As a life-long C.S. Lewis fan, I always enjoy taking a minute and reflecting on the many contributions he made to Christian Mysticism.  I especially enjoy addressing the lessons inferred amidst his fictional writings.  One of my favorite mystical lessons, is the lesson of the wardrobe.  In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis teaches us a great lesson about seeking a relationship with the Living God… you can’t find God in the same place twice.

“I don’t think it will be any good trying to go back through the wardrobe door to get the coats.  You won’t get back to Narnia again by that route… Yes, of course you’ll get back to Narnia again someday… But don’t go trying to use the same route twice. Indeed, don’t try to get there at all.  It’ll happen when you’re not looking for it.”  – The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, the Professor talking to the children who just left Narnia.

Everyone who seeks after God, has encountered Him at some point in their lives.  There is always some point where God’s presence is so clear, that we ever wondered why we doubted.  But then the moment passes, and passes, and fades.  After a while we wonder if we experienced it at all.  In an existential panic, we try to recreate the experience, only doing more to prove to ourselves it never happened in the first place.

Let’s take the Professor’s advice here.  We should no go back and look for God where we previously encountered Him, rather we should move forward without looking at all.  Where would Moses have been had be returned to the burning bush for a fresh dose of prophetic inspiration, rather than moving forward with the task he had already been given?  Where would Paul have been traveling back to Damascus to look for a bright light?  Our encounters with the Divine are singularly unique, and it is our fault, not God’s, that we forget them so easily.

It is also part of how God encourages our continual growth and maturity.  If God stayed in the same place, so would we.  Rather, God reveals Himself at moments we need Him most, then moves on, hoping we will continue to seek Him.  As we move on, out of obedience, we find God without looking, and in a way we had never experienced before.

Technorati Tags: C.S. Lewis, Christian Mysticism, living God, Seeking God, The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe

I have talked to people many times about how we have become distracted through morality, and how we obsess so much over the things we shouldn’t do that we forget the things we should do. In fact, the greatest evils in this world are perpetuated, if not created, by apathy and heedlessness more than hate.

“A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens is just such an example. I grew up, like anyone else, thinking of Scrooge as a villain. I never really stopped to think about why he was evil, that is what the story said he was, so that’s what I knew. We as people love to hate. It is so much fun to have the villain or criminal that we can hate without fear of consequence. That is why we love villains in stories.

What has disturbed me of late, is that I finally came to be aware of why Scrooge was such a villain at the beginning of the story, and here is the thought that shocked me: Scrooge was not a criminal, nor dishonest, nor a cheat. He was hard working, minded his own business, and paid his taxes. In fact, even in today’s world, he would have been looked on as a true conservative and a pinnacle of the American dream.

The scary thing is that Scrooge was absolutely moral. He didn’t drink, fornicate, or have any other of the vices we spend so much time obsessing over. All this and IN THE SIGHT OF HEAVEN HE WAS LESS FIT TO LIVE THAN ANY OTHER. Indeed, Scrooge was so hated by Heaven not for any evil he did, but for the good he did not.

You know as well as I do, that you never read or saw “A Christmas Carol”, and thought Scrooge was a good man. No, you hated him as much as any other. That is the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is in your heart, pleading with you. That is why we love that story, and never question it’s true message. Your heart knows why Scrooge is so low in the eyes of heaven, your heart already knows the truth.

Now take a break for a second and stop thinking about Scrooge. How many times have to looked down on those who are poor? Scrooge said, “I don’t make merry myself on Christmas, and I can’t afford to make idle people merry.” How many times do you ignore those who need another chance, just because “they did it to themselves”? How many times do you deprive yourself and others of joy, just because you are too afraid to open your heart to them? Well, these are the sins you have judged Scrooge for. Just because he is fiction doesn’t matter. That is the same judgment that awaits you in Heaven.

Of course, being the genius that Dickens was, he didn’t stop the lesson with Scrooge. Another lesson is given to us in “A Christmas Carol” with Scrooge’s nephew, Fred. While most of the characters in the story chose to hate Scrooge for what he was, Fred loved him for what he could be.

Fred’s role is that of the true saint. He loves those who hate him, and shows mercy to those who don’t deserve it. He refuses to speak badly of Scrooge, and invites him over to his house every year for Christmas. He perseveres through all of Scrooge’s insults and spitefulness and in the end, plays a large role in Scrooge’s redemption.

I love stories like “A Christmas Carol” that portray good and evil as they truly are: an internal war inside all of us. Scrooge wasn’t evil, but corrupted by it. If Scrooge was evil, redemption would not be possible, but as Fred and the Ghosts found, there was good in him after all. We should learn from Fred as well, not to write anyone off as evil but persevere in love for the sake of the salvation of all.   As for me, I am always humbled by the story. I don’t think I ever live up the example given by Fred, and often live with Scrooge’s sense of self-justification. I recommend every family takes the time to read (not just watch) “A Christmas Carol” every year, as I can’t think of any story that better teaches the meaning of the season (the Nativity excluded of course, c’mon people!)

P.S. The image I used for this article comes from the movie version of “A Christmas Carol” where Patrick Steward plays Scrooge. There is no substitute for the book, but this is the best of all the movies (and I have seen them all).

Technorati Tags: a christmas carol, charles dickens, meaning of christmas, scrooge

The book “The Secret” which, unless you live under a rock, is one the most popular of the pop-mysticism books out there.  It is part of a movement called “New Thought”, which basically is “The Matrix” combined with old-school health and wealth cultism.  

CLICK HERE FOR THE REVIEW

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Technorati Tags: fad mysticism, pop mysticism, pop mystics, robert price, the secret, top secret

Batman has always been my favorite “superhero”, so when I saw the 20th anniversary edition of The Killing Joke by Alan Moore at my local bookstore I compulsively picked it up. Not only did I enjoy indulging in one of the most well-written Batman comic books ever, I was also moved by the underlying message.

In the comic, the Joker is determined to prove that only difference between the criminal and the law-abiding is a bad day. Hence, the Joker sets out to give Commissioner Gordan (head of Gotham police) a VERY bad day in hopes of driving him insane. The various torments included shooting his daughter and parading him around naked. Of course, in the end, Batman saves Gordan. Gordan, after suffering all these torments, grabs Batman and firmly tell him to capture the Joker “by the book”. Wanting to prove to the Joker that he was still quite sane.

The Joker blames Batman and the police for his own criminality, believing himself to be the victim of “one big joke”. However, Batman captures him in the end saying, “it’s just you”. The Joker was confronted with the reality that the authorities around him have been through just as much, if not more, hardship than he has and CHOSE to overcome them.

I know it seems silly to draw so much meaning from a comic, but actually, I think that a comic in all it’s exaggerations can be a good place to make a point (when well written). In this case, the point is made very well. So many people just sit around feeling sorry for themselves for one thing or another. The truth is that many people have very legitimate traumatic events in their life, but that still doesn’t free them from their own choice to overcome it or drown in it.

When we die, God is going to hold us accountable to all our missed opportunities and potential. Try as we might to whine and complain about how “hard” we had it, God will show us those who had it worse and conquered life anyway. After all, the nature of freewill is that no matter what happens, we are still in control of how we respond. The secular world will always seek to blame everything on our genes, environment, or luck, but the truth is that there are always amazing people who prove all those things are just poor excuses.

Technorati Tags: alan moore, batman, choice, freewill, nature vs. nurture, the killing joke

“Why does God let bad things happen to good people?” , “Why do the innocent suffer?”, “How can a loving God let this happen?”…. These questions bother many, both religious and non-religious alike. Many who fall away from their faith quote these ancient ever-present questions. A new book out called “God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question – Why We Suffer” by Bart Ehrman is about the thought process of one such person who struggles against those questions. I believe the source of these questions has very little to do with Scriptural inadequacies, and much more to do with fundamental problems in our perception of who God is.

Our religious culture has, over time, developed a more warped view of God. I believe this happened parallel to the commercialization of our culture. In an effort to “grow ministries” and “gain more followers” people have tried to make God more palatable to the masses. Instead of seeking converts, we converted God to fit more people’s views. And let’s not forget the culture of televangelist who will say just about anything about God to get you to send in a donation.

In the minds of many, God has become little more than a benevolent jinni (genie) or all-powerful Santa Claus in the sky. We pray to God to get thing we want, or “faith” is our blind belief that God will grant our wishes, and God’s love is little more than a shallow desire that all humanity should be “happy”. This kind of Saturday-morning happy-go-lucky divinity may sell books, but it makes for poor spirituality and perverse religion.

One of the more cohesive points in “God’s Problem” is most theologians assert that we suffer in the world due to free will, but that doesn’t solve the problem of natural disasters and disease. In other words, most of our suffering is self-inflicted and God doesn’t stop it as we must have the ability to live our lives by our own choosing but that doesn’t account for why we have the added suffering from “acts of God”. Why would a “loving God” send hurricanes, earthquakes, disease, etc.

So this brings me to the fundamental issue with the popular view of God: We keep thinking that God is interested in making our present lives better or “happy”. In truth, God’s interest is in the next life, not this one. Our fundamental problem with the “loving God” concept, is that we think God’s love is directed at improving our lives, when in fact it is about saving our souls. More of often than not, saving our souls is takes the appearance of ruining our lives rather than improving it.

If we preach a God who just wants to make our lives better, then things like natural disasters don’t make sense. However, if we realize that God is interested in our souls then we understand that God is often trying to “wake us up” and tear us apart from the material world we so easily become comfortable in. It seems like God is being mean when our houses burn down, or we get sick, or even just loose our jobs, but all of these things are often just drastic measures God has to take to awaken our very complacent spirits. Of course, I would also argue that disease is usually a product of our own sin as well, but that is another blog entry all together.

Let’s just get down-to-earth for a minute. God is God, we are not God. People like Bart Ehrman who just want to whine about how hard life is are trying to reverse roles – asking God to serve us. God’s love and mercy are only understood within the context of the grace He shows to His children who have rejected Him. When we put God in the place of a servant who is just here to keep us happy, nothing makes sense. This understanding an essential foundation of Christian mysticism, Christianity, and just about any theo-centric philosophy all together.

God doesn’t have a problem, we have a problem with God. We want God make us happy, but that’s not the order of the Universe. We are here to seek the face of God, and only when that takes true priority in our lives do all the questions begin to make sense.

“For a time we stuck with the shepherd
but you wouldn’t play Santa Claus.”
- Newsboys, Lost the Plot

Technorati Tags: Bart Ehrman, Christian Mysticism, God's Problem, Our Problem with God

Evolution vs. Intelligent Design has been a hot topic for decades, and is still just as hot as ever. I tend to stay away from “fad” issues just because I feel they are distracting to the pursuit of real Truth (which is timeless). However, the nature of this debate is “science vs. religion”, which IS a common problem to man. I do not believe in “check your brain at the door” religion, Truth is always found where our hearts and minds meet together. So if you will indulge me, I would like to make a interject a few guidelines for how and why science and religion should play nicely together.

SCIENCE DOESN’T ANSWER “WHY”

Science is mechanical and mathematical in nature, it knows nothing of context or meaning. Science can tell me what chemicals are in a painting, or how it produces color, but not what the artist was trying to communicate or WHY they painted it. The Dali Lama wrote a great book on this concept called The Universe in a Single Atom, which covers many facets of reconciling science and religion, but makes a simple and powerful point: Most of the important questions in life are WHY, and science can’t answer them.

“For me, science is first and foremost an empirical discipline that provides humanity with a powerful access to understanding the nature of the physical and living world. It is essentially a mode of inquiry that gives us fantastically detailed knowledge of the empirical world and the underlying laws of nature, which we infer from the empirical data. Science proceeds by means of a very specific method that involves measurement, quantification, and intersubjective verification through repeatable experiments. This, at least, is the nature of scientific method as it exists within the current paradigm. Within this model, many aspects of human existence, including values, creativity, and spirituality, as well as deeper metaphysical questions, lie outside the scope of scientific inquiry.” – Dali Lama, The Universe in a Single Atom

…well said.

REASON AND SCIENCE ARE NOT THE SAME (BUT OFTEN GO TOGETHER)

Reason and science are different disciplines, both used for discovering and discerning truth. Science is about using strict empirical methodology of experimentation and documentation. For something to be found true in science, it must be able to be produced and reproduced in a documented experiment. The results, when found to be repeatable, are then scientifically “true”.

Reason is a different disciple. Reason is purely a logical disciple where we deduce or induct a conclusion based on evidence presented. Reason is often used in science as a scientist will use reasoning to produce a hypothesis, then use science to test a hypothesis. However, when reason cannot be tested, it remains outside the realm of science.

When looking at determining the beginnings of the Universe, or how life came to be, we may have some science to present us with clues but we are mostly dealing in the realm of reason. It is absurd for anyone to say they can scientifically prove how the world began, they can have good reasoning, but not scientific proof. This brings me to my next point…

INTELLIGENT DESIGN IS NOT SCIENCE

Intelligent design may be true, it may be reasonable, but it is not science. Since God won’t come down to a university and do a public demonstration, we can’t put it through the empirical process (but that would be cool). It is absurd to state that science proves God made the Universe, if science could prove that, then we would know as much as God does. However there is another equally absurd problem with this debate…

EVOLUTION AND THE BIG BANG AREN’T SCIENCE EITHER

Nope, it’s not. It may be true, it may be reasonable, but it is not science. We haven’t reproduced the “Big Bang”, or macro-evolution. Natural selection is fact, and repeatable, but that is where the science ends. Natural selection shows that withing a genetic range of variables, the strongest combinations survives and perpetuates. However, macro-evolution has never been observed. For macro-evolution to occur, great leaps of genetic change must take place. The only leaps of genetic change we have seen are negative mutations that are immediately weeded out by natural selection.

I could go on and on with all the problems, but I have no interest in sparking debate on evolution’s validity. The point is not whether evolution is valid or not, it is simply unprovable. I am constantly blown away by the arrogance of scientists, which brings me to my next point…

WE DON’T KNOW JACK

Science is constantly proving past scientific theories to be false. Every generation of scientists can sit back and laugh at the generation that came before them. We sit in classrooms today laughing that people once thought the world was flat. Why do we then think that now we have all the answers?

I am not offended by the Theory of Evolution, I just think it is stupid scientists are putting so much FAITH in it. One day scientists will look back and laugh at it. Even now it is starting to unravel (here is a example). The problem is that there is more to this debate than science…

IT’S NOT ABOUT SCIENCE

If the Theory of Evolution was true, it doesn’t mean there isn’t a God. If the Theory of Evolution is proven false, it doesn’t mean there is a God. Yet, somehow we have confused philosophy with science. Atheists absurdly defend evolution as fact in the hopes of killing God. Theists defend Intelligent Design hoping to claim that science proves God exists. The problem is that this battle has nothing to with science at all. Science is like the child caught in the middle of a messy divorce, being use by both parents as a way to strike at the other.

WHERE SCIENCE AND RELIGION COMPLEMENT ONE ANOTHER

Religion is about finding truth just as much as science. Everyone is out there just trying to find answers. People need religion because there is so much science cannot address. Yet, we need science to help us keep our feet on the ground. When we become delusional, and to wrapped up in the world of the mind, religion can exceed it’s bounds. Science helps us discover frauds and false-prophets by being able to examine radical claims (i.e. spiritual healers on television). Science humbled the religious world when it proved the Earth orbited the Sun.

Science needs religion because it has no heart. Science without religion because a brutal machine, and because it is limited, brings everything down to the level it’s own limitations. Again I refer to the Dali Lama:

“In this view many dimensions of the full reality of what it is to be human-art, ethics, spirituality, goodness, beauty, and above all, consciousness-either are reduced to chemical reactions of firing neurons or are seen as a matter of purely imaginary constructs. The danger then is that human beings may be reduced to nothing more than biological machines, the products of pure chance in the random combination of genes, with no purpose other than the biological imperative of reproduction.” – Dali Lama, The Universe in a Single Atom

SUMMING UP

I wanted to just make this article a review of The Universe in a Single Atom, because I thought it was brilliantly written. However, I wanted to also address the current issue of Evolution vs. Intelligent Design to bring this all home. I do recommend getting The Universe in a Single Atom and reading it yourself.

I love science, I have read Scientific America since I was seven. I love what science teaches me about God’s creation. As a mystic, current discoveries in quantum physics and quantum mechanics continually open up possibilities for how deep our existence goes. I am just so tired of how science is used politically and in propaganda. Science should be the ever detached third-party, the ultimate proving ground of truth, not warped by bias or unnaturally extended to do more than it can.

Buy The Universe in a Single Atom at Amazon.com

Technorati Tags: dali lama, evolution, intelligent design, Science and Religion, science vs religion, the universe in a single atom

In the world of mystics and mysticism, these virtues set Christian mystics apart: mourning and the perseverance of suffering. Much of “pop-mysticism” is about avoiding suffering and “thinking happy thoughts”, while Christian mysticism takes a more head-on approach. The perseverance of suffering is required because much suffering is caused by our own misplaced desires and worldly attachments, so therefore, much suffering takes place as God purges us of those attachments. Secondly, if suffering is not being caused by our own sinful state, then it is caused by the corruption of the world around us, in which case we endure to show the love and light of Jesus Christ. This virtue is related to my previous article “Being a Masculine Mystic” (I tend to write in streams of thought), as those who refuse to suffer cannot continue the mystic life.

The other virtue I mentioned, mourning, is a part of the Christian mystic mind. Unlike suffering, which comes and goes, mourning is ever present in the mind of those who walk with God in this life. Mourning and Joy walk hand-in-hand as rain and sunshine work together to grow crops. A Christian mystic maintains a constant vigil of the heart by keeping his eyes open to the evils in the world around him, and the sinfulness of his own heart. Sometimes, those who open their eyes to the world become overwhelmed and shut them forever living in a self-maintained delusion (usually one that looks like a Thomas Kinkade painting). Mourning builds strength of heart, allowing a mystic to look at the world head-on and in all reality. Mourning then produces Joy as those with the strength of heart to see the world as it is become capable of seeing God work in it.

The world tells us that sadness and pain is an unnatural state of being that we must escape at all costs (Prozac anyone?). The mystic heart knows that sadness and suffering are often the gateways to discovering the light of truth. Don’t run from the darkness, for it brings the light.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, youLament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and double-minded. your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” – James 4:8-10

Buy “Dark Night of the Soul” – http://www.catholiccompany.com/catholic-books/1003227/Dark-Night-of-the-Soul

Technorati Tags: christian mystic, Christian Mysticism, dark night of the soul, mourning, st. john of the cross, suffering