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Welcome to OneLife Ministries. This site is designed to lead you prayerfully into a heart experience of Divine Presence, Who is Love. While it focuses on Christian teaching, I hope persons of varied faiths will find inspiration here. Indeed, "God" can be whatever image helps us trust in the Sacred, by whatever means Grace touches us each. Please share this ministry with others, and please return soon. There is a new offering daily. And to be placed on the daily OneLife email list, to request notifications of new writings or submit prayer requests, write to briankwilcox@yahoo.com .
Blessings,
Brian Kenneth Wilcox MDiv, MFT, PhD
Interspiritual Pastor-Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader,
Spiritual Counselor, and Chaplain.
Affirmation
God is bringing into my life persons to support my spiritual evolution.
Close your eyes, let arise into your mind persons in the last few years, or year, or months, or weeks that you see God has brought to support you spiritually. Name each one, and give thanks for each one. Call one soon, and let him or her know how he or she has been a blessing to you.
Do the same with a group. This may or may not be a specifically religious or spiritual group.
Thought
When you commit to your spiritual evolution, you cannot continue to grow spiritually and, at the same time, keep your structure of relationships in place. Your growth will repel some and attract others. Some friends will drop out of your life, some will merge into your life. Do not take this personally, and do not cling to those being moved out of your life. Bless each one who goes and comes. Some who come will be with you for a time, some for a lifetime. Some will leave kindly, some will leave with resentment that you are no longer close to them. Some may betray you, as a means of detaching from you. Do not focus on persons who drop out of your life, or whom you let go for your good; focus on persons coming into your life, by the providence of Love, and be alert to the spiritual gifts they bring to bless you. Be alert to how you may bless them. Accept from the hand of God, as God gives, and leave the result to God.
*Brian Kenneth Wilcox.
Spiritual Teaching
Christian scripture provides a profound teaching on the Mystical Presence of the Christ. I will share the scripture and ways to interpret it.
Whenever two or three of you come together in my name, I am there with you.
*Matthew 18.20, CEV
This can mean different things. I see this in the following ways, but I do not claim these are the only ways to interpret the passage.
1)Since the gathered persons are meeting as members of the Body of Christ, Christ is present. Where the Body is, since the Body is Christ, Christ is present. You and I are Christ, so says Christ.
2)The Logos – Resurrected – Cosmic Christ is truly present. For this Christ is beyond the confines of space-time. With that being true, there is no difficulty with Christ being present in many places – even all places – at once.
3)Christ indicates what makes up Christ; that is, qualities of Christ – love, joy, peace, … When two or more gather in the name, or “presence, identity, Christ-likeness,” the Christ nature, or qualities, or energies, are present.
4)Christ indicates a level, or be-ing, of consciousness. When two or more gather with awareness of Christ, and the qualities of Christ-likeness, the consciousness of Christ is gathered up in the consciousness they have opened to. Indeed, in group, this consciousness is intensified.
The passage, at its lowest potential meaning, is tribal-institutional, and goes like this - The Body of Christ are those who “officially” identity themselves as Christian, in contrast to all other persons. This clearly contradicts the more evolved ways of seeing this gathering, and sees one part as the whole. Yes, I may experience more of the Christ present among a Buddhist gathering, than in many church gatherings. “Church gathering” and “Christian gathering” is not the same thing, though they may overlap, as well as not do so. If more of Christ spiritually manifests in a Buddhist gathering than a church gathering, the former is more truly Christian – more present to and embodying Christ-likeness.
My more conservative friends would call me being heretical: I see myself as honoring and inviting the Christ to come out with me, and others, from the tribal-institutional straitjacket the institutional churches often want to keep Christ in – or for us to go out and meet the Christ. And to say, “But Scripture says …,” hides the fact that Scripture has different levels of meaning, and the tribal is often there, but often those very passages hide deeper potentials of meaning. Likewise, we “see” at the capacity of our “seeing.” If I am group-tribal in consciousness, of course, I will interpret the Bible, and all else, from where I am. How I “see” will tend to validate what I am – where I am. How I “see” will determine whom I invite or keep out.
Christ by nature has always been outside any confinement. How ironic that we believe we can keep the Universal Wind in a paper bag. Yet, God will let us play those my-group-only games if we want to, and we can meet and feel called, special, and ascribe it all to Grace. God is infinitely patient with our prejudices. God is infinitely patient at letting us suffer the consequences, too. God rejoices, infinitely, with each step outside such restrictions of the Christ Presence. And we, usually, have to take one little step at a time, integrating all previous steps into a larger whole.
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Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, a famous World War II pilot, crashed into the Pacific, after leading a special mission. His crew and he were lost at sea for twenty-one days. He wrote: “In the beginning many of the men were atheists or agnostics, but at the end of the terrible ordeal each, in his own way, discovered God. Each man found God in the vast empty loneliness of the ocean. Each man found salvation and strength in prayer, and a community of feeling developed which created a liveliness of human fellowship and worship, and a sense of gentle peace.
*James S. Hewette, Ed. Illustrations Unlimited. Quoted in Richard and Mary-Alice Jafolla. The Quest.
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One of the most vital needs in our spiritual unfolding is a group that supports our spiritual practice, a like-hearted group. We need to meet with this group often. And many persons suffer from a lack of like-hearted souls who can provide a safe, supportive environment.
A church is, sadly, often not a safe, supportive environment for persons seeking a deeper spirituality. Churches tend to be closed to new practices and ideas. A church is usually socialized into a rigid dogma – and this can be anything from fundamentalist to liberal. That a fundamentalist church is taken to be close-minded and a moderate not, for example, is not true. Spiritual readiness and openness is not the claim of any particular label of thought. Fundamentalist, conservative, moderate, liberal – each can be equally not open.
Presently, I am attending a Unity church. I just left a moderate, mainline group. Their claim is “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors.” Some of their churches are that. Some are – apparently many – anything but “Open.” Sure, doors may be open, but if a spiritual seeker enters and finds a tribal-minded group – still claiming we have the only way – and does not find a safe place to challenge the group majority, the doors might as well be locked. Right? For the open door means nothing about spiritual openness or respect for inquiry.
In this same group, I went to serve as pastor of one of the most closed-minded, tribal, and aggressively defensive churches I have known. Eventually, it succeeded in having the bishop move me, where I moved into another conservative area and had a healthy, loving, and wonderful relationship – see how groups of the same theological tenor can have different values on openness. Anyway, upon getting to this church, a lady was assigned to offer me dinner. We sat down. I mentioned the Buddha. Her response – a serious caution, “Don't mention that here. You'll get in trouble.” This was one of the churches in the “Open … hearts” denomination. Ironically, I was so much viewed as a heretic, that even the beautiful stone I wore around my neck, given by a member when I left my previous church, became in some odd way a symbol of Buddhism – I still can not figure that one out.
So, why Unity? I am not a member of Unity, and I do not know if I will be, or how long I will attend. Yet, I am at Unity now for I find a group of persons who are seriously seeking to evolve spiritually. I have been treated with openness of doors, minds, and hearts. I find a pastor who loves Christ, but does not say, “This is THE way to see Christ, period,” and she can refer to the divine wisdom in other faiths and spiritual paths, without being being attacked as heretical. I find classes that are truly leading directly to spiritual transformation, not just going over the same stuff over and over, at the same level of thought and consciousness - Grits is grits, regardless of how you cook it. I find a community that has opportunities for group prayer and, yes, meditation of varied kinds. I have gone to a meditation on Monday nights of Kriya Yoga, and, then, on Wednesday evenings using Affirmative Meditation. Well, no, I am not saying I see a perfect church, or that everyone there is taking spirituality seriously. So, what am I saying?
I am saying, after years of being in tribal religion, I am finding joy in being in a group supportive of the many ways God can lead us each to Grace – receiving and sharing it. I enjoy this environment, for I find it safe to say where I sense God has led me to this time. Sadly, I have been pastor of a number of persons who were in churches I served, and they could not enjoy this safety and support, and I as pastor could not. Sadly, I found many persons “trapped” in these churches, and these same ones were not willing to look elsewhere and go elsewhere, for their good. The love of the people, or attachment to the church, or whatever … did not let them.
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To make this matter of friend and group support more clear, I use an analogy from Richard and Mary-Alice Jafolla. The Quest. The authors compare the spiritual seeker – and we all are, if we are trying to grow spiritually – to a seedling – we are each a seedling, regardless of how long we have been consciously evolving.
Have you ever repotted a withering plant into a larger container with more nutritive soil? It immediately begins springing back to life.
This is because it is no longer imprisoned in an environment which impedes its growth. Those elements that had surrounded it and had been so important to its earlier growth can no longer support any further progress. In fact, not only can they not assist further growth, they actually contribute to its withering.
It's often like that with the people who surround us. Too often they are the elements we look to for our emotional and, to some degree, our spiritual nourishment. If they don't support our growth, then we are like the potted plant limited by its surroundings. We need a larger pot, more nutritive soil. Friends, supportive friends, provide a rich environment that allows us the safety and encouragement to grow and to thrive at our own pace.
I encourage you to be honest about your need for a supportive spiritual group. And you are not being faithless to discontinue a friendship, a group, a church, … if the environment is not supportive of your spiritual growth. Why would you think you are honoring God by remaining in an environment, which you can leave, that does not provide a safe, open place for sharing and listening to the spiritual experience of its members or attendees?
Rather, the more humble thing is to take responsibility to change our friendships and group associations, to the degree needed for our own good. And for your own good is for the good of others, so do not say this pious sounding thing: “But I am not to think so about myself.” Nonsense. That is either ignorance or false humility, or both. How can you rightly serve others, if you do not rightly take care of yourself? And is not this involving the close associations and friends you choose?
This does not mean you throw everyone out of your life who does not share your spiritual aspirations. This means you seek contexts and friendships to divulge and share more deeply in a spiritual sense. This means you learn to remain silent when it is wiser to do so, not sharing your experience and thoughts on your spiritual unfolding. We must live among many who will not support our spiritual path. Yet, we choose wisely those whom we open our mind and heart to in sharing spiritually.
Being open means keeping out that which will not support that openness, ironically. Being open means trusting God to lead you to the persons and group associations you need, and needs you, to share together in spiritual emergence of your innate God-consciousness and Christ-qualities.
Last, to close with an apparent exception to what I have written above. Is it possible you are to remain in a "religious" or "spiritual" group not supportive of your spiritual path? I do not exclude the possibility. If you are in such, by the Design of God, what is written here applies, still. You will need to choose to find the friendship and group associations to support you. Do not look to a person or group who cannot do that for you. Look elsewhere, and be as loyal as possible in the other relationships you are called to live in.
Responding
1.What are the “soil and nutrients” you consider needful in any friendship or group that would be healthy for you in your spiritual evolving? List at least ten qualities.
2.Have you ever been in a relationship or group that seemed to be a “pot” no longer large enough to contain and support your spiritual growth? What was that like? What did you do to make needed changes? If you are in that kind of relationship or group, what might you do to make needed changes?
3.Consider the friends you have. How many support your spiritual unfolding? How many can you be honest with, fully, about your spiritual experience?
4.Consider any group to which you belong. Pose the following questions about each:
a. Does this group provide a supportive environment for my spiritual growth?
b. Do I find this group to be a safe place to be honest about my spiritual experience, including my struggles, questions, enjoyments, aspirations…?
5.In light of the above responses, do you need to make changes in your friendships and group associations to find more support and safety in your spiritual unfolding? What do you want to do to make the changes?
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*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian Kenneth Wilcox, SW Florida. Brian lives a vowed life and with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, with friends and under a vow of simplicity. Brian is an ecumenical-interspiritual leader, who chooses not to identify with any group, and renounces all titles of sacredness that some would apply to him, but seeks to be open to how Christ manifests in the diversity of Christian denominations and varied religious-spiritual traditions. He affirms that all spiritual paths lead ultimately back to Jesus Christ. He is Senior Chaplain for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, Punta Gorda, FL.
*Brian welcomes responses to his writings or submission of prayer requests at briankwilcox@yahoo.com . Also, Brian is on Facebook: search Brian Kenneth Wilcox.
*Contact the above email to book Brian for preaching, Spiritual Direction, retreats, workshops, animal blessing services, house blessings, or other spiritual requests. You can order his book An Ache for Union from major booksellers.
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