Why I Have Kept My Mystical Side Hidden Until Now…… I love theology, I love reading theological books, I love discussing theology and writing theology. I love Jesus and I love Scripture. All this is a calling, a vocation and an avocation. While I have a degree in theology (an M.Div.) and am working on a PhD in theology, I am primarily self-taught. When I discover a new field of interest I read voraciously in that discipline. This past year I have gone on the offensive against a lot of subjectivity both in the charismatic and progressive (postmodern) Christian world. I have critiqued what I perceived to be fake, foolhardy or hucksterish claims to the divine. Many perceived me as a rationalist; some even thought I had no ‘relationship’ with God. They couldn’t have been more incorrect in their assessment. I have been a full blown true blue mystic for over a decade, complete with strange and wonderful out-of-the-box experiences. I have intentionally chosen not to talk about them for several reasons. Here they are: 1. Authentic mystics do not see themselves or their experiences as the center of the universe. Self-proclaimed mystics (or shaman) who parade their experiences or seek to get others to have similar experiences are a dime a dozen and in a consumer culture proliferate like rabbits. Everybody is selling something. 2. Genuine mystics need no external validation. The voice of the Creator is their life and breath. Only fake mystics and hucksters insist on running seminars and starting churches where they become the center of attention, where their experiences are to be duplicated. A genuine mystic encourages others to find their own path to the Creator. 3. Real mystics do not talk about themselves in such a fashion. When they heal they don’t start a ministry or a radio show or blab about it on Facebook. Like Jesus, they hush it up. Mystics know that they are but channels for the divine grace. 4. True Mystics are not Gnostics. They don’t believe they have special secrets or privileged access to the divine. Fake mystics will charge you an arm and a leg to get their secrets. There is a difference between making a living and making a killing and too many hucksters self-promote their experiences for prices that gouge. 5. Pure mystics do not believe in ‘cheap grace’ (Dietrich Bonhoeffer). They know the shamanic path is difficult and dangerous. They do not teach people phony bliss or create meetings where group emotion is stirred up mimetically and everyone treats God as a drug, a spiritual opiate. Pure mystics show others the path, the way of the cross, and how by going through the abyss, by facing and conquering in trials and failures, one indeed finds the true Peace, the real Light, the authentic Grace, the Pure Mercy to heal, aid, succor, and love all creation. Genuine mysticism knows that there are many paths to the Divine, as many paths as there are people, where we perceive that the Creator treats us all as though we were the only child of the universe. We are that loved. It is amazing. Why Jesus then? I will post on this in the coming days and weeks. For now I just felt I needed to let you know why I ‘outed’ myself. Last week I felt the Spirit nudge me to do so. My personal experiences will never be the focus of my sharing. The focus of my sharing all of this, of writing Walking with Grandfather, is first to show people how it is I have learned to integrate my training in Native spirituality with my Christian faith. Second, it is to encourage others to begin finding ways that are rationally and intellectually sound to integrate their experiences with their faith. Not all models of integration are equal and we must oft learn to critique our experiences as much as we validate them. The task of interpreting our human experience can be fraught with perils and pitfalls with a poor interpretive grid. We can then too easily make ourselves the center of attention rather than the Creator. As a species I believe we are poised to make the next evolutionary leap. It will not be a biological leap but a spiritual one. I wish to help facilitate that process. I have already leapt…straight into the loving arms and heart of the most Beneficent Creator imaginable. I just followed Jesus into the Abyss…and out the other side.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 14:39:20 +0000