Moses was a murderer. He couldn’t control his temper when he saw one of his own people brutally beaten. He went out of his head and started hitting. Next thing he knew, the Egyptian was dead.
Moses was a hit and run. He saw the dead body and he knew that his life would be over if he did not flee. He ran away from everything and everyone he knew. He died to himself that day. And then he tried to start again.
Strange that God would speak to a man who had such a temper, a man who did not have the courage to face the music when he murdered, but who ran away and hid among the sheep of Midian. Strange that God would reveal the Divine Self to someone who messed up so badly. But then again, most of the saints of the Bible were wrecks before God came to them.
Moses turned aside when he saw the burning bush. He stopped what he was doing and he focused on the bush. He was willing to pause, to let the sheep wander off, to put his life on hold to witness this miracle and it was for that reason that God was able to speak to him.
When we do not turn aside from our own business, how can we hope to hear God’s voice?
God told Moses the Divine Name. I AM WHO I AM. It is the most mysterious, incredible fact that God could even get that name into words. The name of the maker of the Universe is something that cannot be contained.
I AM, not I WANT or I DO, but simply I AM.
If you want to experience the presence of God, you must awaken to the PRESENT MOMENT. There is no other place that God exists. When Jesus told us that the Kingdom of Heaven is near, he meant it. God dwells here and now, in this very moment, not in the past and not in the future.
The only way to find God is to just be.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
About Sin
I sat in the office of my spiritual director. It took me years to find her. She is a Quaker with a PhD in spiritual direction and she is good.
I tell her about the darkness that I see, the way the people can’t stand it when you speak of money, the way that they actively undermine efforts to grow the church, the way that they hurt one another. I tell her about the brokenness.
“That is what you are supposed to see now,” she says. “When one begins to really pray, when one takes time alone with God and that time begins to shape your life, one of the first things that happens is that you open your eyes to the brokenness of the world around you. You see that we have fallen from God. And you see how hard it is to avoid sin.”
What in the world is SIN? It’s such an old word that it has lost much of its meaning. It has been stretched to accommodate so many varieties and nuances of our language that it is like an old bag, worn out and having almost no shape to it at all.
With most young people, I call our sin, our “issues.” That makes them perk up and nod. I can see the recognition before me. They know what it means to struggle with your issues, and everybody who is even the tiniest bit introspective knows that they have them. We all fall short of perfection. Simply go on a trip for two weeks with the person who you vow is perfect and they will show you their issues. Believe me, something will come out. It won’t take long.
Not only do we have issues, but the world itself is confused. After all, we all know that things don’t always work the way that they should. Most people, by the time that they reach adulthood, have felt acute pain, either emotionally or physically. Most have realized that the world isn’t fair. Most have found themselves wondering if this is how it is supposed to work. Most have realized that the course of their lives is not entirely for them to determine, and their lives might not look anything like the success stories that they see in the movies. Life is difficult. It doesn’t take much to see that.
Just like the Bible, sin must be constantly translated into the events of modern day. As we have progressed technologically, sin, like a virus, has adapted itself to our new mediums. It has come with us because it is a part of us. It is time for us know rename the word SIN. Maybe we need lots of words. Just because it changes constantly doesn't mean that it has gone away.
I tell her about the darkness that I see, the way the people can’t stand it when you speak of money, the way that they actively undermine efforts to grow the church, the way that they hurt one another. I tell her about the brokenness.
“That is what you are supposed to see now,” she says. “When one begins to really pray, when one takes time alone with God and that time begins to shape your life, one of the first things that happens is that you open your eyes to the brokenness of the world around you. You see that we have fallen from God. And you see how hard it is to avoid sin.”
What in the world is SIN? It’s such an old word that it has lost much of its meaning. It has been stretched to accommodate so many varieties and nuances of our language that it is like an old bag, worn out and having almost no shape to it at all.
With most young people, I call our sin, our “issues.” That makes them perk up and nod. I can see the recognition before me. They know what it means to struggle with your issues, and everybody who is even the tiniest bit introspective knows that they have them. We all fall short of perfection. Simply go on a trip for two weeks with the person who you vow is perfect and they will show you their issues. Believe me, something will come out. It won’t take long.
Not only do we have issues, but the world itself is confused. After all, we all know that things don’t always work the way that they should. Most people, by the time that they reach adulthood, have felt acute pain, either emotionally or physically. Most have realized that the world isn’t fair. Most have found themselves wondering if this is how it is supposed to work. Most have realized that the course of their lives is not entirely for them to determine, and their lives might not look anything like the success stories that they see in the movies. Life is difficult. It doesn’t take much to see that.
Just like the Bible, sin must be constantly translated into the events of modern day. As we have progressed technologically, sin, like a virus, has adapted itself to our new mediums. It has come with us because it is a part of us. It is time for us know rename the word SIN. Maybe we need lots of words. Just because it changes constantly doesn't mean that it has gone away.
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