Decisions that stand in opposition to the status quo are not for the faint-hearted; they require courage, honesty and risk. These kinds of decisions release us into our destiny. Abundant life awaits each of us, but we must die to obtain it. The challenge is to understand which part of us must die and which part is dying to be raised to life. Until we have grown sufficiently in self-knowledge, it is difficult—if not impossible—to distinguish the false self from the true. I had to die not only to the status quo but to repressive attachments that shackled me in a posture of inferiority and subordination so that I could live and reflect the truth of who God made me to be. This meant dying to my old way of being so that I could live into the responsibility of proper self-assertiveness.
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I think most everyone can relate to that, if you’re a stay-at-home mom or dad, or if you’re a CEO of a company, or if you’re a banker or a teacher. It’s like the work is never done, the needs are always before us. And so then how are we to respond? Contemplative spirituality has really helped me to find that anchor and that rootedness in the daily presence of God. It’s just not easy to be human.
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‘To really thrive in life, our soul needs to be transformed-over and over again. This is the work of the spiritual journey. Exercising the courage to embark on the journey postures us for radical transformation.’
—
Phileena Heuertz, Pilgrimage of a Soul (via
littlejaz)
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Individual Leader Board
+14 (50) Jeremiah Dean
+15 (51) Kyle Scott
+16 (52) Chris Harrell
+17 (52) Rich Nichols
+24 (60) Jeff Swart
+26 (62) Andy Baker + Eli Baker
+27 (63) Tim Hupe
+32 (68) Chris Heuertz
+32 (68) Jan Sassenberg
+33 (69) David Chronic
+34 (70) David Smith
+42 (78) Bela Ispas
Team Leader Board
+ 97 (241) Jeremiah Dean, Tim Hupe, Jan Sassenberg, Jeff Swart,
+107 (251) Chris Harrell, Bela Ispas, Kyle Scott, David Smith
+108 (252) Andy Baker, David Chronic, Chris Heuertz, Rich Nichols
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Fecundity. I love this word because it means more than being fruitful. It means having the capacity to bear an abundance of fruit. We like the thought of being fruitful, but we rarely examine what it requires of us to be fruit bearing—discomfort, pain, trial, patience, darkness and labor.
Fecundity speaks to the capacity for fruitfulness. Jesus of course understood this concept and explained it perfectly in pointing his disciples to grapevines. Comparing the connection to the vine with a connection to himself, he revealed the secret to being fruitful. The capacity for fruitfulness is found in relationship to him. That connection provides the capacity to bear real and lasting fruit. and if you appreciate a good glass of wine, you know what it takes to produce such exquisite vino. The endurance of the grape is equal to the quality of the wine it can produce. Good wine, like good life, requires arid conditions paired with tender care.
The female womb also symbolizes the ability to bear fruit. Fruitfulness doesn’t happen without the capacity for it to happen, and the monthly blood loss and pain presupposes a woman’s ability to bear a child. The woman’s body and feminine cycle is such important imagery for us and it’s a shame that we tend to overlook it. Patriarchal systems that divorce us from the feminine rob us of wisdom and perspective that men and women both need. Male and female are both created in the image of God. When we don’t allow ourselves to reflect on the feminine nature of God, our understanding of God is deficient. Similarly, our communities are deficient when they exclude women from central places of influence and authority.
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As my self-perception and understanding of what it means to be woman was being healed and transformed, so also was my perception of God. Early in sabbatical I had the sense that God wanted to reintroduce God’s self to me. Since so much of my understanding of God was shaped by masculine influence, my understanding was limited. And the distance I felt from God was caused in part by this misunderstanding. If God is perceived as male and men are often overpowering and all-pervasive, then there’s no room for me as a woman in relationship to God or men. But here was this revelation of God in Jesus who, as a man, doesn’t overpower, overshadow or impose himself. Though Jesus could fill the space of the world and is certainly self-sufficient, he restrains himself with remarkable discipline and control to make room for the other—all others, all of his creation. And he doesn’t stop there. Making room for the other, he invites us into a relationship of mutuality—giving and also receiving. Incredible. If the God of the universe can make room for me and receive what I have to offer, then certainly humanity can too—most notably, men. In Jesus we see the portrait of what it means to be the best of masculine humanity—powerful but free of ego, dominant but tempered, strong by yielding to others. He has nothing to prove and everything to give. He is a respected of persons—he affirms that masculine and feminine are both divine reflections. In relationship to him there is enough space for all of us to live in mutuality, offering our gifts and influence to one another. Some feminists have a really hard time accepting that in the life of Christ God chose to revealed as a man and not a woman. But when seen in this light, God’s incarnation as man becomes an incredible grace to men and women alike.
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