Tuesday, April 24, 2012

True Spirituality

I had a deep re-evaluation if I should continue this blog. Blogs, of course, are a dime a dozen these days. I even thought it would be a funny line in a sitcom where someone (like a narcissistic male) says, "You may know of me . . .  I'm the one with the blog." (then the laugh track goes off).

So, I know I come here to just give personal ventilation to thoughts when I know there is no one in my real world in which to speak.   Those often come across as simply criticism of evangelicalism.  Maybe there is a self-center purpose of that, on a psychological level.

Of course I would be the first to say that we all blog, tweet, Facebook with the main drive of trying to feel that what we think, or feel, has value. You tweet, "I stubbed my toe this morning and it hurt" and, if you are lucky, three people will tweet back, "I'm so sorry" and therefore you feel that your life does have some meaning to someone.

But the hard question I had to ask myself was, am I blogging here with a voice that isn't well represented elsewhere?  I have very little time to write and when I do, especially when I use my tiny smart-phone sized computer, I make a lot of typos. Surely others write with more thought and purpose.  There's plenty of good post-Evangelical types of blogs, like Imonk.  They write with careful consideration and much more eloquently.

So here is what I came up with. If I stick to my original intent, to juxtapose the Christian monist view vs dualism, then I may be one of the, if not the only voice. So, I think I need to keep returning to my roots to make this blog have any reason to exist.

This came to mind as I followed ( in relationship to my last post) about new ideas of "doing church." While there are many out there who see a need for a different interpretation of the church, I find that they want to go in a very different direction than me.  They want to go deeper into dualistic thinking, rather from it like me. I found this out first hand when I tried to start a house church once. I thought I had the right ideas. However, all five of the families that came with us were deeply entrenched within the Dualistic-Evangelical way of thinking and wanted more, not less of it.  They saw the spiritual as being mystic.  God was telling each one great (and often bizarre) things through their dreams, through the shapes of clouds and through the fluttering of gastric muscles.

So here is the contrast. As a monist, I see the entire universe, visible and invisible, as from God. It is beautiful.  Part of that physical universe are our brains and emotions (God given).  Reason, while not perfect, is good. So, for us to be spiritual, we don't have to transcend this physical world into another world without matter in order to make sense of life. So, we can call indigestion, indigestion and we don't have to embellish it as the Holy Spirit talking to us.

Do I believe in the supernatural?  Of course I do. But as an honest observer I can say that I have never witnessed a supernatural event.  I don't have to. I can be more honest about things they way they are and still give God praise for it.

I will try to speak with that voice more often.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I for one, would be saddened if you shut down your blog. I enjoy it, and check it everyday for a new post, and am quite happy when a new one shows up! I don't comment on every post, but that doesn't mean I didn't like it, or that it didn't make me think. I would like to encourage you to keep doing what you're doing!

Anonymous said...

Do I believe in the supernatural? Of course I do. But as an honest observer I can say that I have never witnessed a supernatural event.

I have only "witnessed" two possible supernatural events in my life, and both were ambiguous.

Ben said...

This is just a note to let you know I have been a ravenous reader of this blog since I discovered it when someone mentioned it on iMonk. In fact, when new posts aren't available, I scavenge the archives.

As far as the content, iMonk is post evangelical, but their scope is more big picture/national, whereas you write from a personal/local point of view. I mean, i dont recall reading an entry here that even mentioned Mark Driscoll! ;) I'm not necessarily advocating for any certain approach to your content; I'm just saying that what you have been writing about filled a need in my life.

tapji said...

You cannot shut down the blog! your book & this blog are gold. and there are lots of other videos & albums i'd recommend for you :P

PRS & ALS said...

Amy Says: Keep writing. I too check in every few days to see if you have something new. I enjoy what you have to say and find it thought provoking.

Brian said...

I consistently read almost every post from only three blogs - I-Monk, The Rabbit Room, and yours. Even when you are not focusing strictly on monism vs dualism I think you have a unique and honest voice and bring a unique perspective to what you write about.

If this is stoking your ego and influencing you to stick around a while then good, I have done my job. :)