Whispers from a Thief

For several months now I have wanted to sit and put fingers to keyboard. Alas, modern life in 2019 with two children and busy schedules has virtually swallowed fall, and here we are just a few weeks from Christmas. Bellies are filled with Thanksgiving feasts now, and the to-do lists are never ending. The tasks are always too many for the short hours in each day that passes so quickly.

I have thought often of this mysterious man on the cross and the message he sends. It is a mysterious whisper spoken to me with the utmost beautiful message. One well worth the time to ponder and explore. The thing that I love so much about this story is the absolute hope and redemptive quality that it illustrates. It does so in such a concise and definitive manner. It is as if it lays heady arguments to rest in one exhalation and breathes life and hope into all of reality.

We may discuss and discourse till we are blue in the face, the whys and wherefore of what is moral, what are ethics, what is sin and why. Sometimes these conversations may be helpful in navigating a certain understanding of an objective reality too large to fully comprehend, but they always seem to lack a certain something one is searching to fill. There seems to be a void that remains, and the conversations may be circular or even combative. But do they ever really accomplish a longing that we seek? It is like trying to organize an overly full closet — as soon as another washcloth is pulled out to use, the refolding begins...we do and we do, we talk and we talk. The vanity is palpable. 

The thief however brings us something fresh. I believe he brings us through Christ that which we truly seek. Who is this blessed being next to Christ on the cross? We are left to our imaginations....was he a petty apple thief? Perhaps, although probably unlikely since we find him on the cross condemned to death. One might assume with a certain amount of certainty that his trespasses were a bit stronger. If they are not though, there is still an interesting message...perhaps about the harshness of the world? Perhaps a shared experience by this lowly thief and the great high Savior of mankind, strategically placed side by side.....kind of funny to think about.

What if he is the worst kind of criminal? What if fate gave this poor man what would seem a miserable lot in life? Maybe he was a fatherless child who from a young age stole to help his mother and siblings to survive? What if he was the very darkest character one could imagine ... a life of poverty, living in a constant state of fight and flight. Maybe drinking at a tavern to gain fearlessness, running off without paying his bill, finding a widow’s home to use her to satisfy his carnal urges, only to dispose of her afterward and take the cash and jewels. He would then run to the next town unknown, use up his spoils and then plot his next conquest.

It might be that when he was caught and condemned to his fate, he actually sighed a sigh of relief, knowing full well he was deserving of the worst kind of punishment and being finally able to let go of this constant fight for life. Was it a state of exhaustion and a giving up of himself that allowed him to view Christ with such clarity, that others in his midst could not?

Then Christ's most beautiful and powerful message, to the thief and to us all. "Truly I say to you today you will see me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). Wow, how breathtaking and exhilarating. How could he be forgiven so fully and completely? It seems to me that alone could be a testament to Christ's nature, in some ways so unlike ours. No time needed to heal, to process the wrong doings, weighing his fate with circumstance, finding justifications ... no ‘yes I forgive you now, and you will have one year hereafter to prove that you have indeed changed your horrid ways’. No, this is not what is said, but rather: you have seen the Truth in an instant Mr. Thief and that is enough for eternal Paradise'.

The message I hear through this interchange is, no matter before dear child, no matter after dear child; right here, right now, I am available to ALL. Yes, All are indeed invited to the table to partake, there is no argument here, it is already a done deal. We may not even know the extent of our own before. We may well be blind by our own deceptions and the narrative we tell ourselves. The one we are able to handle at this moment. We certainly do not know the extent of our afters, but we can know without a doubt here and now what is available. This is Grace, saving grace, undeserved and unearned yet fully available.

Life in 3-D

So the other day in Paris I was walking in the Park Montsouris. I was there for my grandfather's funeral. It was a busy time. The funeral service was beautiful. The priest had a luminosity about him and spoke a message that all could hear and understand. It was full of depth and truth for the practicing believer, yet open and accessible for the person who may never have embraced religion or for that matter a spiritual practice. I loved him for his message and the potential truth he brought forth. No politics, no bias, no putting others down to make his own convictions seem more worthy. Just truth and love, and the gospel ideas illuminated for all to witness and absorb. I felt grateful walking through the park, it was a beautiful day. I had the sense of seeing the trees and their shimmering leaves with a fullness and satisfaction. The shimmer of God himself singing to me through his creation.

Then the thought occurred to me about the shift in my being in those moments after prayer and meditation. It is as though life which presents itself much of the time in 2-D, suddenly shifts to 3- D. There is a wholeness to reality. You can see it with your eyes, feel it with your body and immerse in it in the completeness of Being. Much of the time we are circling in a tornado of thoughts and ideas. We are driven by doing and accomplishing. We rush from one task to the next feeling so powerful. The more we check of our to-do's the better. Then when we have no more steam, we collapse. Our power is burned out till rest and morning coffee. Other times we are immersed in our emotions feeling the sorrow of things lost, or broken. The joy of a new acquisition or a good meal, maybe a satisfying conversation. We either want the emotion to be gone, or be prolonged. We know in our heart of hearts that that is illusion—the emotion will collapse and make way for the next desire, emotion or activity at hand.

What is that funny thing that takes place after meditation and prayer, a spiritual ritual or practice? It seems there is a cohesion of sorts, the activity is calmed and the emotions are still. "Be still and know that I am God". And there you are....no doing or feeling. Just being. Basked in Him, all is whole, all is Perfect "Be ye therefore perfect even as the Father". Life in 2-D has shifted to life in 3-D. Could it be that this is actually where life is meant to be lived? Could this be the true meaning of "Loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind"....Is this the one pointedness that Yoga aims to guide us toward? I think so.

What is it about 3's? Obviously an important number in understanding our Father, through his son and the Holy Spirit, three in ONE. They say the physical body likes things in threes, and as a therapist once said, "the body does not lie". This whole thought process brought me to another place. We are mind, body and spirit. Also three in one. Why then do people so readily dismiss the spirit aspect of the equation? It is a mystery, really, and a rather strange phenomenon. Here is the key which unlocks the mystery of being, the last clue to experience life in 3-D, and yet it takes the backseat, or no seat, when perhaps it is actually meant to be the driver. 

We take pains for the physical body. We are told it needs nourishment to survive, and so we take from creation and give to our bodies. The body likes activity, so we do activity, sport, dance. The world rejoices in a beautifully sculpted body bearing the fruits of many moons of training. We ooh and ahh at a dancer’s form and physique or the strength of a marathoner. We recognize the importance of the care that was put in, and admire those who have done so diligently and well. Great minds like to think, to discover, to invent and create. We admire those who have high degrees and big accomplishments. We encourage education, thoughtful thinking and reasoning. And yet....so many who care deeply about the former two, seem to let the third aspect of our being go by the wayside, or have no care whatsoever. My father once told me he learned in college about the metaphysical aspects of our being, that there is an inherent desire in human beings for the metaphysical—hence the creation of religion, spiritual practices, etc. That is all well and good. One can come to an intellectual understanding that man has a metaphysical desire, and therefore creations and activities which help to satisfy that desire. Why then does the logic follow in this particular realm of our being that because we understand, we can now dismiss as irrelevant and unimportant?

We understand that man needs nourishment, so we nourish, we understand that the mind needs stimulation so we stimulate. And yet here we are once —we have a metaphysical need, we understand, so we ignore and discard. Strange isn't it? It seems people are ready to dismiss spirit so easily, maybe for a logical incoherence, perhaps, an aspect of an idea that isn't immediately pleasant or doesn't gel with one's feelings. Many people dismiss spirit because as a child it seemed appealing but as an adult no longer. As though education and life experience has made them too wise for the infinite wisdom that passes all understanding. We are asked to become like children, not to stay as a child, but rather become like children. What does this mean? “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (1. Cor. 13: 11). 

Maybe there is something in adulthood and becoming wise to the world that risks stopping the evolution of a person's spirit, and the call is to surmount these pitfalls in order to once again become like children. We are called to be in the world but not of the world—a call not to stop because of intellectual pride or childish emotions that one clings to, but a call to die to what was before in order to be reborn into infinite intelligence that goes beyond logic, beyond emotion. That which illumines something more, something unexplainable and incomprehensible, but real and tangible nonetheless. We are called not to remain stagnant in emotion or to become brittle in cold hard logic but rather fuse these 2-D's of life into a harmonious whole 3-d experience? ft5ygMaybe, just maybe life in 3-D, unity with the three in one is what it is actually all about.

The Diversity Division

So the other morning Calvin and I were talking over coffee. He began to tell me about a colleague of his who has a daughter getting ready to head off to college. Calvin's colleague is a white woman who is married to a black man, so their daughter is biracial but identifies as African American. This woman proceeded to tell Calvin that her daughter had decided to go into an all black dormitory. Apparently this is now a fairly common thing on campuses. As well as all black cafes or other "safe spaces".

Calvin mentioned how strange this seems in 2020. I had to admit, I agreed and actually thought it is a bit sad. After all the civil rights fights—the deaths and martyrs for the cause of eliminating segregation and esteeming equality—here we are back to segregation, albeit by choice. I wonder what MLK would think? I wonder what Jesus would think... Paul says in Christ there is no male or female, no Gentile or Jew. All are one in Christ Jesus.

The other day at church the sermon started out like this: "I am a white, female, cisgendered, heterosexual, educated, upper white class person..." Wow, I thought to myself, that certainly is a lot of labels!! She went on to preach on her white privilege soapbox, and of the necessity and responsibility of those like her to help those less fortunate. While no one would argue that those with more fortune should incline themselves as Christians to help others with less, I think the key word here is Christians.

Paul says in Christ there is no male or female, no Gentile or Jew. All are one in Christ Jesus. Why then so many separating labels? Christ's own message seems to be doing just the opposite. Tearing down labels in order to unify. I thought to myself, white people are broken too, some are victims of sexual abuse, stuck in addiction, from broken homes, abused—the list goes on.

All beings suffer the human condition, white or not. All human beings are sinners, yet in Him our guilt is lifted, he has died for our sins that we may be born in Him. So why are we being told to feel guilty and obliged because of the color of our skin, stature of our birth, or other above-named details? 

It all just seems so counterintuitive and counter Christian. It also seems to me almost proud, as if somehow by acknowledging some categorical privilege I may have been born into, I can alleviate my natural sense of guilt and become for those of lesser social stature (in any given category) their surrogate savior on earth—all the while convincing myself of some sort of moral superiority because I acknowledge my privilege and take personal responsibility.

It seems to me these false notions are the very thing we are called to die to. A sense of our own righteousness, or power even to do things of our own accord. Should we not meet another, any other as our equal brother or sister in Christ Jesus? Might any one of these not-so-pristine categories have something of equal or greater value to offer than we may have to offer them?

What if we approached the other, any other, not with a sense of alleviating guilt and doing our moral duty, but rather with love from one human being to another. Would that not be more gratifying, satisfying and pure for all involved rather that approaching the other with a man made preordained duty?

I am not convinced that forced diversity creates unity. It seems by the choice of the young college-student-to-be, that perhaps it does the very opposite. The more labels, the more separation. And then we look to be with those whose labels match ours. Christ's message is not of diversity but rather of our unity in Him—a true equality I believe creates equanimity. I honor you because you are a child of God made in his image, I see us as one in him, no better no worse, just one in him. Period, the end.