sacred

Divine Embodiment

January 13, 2021 — Leave a comment

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Ephesians 1:3

There exists simultaneously this physical realm and the heavenly realms. Those moments when you are stunned and stopped by a beautiful sunset overlooking the seemingly unmoving waters feels like an intersection. That moment when you bump into the most unexpected person at the most ordinary of places and know deep in your heart that was meant to be: that’s a moment. That moment when a third space is created when you and another are so present it feels as if you are one is an intersection. These fully present divine moments have even happened on Zoom for me!

According to this version, in our heavenly realms, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. We have a oneness. We have an abundance. We have all the traits listed in 1 Corinthians 13 regarding love: patience, kindness, forgiveness and all the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5: gentleness, self-control, faithfulness…and so forth. These are all ours. They are already our reality. But when our worldly/physical realm becomes the only thing occupying our mind and body, we lose access to all our spiritual blessings. We are dragged down by the circumstances of the present moment and pulled in all directions unsure of where our feet need to be rooted. The opposite can also be true. We can be so preoccupied with the heavenly realms that we lose touch with where God has placed us right now on earth. We can know these spiritual blessings yet they will have no potency in the present moment.

The task is to know both so well, to live in that intersection. How can I hold the present moment and my surroundings lightly, while allowing the peace and love that is divine and mine penetrate through me and into me? How can I be that porous with the divine world in this physical world? How can I find the divine in the profane and the physical in the sacred? Jesus was the perfect embodiment of divine humanity. How can we live that out?

Day 33: What goes in must come out

January 18, 2019 — Leave a comment

Leviticus 11-13; Psalm 33

There is nothing wrong with a kid who plays in mud and gets dirty. It’s normal. It happens to all kids who play in mud. It might even be a little cute. Until that muddy kid wants to jump right into your fluffy white comforter. Even the path he takes to get there — the muddy footsteps, the small handprints on the wall, The flinging of mud here and there — you get it, might get dirty. Being unclean isn’t wrong. It only becomes an issue when it comes in contact with something that reveals the uncleanliness by messing with what it comes in contact with, in a negative way. I don’t want a muddy white comforter.

Same with here. There’s nothing wrong with the unclean, unless it messes with the goodness of that around it. What makes us unclean is no longer eating this or that, but how we present ourselves. Do your speech and actions defile the good around you? Do your words negatively impact those who hear it? Does your silence and inaction harm those around you? Does your passionate unswerving speech condemn those around you? It is not what goes in that makes us unclean; it’s what comes out. But sometimes what goes in affects what comes out. If I eat a lot of garlic, my body smells like garlic. If I listen to the same kind of person talk, I might unintentionally quote them or phrase like them. Awareness!

So listen to your rap music, watch your Game of Thrones, read your romance Harlot novels, use your vibrator, eat your chips — I mean it. But if those things affect how you interact with those around you with less care, compassion and love, maybe reconsider? Is there a correlation? No judgment. Just curiosity and awareness that lead to potential change.

Day 25: Move your body

January 10, 2019 — Leave a comment

Exodus 25-27; Psalm 25

The tabernacle is REAL specific. Parts have to be an exact length. Materials need to be of a certain kind. It’s like building the Star Wars or Harry Potter sea of LEGO’s. The place where God dwells isn’t a haphazard place. It’s a unique, specific, sacred space that requires awareness, care and a vision of what’s to come. Thank Jesus we don’t have to make tabernacles to have the presence of God among us. Because of Jesus and his love, we get to have the Holy Spirit that can dwell in us because we are the temple.

Do we treat our temple with as much care, awareness and vision of what’s to come? Is our temple in constant process? Is it already perfect for God to dwell? It’s both. We are already holy to host God in us, yet have room to keep becoming the holy place where God dwells. How can we treat our bodies, our minds, our souls with a celebration of what is present and a desire for growth to what will come? May we know our bodies, all its specifics and sacredness. May we honor our bodies and see its power and beauty. May we bring our temple to places to make them radiant and not make the place worst. We don’t do that by doing, but by being whole and loved without pushing the place where we’re at to love us. If we can act and live as if we are already enough and holy and loved, how much less will we take and demand of everyone and everything and how much more will we simply want to give of ourselves?

Treat your body like a temple. Nothing that comes in it will defile it. But don’t be taking that for granted. Don’t devalue it by disrespecting it. You know that ick feel when you do that. Or when others so unjustly do that to you. But what can your body do for others?