Living Deeply

Once or Twice-Born?(Elizabeth Lesser)

The philosopher William James wrote that there are two kinds of people in this world—the Once-Born and the Twice-Born. Once-Born people do not stray from the familiar territory of who they think they are and what they think is expected of them. If fate pushes them to the edge of Dante’s famous dark woods—where the straight way is lost—they turn back. They don’t want to learn something new from life’s darker lessons. They stay with what seems safe, and what is acceptable to their family and society. They stick to what they already know but don’t necessarily want. Once-Born people may go through life and never even know what lies beyond the woods—or that there are woods at all. Perhaps a Once-Born person awakens one morning and feels the beckoning finger of fate loosening disturbing questions: “Is this all there is to life? Will I always feel the same? Do I not have some purpose to fulfill, some greater kindness to give, some inner freedom to taste?” And then he gets out of bed and dresses for work, and he doesn’t attend to the soul’s questions. The next morning, and all the next mornings, he lives as if the soul was a figment of a flighty imagination. This inattention makes him confused, or numb, or sad, or angry. A Twice-Born person pays attention when the soul pokes its head through the clouds of a half-lived life. Whether through choice or calamity, the Twice-Born person goes into the woods, loses the straight way, makes mistakes, suffers loss, and confronts that which needs to change within himself in order to live a more genuine and radiant life.

Promoting Atheism? (Brennan Manning)

The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.

Embracing Brokenness (Alan Nelson)

Brokenness is like manure in our lives. At first it seems anything but appealing, but it fertilizes our souls so that they will bear fruit for serving the Lord. In the context of fruitfulness, Galatians 5:24 says, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” The Scriptures are teeming with similar verses, mandating the death of the old self land the deeds of the flesh. Fruist of the Spirit grows out of soil fertilized by the decaying old nature. The very source of our frustration with a self-centered lifestyle actually becomes the humus for spiritual growth.

Christianity For the Head and the Heart (Greg Forney)

You can hear it often from the halls of churches, echoing in classrooms and in living rooms all across America—dialogue with good intentions, debate with noble purpose. And slowly the echoes turn into silence, and another day passes. Another day for discussion. Another day on the road to intellectual Christian maturity.

The Church has often taken the commands to be renewed or transformed in our minds as the “be-all” for growing as followers of Jesus. We even have it down to a formula, with discipleship 101, 201, 301 and so on. One could argue that we spend great energy to fill the mind while leaving the heart empty and the hands and feet idle.

It is easy to fall out of balance and tip the scales one way or the other—intellectual Christianity with no heart or emotional Christianity with little Biblical understanding. Jesus had no such difficulty. There was no chasm between the heart and the head. Instead, they were very much connected. He was the Word— the fullness of grace and truth lived out in flesh and blood. And that often meant Jesus did and said what others did not expect Him to. While the Pharisees waited for Jesus to come seeking their approval, He instead was with the poor, the sick and the sinners.

During the course of His ministry, Jesus did so much more than simply passing on theological truths for us to fill our minds with. His hands reached out to those discarded by society—those who had been labeled and written off as tax collectors, lepers, cripples and prostitutes. They were the lowest of the low and the poorest of the poor. For this, He became known as a “friend of tax collectors and sinners.”

The life of Christ gives us a picture of how to balance the heart and head, the physical and spiritual. He who was all became nothing. He laid down His life every step of the way, showing total obedience to God, an obedience that eventually took Him to the cross.

It is there at the cross where we see our absolute need for Christ—for a Savior to take our old, stained lives and make them new. Why? Not just to fill our heads or let our emotions throw us into random acts of kindness, but to be new creations. All things are becoming new now. We know this is a process, and it is a process of change that involves the heart and head—a step by step walk of both inward change and outward manifestation; physical and spiritual acts of worshipful obedience.

Is Your Soul In Order? (Dallas Willard)

The soul is far beyond our conscious control.  The soul is that part of us that lies so deep within us that we don't really even acknowledge it most times. The soul organizes the whole person. If your soul is in good order, then most likely everything else will be running relatively smoothly.

Johnny Cash Was A Man of Great Faith

BY KEN GARFIELD

Knight Ridder Newspapers

I'm glad "Walk the Line" is bringing Johnny Cash back.

But I hope the movie sparks more than a renewed passion for the man's music. I hope it moves us to see Cash's often tortured life as the embodiment of true faith. Here was a Christian with scars inside and out, a complicated soul who rediscovered and ultimately embraced God, even if the journey was filled with a lifetime of wild detours.

See the movie. Sing along to classics like "Folsom Prison Blues," which still give voice to those dealing with their demons and others who live like angels. Then dig deeper into his life and appreciate Cash for what he was: An imperfect person who reminds us that God doesn't turn his back on those who wear black.

The well-received film starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon focuses understandably on the love and harmonies of Johnny and June Carter Cash. Maybe we need a sequel focusing on the spirituality that helped bring so much depth to his work.

Growing up in Arkansas, Cash professed a belief in Christ at age 12. But as Christianity Today magazine wrote after his death in 2003, Cash lost sight of him in a haze of addiction, family problems and failing health. He described sex and drugs as demons and once said, "All of a sudden there'll be a beautiful little Percodan laying there, and you'll want it."

Years before he died at 71, Cash had found Christ and his June. Together, they gave him strength to turn his back on the devil. He was the same melancholy man whose hurts made him a poet. But he was older now, wiser, with an unmistakable contentment you could hear in that baritone.

When he and June rose to sing "Precious Memories" at the 1996 Charlotte, N.C., crusade of his dear friend, Billy Graham, he affirmed the sentiment he had shared in an interview two years before:

"I am not obsessed with death; I'm obsessed with living. The battle against the dark one and the clinging to the right one is what my life is all about."

I was channel-surfing the other night when I came across an old Arthur Smith show on public television.

It was a black-and-white tape from Smith's popular TV show years ago. This segment featured the Carolinas musical legend making small talk with Johnny and June Carter Cash.

I was about to surf on when suddenly they broke into that old gospel classic written by Arthur Smith, "I Saw a Man."

I listened to the harmony.

I turned an ear for that growl, rich, dark and somber, nearly off-key actually.

I admired, as always, The Man in Black's clothing, his way of showing solidarity with the have-nots.

I stared at his scars.

I saw a man whose life and death sends a message as powerful as any creed.

Any one of us can find God, even after we've lost him.

The Mystery of Purpose (Madeleine L'Engle)

Someone has altered the script. 

My lines have changed.

The other actors are shifting roles.

They don't come on when they are expected to,

and they don't say lines I've written

and I'm being upstaged.

I thought I was writing this play

with a rather nice role for myself,

small, but juicy

and some excellent lines.

But nobody gives me my cues

and the scenery has been replaced

and I don't recognize the sets.

This isn't the script I was writing.

I don't understand this play at all.

To grow up

is to find

the small part you are playing

in this extraordinary drama

written by

somebody else.

Becoming a Christian (Jean Vanier)

The whole of the mystery of Christ is to change us so that we become the face of Jesus, we become the hands of Jesus, that we become the heart of Jesus, that our body becomes the body of Christ, that our words become the words of Christ.