearlessly into the unknown."