What I am trying to describe here is the sacred gift of seeing, the ability to peer beyond the veil and gaze with astonished wonder upon the beauties and mysteries of things holy and eternal. A. W. Tozer
To see is to discern with clarity what is…
C.S. Lewis addressed what he saw as the oncoming blindness to what is in his book The Abolition of Man.
Plato before him had said the same. The little human animal will not at first have the right responses. It must be trained to feel pleasure, liking, disgust, and hatred at those things which really are pleasant, likeable, disgusting and hateful. In the Republic, the well-nurtured youth is one ‘who would see most clearly whatever was amiss in ill-made works of man or ill-grown works of nature, and with a just distaste would blame and hate the ugly even from his earliest years and would give delighted praise to beauty, receiving it into his soul and being nourished by it, so that he becomes a man of gentle heart. All this before he is of an age to reason; so that when Reason at length comes to him, then, bred as he has been, he will hold out his hands in welcome and recognize her because of the affinity he bears to her.
Reason, both C.S. Lewis and Plato insist, follows a natural conformity to the existing harmony of the Universe – to what is. To see is to recognize this, much like a beginning piano player must strain to learn the existing workings of the piano and how dancing her fingers across the keys can create something beautiful.
To see and know what is, then, precedes reason. Reason flows into us once we take in the wonder – the splendor – of the true nature of being.
Today’s episode is a review of the previous six episodes, where Jesus concludes his Sermon on the Mount as a revelation of the true nature of being and then proceeds to immediately fulfill the deepest desires of a man gripped by suffering to be restored to his true nature.
And in all of these episodes, all the while as Jesus is opening our eyes to us what is, he is also peering directly into the depths of our souls to reveal our longings, our needs, and our blindness to the truth and whispers to us, “I see you – and I want to heal you.”
Source Scripture
Matthew 7:13-14
Matthew 7:15-20; Luke 6:43-45
Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 6:46
Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 6:47-49
Matthew 7:28-29
Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16
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The whole purpose of spiritual direction is to penetrate beneath the surface of a man’s life, to get behind the façade of conventional gestures and attitudes which he presents to the world, and to bring out his inner spiritual freedom, his inmost truth, which is what we call the likeness of Christ in his soul. Thomas Merton
Acceptance – we yearn for it in our inmost being. We long for others to accept us as we are, and yet we are terrified that who we are – which includes our shortcomings, our fears, our secret stories of horror, the terrible things we have thought and done – will repel others and deny us the very acceptance we seek.
And so we don costumes, adapting some role that isn’t us, hoping to finally earn acceptance. But is it really acceptance if we gain it as someone other than our true self?
Maintaining the false self requires exerting so much effort that we then collapse when in solitude and wonder why we feel so empty, lonely, and starved for the very thing we created the false self in the first place – acceptance.
Your deepest desires for acceptance cannot and will not be met until your true self can safely and wholly emerge in full view of another that has an enthusiastic willingness to approach, to touch, to wipe away tears, to gently clean away all impurities to reveal the beauty that lies beneath – you.
When your desire for acceptance, free of costume, meets and grasps the divine desire to accept you for who you really are – you have reached the most sacred space on all earth – the axis mundi – where heaven meets earth. Where the divine meets – and embraces – you.
Source Scripture
Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16
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Extras
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Recommended Reading
The Hidden Order of Intimacy: Reflections on the Book of Leviticus
Woe to him who cannot tell the difference between the fear of objective truth—a truth which exposes us to our lies in order to show us the fundamental love at the heart of reality—and the fear of the false universe which our world injects into us. Jacob Needleman
Gravity is an objective reality – it exists whether we are conscious of it or not. And gravity not only exists. It exerts. Its force acts upon us at all times. And as such, we construct our world in order to accommodate it – even when we aren’t conscious of it. At crucial times, to not have a keen awareness of the presence and power of gravity is to risk harm or death.
It is one thing to read in a book that the gravitational force exerted on a free-falling body results in an acceleration of that body of 9.8 m/s/s. It is quite another to thing to lose your footing on the precipice of a steep cliff and realize that if you don’t regain your balance immediately, you will be that free-falling body.
Our modern way of thinking has created a false dichotomy between truth and experience. We have become obsessed with the reduction of truth into facts: atomic sentences and numbers and equations that we can use as a periodic table of elements.
But this obsession holds no real power. No matter how well you know that two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen combine to form water, this fact will not help you when you are on your knees in the desert and dying of thirst.
Water is life, and your experience of consuming it is vital.
Spiritual truths exemplify this need for active participation even more deeply. A sacred text is not sacred because it reveals truth in written form. It is sacred when and only when the truth in the text connects the spirits of both reader and writer and the experience of sacred communion takes place.
Facts stripped of truth and immersive experience are lifeless at best and oppressive at worst. But when spirit meets truth – yours and the divine – you lose your mind and find your soul.
So if you’re stuck in your head and dying of thirst in a land of facts, it’s time to strike out on a new adventure.
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For Meditation
“The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.” Psalms 65:8 NIV
Once we are anchored in our essential being, we become aware that a core that nothing can destroy exists in us. From this we gain stability and permanence. We acquire a composure that is independent of the world, a clear sense of inner direction, and above all, a self-confidence that is independent of the world’s praise or blame. The personal significance of ‘being center’ is that we can so live in the midst of all the ups and downs of life that we receive strength, purpose and direction from essential being. Imperturbable and at peace, we ceaselessly pursue our inner destiny and so manifest Divine Being in this life in the world. Karlfried Graf Durkheim
Our quest for peace – contentment, rest, fulfillment – is, paradoxically, most often filled with frustration, anger, exhaustion, and even rage. Make more money, acquire necessary things, secure fulfilling relationships, and fulfill sensual desires.
Over and over again, great obstacles present themselves. Storms arise. Obstacles roll over us. People thwart us. Disasters destroy all that we have worked for and take away those that we love.
And when we find ourselves naked and afraid – when all is lost except loss itself – where do we go? What do we do?
We could, like the great phoenix, resolve to rise from the ashes and rebuild our lives by starting over and repeating our quest.
Or, perhaps we could reconsider the quest itself and reexamine what it is we seek.
If what we seek is peace, which is an inward state of being – a mode of consciousness – then why do we assume at the outset that our quest must be the triumphal conquest of external circumstance?
If what we truly desire is an inward oasis, then our quest must be an inner odyssey.
The journey to fulfillment lies wholly within. And the deeper we go, the more this truth becomes clear to us, until in our spirit we arrive at the very ground of our being and discover there that the truth really does set you free.
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The only thing that can save us from our irascibly self-centered existence is to make sure that our existence is in the service of others. Mark Shrime
Without conscious and concerted effort, our focus will always be on ourselves. What we want. What we need. What we’ll do to get what we want and need.
This focus reveals our purpose – which, if we are honest, is to bend the world and all that is in it in our favor. We desire to be seen and to be valued, and with this focus we devise actions that will garner attention, gain praise, and earn love. When we fail, as we inevitably will, we become increasingly discontent and grow more likely to reduce others to the role of competitor, ally, enemy, or tool.
Such self-centered living is destined to fail, despite our rational thoughts to the contrary and despite seeing those we idolize post their social proof. The human soul is not designed to be selfish – it is designed to serve. It is designed to be a cup that receives divine love from above and pours it out freely here below.
Soul-centered living brings freedom and opens the doorway into the kingdom of heaven. Self-centeredness, in its desperation to justify itself, has a way of pretending to be righteous with magic tricks that may fool the eye at first glance. But all that hocus focus cannot and will not ever serve us or others.
Today, we’ll expose the magic tricks that attempt to make self-centeredness disappear, and we’ll rediscover the true meaning of life.
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Stay away from lazy parasites, who perch on you just to satisfy their needs, they do not come to alleviate your burdens, hence, their mission is to distract, detract and extract, and make you live in abject poverty. Michael Bassey Johnson
What gives? The sun gives light and warmth. A mother gives milk and hugs and nurture. Birdsong brings smiles. The forest offers solace. The moon and the stars above give a sense of awe and perspective below. Friends provide comfort. Children bring joy. Trees bear fruit. Sheep provide wool.
What takes? Light pollution takes away the splendor of the night sky. Thieves seize what is not theirs. Accidents, war, and disease take loved ones. Litter takes away beauty. Thorns take blood. Wolves take life.
We are attracted to what gives. We are suspicious at best or terrified at worst of what takes.
Knowing this natural law of attraction and avoidance, some costume themselves as what gives, but behind the mask is a liar. A thief. A murderer.
Today, we learn how to identify these masked marauders – particularly those who claim to give goodness and truth and guidance when in fact they are only after what they can get out of us.
To take is human. To give, divine.
Let’s open our eyes to the divine to see what gives.
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Made for spirituality, we wallow in introspection. Made for joy, we settle for pleasure. Made for justice, we clamor for vengeance. Made for relationship, we insist on our own way. Made for beauty, we are satisfied with sentiment. But new creation has already begun. The sun has begun to rise. Christians are called to leave behind, in the tomb of Jesus Christ, all that belongs to the brokenness and incompleteness of the present world … That, quite simply, is what it means to be Christian: to follow Jesus Christ into the new world, God’s new world, which he has thrown open before us. – N.T. Wright
In order to attain what we desire most, we mistakenly believe that we must move forward, acquire more, learn much, guard relentlessly, achieve fame, win awards, and stockpile power.
And yet, our true desires are never met by our effort, ingenuity, or winsome charisma. Our true desires – the ones that emanate from the ground of our being and refuse to quiet their call until we fulfill them – are found through simple, quiet, effortless means.
Finding fulfillment in this life does not come by learning, but by unlearning. It does not come by grasping, but by releasing. Not by pursuing, but by surrendering to being pursued. Not by leading, but by following. And not by demanding, but by accepting.
The gateway to paradise – the kingdom of heaven – exists on this side of the grave. It stands open for all who would enter.
Finding that gate….is the focus of today’s episode.
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Extras
Beyond the surface affirmations that come through our achievements and social contacts, we long to be seen and celebrated for that which is deeply good and worthwhile in us, and we long for a love that is strong enough to contain our frailty and sinfulness. Something in us knows such love is a transforming power. Ruth Haley Barton
When Adam and Eve hid from God amidst the trees of the Garden of Eden, clad with fig leaves sewn by trembling fingers, they for the first time in their lives feared being in the presence of God. Before the fall of paradise, they were unashamed to be fully seen and known. But now, they lived with a new reality: to be fully known came coupled with the horrifying dread of rejection.
And as they shuddered in the shadows, God called to them. He came to them. And though their shame was as much their own making as their fig leaf coverings, God gently took away both – covering them with love and the skins of of the first creature to ever die.
God’s love enveloped both their worth and their failure, held in the tension between the curses of Paradise Lost and the promise of paradise regained through a future descendant of Eve.
We live in that fallen state – it infects us today. We long equally to be fully known and fully loved, yet we believe the former inherently negates the latter. This leaves us in a terrible state, for we see the love really want on one horizon and who we really are on the other. Trapped in desperation of a world of our own making, we hopelessly run toward one or the other. To run toward love, we believe, we must cloak and costume our true selves, leading inevitably to a false version of love for a false version of ourselves.
And when we can take no more of this, we turn back toward the other horizon, back to ourselves. But, where is this place from whence we came? The landscape looks different now than when we left. We are lost. We search desperately for who we really are, but in so doing the more we discover leads us farther and farther away from the love of anyone who could ever embrace what we find.
And yet, what we do not see or grasp as we run back and forth like little flatlanders who can fathom only two dimensions, a divine voice cries out from above in love, asking the same question asked of Adam and Eve. Where are you?
God’s love seeks us. It searches us out. God is love, and He is capable of loving us fully and knowing us fully, awakening us to and rescuing us from the torturous, writhing, fallen state of forever believing we must choose between experiencing love and being seen for who we are.
Once rescued, we find paradise regained. All we ever desired returns to us.
And then – we find ourselves with one new desire – the desire to do for others what was done for us.
This is the golden rule of engagement.
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Extras
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. C.S. Lewis
Desire is so fundamental to our nature that we often overlook its significance. Its guiding force. We are created – designed – to desire and to be satisfied.
Desire and satisfaction were part of Paradise before the fall. When God created the world and saw that it was good, he rested. When Adam and Eve worked the garden each day, they would stop in the evening and walk in the cool of the day beside the divine God of the Universe. And when they were hungry, they found satisfaction from taking the fruit of any tree in the garden.
Except one, of course.
The serpent injected venom into Eve’s desires and bent them toward the forbidden. Forget God and what He said, the serpent suggested, and become like him by eating from this tree.
Eve, having then entertained the idea of going against God’s guidance, looked at the fruit of the tree. The Scriptures say she saw three things that she desired: she saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom.
And so, in an attempt to satisfy those desires, she took the forbidden fruit. And ate it. And then gave some to Adam, who was standing next to her.
Adam and Eve abandoned their natural, divine provisions that would naturally meet their desires and grasped for something outside the realm of God’s desire.
And yet, though we call this event the Fall – or Paradise Lost – what we find is God’s desire only beginning to reveal itself. God came to the garden in the cool of the day to find Adam and Eve, desiring to walk with them. He called to them when he could not find them, desiring their presence. And once they confessed their sin, He covered their shame with animal skins that he sacrificed, desiring to relieve their shame. He handed down discipline and ejected them from the garden, but left them alive and well, desiring to continue to be a part of their lives. And the rest of Scripture is the story of God’s divine pursuit – his holy desire – to win us back from doing the same thing over and over again – trying to gratify our desires with anything other than Him and His provision.
God’s desire is us. And when we loosen our grip on the forbidden fruit and take our eyes off its deceptive appearances, we find that what we really desire ourselves is God. And when God’s desires and ours converge, Paradise is regained.
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