Tag: the kingdom of heaven

An Inconvenient Truth

Yes, I am aware that the title of this piece is from a famous documentary about climate change. I appropriated it, but not for the reasons you may think. It did not originate from my clever mind, hence why I’m telling you this upfront. Also, this post is not about climate change, I borrowed the title to make this point; every idea, thought, both academic and non came from direct learning and experience from me alone. Perhaps my age will give validity to this statement, but there is and never will be chatgpt, or any other mechanism available today for taking shortcuts to understand or describe how I know what I know and how I got where I am today (a portion of the old hard copies of books and curricula of what I’ve been studying are in the picture above and are what I’m talking about). And while I will never claim to own or control an idea, because they are not mine alone to begin with, I am the walking, talking “inconvenient truth” of this experience, i.e. the protagonist of this story; no one can make any claim to, here or anywhere else I am present in the world, but me, and I, and only I, am in control of that. I am not saying that whatever “this is” is so great, but I am saying that as I move forward this year, that I am the one responsible for where and how I move forward on this path. No amount of appropriation or manipulation will ever change the fact that there is no way in hell that ‘I’ can be duplicated or manipulated in any way, shape or form. As I’ve stated many times before, this journey of mine is one of a kind. My words may be, and perhaps already have been used to give credence to others who may lay claim to the wisdom of them without going through the work, but the fact remains that living on a higher plane demands that you walk the walk and not just talk the talk (another phrase I am appropriating). If you think you can get there as an academic exercise, it will just become a fools errand for you. In fact, if you are truly serious about living on a higher plane, say the prayer I did all those years ago in Russia when I asked God to never, ever let me become an arrogant asshole (I was unkindly speaking of other representatives of the cloth). God will hold you to it every time you think that you, as a vessel, are more important than the lesson…a literal shitstorm will follow if you do :).

So, let me share some of the inconvenient truths of what this year may feel like for me, and, like I never want to, a conversation with my spirit guide days preceding the beginning of this journey.

Sitting in my favorite place, my spirit guide came from behind and gave me a hug,

“Hello”, I said, I was excited to get started.

“Hello, to you too. Before we begin, let me remind you that the Kingdom of Heaven is within you”. he said as he sat down next to me (in this incarnation, he was the Savior).

“Why do I get the sudden feeling that I am not going to like what comes next…” I said with a bit of trepidation.

“Because you won’t”. He paused and just looked at me.

“I muttered, Oh shit”, under my breath, “what does that mean?”

“To put it simply, it means that this years theme is not an internal one, a discovery of self, it is a year of action putting into practice and bringing out the Kingdom of Heaven that you have been developing within”. He paused and let the words sink in.

My heart rate skyrocketed and I immediately felt a rising terror…”You mean I actually have to go out and DO stuff? I have actually no idea how to do that, plus, I am terrible at being in the center of anything, you know what I mean by that. Plus people never listen to me “out there,” hell, I’m not sure anyone listens to me here. I am not good at that, I was born to create environments to help others, to remain in the background, to be a quiet whisperer. I wouldn’t have the first clue what to do, and well, I DON’T WANT TO.” The tears were starting to come, of course I’m still not very good at the emotional stuff.

He was calm, comforting and yet I could see in his eyes unrelenting. “But you will, because what has this journey been for if not to be instrumental’, and when he saw me start to hyperventilate he said, “don’t worry, not in a demonstrably huge way, but instrumental, nonetheless, you felt the same way when you promised to go where I asked you to go and it worked out quite well actually. So, this is simply the moment, the time of opportunity and action, of encapsulating all that you have learned and professed to believe out there” he pointed to a road that suddenly lay ahead of me. “I would never put you in this position if I didn’t think you were up to it. And please note, my imagination is so far beyond yours, that never in a thousand years will you be able to know where this road is leading you, so let go of whatever horror story you’re creating in your head right now”. He actually smiled. And while my relationship with the Savior has always been open and honest, I didn’t dare get snarky at this point. I just quietly shook my head in the affirmative

The rest will remain private. But the Savior did give me the comfort of knowing that there are those who love me, and support me and that won’t change. They will give me strength along the way. And as for those inconvenient truths…let me just say that art, in multiple forms, will be the most instrumental mechanism of sharing the Kingdom within, the song of my soul, the melody which at present may still be elusive, it is becoming clearer by the day. And to conclude, when I reread this last paragraph and it almost made me cringe at the presumptions of it, I got a spiritual slap upside that head reminding me that it only takes the faith of a mustard seed, that anything asked for in goodness shall be given, and that love never fails. Let the craziness begin.

The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts

While this quote of Aristotle always inspired me whenever I felt overwhelmed or alone, frustrated with my own limitations and inadequacies…it also rendered me dissatisfied and disillusioned in my quest to be a member of that one great whole, or team that I could latch onto and add my small part to a much greater and more powerful transformation. While I’ve been a party to many groups in my lifetime, with the pledge to add my part to build something greater, also came the disappointment that comes with recognizing even the whole itself is horribly fallible. When the big picture starts to be a reflection of the flaws of its smaller parts at a greater rate than the many gifts that are present…then it’s time to pick a new team.

In choosing clarity as my focus for the year, sometimes it means that we look at those groups that we are but a small part of. It is never easy, trying to be objective about a group that you’ve committed to, at least in theory, and asking these questions: Is the whole, the group that I’m part of really greater than its parts? Is it pulling the best of the many into an even better whole? Does it reflect the best of me? If you don’t like the answers to any of these questions, then it may be important to step away and reject the whole, in favor of just a solitary part. If the whole doesn’t embrace the best parts of me…even with all my flaws, its’ time to step away.

I could remain vague, but I don’t think that would fall in line with my commitment to clarity, and would leave you confused. So I say this: While my commitment to be an active part of the Body of Christ is as strong as it has ever been, I am leery of the the body that calls itself church as the primary means to create and keep the body of Christ functioning. Oh yeah, I said it. Remember, I am making this claim. While I do see progress in the name of building the Body of Christ all over the world, the progress lies in the small parts and not the whole. I can give you a ton of individual anecdotes about people doing wonderful things…But when it comes to the whole? whew, those “bodies” are too much a reflection of people who look alike, think alike, and talk alike about what the rest of the world needs to do to be more like them, and what the “real” church has to look like.

So I call bullshit. If we are to really be a church, an expression of the Body of Christ and the Kingdom of God….then it has to reflect all of us, even the lesser parts (which will look different to every individual part who thinks they are so much more important, enlightened, and blessed than everyone else). It includes the wealthy and the poor, men and women, all ethnic groups and gender expressions, idiots and geniuses, the strong and the weak, the courageous and afraid, liberals and conservatives etc., etc. Because truthfully? All of us are fallible and fragile on our own. All of us need God, and not in all the same way. We do need each other to move ahead. But we need to use our best selves and allow others to be their best selves to do it. The Gospels are full of ways to be our best selves…when was the last time you walked in someone else’s shoes, not judged, gave out of need instead of excess, sold all you had, visited someone in prison, danced naked before the Lord..(ok, that last one is my favorite…you really should try it sometimes, it makes the other stuff so much easier to do).

And so comes the how. It is by God’s grace, and Christ’s essential commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. It may be messy. It may be hard. But it is what is required of us.