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This is my first writing in OneLife written in this year. I hope the writings inspired you last year in your growth in Christ-likeness, and I pray the same will be the case in 2009. Feel free to contact me at barukhattah@embarqmail.com to offer suggestions on how I might better serve you through this ministry in 2009.
Blessings,
Brian K. Wilcox, Pastor and Author
We cannot play around with just the body, or just the emotions, or with interesting spiritual and metaphysical cosmologies, and be content to call this transformation - or even holistic medicine. A shift in attitude can be an important first step, but it is often just a platitude, and in my experience of working in this field it is barely enough. People can be led to say what makes them and us believe that they have gotten the part right, have really grown and changed. But it is so often a performance-level intervention, a reshuffling of the furniture within the same structure, a redistribution of energy within the same pattern.
*Richard Moss. The I That Is We.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect [whole, complete, mature].
*Romans 12.2, ESV
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared [in Jesus Christ], he saved us [rescued us], not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration [rebirth] and renewal of the Holy Spirit,...
*Titus 3.4-5, ESV
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The call to be a spiritual Christ-follower is not principally to get "the part right." We are given a relationship with the Mysterious Trinity based on "mercy," not our "righteousness." So, the grace that initiates is the principle that applies for the unfolding of that beginning in a life-long pilgrimage. We can get the part right and for all the wrong reasons. The call is to go beyond that and past a performance-level.
At any level of spiritual development, we can have many and varied "spiritual" experiences. We can even get addicted to these experiences and, thus, stay stuck, rather than be moved to a new configuration of maturation. We can wrongly interpret these experiences, also, due to their differences, as proving faith transformation.
Yet, transformation, or renewal, in a biblical sense entails a move to a new configuration, a new level of experience in Christ and as part of His Body. In this movement is a never-before energy redistribution.
Therefore, the "washing of regeneration," implied in baptism, is a sacrament and sign of an on-going conversion of heart and mind. On-going conversion is spiritual transformation. Baptism is a signified promise of the potential inherent in the seed of faith in Christ as God and Savior.
This renewal is "of the Holy Spirit." This means the Holy Spirit initiates and inspires the response from us that leads to ongoing transformation. Without the Holy Spirit's inspiration, or in-breathing, a person will not endure the challenges of ongoing conversion. A church without a consistent Spiritual inspiration will settle for maintenance of its present status and, thus, begin a decline in spiritual vision and ardor.
A more clear discernment is resultant of this transformation. At each new level of spiritual maturation, we see things differently, we feel things differently, and we have a reshifting of our very discernment of God's general will for all and will for us individually. If I did not, in spiritual terms, have a transformation and enhancement in seeing, feeling, and discernment in spiritual matters since last January, then, I am either stuck in maintaining the level of spiritual growth I was at then or have move downward in a fall pattern.
Much that sells as "spirituality" is likely little more than tantalizing shits of practice or thought, not means to true spiritual transformation. This is one reason we can benefit from reading the great classical writers in Christian spirituality: for example, when you read John of the Cross or Teresa of Avila, they give you no pretty roses picture of faith transformation. They show clearly that there is no short-cut to growing in Christ-likeness.
For example, note how John of the Cross speaks, in The Spiritual Canticle [stanza 3:5], of the wholeness demanded of us in seeking for our Spouse: "Since seeking God demands a heart naked, strong, and free from all evils and goods which are not purely God, the soul speaks ... of the freedom and fortitude one should possess in looking for Him."
Grace may be free, but grace seems to get more costly, though more precious, the closer your heart gets to Christ's heart. The blessings are well worth the expenditures.
So, 2008 is over. We are now in 2008. Let us plan specific means to engage to experience transformation this year. I myself am exploring a daily and nightly pattern of praying the traditional Hours, one that fits my needs and challenges me to stretch myself more than I am comfortable doing so.
Looking back over 2008, I confess, I failed often in being the Christ-like person I wanted to be. There were situations I lost touch with Christ-likeness. I failed a few challenges that tested me. That is a way of saying I have much growing yet to become like Christ in the way I long to be like Him.
Our failures in being like Christ are discerned by others and us not to hold us back, but to enlighten and inspire us. The tension of seeing what we are not is part of the energy that propels us to become what we can become.
Regardless of how many times you fall short, if you are growing even a little to be more like Christ, Grace's economy is proving effective in making you more a Presence of Christ in the world. Amen.
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*Charitable contributions would be appreciated to assist Brian in continuing his ministry. For contributions, contact Brian at barukhattah@embarqmail.com . Brian is in need of more funding to purchase a desk-top computer, after his was hit by lightening and is inoperable.
*The Spiritual Canticle is in The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross. Trans. K. Kavanaugh and O. Rodriguez.
*Brian's book of spiritual love poetry, An Ache for Union: Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major booksellers or the Cokesbury on-line store, cokesbury.com .
*Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist Pastor, lives in Southwest Florida. He is a vowed member of Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in South Georgia. He lives a contemplative life and seeks to inspire others to enjoy a more intimate relationship with Christ. Brian advocates for a spiritually-focused, experiential Christianity and renewal of the Church through addressing the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons.
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