Idea of Destination

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.