Revision Decision

[HKHaugan]

Vision Revision Decision

 OK, so we talked about gender identity.  But that’s not our final identity.  There is something more basic and that is being an image of God.  When we operate from that premise, every human being takes on a significance beyond their nationality, ethnicity, gender and cultural identities that pale in comparison.  We revise what we see.  Every human being is an image of God.  What a thought.  It is those lesser identities that can cloud the way we are seen and the way we are treated.  Each of those have their own legal, social and economic demands which are both written and unwritten all producing the need to conform and compromise the image of God in us.  Peel them away and we have a diamond in the rough, a pearl in the shell and a seed waiting to be spiritualized. 

 Being able to navigate the world’s complexities takes insight and a willingness to maintain our being an image of God within them.  Jesus, the exact image of God, took on this task.  He revealed His identity as the Son of God and the Son of Man living within the national, ethnic and spiritual demands we face.  He took on this task in our place so that we could see ourselves as spiritual images of God in human bodies, His children.  This is how He lived.  His life on this earth was the new spiritualized humanity living by grace through faith.  He lived it in His Word as truth and His life as love.  That is the life, the gift of new life in the Spirit, He has given us. 

 So, we are on to something here when the subject of identity is brought up.  Jesus is the shaper of our personal identity as we relate to Him personally through faith. He is the context for the choices and decisions that identify us as His younger brothers and sisters, His disciples.  This is when our heart and its attitudes that used to influence are replaced by Spiritude, the Holy Spirit counseling us to reflect Jesus.  He becomes the way we want to be seen, the truth we live by and the light from His life. 

 Having discussed gender identity as a major issue in our society, what about all the other parts of our personality?  There are our emotions like being mad, glad, sad, afraid and all their variations of those that call for re-spiritualizing.  Then there are our bodily abilities and limitations, our skills, our talents, our intellect and how we want to use them.  This is where Spiritude comes in.  It seems we tend to shortchange ourselves when we compare ourselves to the standards of acceptance in our horizontal world experience.  By that I mean we tend to find the pressure of having to fit in to the world we grow up in, we play in, we work in and from the expectations of others from one day to the next. 

 Those who make up a God-avoiding atmosphere develop their own morality and may even call it spiritual, but it is an imperfect morality and rationalized spirituality for self-justification to avoid conflict and assume a fake inner peace.  Born in imperfection these mechanisms simply don't work.  As disciples of Jesus, our task is to lovingly bring the Lord into the mix of daily living as we relate to those who have no spiritual base from which they can negotiate their choices and decisions.

 So many of our fellow human beings choose to contrive or construct a spirituality for themselves.  That could be the greatest mistake of their lives.  It will be spiritual all right but hopelessly flawed because of the imperfection of the mind and heart in which it was founded.  Take for instance the idea that all religions are true, and you build a mindset around that thought.  Here’s what happens:  

 First, the mind avoids the actual differences through culturally derived false tolerance.  This denies the gift of reason.  Self-deceit is the result. 

Second, relational experience hungers for spiritual direction and ends in lonely self-justification.

Third, life becomes just another day after day survival event denying eternal existence. 

Fourth, morality, rather than a firm ground for wise choices, becomes an anxiety-based strategy contrived to avoid momentary pain and satisfy momentary needs. 

The four of these make anyone vulnerable to whatever attitude, spirit or emotion rules the atmosphere surrounding the moment.  That is a tiresome spirituality ending in the cul de sac of eternal aloneness.

 Our task as disciples of Jesus is to encounter the spiritual hunger in others and help them see their eternal significance to God and the gift they can be to others.  But it’s up to us.  We have to intentionally make ourselves available to live it and share it.   “While you are on the way, make disciples…teach…baptize… I am with you all the way (Acts 1:4-5).”