Skip to main content

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. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I-Thou Relationships

Those of us who have read theology or, perhaps, those who are people of faith and are old enough might well recognize this title as a reminder of the late Jewish philosopher and theologian, Martin Buber.   I remember reading Buber’s book, I and Thou , when I was in college in the 1960s.   It was already a famous book by then.   I am not sure I fully understood it, but that would not be the last time I read it.   It has been a while since I looked at the book.             Buber came up in a conversation with a friend who asked if I had seen the recent article by David Brooks?   I had not seen it, but when I was told about it, I knew I would quickly locate and read that piece.   I very much like what Brooks decides to write about and what he contributes to societal conversation.   I wish more people read him and took him seriously.           ...

Spiritual Commitment

I was reading along in a very nice little book and hit these lines about commitment.   The author, Mitch Albom, uses the voice of one of the main characters of his nonfiction book about faith to reflect on commitment.   The voice belongs to Albom’s old rabbi of the Jewish synagogue where he went until his college days.   The old rabbi, Albert Lewis, says “the word ‘commitment’ has lost its meaning.”    The rabbi continues in a way that surely would have many people saying, “Amen!”   About commitment he says, “I’m old enough when it used to be a positive.   A committed person was someone to be admired.   He was loyal and steady.   Now a commitment is something you avoid.   You don’t want to tie yourself down.”   I also think I am old enough to know that commitment was usually a positive word.   I can think of a range of situations in which commitment would have been seen to be positive.   For example, growing up was f...

Inward Journey and Outward Pilgrimage

There are so many different ways to think about the spiritual life.   And of course, in our country there are so many different variations of religious experiences.   There are liberals and conservatives.   There are fundamentalists and Pentecostals.   Besides the dizzying variety of Christian traditions, there are many different non-Christian traditions.   There are the major traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and so on.   There are the slightly more obscure traditions, such as Sikhism, Jainism, etc.   And then there are more fringe groups and, even, pseudo-religions.   There are defining doctrines and religious practices.   Some of these are specific to a particular tradition or a few traditions, such as the koan , which is used in Zen Buddhism for example.   Other defining doctrines or practices are common across the religious board.   Something like meditation would be a good example.   Christians meditate;...