I really
enjoy finding things when I was not looking for them! This may be true in much of life, if we would
but just learn to live more spiritually attentive. That is one of the ways I would define
contemplative spirituality. Too often, I
think, people assume that something like contemplative spirituality is some
esoteric, mystical kind of religious experience that normal people would never
be given.
To the
contrary, contemplative spirituality is little more than living one’s daily
life with a significant level of awareness and with an attentive spirit. That way you can find things when we are not
really looking for them. That certainly
adds a dash of serendipity to life. And
who is against serendipity? At least my
understanding of serendipity is something that is always a good deal. Maybe that is a good definition of God: a
serendipitous God. God is the Being who
is always making a good deal with us!
So I was
doing some reading for an event that I needed to attend. The event itself was a bit of an
adventure. I did not know for sure what
I was in for, but that did not matter too much.
I have found in life that some of the best things that have come my way
have been things that might not have made much sense in the moment. This is not my counsel to live life
recklessly. However, I suspect most of
us live our lives too conservatively.
And maybe the older we get, the more we are drawn to conserve and
preserve. Like financial planning, we
see our life’s resources from a model of scarcity rather than generosity. But if God is a serendipitous God, then I
doubt that scarcity is the Divine model!
To
prepare for my event, I was reading some things from a guy I met a couple years
ago, John Hagel. Hagel is not the kind
of person a religion professor predictably would hang out with and from whom would
try to learn things. But that’s my
serendipitous point. Hagel is a business
thinker and innovative change-maker. I
am fascinated by the way he sees things and thinks about things from angles
that never would occur to me. Even if I
learned nothing from him with respect to content, I would learn from him by
watching him process things.
For
example, I was reading in a section from Hagel’s writing where he was talking
about the process of innovation. He
knows that innovators are people accustomed to looking for things that don’t
exist, i.e. new things or new ways to do old things. Perhaps most of us would throw up our hands
and declare that we don’t know how to be innovators. In effect, this declares that we are ok with
the status quo! Not John Hagel. And as I ponder it, this is probably not true
with God either.
Hagel
helps me to see how to engage the innovative process. He says, “Please note: I am not saying we
need to have a clear idea of our destination.”
This is a great piece of information.
How could an innovator---one looking for a new thing or a new way to do
an old thing---know the precise direction?
It is not like one can pull out a road map and chart the roads to
Chicago!
The
innovator might well know what she or he hopes for, or desires to get. But he or she does not have the roadmap for
the destination. Perhaps the first trick
for the innovator is to be ok with that.
However, I think it is ok to have an idea of the destination. Let me cite a few more words from Hagel and
apply that to our spiritual lives.
We may
not have a roadmap to an innovative way to live spiritually, but we can heed
Hagel’s advice. We can have what he
calls ‘the passion of the explorer.” By
this he means “a clear and unwavering commitment to a domain of action that
defines the arena you intend to play and grow in.” I love that idea---passion
of the explorer. I will adopt that as my
spiritual model. Spiritually, I want to
develop the passion of an explorer. I
want to become willing to be innovative.
I want to be willing to explore new ways of becoming available to the
serendipitous God who wants to make a good deal with us.
How do
we develop the passion of explorers? Basically,
it is simple. We learn to love. Or we learn to love more. Passion is nothing more than a red-hot word
for love. Passion brings fire to our
souls. Passion brings heat to our
spirits. Passion emboldens the will to
model generosity and to explore our world with this intent and desire.
Developing
the passion of explorers means we approach and engage life innovatively. We go to new places, befriend different kinds
of people, and loosen our hold on the conservative restraints, which hamper the
explorer’s spirit. To do this will make
us vessels into which God will pour new wine.
And
that’s exactly where I want to be.
That’s my idea of my destination.
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