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Lenten Devotionals 2007
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
When the Creator began making the sky and earth, the earth was shapeless and barren. Darkness was everywhere. A mighty wind hovered like a mother bird over the primal waters. The Creator spoke, "Let light appear." And there was light.
*Genesis 1.1-3 (Brian K. Wilcox)
Note: "Mighty wind" can read "God's Wind," or "God's Spirit."
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS
Yesterday, I had some chaos. Many persons, for they see me in my extroverted pastoral role, do not know how shy I naturally am. Yet, in my new role as a Chaplain, I felt a need to be introduced to employees where I work. I asked a friend who works at the site, to introduce me. So, we walked around and this shy guy met a large group of individuals. This was not easy for me, and more so because it was in a complex related to law enforcement. That is not the "world" I generally move about in. Yet, now being a Chaplain at the jail, I needed to push myself to get known exactly there in that "world." After it was all over, I had faced my unease, and felt very well about it. The inner chaos of shyness had been an opportunity to stretch myself and feel better as a professional by doing so. Beyond that, I got to meet some wonderful people.
Have you ever had a significant move in your spiritual progress without a preceding period or event of chaos? We seem to need a shock or disturbing unrest to move us onward to the next step of spiritual emergence.
Could we say our soul thrives on chaos? Caroline Myss, in Entering the Castle, says: "Paradoxically, your soul thrives on chaos because it recognizes the hand of the divine at work in upheavals that push you toward transformation."
Myss writes about the four veils of God. These are progressive experiences of God, to which we emerge, or grow into.
1) Organic Divinity
Our personality - our ego - seeks to utilize the idea of God to keep order in our world - to stave off chaos. Our faith in rooted in our instincts. Prayers are mainly about getting good things from God - security, health, protection, happiness, pleasure, ... - and warding off threats. We may lose faith in God, if God does not meet our basic needs - as we esteem those needs -, and we demand God be consistent in doing that.
If you observe how you usually pray, you will see where you are in spiritual emergence. If you know how anyone prays generally, you know how mature spiritually is the person. As we move through aspects of spiritual maturity, our prayers take on the nature of the development we have emerged into.
2) Conscience and Personal Choice
God is more the moral compass - the sense of duty and dignity. Divinity appears in sense of right and wrong and better and best. God is seen as consistently just. We are more empowered personally to make creative decisions; we are more free of the earlier ego-dependence on God.
3) Inner Guidance
God is becoming the Inner Voice of revelation and guidance. We are more intuitive. We are asking questions about our soul - like, "What is my sacred destiny?," "What is God?," "How might I enjoy union with the Divine?," not about our mere physical existence or ethics.
4) Mysticism
We still integrate into our spiritual lives basic, instinctual needs; the power of moral and creative decision-making; guiding and revelations of Spirit. However, all things flow "downward" from the soul into these other areas. Living in union with the Divine has become our habitual lifestyle, whereas before we had infrequent experiences of direct union with God.
See, repentance is not simply about release from sin. This turning away from can include a letting go, a repenting of, living at a spiritual unfolding into a larger, more inclusive embrace of Spirit.
The goal in the spiritual life is harmony. We want to grow into harmony of body, mind, and soul. Here, the needs of our physical selves - including emotions - and intellect are harmonized with the needs and demands of the soul, our Center of divinity.
Yet, again, chaos is an ingredient in this harmonizing. And holy Spirit seems to relish using chaos for spiritual growth.
It seems from the soul we often create chaos, when our soul logic - not general intelligence - knows we need it. We may complain, but we created the disorder in agreement with our spiritual need.
The key is to create good chaos. We cannot create godless or foolish disorder and say, "Well, that was good, because it helped me grow." And we should never claim God creates difficulty contradicting the nature of God as Love.
The Bible begins with chaos. God took that formless voidness and made a world of beauty and fullness. That indicates how Spirit likes to take the chaos of our lives and use that to grow us in more mature expressions of Christlikeness, and more and more fully in union with Love, or God.
SPIRITUAL EXERCISE
1) Prayerfully reflect where you are located mainly at in your Christian journey. One way is to be honest about the kinds of things you pray about and for, and the mode of your prayer.
2) Reflect on one time of chaos or a chaotic event you sense God used to push you to a leap in spiritual growth.
3) Are you going through any chaos now that might be a way your soul is trying to grow?
4) Why do you think we tend to need chaos for spiritual growth?
5) Is all chaos that produces spiritual growth good chaos? Explain your response.
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*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian K. Wilcox, of SW Florida. Brian is pastor at Christ Community United Methodist Church, Harbour Heights, FL, and Senior Chaplain for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, Punta Gorda, FL.
*Brian welcomes responses to his writings or submission of prayer requests at barukhattah@embarqmail.com .
*Contact the above email to book Brian for Spiritual Direction, retreats, or workshops. You can order his book An Ache for Union at major book dealers.
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