Defining My Why

Defining My Why

When I speak with someone and we are working through a scripture together or some other concept, I am well known for reminding people that the most engaging, as well as prophetic question you can ask of what you are reading or doing is “why?” I am being serious. No other question can define the text or the discussion more directly. If you do not know the why of the situation, the who what when and where loose context. When you lose context you open up multiple interpretations. This is not always bad. However, most of the times you need to understand the why in order to best operate in the present moment, or to engage in what you are reading or learning.

I have been reading Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why and he has some very insightful looks into organizations that start out by defining their why. Why do they exist? Why do they prosper? Why do they have so many early adopters who push the business further? I find this a fascinating concept and one that I think needs elaborated on further in another post. I want to take it into a personal place for a moment. As I was reading this morning I heard God ask “Have you defined your why?” I was startled for a moment at hearing it so clearly, and honestly I can say I have not. Not recently anyway. I had a personal mission statement for a time and I still take it out once in a while and ask myself tough questions, but it does not really get to the heart of who I am and why I am who I am. Here is a few things about me that I think most people who know me know, but some of it will be a surprise. This is me working to define my why and refine the thoughts a little bit further.

1)      I exist in this time and space in order to champion the cause of those who are left on the margins and who are cast aside by economic and religious injustice. I especially resonate with those who are outcast and set aside not by themselves, but by systemic and unrelenting pressure from religious and governmental pressures. Those who are told conform, reform and be reborn. This is where I am passionate, this is where I live.

2)      Every book I read or scripture I exposit has this question in mind “Who is this marginalizing?” Most people hate this question because it can bring about uncomfortable feelings and conversations with one self. The entire Bible testifies to the goodness of God. Everything God has done, especially the sending of His son, was to upend the systemic you are in/you are out mentality and the spiritual poverty it brings. I John 4:12 “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (NIV) We are ambassadors of love. Where love is, so exists Christ.

3)      I exist in the here and now to sometimes (maybe oftentimes even) be the burr in the saddle of the establishment. We as a religion, as a society, are diseased and are ensconced in the duality of life. Rich/poor, Good/bad etcetera. This is killing our society and I say enough. The Apostle Paul reminds the church at Ephesus in Ephesians to “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Again and again the Bible makes peace the priority. I struggle in keeping bonds of peace when all I want to do is go to war on behalf of the marginalized. I may not be able to go to war, but I do have a voice and I will use it passionately and persuasively on behalf of those who have been nullified by the current system.

Some of you know my current vocation. This has nothing to do with who I work for, and everything to do with it. What we do is awesome, but it is very limited on scope and direction. I aim higher and bigger. I want to see God’s love plastered everywhere. I believe my soul will not be at rest until I know it is done.

Some push around the label liberal when they think of me. That is fine, but it is just a label. Labels create duality, and it is the duality mindset that is oppressing so many millions, if not billions of people. What will it take for us to speak in a unified manner?

Organized religion will never answer fully for nor completely be able to beat the duality mindset. As long as there are organizations to maintain and a disembodied other out there that the organization must rally against in order to create unity, the point is being missed entirely. The answer is that each one of us makes the determination for ourselves, and we all set about radically and openly engaging with the idea that none is better than the other, money is not the object, religion only really divides – and that ALL people, ALL nations can and should pursue the love of the creator in any way they know how. We should get out of the way of our neighbors, and instead watch, love and learn.

I have a whole lot of work to do – a lifetime of work to do on this. I will fail, but there is grace in the journey. Will you go on the journey as well? Will you deem love worth working for? Will you begin to ask yourself the why in everything you do or say? It will take time, it will take honesty, and it will take courage that is rarely seen. But it is time.

I exist to raise the vibration of the cosmos with love. Love of God, love for myself, and love for all. Nothing else will do.

~Selah

Is it a Journey, or an Immigration?

I have been thinking about the Jews as they walked toward Jerusalem and the temple a lot, and I really wonder what the mindset of a pilgrim would have been like. Was the trip to the temple an act of devotion? Or, was it an act of obedience that had to be sweated through and done because it is just "what we do?"

Most of the people travelling to Jerusalem would have been on foot. Those who were lucky enough to have livestock they could ride such as donkeys were the few. Even if a person of moderate wealth had livestock, it is likely the livestock was press-ganged into service on the homestead and could not be taken away for the journey. Sore feet and cranky dispositions would have likely been the biggest battle. Reciting the Psalms of Ascent was likely a way of fighting of fatigue, as well as focusing the mind and spirit during those times it would be easy to fall prey to bad attitude.

We love to think of life as a journey like the journey the Jews would take to the temple. So often though a journey is defined by a time frame. Can you imagine leaving for the temple and telling your family and friends that were not going that you would be going and not having any idea of when you will return? Most people would have at least a good idea of when they could get home. I cannot imagine leaving the house and telling my bride that I will be back whenever. I usually can give a close approximation of time. But here is the thing, our spiritual lives are an immigration. An immigration is different because you leave your place of comfort in hope of reaching a better place. The ticket you buy is a one way ticket with a general direction and no planned return. You intend to settle and begin conducting your affairs in a new place.

If we view our lives as believers as an immigration and not a journey, what would change in us? What would be the defining characteristics of our Christian lives? Immigration instead of journeying is permanent and as such a few things will be needed.

1) All of your essentials. You may get rid of many different things and cut down your supplies, but ultimately you are taking everything without plan to return.

2) Your family. In view of it being a permanent move, one cannot leave family behind.

3) Your ability to adapt. When you migrate you will be in a new culture, a new place, and often a whole new set of cultural assumptions and priorities. You must be willing and able to adapt.

These are just 3 of many things, but this sounds a lot like the Christian life does it not? While we are living in a culture, we live as aliens (Heb 11:13) with allegiance to the culture and country we are raised in, but with the ultimate allegiance to Jesus of Nazareth. While we are on this earth we are not journeying with the plan to return home (or to our old ways) - instead we look with faith at that which is ahead of us and never looking back. We live a life as an alien, we have left home and are on a Christian journey towards that which lays before us in faith.

When you are Immigrating it is so very easy to want to hold onto those things that defined you as a person before. Culture infers status and symbolism of importance. To leave your culture is to leave behind all that is familiar. In order to truly thrive in a new culture you must leave much of what you know behind. You may carry the wisdom of your elders and culture with you, but in order to adapt to a new culture you must be willing to leave much of it behind.

Jews who were travelling on a journey to the temple traveled with hope. They looked forward to the revelation of God and to being with God and one another on the journey. Hope was imbued in everything they did. They were "forward looking in their faith" as the book of Hebrews states. As Christians, can we follow their lead and have a forward looking faith? Can we look with optimism at the road before us with faithful knowledge that the road will eventually lead to the feet of the Temple?

I do not say this to be political, but if you are a Christian, you are an immigrant. You have one foot in the culture of today and are working in it as an exemplar of hard work, but you live with the understanding that your ultimate destination lies not in this culture or this world - it is greater, and oh so very worth the journey.

~Selah