More from Walter Wink as he continues to comment about the need of the Human Being to live from an interior center in the middle of a chaotic and violent world.
Whatever else it signifies, the Human Being represents the urge to actualize the self, inner and outer. The Powers are what prevent our becoming. The Human Being is the lure toward our becoming. The Reign of God - God's domination-free order - is the goal of our becoming. Becoming means fidelity to the uniqueness of our own selves. As Jung put it, "Personality is the supreme realization of the innate idiosyncrasy of a living being."
"To develop one's own personality is indeed an unpopular undertaking, a deviation that is highly uncongenial to the herd...To the (person) in the street it has always seemed miraculous that anyone should turn aside from the beaten track with it known destinations, and strike out on the steep and narrow path leading into the unknown. Hence it was always believed that such a (person), if not actually crazy, was possessed by a daemon or a god."
Were such persons crazy? Or were they merely stubborn seekers following the impulse of the Human Being, who has no place to lay its head.
We are each gifted with our lives. Sometimes it may look and feel like a curse, and yet, it is who we are. Now, how do we actualize ourselves when there can be so many other Powers attempting to turn us into something else...even with our consent?!? The goal of our becoming is that Reign of God...that new order...that coming to terms with whose we are and who we will become no matter what might be the cost or the impact as our lives, beloved by God, unfold. This is all so easy to say. Then...comes reality. Then...comes being me in the face of not being...of being rejected...of being left behind...of being forgotten...of being brutalized for not following the path being taking by most others. I don't like using the word "crazy" to describe the saints of God who are emerging as this Human Being because I think it is a more of a blessed sanity that always remembers the place we have in life before anyone tries to put us in a place that is not us.
Connection: Take a deep breath...and see how everything looks before we let everything rule us throughout the day.
What a gift you have given to us, O God. The gift is a simple one - our lives. When we forget that we are the gift of life you have placed into the world to be a gift to others, we need your Spirit to tickle us...remind us...make us bold and full of compassion. Amen.
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