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Scripture ~ II Thessalonians 2.13-14 (NCV)
13 Brothers and sisters, whom the Lord loves, God chose you from the beginning[a] to be saved. So we must always thank God for you. You are saved by the Spirit that makes you holy and by your faith in the truth. 14 God used the Good News that we preached to call you to be saved so you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Musings of a Modern Day Mystic
This, today, speaks to my heart a warm and powerful message ~ the Spirit consecrates me. I am made holy. Yes, me, even me.
I must return again and again, then, to this simple, uncomplicated truth that sets me free from all the other voices that say that my identity and worth rest in a place other than this gracious act of being made holy. This truth is: Before saying or doing anything, I am eternally in the Heart of the Divine.
My early acceptance of Christ and baptism, later at age nine, is an event in time arising out of Eternity. This chosenness is a mystery I cannot fathom, one that blissfully directs my mind and heart backward. I can pull that memory into the present, with its demands, uncertainties, and complications. That memory of being set apart to God and by God, in Whom I live eternally and Who is Eternity, is the source for my identity and place in this world. For if I forget my eternal identity with and in God, in Eternity, I shall yield to the facile and unreliable, though highly esteemed, identities offered me within time. I cannot rightly live for God in time, if I forget my identity in God outside time.
Only this anchors me, this consecration, this eternally being spirit in the Spirit. And I feel that this consecration, then, is to be lived as true and reliable, though I am often pulled away to find my security in other identities.
Therefore, my life must be one not defined by success, but defined by faithfulness. And I cannot be faithful to God without being faithful to who I truly am. And I cannot be faithful to who I truly am without being faithful to God.
This is why I must, in all my embodied particularity and, yes, oddity, get up in the mornings and rest in God through spiritual reading and meditation. This is why I must return to my Ground of Being through the day and night. In Returning, this Quiet, I experience Poverty of Spirit. I am emptied of all else except my being in God and for God. Then, the consecration is renewed, and I will more likely offer the world something much more needed than this personality persons call Brian.
And likely the most burdensome identities placed on me is the religious ones. Heaven to me will mean freedom from even the most apparently sacred identities. My heart longs to be free of all such identities, for my heart knows each such appellation is a step away from my True Self.
Now, how to better live this Self in the midst of all the other identities, that is the quandary I face, now. With the help of Grace, I shall learn how better to do this, and my true heart will find a more spacious and free way of being among others. Indeed, my life will be a more able invitation to others to discover their own being in God and its particular consecration.
Suggested Reflection
What does it mean to be consecrated?
What is meant by Poverty of Spirit?
Brian is available to respond to requests pertaining to seeking a Spiritual Director, his speaking, doing classes, workshops, or retreats for churches or other spiritual groups. He will inform regarding how to receive his other writings or offer replies to comments or questions.
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*Brian K. Wilcox lives with his wife, Rocio, and their two dogs, St. Francis and Bandit Ty, in Clearwater and Punta Gorda, Florida. He is a United Methodist pastor and vowed member of Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in Georgia. His passion is living a contemplative life and inspiring others to experience a deeper relationship with Christ through contemplative prayer and living.
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