Why do we believe what we believe? Why is there a higher power? For that matter, why is the sky blue? As I have been playing around with this question this week, a couple of notions came to mind: immanence, mysticism, and mystery. Trying to figure out how these all go together has been a contemplative journey this week.
Spirituality and religion are a mystery as over the thousands of years these concepts have wrestled with their existence. I tend to believe that humans are creatures that use symbols and meanings to explain the world around us. I once heard that in premodern times, atheism would have been nonexistent. This makes sense when one looks at the idea of the Axial Age and the controversial notion of the precameral mind.
Mystical Experiences
I have engaged in contemplative practice over the entirety of my adult life, 25ish years now and there have been moments that I would consider mystical, times when I felt closest to God. The birth of my children was one of those events. I remember feeling our fist born kick for the first time and realizing how drastically our lives would change. Thunderstorms and mountaintop vistas rank up there for me. Preaching and helping one establish an intimate relationship with the divine also were experiences that I found mystical.
What is this notion of mystical? Do you have to be some sage that sits on a cushion or a religious person that locks themselves away in a hermitage? I do not believe so. I do believe though that one must be more intentional with their faith journey and learn to move beyond the bonds of a prescribed faith. The notion of mysticism is simply becoming one with God. In some experiences such as what the natives here would have experienced on a vision quest, St. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross experienced, these experiences can be ecstatic or can be altered states of consciousness
While I have never experienced altered states of consciousness except for a few times when I was sleep deprived in the middle of a 12- and 23-hour event, I can attest that consistent contemplative practice and goal to understand God’s presence in my life has brought more than a few mystical experiences in my life. To be clear, I consider myself a contemplative and not mystic. There are distinct practices and experiences that bring one into a mystical union with the divine. I have had just fleeting glimpses.
Mystery
The spiritual practice that goes with accepting a mystical experience is the practice of mystery. When one engages in the acceptance of mystery, the word acceptance here is important. In my practice as a Christian pastor, I would often bump into people who would look down upon the idea of mystery because it felt too close to the supernatural or demonic or even Pagan. I even recently had a student tell me that they were not allowed to read the Chronicles of Narnia because it was not Christian! But, when one can get their head around the idea that mystery exists in our Christian faith, we come to cherish the unknown, the hidden and inscrutable aspects of our faith.
Paradox
A word that comes to mind when thinking about mystery is paradox. The very idea of believing in any type of deity is a paradox, it is an absurd idea. Then we tied into the idea of a deity having a child with a human and that human child becomes a God himself? Crazy. But when we give up the idea that we can always get it, we open ourselves up to the practice of mystery and then to the experience of mysticism.
So, this God thing that religious folks go on about? For my, in the cultivation of an owned faith, I see God as a transrational being and my faith is the subjective experience with this transrational being. I believe that God is immanent, here, now, revealing and most of all, love. Love is at the heart of God.
Consider these words from Henri Nouwen on your journey this next week,
Dear God, I do not know where you are leading me
I trust you will put your hand in mine and bring me home
Thank you, God, for your love
Say this to yourself every morning, allow your eyes to be opened, your feet to guided, and then see where the day takes you.
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