Tag: Religion and Spirituality

Living Free From Addictions Step Two: Addmitting What You Really Want


…
Real happiness is found where your roots are.
-Tim Keller

Ask a drug addict what they want. It’s not the drug.
It’s the pleasure, the high, the euphoric sense of being.

As a meaning addict I need to realize that I’m not really seeking meaning.
So what am I seeking (what are you seeking?)

Easy. I want happiness.

There’s a few common beliefs about happiness.
1. It can be attained
2. It cannot be attained

The cynic, in his search for happiness, tries, fails, tries harder and then finally gives up, finally declares happiness unattainable. The searcher tries, fails, tries harder… and then tell herself to keep trying, keep changing circumstances, relationships, jobs,…

I’ve been both the cynic and the searcher. But my addiction stems from searching– all addictions do–for something I think I need. At the base of it, happiness. I need it. Don’t I? Don’t we? Is it not a human right (as our constitution argues) to pursue happiness?
Well, this is a tough one. But without going to far down the rabbit hole, I’ll just say yes, I believe we are meant to be happy**.

Sooooo… what to do? How to eighty-six the addiction and not sacrifice happiness.Well, that will come with time. BUT, for now I think discovering true happiness and where it comes from is very important. Otherwise there is no reason to abandon our addictions.. So…Reflecting on what true happiness is, can it be attained, and how. Phew… here we go.

I heard an  illustration once about a blessed (happy, full, fulfilled) man…

He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season
and its leaf does not wither.
Psalm 1

Okay, so this man is like a tree. But not just any tree, but a pretty rad tree planted by not just one stream but STREAMS. Lucky tree. BUT. (and here’s where I get excited) Though this tree is clearly placed in quite the perfect argricultural eden, what’s interesting is, this tree is STILL subject to seasons. It’s not always bearing fruit, not always doing something meaningful in its… treeness. Not only that, but it’s not supernatural sheltered from the weather around it. Storms, gales, maybe springtime river floods.

And yet, this tree is still planted. Still alive. Still drinking deeply at the root from its source.

This tree–this blessed man’s fundamental happiness–comes not from what’s weathering around him or what he’s accomplishing within himself. His fundamental happiness (blessedness, worth, fulfillment) is drawn up from the root. It is essentially about where He is planted.

So by seeking happiness in what’s happening around or within us, we’re seeking it wrongly. AND, our addictions will never deliver.

Thanks Tim Keller for bringing that Psalm to life. Props to you, man. Credit, credit, credit.

** happy is a word that is often made to be the shallow version of joyful. In the sense I use it, I mean fulfilled, blessed, satisfied, and truly joyful, though not always fully joyful.

Present to His Presence

The universe operates as an orderly system, not by impersonal laws but by the creative voice of the immanent and universal Presence, the Logos.

Tonight on my run, I stopped.
This is not good, because, you see, I am trying to train for a half marathon.
Real runners don’t stop. They pee their own britches before they stop.
Wellp.

In my defense, I was captivated.
There is nothing quite so beautiful as a fall evening–no wind, just sun– reflected and rippling on the lake, infusing with into almost unnatural hues. The lake was so still too. A lone duck drifting securely on the  surface, leaving behind a soft, misshapen V.

I had been trying to listen to God for the last three miles.  Praying and then waiting, and then suddenly coming to a conscious realization that I was thinking about something else again. Ugh.

Father, I just ask for voice, for your presence.

Then I had a realization (thank you Jesus). I’ve been praying the wrong prayer entirely. I need to ask to be more present to Him. He’s the unchanging One, the always present.

Some truth came to mind. In Him all things live and move and have their being.  My mind rested on each of these concepts, and I thought of the duck– how securely she lived, moved, and existed on and in the lake. How I, and all of creation, are upheld, hemmed in, and literally unable to remove ourselves from His presence.
… if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, your right hand shall uphold me.

Whether we skate the surface of His presence, nearly unaware, or dive in deep, it can not change His permanant presence. I hope this brings you great comfort, great joy, and great desire to be present to Him as He is to you.

Check these bible passages out, yo! Psalm 139 (the whole thing, but especially vs. 7-10) Acts 17: 27-28; Colossians 1:17

True Humanity

This is how we know we are in Him [God the Father] Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did. 1 John 2:6

I read this and stopped.
You see, Jesus walked on water. This is a problem, because… I can’t.

Before I get too far into this, I just want to say–

1. This is me thinking on paper and
2. I don’t have it all figured out. (I don’t plan on that happening any time soon, either.)

Back to walking like Jesus.
So, I’m almost positive 1 John 2:6 is not meant to be taken quite that literally. In other translations this verse says “walk in the same manner” and stuff like that. So, it’s about life and our “walk” of life.

But it STILL rocks me. Because Jesus “walked” so radically–did some very very unconventional, darn near impossible things. I mean, the guy rose people from the dead. So even if I don’t take 1 John 3:6 literally, I need to take His life’s work seriously and put it up next to the arch of my own life.

This is the part where everyone’s Sunday school self begins to shout at them, but Jesus is God! And then we all feel better about ourselves because we’re not and so the pressure to live like the God-man suddenly melts away and we’re back to our average, everyday, walking-down-cement-side walks.

And yet, Jesus, (now this blows my mind) tells His buddies, “whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12)

There’s lots of argument about what this means. I don’t fully know. BUT, I do think, looking at the surrounding context, Jesus is making a point: I’m human, you’re human. You can do what I have done. It’s possible.

It’s possible.

How? Well– surrounding context–Go to the Father. That’s what Jesus did. I wish I knew the number of times he said “…The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” (John 14:10)
 

It’s not really amazing that Jesus is God. He’s always been God.
What’s amazing is that Jesus is human.  That he was fully human and yet lived a perfect, powerful life. How? Through the power of the Holy Spirit at the feet of the Father.

He was submissive, humble, and willing. He, as God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. He was humble and human. Yet, he did not let living in His human husk for thirty years stop Him from living a radical, divine life. He asked the Father, believed, and obeyed.

He became humanity not just to die for us as the perfect substitute, but to show us what true humanity is.

Commitment

I'm committed to this little man right here. He's pooped on me, screamed at me, driven me mad. But I've resolved to always show him love and patience

Commitment?
I’ll start tomorrow.

Sounds like the procrastinator’s prayer, right? Ya, it disgusts me too.

And so I’ve resolved, (truly only a minute ago) that I must, MUST,  post every Monday. Or this will be another project started and left to dust on the shelf.

My soapbox today: stay committed.

It’s so easy, so common in our Facebook generation (click yes, no, or maybe) to simply wait for the next best thing to come along.  For myself that means I often start something–books, letters, chores, relationships– but never carry through to the end. What is it holding me back? Is it fear? Fear that we’ll only fail eventually? Or is it apathy? That little worm that whispers, what does it matter anyways?

I don’t know what it is for you, but for me it’s a bit of both.  But not all is lost. There are ways to fight it.  Persevere. Say you’ll do something, then do it. Care about your words, let them mean something. After all, there’s only one real way to fail: giving up.

Is there a dream, a goal, a person, even a good habit you’ve given up on? I encourage you, be committed.

 

What are ways you practice commitment? 

 

 

The Curse of Knowledge

Picture this: Two groups of people. One group, the “tappers” have to tap out a tune using only their knuckles on a hard surface. “Listeners” listen to the taps and try to decipher which song it is out of a well-known list of twenty-five.

Tappers predicted Listeners had about %50 chance of guessing their song. The results: 3 out of 120 listeners guessed the song right. *

Imagine the frustration of the tappers—the song was so obvious, so easy! Yes, for them it was. Yet they were playing the song in the heads! All the listeners heard were raps on a table that sounded like nothing more than Morris code.

It’s called the “curse of knowledge” and it’s not a new idea. But! I think it’s something we often overlook when it comes to sharing our beliefs. We’ve been served knowledge, fed ideologies and eaten our own share of information for years. It makes sense to us, and eventually we forget what it was like to have a lack of that knowledge. So when we spit it back out: green-gray  mess.

I’m fond of a man named Jesus. He had a crazy-vast amount of knowledge and wisdom, yet it wasn’t His brilliance that made Him stand out. It was His ability to spread an idea** which set Him apart.  He did it with story, simplicity, concrete examples, credibility (integrity) and element of surprise that shocked the world. Ironically, His approaches are now widely used as marketing techniques and by social media gurus.

My point is this: If we want to do it (be a good teacher, share our story, start–or even carry on a movement) we’ve got to do it right! We’ve got to make ourselves memorable, spreadable, understandable. We’ve got to do it like Jesus did!

 

* This is a real study conducted by a woman named Elizabeth Newton at Stanford. Super fascinating. Check it out!

* *People need a Savior to reconcile them to God, and He would die for them to be that Savior

 

Taking Communion

I’ve been thinking about communion.

How the word itself is like an invitation. When whispered one might hear, “Come—union,” and then God is waiting there to meet us.

I am thinking about the thin, tasteless cracker and the small plastic cup. How we down it like a shot, licking purpled lips and coughing quick confessions. And God is still waiting. Come—have communion with me.

And I wonder, how it became this— our tasting of God a stale, small cracker, our life-water a one ounce cup? “I will hide you in the crevice of rock,” God said to Moses, “And show you my glory.” Moses understood true communion with God—meeting with him, yes. But wanting to see his glory! And God, our Father, the faithful and good, said, I will show you only my back, for you cannot look upon my face. God knew what was good for this part-time oracle. He knows what’s good for us. He intimately knows our every need, and how to reveal Himself to each and every personality.

So often we pass around a stale and over-used understanding of an infinite God. Have we lost the desire and passion of our predecessors to truly know God’s glory for ourselves? I challenge myself (and anyone who’s stuck around to read this) to ask! To ask a good God to reveal his glory and tell him you’re ready (who’s ever truly ready?), but at least willing to know Him as He wants to be known. Then get ready to taste and see a God beautiful and good as He so desires; get ready to leave behind your pre-packaged understanding. Take communion.