My Paradigm Shift: Part I

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual history will positively  demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.  Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.  

For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.  We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God...

Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, 'What comes into your mind when you think about God?' we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man."

-A.W. Tozer

"The Knowledge of the Holy"

I think the above quote is a good place to start in journaling my spiritual journey.  I have grown up in the Church, for which I am very thankful for, but that comes with a lot of baggage.  I first realized that sometime in the fall of 2006.  I think up until that point of time most of my spiritual growth had been simply building upon past ideas, one block upon another.  Some of the blocks weren't square though, some were starting to crumble.  So, I needed to go back, or rather God did, and replace some of the blocks, repair others, and completely remove some.

The first block that needed replacing was my narrow understanding of what it meant to be a Christian.  I read Don Millers book Blue Like Jazz.  It was in this book that I first realized (sadly) that you didn't have to be a conservative republican to be a Christian.  Shocking, I know, not everyone has to believe or think like me politically, socially and even religiously.  I am not saying that all roads lead to heaven.  In fact, most lead to hell.  But I don't think that it is defined as I always believed.

What I am saying is that you can believe in big government, high taxes, gay marriage, weak national defense (although no one would claim that one),  socialized health care, evolution, and radical environmentalism and still follow Jesus.  In fact you can believe in those things because you follow Jesus.  I used to think that you might be able to believe those things in spite of following Jesus, but not have those views informed by your faith.

This of course led me to the question of just how involved in politics we should even be as Christians.  Lets face it, politics, bureaucrats, and elected officials, no matter what party they are from are NOT going to change the world, not for the better anyway.  I honestly believe there is only one thing that can change the world for good and that one thing is LOVE.  I know it sounds like a hippy thing to say but it is not the weak kind of love that I think of when I think of "hippy love".  It is strong and unrelenting, unconditional, self sacrificing, always giving and never taking and it is extremely personal.  Politics is none of those things.  Politics is about power and control.  Love is about dying to oneself for the gain of the object of love.  The world is changed not by the power of politicians and world leaders but by the love that comes from a servants heart, of course the ultimate example of this came from love incarnate, Jesus.

So my conclusion in this first step of my paradigm shift is that God is not so concerned about peoples politics and so I should be  much more open and accepting of people with opposing political and social beliefs.  As a result I went from being a political junkie to caring very little about politics.

I wrote more about Faith and Politics back in this blog post

Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

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On another yet similar note I heard a speaker on the radio on Saturday (sorry I can't remember the name) say how, as Christians, we all like to be called servants but few of us like to be treated as a servant. He gave the example of how when he was scheduled to speak at a national conference he noticed on the printed schedule with all of the other speakers it gave their PH D's and other credentials but for him it only had his name. He felt slighted because he too had the same education as these other guys. Then he was convicted of his pride in wanting to get the credit that he deserved and realized that servant hood is just something that we do but it is an attitude of selflessness.

It really struck me with my own life. I don't like to be treated like a servant. It is one thing to do an act of service out of the "kindness of my heart" but it really grates me to be treated like a servant. It wounds my self worth I suppose. I think when I do an act of service voluntarily I am still in control, but when I am treated poorly like a servant I feel out of control and devalued.

Jesus humbled himself to not only wash the feet of the disciples but then to allow himself to be handed over to the Jews by Judas and then to the Romans by the Jews, to be beaten, spit on, mocked and crucified. Jesus "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant..."