While I was in Hong Kong 2 winters ago staying with Johnny, I picked up the book "Rumours of Another World" by Phillip Yancey that I found lying around his house and read it. Among the many amazing stories that Yancey briefly described one in particular captured me. I ended up buying the original book online immediately which was written by someone in the middle of the original story. Since I have a ton of books on my ever-increasing to-read list (one distinguishing hallmark of a bookworm), I only got around to reading this book I got from Amazon last week. I finished it yesterday. Since Yancey does a way better job of condensing the main storyline than I would ever do, I'll just type it up here verbatim:
Another story with poignant parallels comes from World War II. The classic movie "The Bridge on the River Kwai" Starring Alec Guinness, gave some of the background, but not until recently did the book and movie "To End All Wars" fill in details of the extraordinary life of Ernest Gordon, a British Army officer captured at sea by the Japanese at the age of twenty-four.
Gordon was sent to work on the Burma-Siam railway line that the Japanese were constructing through the dense Thai jungle for possible use in an invasion of India. For labor, they conscripted prisoners of war they had captured from occupied countries in Asia and from the British Army itself. Against international law, the Japanese forced even officers to work at manual labor, and each day Gordon would join a work detail of thousands of prisoners who hacked their way through the jungle and built up a track bed through low-lying swampland.
The scene was straight out of Dante. Naked except for loin cloths, the men worked under a broiling sun in 120-degree heat, their bodies stung by insects, their bare feet cut and bruised by sharp stones. Death was commonplace. If a prisoner appeared to be lagging, a Japanese guard would beat him to death, bayonet him, or decapitate him in full view of the other prisoners. Many more men simply dropped dead from exhaustion, malnutrition, and disease. Under these severe conditions, with such inadequate care for prisoners, 80000 men ultimately died building the railway, 393 fatalities for every mile of track.
Ernest Gordon could feel himself gradually wasting away from a combination of beriberi, worms, malaria, dysentery, and typhoid. Then a virulent case of diphtheria ravaged his throat and palate so severely that when he tried to drink or eat, the rice or water would come gushing out through his nose. As a side effect of the disease, his legs lost all sensation.
Paralyzed and unable to eat, Gordon asked to be laid in the Death House, where prisoners on the verge of death were laid out in rows until they stopped breathing. The stench was unbearable. He had no energy even to fight off the bedbugs, lice, and swarming flies. He propped himself up on one elbow long enough to write a final letter to his parents and then lay back to await the inevitable.
Gordon's friends, though, had other plans. They built a new bamboo addition onto their hut on high ground, away from the swamp. They carried his shriveled body on a stretcher from the contaminated earth floor of the Death House to a new bed of split bamboo, installing him in clean quarters for the first time in months.
Something was astir in the prison camp, something that Gordon would call "Miracle on the River Kwai." For most of the war, the prison camp had been a laboratory of survival of the fittest, every man for himself. In the food line, prisoners fought over the few scraps of vegetables or grains of rice floating in the greasy broth. Officers refused to share any of their special rations. Theft was common in the barracks. Men lived like animals, and hate was the main motivation to stay alive.
Recently, though, a change had come. One event in particular shook the prisoners. Japanese guards counted tools at the end of a day's work, and one day the guard shouted that a shovel was missing. He walked up and down the ranks demanding to know who had stolen it. When no one confessed, he screamed "All die! All die!" and raised his rifle to fire at the first man in the line. At that instant an enlisted man stepped forward, stood at attention, and said, "I did it."
The guard fell on him in a fury, kicking and beating the prisoner, who despite the blows still managed to stand at attention. Enraged, the guard lifted his weapon high in the air and brought the rifle butt down on the soldier's skull. The man sank in a heap to the ground, but the guard continued kicking his motionless body. When the assault finally stopped, the other prisoners picked up their comrade's corpse and marched back to the camp. That evening, when the tools were inventoried again, the work crew discovered a mistake had been made: no shovel was missing.
One of the prisoners remembered the verse "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Attitudes in the camp began to shift. Prisoners started treating the dying with respect, organizing proper funerals and burials, marking each man's grave with a cross. With no prompting, prisoners began looking out for each other rather than themselves. Thefts grew increasingly rare.
Gordon sensed the change in a very personal way as two fellow Scots volunteered to come each day and care for him. One faithfully dressed the ulcers on his legs and massaged the useless, atrophied muscles. Another brought him food and cleaned his latrine. Yet another prisoner exchanged his own watch for some medicine that might help the infection and fever. After weeks of such tender care, Gordon put on a little weight, and to his amazement, regained partial use of his legs.
The new spirit continued to sperad through the camp: [Gordon himself writes]
"Death was still with us - no doubt about that. But we were slowly being freed from its destructive grip. We were seeing for ourselves the sharp contrast between the forces that made for lief and those that made for death. Selfishness, hatred, envy, jealousy, greed, self-indulgence, laziness and pride were all anti-life. Love, heroism, self-sacrifice, sympathy, mercy, integrity and creative faith, on the other hand, were the essence of life, turning mere existence into living in its truest sense. These were the gifts of God to men....
True there was hated. But there was also love. There was death. But there was also life. God had not left us. He was with us, calling us to live the divine life in fellowship."
As Gordon continued to recover, some of the men, knowing he had studied philosophy, asked him to lead a discussion group on ethics. The conversations kept circling around the issue of how to prepare for death, the most urgent question of the camp. Seeking answers, Gordon returned to fragments of faith recalled from his childhood. He had thought little about God for years, but he would later put it, "Faith thrives when there is no hope but God." By default, Gordon became the unofficial camp chaplain. The prisoners built a tiny church, and each evening they gathered to say prayers for those with greatest needs.
The informal discussion group proved so popular that a "jungle university" began to form. Whoever had expertise in a certain field would teach a course to other students. The university soon offered courses in history, philosophy, economics, mathematics, natural sciences, and at least nine languages, including Latin, Greek, Russian, and Sanskrit. Professors wrote their own textbooks as they went along, on whatever scraps of paper they could find.
Prisoners with artistic talent salvaged bits of charcoal from cooking fires, pounded rocks to make their own paints, and managed to produce enough artwork to mount an exhibition. Two botanists oversaw a garden, specializing in medicinal plants. A few prisoners had smuggled in string instruments, other musicians carved woodwinds out of bamboo, and before long an orchestra formed. One man blessed with a photographic memory could write out the complete scores of symphonies from composers like Beethoven and Schubert, and soon the camp was staging orchestra concerts, ballets, and musical theater performances.
Gordon's book tells of the transformation of individual men in the camp, a transformation so complete that when liberation finally came the prisoners treated their sadistic guards with kindness and not revenge. Gordon's own lief took an unexpected turn. In an about-face from all his previous plans, he enrolled in seminary and became a Presbyterian minister, ending up as Dean of the Chapel at Princeton University, where he died in early 2002, just before the movie about his life was completed.
Two worlds lived side by side int he jungles of Thailand in the early 1940s. The miracle on the River Kwai was no less than the creation of an alternate community, a tiny settlement of the kingdom of God taking root in the least likely soil, a spiritual fellowship that somehow proved more substantial and more real than the world of death and despair all around.
...
Perhaps something like this was what Jesus had in mind as he turned again and again to his favorite topic: the kingdom of God. In the soil of this violent, disordered world, an alternate community may take root. It lives in hope of a day of liberation. In the meantime, it aligns itself with another world, not just spreading rumors but planting settlements in advance of that coming reign.
I had the privilege of reading the full book this past week. It was very moving. There was actually a point where Gordon was shifted to another Japanese prison camp for prisoners of war where it was also originally bleak as well. Then, long story short, something similar happened where hope, love, joy was cultivated and grew amongst the prisoners of war in that camp.
It was so inspiring how Gordon's life after the war was so thoroughly transformed. It was no short-term/"moody" temporary change of feelings. This guy's spiritually DNA underwent a holy mutation. He was a completely different being after those few years of experiencing a raw and living "valley of death" right in front of his eyes. Other former POW in that camp also were thoroughly transformed, both in terms of length as well as depth of character change.
I am discovering more and more, as each month passes, that God has done tons of similar things in North America (and Europe) as recently as the past few centuries! I mean, when I think of the Church explosions of growth (real spiritual growth, not those Crusade abominations), I usually think of stuff that happened before the 17th century after all that Enlightenment stuff. That's because the popular media doesn't talk about this stuff. They hide it from us. Man... I'm realizing one just has to do a little research to see the fingerprints of God move through every century in church expansion ever since it started 2000 years ago.
If God can, does, and will bring revival (seemingly so casual for an omnipotent Being) for the church around the globe in all time periods without temporal of geographical restriction, I firmly believe with all my heart that He can TOTALLY bring about revival to Toronto in the 21st century. Heck, if he can do it in a world war 2 prison camp, he can definitely do it here. Perhaps Toronto needs to look a little more like that prison camp first to get us desperate enough to fully bow ourselves to the very inch of the ground, but God can do it!
Oh God! PLEASE DO IT! People are so spiritually hungry here.
I recently bought a used book from Crux called "A survey of 20th Century Revival Movements in North America." by Richard M. Riss. The title caught my eye and it totally jives with the theme that God's been putting on my heart more and more recently: city-wide all out spiritual revival for Toronto, something like the scale of Pentecost happening in the 21st century. On the back there is an endorsement that says:
"A welcome addition to the growing literature in the field. This little volume will be particularly helpful to those who are interested in understanding how a variety of lesser known movements - such as the Latter Rain revival of 1948-1952 - are related to more familiar events."
Part of what it means to be a "body" of Christ means to get encouraged not only from God directly, but from other parts/members of the body, through their lives, words, as well as sincere confidence in God. In my university years, my mind increased in its confidence in God as a result from reading apologetics stuff. However, now, it is my heart that is increasing in more and more confidence in God and his power to induce revival as I read more and more accounts of these true stories of supernatural revival happening to modern man and modern societies. As time moves on, it sometimes may make one feel that the portal to the Kingdom of God that seemed wide open to the 1st century early Christians seem light years away from us. I am learning that that is a flat out lie. It's as close to us as the wardrobe in our own house.
I learned today (in a security guard course I'm taking) that there's 3 elements required for the existence of fire. Oxygen, fuel, and heat. It hit me very quickly.
God is like oxygen. It's practically everywhere around us. The only thing missing for this fire is fuel and heat, prayer and action. Although God is Sovereign, he has chose to exercise his sovereignty in cooperation with human free will (I'm Arminian). Although humans cannot control things, we can nevertheless influence how God implements his will. Under certain conditions, we can "change God's mind" just like how Moses changed God's in Exodus 32:11-14. Also, our actions also affect the destiny of other humans (1 Timothy 4:16).
I believe God wants to bring revival to Toronto. The oxygen for the fire is here. The oxygen is just waiting for fuel and heat (both prayer and action, for one without the other is useless). Oh Lord, I want to be part of the Christians in Toronto that faithfully produce the fuel and heat to spark a supernatural fire to sweep Toronto, Ottawa, New York, and the ends of the earth!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
The Kingdom of God is like a playoff basketball game
What does one want to do if one wants to be an efficient basketball player? learn the skills. Let's talk about one skill in particular. Dribbling.
What does one have to do if one wants to be a good dribbler? One has to submit to the physical realities of basketball. What the heck does that mean? One has to learn the how the ball interacts with the ground after one applies a certain amount of controlled pressure from one's fingertips with a certain amount resulting in the basketball reacting in a certain way with the ground, also learning to angle the push of the fingers in a certain way to result in the ball bouncing back in the reverse direction that it has impacted the ground with etc. In the beginning, if one wants to be "free" and just does whatever one wants and expects the basketball to listen to one's mind, then the newbie will not become a proficient basketball player. Even though one wants to be able to control the ball like Kobe Bryant/Steve Nash/Allen Iverson, one cannot be like them just by "doing whatever one feels like" without submitting to the physical realities of the basketball realm. It is not the case that the ball has to listen to us (at least at this stage). On the contrary, we have to listen to the ball. We have to learn how the ball reacts with certain kinetic energy in whatever direction from whatever various causes. One has to "cooperate" with the nature of the workings of how dribbling a basketball works. This is VERY hard in the beginning. If one has never played basketball in one's life before, dribbles for the first time, one is for a challenge. It is friggin hard to control that stubborn sphere! It just doesn't go wherever your mind wants it to go! It's really restricting of one's movements (if one is to dribble while moving)! And it seems unthinkable in the beginning to be able to one day dribble proficiently with one's non-dominant hand, through the legs, behind both legs, and do extended dribbling without looking at the basketball.
What happens after a while after the baller submits oneself to the physical realities of basketball, learns how it works, creates subconscious "automatic bodily responses" to keep the ball in one's control, and renders one's whole being so familiar with the physical realities of basketball? One learns how to then control the basketball as if the basketball itself were another body part of one's body! One becomes so familiar with the physical realities of basketball that one can then start controlling where the ball goes, not because one "takes over the mind" of the basketball, but because one knows how the basketball functions and works alongside in coordination with the basketball's functions, and as a result, in a sense, can "control" the basketball. In this sense the basketball submits to the baller's mind now, not by violating physical laws, but by obeying them! It is the baller who has become familiar with the physical laws so much that one can do what was unthinkable before. The baller can now dribble proficiently with both one's dominant hand as well as one's non-dominant one. The baller can dribble between the legs without any trouble, behind both legs, as well as dribble without looking at the ball and just look straight ahead. If the baller's REALLY good, one can even dribble between the legs while simultaneously walking up and down stairs!
The same is practicing the presence of God in order to accomplish God's will. Dribbling well (to the point where the ball can be controlled to the degree where it feels as if it's part of one's body) can be roughly equated with mastering practicing the presence of God. Playing basketball well (scoring on the opponent, maintaining the posession of the ball and keeping it out of the opponent team's hands, defending the ball from being sunk into one's own net) can be equated with doing loving acts, remaining in God's will and not doing anything against God's will (sin).
Ladies and gentlemen, that's how it works in the spiritual world. One can try to develop the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5) one's "own" way, by just trying to "will" it with one's mind and demanding it to appear on the spot without really understanding how the spiritual realm works, and how God transforms lives to naturally and effortlessly do his will as an outflow from one's heart (Hebrews 10:16). It's not that God can't change anyone in anyway, but he has chosen, in general, to change his chosen people through certain patterns of working (not legalistic rules, but nevertheless consistent principles). And it is our job to find out how he works in the spiritual world and work alongside with him, work with the "rhythm" of his working and let him change us in the process. "Remaining in the vine" (John 15) is not something that is to be merely studied in an academic bible study, attempted for 2 days, then not taken seriously ever again. It is a lifetime skill that takes years to get a good grasp on. I've been at it for over a year and a half, grasped quite a bit relative to where I was when I first started but still have such a long way to go to fully master it. In the beginning, just like first learning how to dribble a basketball, it is STRENUOUSLY hard. One cannot just demand to immediately master it in a week. One has to submit oneself to spiritual reality, realize how the Spirit works, and learn how to constantly remain in a position where one can stay consciously connected with God throughout the day (e.g. mercilessly get rid of distractions while ruthlessly seeking the Kingdom first, keeping emotions as servants in our lives but not masters [1 corinthians 6:12], physically breathing slower with more peaceful body movements in general, consciously interpreting all "scenes" of one's life in God's sovereignty while denying oneself, recite and meditate on scripture throughout the day as a regular habit, in general talk less and listen more to others in interaction [James 1:19], frequently pray and hope that others become better than oneself, be in a state of conscious dependence on God for both big and small things and not trust in one's own abilities for success etc.) so that the Spirit can then transform us and produce the fruit of the Spirit in us while we do our part in "remaining in Jesus" aka practicing his presence. These spiritual laws have to be recognized, submitted to, and learned to be cooperated with. Once again, it is EXTREMELY hard in the beginning.
However, after a while, it starts to become more "natural" as one cooperates with how the spiritual world works and how the Spirit works. As a result of submitting, learning, and becoming one with the laws of the spiritual world/Holy Spirit, one can do what one thought was the immpossible: Remaining in Jesus aka being in conscious awareness of Jesus throughout the day in activities such as talking to one's friends, listening to a speaker, working out, playing games, reading, attending a party, watching a movie etc. These activities, which one used to forget about God in and where one was completely unaware of God's presence during their happening, now lead to producing the fruit of the Spirit in us naturally. We do the connecting with God, and God does the transforming while we remain connected with Him. It starts to become second nature. The presence of God starts to become a portion of one's natural consciousness, just like how the physical basketball starts to become like a portion of one's physical body. But in practicing God's presence, it's different, it not only becomes a part of one's consciousness, it starts to influence the whole consciousness and transform it! We then start to play the game well, for example "dunk" like Carter, "sink in jumpers" like Kobe, control the ball like Nash. In the spiritual world, we start to do God's will more and more naturally taking God's presence with us! For example, we learn to bless those who curse us, we learn to genuinely not care if we unjustly get yelled/scolded/mocked at by others, we learn to start wanting others to do better than us, we start to not worry about things that we used to worry about, we learn to love others in action and listen and actually care about their existence without any hidden motives! In God's world, when we keep possession of the basketball (Jesus), the basketball transforms us to play like Kobe.
The cool thing is, that there is no one way to practice God's presence. Although there seems to be commonalities among saints throughout the ages who have mastered it (just like how there are commonalities between the dribbling styles of NBA stars), there is nevertheless individual distinction in personal styles in how people find certain styles resonating with them more than others.
Christian history celebrates the diversity of how different Christian traditions have mastered it.
It is just like how all these NBA stars in this Nike commercial have mastered the art of dribbling/handling the basketball and also have their own styles.
In the Christian traditions who have mastered practicing God's presence, there are likewise different ways or styles of "divine dribbling". Some, like the Quakers, "center down" into the "center of their spirit" and find Christ living there. Some, like Frank Laubach, have made it a habit to literally pray (a fraction of a second) for every single human being they come across as well as learn how to literally make every movement of one's body, including every limb, finger, mini-joint consciously for the glory of God (Brother Lawrence mastered the latter too). Some, like the Eastern Orthodox dudes, have disciplined themselves to say the Jesus prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner") until the Holy Spirit makes their heart say it automatically (literally automatically, so that they can go about doing their own tasks normally while this prayer keeps going on in the background of their minds, even when they sleep. Yes, this prayer does not stop when they sleep! That is their interpretation of 1 Thessalonians 5:17~!). Each tradition has its own style. There are no legalistic rules, just what style works for you. Different styles. Same principle of remaining consciously aware of God's presence. Same results that produce the fruit of the Spirit. That's because John 15 and Galatians 5 are connected.
That being said, I've been listening to some epic basketball competition music for the past while! They help me keep this analogy (and also the God and his Kingdom) in my mind! (Yes, I do play them in my head as I go through the day!)
as well as
Matthew 24:14 records the words of our franchise owner: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."
Ladies and gentlemen, there are many missionary organizations that believe the Great Commission will be fulfilled in this generation of ours. Who knows, it may, or it may not. There are some signs of stuff that Jesus talked about that came as warnings of the end (wars, famines, earthquakes etc.). Either way, my personal opinion is that we're somewhere in the 4th quarter of this divine playoff game. I can sense the "drama" of it in Toronto. God seems to be preparing people to play the 4th quarter in Toronto. It's exciting! I want to be a part of contributing to this through spiritual formation, to strengthen God's team by training people how to "dribble the ball" aka remain in God's presence throughout each moment (literally) to play the game!
It's part of our deepest heart's desires to be a part of something that really matters. Where the stakes are high, and consequences have eternal proportions. Where there is a constant "tug-of-war"/"back-and-forth" struggle of falling behind and taking the lead by a few points within moments. Where there is a huge audience consisting first of the 3 members of the Trinity, the thousands of angels and heavenly creatures, as well as all the saints who have finished playing in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarter, retired into the heavenly stands where they now support and cheer for us. The audience easily outnumbers the magnitude of all the worldcup audiences combined. This playoff game matters. The stakes are high. It is the center of attention to our friends upstairs.
I just finished watching this Taiwanese drama about basketball. It has cool music that accompanies the "drama" of hyped up basketball matches where the stakes are high each time.
This is the opening theme song.
This song is the "drama" song. The lyrics are kind of arrogant/prideful (so I either try to ignore them or interpret them in a twisted way that helps me to boast in Christ haha), but the attitude of the beat evoking feelings of "This basketball game means war!" just hypes me up when I think of all the parallels of this basketball Kingdom analogy. It just hypes me up, especially when there's closeups of determined players faces, as well as slow-mos of cool walking haha.
Ladies and Gentlmen! We're in the 4th quarter here! When Jesus comes again, he'll take things over in overtime and finish the game in his way. But until he comes, GAME ON! WHO'S WITH ME IN BALLIN' 'GAINST THE DEMONS?
What does one have to do if one wants to be a good dribbler? One has to submit to the physical realities of basketball. What the heck does that mean? One has to learn the how the ball interacts with the ground after one applies a certain amount of controlled pressure from one's fingertips with a certain amount resulting in the basketball reacting in a certain way with the ground, also learning to angle the push of the fingers in a certain way to result in the ball bouncing back in the reverse direction that it has impacted the ground with etc. In the beginning, if one wants to be "free" and just does whatever one wants and expects the basketball to listen to one's mind, then the newbie will not become a proficient basketball player. Even though one wants to be able to control the ball like Kobe Bryant/Steve Nash/Allen Iverson, one cannot be like them just by "doing whatever one feels like" without submitting to the physical realities of the basketball realm. It is not the case that the ball has to listen to us (at least at this stage). On the contrary, we have to listen to the ball. We have to learn how the ball reacts with certain kinetic energy in whatever direction from whatever various causes. One has to "cooperate" with the nature of the workings of how dribbling a basketball works. This is VERY hard in the beginning. If one has never played basketball in one's life before, dribbles for the first time, one is for a challenge. It is friggin hard to control that stubborn sphere! It just doesn't go wherever your mind wants it to go! It's really restricting of one's movements (if one is to dribble while moving)! And it seems unthinkable in the beginning to be able to one day dribble proficiently with one's non-dominant hand, through the legs, behind both legs, and do extended dribbling without looking at the basketball.
What happens after a while after the baller submits oneself to the physical realities of basketball, learns how it works, creates subconscious "automatic bodily responses" to keep the ball in one's control, and renders one's whole being so familiar with the physical realities of basketball? One learns how to then control the basketball as if the basketball itself were another body part of one's body! One becomes so familiar with the physical realities of basketball that one can then start controlling where the ball goes, not because one "takes over the mind" of the basketball, but because one knows how the basketball functions and works alongside in coordination with the basketball's functions, and as a result, in a sense, can "control" the basketball. In this sense the basketball submits to the baller's mind now, not by violating physical laws, but by obeying them! It is the baller who has become familiar with the physical laws so much that one can do what was unthinkable before. The baller can now dribble proficiently with both one's dominant hand as well as one's non-dominant one. The baller can dribble between the legs without any trouble, behind both legs, as well as dribble without looking at the ball and just look straight ahead. If the baller's REALLY good, one can even dribble between the legs while simultaneously walking up and down stairs!
The same is practicing the presence of God in order to accomplish God's will. Dribbling well (to the point where the ball can be controlled to the degree where it feels as if it's part of one's body) can be roughly equated with mastering practicing the presence of God. Playing basketball well (scoring on the opponent, maintaining the posession of the ball and keeping it out of the opponent team's hands, defending the ball from being sunk into one's own net) can be equated with doing loving acts, remaining in God's will and not doing anything against God's will (sin).
Ladies and gentlemen, that's how it works in the spiritual world. One can try to develop the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5) one's "own" way, by just trying to "will" it with one's mind and demanding it to appear on the spot without really understanding how the spiritual realm works, and how God transforms lives to naturally and effortlessly do his will as an outflow from one's heart (Hebrews 10:16). It's not that God can't change anyone in anyway, but he has chosen, in general, to change his chosen people through certain patterns of working (not legalistic rules, but nevertheless consistent principles). And it is our job to find out how he works in the spiritual world and work alongside with him, work with the "rhythm" of his working and let him change us in the process. "Remaining in the vine" (John 15) is not something that is to be merely studied in an academic bible study, attempted for 2 days, then not taken seriously ever again. It is a lifetime skill that takes years to get a good grasp on. I've been at it for over a year and a half, grasped quite a bit relative to where I was when I first started but still have such a long way to go to fully master it. In the beginning, just like first learning how to dribble a basketball, it is STRENUOUSLY hard. One cannot just demand to immediately master it in a week. One has to submit oneself to spiritual reality, realize how the Spirit works, and learn how to constantly remain in a position where one can stay consciously connected with God throughout the day (e.g. mercilessly get rid of distractions while ruthlessly seeking the Kingdom first, keeping emotions as servants in our lives but not masters [1 corinthians 6:12], physically breathing slower with more peaceful body movements in general, consciously interpreting all "scenes" of one's life in God's sovereignty while denying oneself, recite and meditate on scripture throughout the day as a regular habit, in general talk less and listen more to others in interaction [James 1:19], frequently pray and hope that others become better than oneself, be in a state of conscious dependence on God for both big and small things and not trust in one's own abilities for success etc.) so that the Spirit can then transform us and produce the fruit of the Spirit in us while we do our part in "remaining in Jesus" aka practicing his presence. These spiritual laws have to be recognized, submitted to, and learned to be cooperated with. Once again, it is EXTREMELY hard in the beginning.
However, after a while, it starts to become more "natural" as one cooperates with how the spiritual world works and how the Spirit works. As a result of submitting, learning, and becoming one with the laws of the spiritual world/Holy Spirit, one can do what one thought was the immpossible: Remaining in Jesus aka being in conscious awareness of Jesus throughout the day in activities such as talking to one's friends, listening to a speaker, working out, playing games, reading, attending a party, watching a movie etc. These activities, which one used to forget about God in and where one was completely unaware of God's presence during their happening, now lead to producing the fruit of the Spirit in us naturally. We do the connecting with God, and God does the transforming while we remain connected with Him. It starts to become second nature. The presence of God starts to become a portion of one's natural consciousness, just like how the physical basketball starts to become like a portion of one's physical body. But in practicing God's presence, it's different, it not only becomes a part of one's consciousness, it starts to influence the whole consciousness and transform it! We then start to play the game well, for example "dunk" like Carter, "sink in jumpers" like Kobe, control the ball like Nash. In the spiritual world, we start to do God's will more and more naturally taking God's presence with us! For example, we learn to bless those who curse us, we learn to genuinely not care if we unjustly get yelled/scolded/mocked at by others, we learn to start wanting others to do better than us, we start to not worry about things that we used to worry about, we learn to love others in action and listen and actually care about their existence without any hidden motives! In God's world, when we keep possession of the basketball (Jesus), the basketball transforms us to play like Kobe.
The cool thing is, that there is no one way to practice God's presence. Although there seems to be commonalities among saints throughout the ages who have mastered it (just like how there are commonalities between the dribbling styles of NBA stars), there is nevertheless individual distinction in personal styles in how people find certain styles resonating with them more than others.
Christian history celebrates the diversity of how different Christian traditions have mastered it.
It is just like how all these NBA stars in this Nike commercial have mastered the art of dribbling/handling the basketball and also have their own styles.
In the Christian traditions who have mastered practicing God's presence, there are likewise different ways or styles of "divine dribbling". Some, like the Quakers, "center down" into the "center of their spirit" and find Christ living there. Some, like Frank Laubach, have made it a habit to literally pray (a fraction of a second) for every single human being they come across as well as learn how to literally make every movement of one's body, including every limb, finger, mini-joint consciously for the glory of God (Brother Lawrence mastered the latter too). Some, like the Eastern Orthodox dudes, have disciplined themselves to say the Jesus prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner") until the Holy Spirit makes their heart say it automatically (literally automatically, so that they can go about doing their own tasks normally while this prayer keeps going on in the background of their minds, even when they sleep. Yes, this prayer does not stop when they sleep! That is their interpretation of 1 Thessalonians 5:17~!). Each tradition has its own style. There are no legalistic rules, just what style works for you. Different styles. Same principle of remaining consciously aware of God's presence. Same results that produce the fruit of the Spirit. That's because John 15 and Galatians 5 are connected.
That being said, I've been listening to some epic basketball competition music for the past while! They help me keep this analogy (and also the God and his Kingdom) in my mind! (Yes, I do play them in my head as I go through the day!)
as well as
Matthew 24:14 records the words of our franchise owner: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."
Ladies and gentlemen, there are many missionary organizations that believe the Great Commission will be fulfilled in this generation of ours. Who knows, it may, or it may not. There are some signs of stuff that Jesus talked about that came as warnings of the end (wars, famines, earthquakes etc.). Either way, my personal opinion is that we're somewhere in the 4th quarter of this divine playoff game. I can sense the "drama" of it in Toronto. God seems to be preparing people to play the 4th quarter in Toronto. It's exciting! I want to be a part of contributing to this through spiritual formation, to strengthen God's team by training people how to "dribble the ball" aka remain in God's presence throughout each moment (literally) to play the game!
It's part of our deepest heart's desires to be a part of something that really matters. Where the stakes are high, and consequences have eternal proportions. Where there is a constant "tug-of-war"/"back-and-forth" struggle of falling behind and taking the lead by a few points within moments. Where there is a huge audience consisting first of the 3 members of the Trinity, the thousands of angels and heavenly creatures, as well as all the saints who have finished playing in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarter, retired into the heavenly stands where they now support and cheer for us. The audience easily outnumbers the magnitude of all the worldcup audiences combined. This playoff game matters. The stakes are high. It is the center of attention to our friends upstairs.
I just finished watching this Taiwanese drama about basketball. It has cool music that accompanies the "drama" of hyped up basketball matches where the stakes are high each time.
This is the opening theme song.
This song is the "drama" song. The lyrics are kind of arrogant/prideful (so I either try to ignore them or interpret them in a twisted way that helps me to boast in Christ haha), but the attitude of the beat evoking feelings of "This basketball game means war!" just hypes me up when I think of all the parallels of this basketball Kingdom analogy. It just hypes me up, especially when there's closeups of determined players faces, as well as slow-mos of cool walking haha.
Ladies and Gentlmen! We're in the 4th quarter here! When Jesus comes again, he'll take things over in overtime and finish the game in his way. But until he comes, GAME ON! WHO'S WITH ME IN BALLIN' 'GAINST THE DEMONS?
Friday, November 5, 2010
Spiritual formation illustrated in Inception
I saw the movie Inception on the plane a few days ago. I thought it was okay. I didn't fully understand all of it to be honest haha. However, whenever I come across stuff that has to do with psychology, I find myself interested.
Anyhoo, I found that this film really illustrates how spiritual formation works!
Spiritual formation, the pursuit of Christlikeness through training oneself to be godly (1 Tim 4:17), namely through spiritual disciplines, is basically the "proactive" sanctification process of the saint in his journey of following Christ. Okay, so basically spiritual disciplines such as fasting, scripture memorization, prayer, meditation, solitude, silence, esrvice etc. all are in themselves useless in changing oneself to be Christlike. They are merely the means to which God has chosen to work through to make us more holy and Christlike. They are the water-pipes but we must not mistake them for the water, which is the Holy Spirit who changes us from the inside out. It is our responsibility to proactively (but not legalistically) do the spiritual disciplines, not to earn righteousness or earn God's approval, but to become Christ-like and to live wisely without further destroying ourselves. Although God doesn't see his children as guilty of sin anymore, if his children don't proactively discipline themselves to be godly in Christian spiritual formation, they will be, forever in this life, haunted by the self-desctructiveness of sin. So we train, but we trust in God's power, not in our own efforts, although we go hardcore in our own efforts. As Dallas Willard said, we should try our best but not trust our best.
Anyhoo, with that background, I thought that the movie inception really illustrates how this works.
Picture sleeping (which then leads to dreaming) as something that is not within our control. We can't make ourselves sleep and dream. However, we can create the conditions where we will sleep and therefore dream. We can find a quiet/peaceful bedroom, find a good mattress, a good pillow, a good banklet, lie down comfortably and close our eyes. These conditions then allow us to fall asleep and then dream.
During the dream though, that is when the Holy Spirit acts like a sort of divine Leonardo DiCaprio, enters the inner most depths of our being and then "plants" an idea, and "steals/takes away" the bad ones. This happens on such a deep level where we have no control over ourselves (at least in a very direct way) and virtually most, if not all of the work is the Holy Spirit's. So when we wake up (finished with the spiritual disciplines) we wake up a changed person, not changed on the outside, but on the "inside" of us. The cool thing is that as one goes deeper and deeper into spiritual formation, there are always "deeper levels" in our inner selves that can and need to be changed by the Holy Spirit aka the divine Leonardo DiCaprio. If one falls into a "deeper" state of sleep and allows the Holy Spirit to go into oneself on deeper levels, one can be changed not only on level 1, level 2, or level 3 depth but on level 4 or greater, just like the final mission of the whole inception team did to that dude. The more I walk in this Christian journey, it seems like that there's always deeper and deeper levels that the Holy Spirit can and needs to change in me. Not only hundreds of levels, but potentially thousands.
The result after "waking up" is to be a person who is the product of the Spirit's sanctification, so that one is more loving, joyful, peaceful in God. Not from the "outside" but from the "inside".
Thanks Christopher Nolan, for giving grist for the Christian Mysticism mill!
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