Posted by cav on March 19, 2005 at 19:50:53:
In Reply to: living authentically posted by PS on March 19, 2005 at 02:32:32:
I think this is right on. Somehow it seems that the truest moments of authenticity can't be retained for any length, but are short instances where we are able to see clearly, or know clearly and we are certain it isn't something we generated. I've read that alot of this transience is the result of our own nature to try to pin down what caused it...to reflect on it in an attempt to apprehend the moment. Perhaps if we instead trained ourselves to not relfect, to simply experience, we would find ourselves moving in this power more fully, though we wouldn't be all that aware of it. This seems good to me. To avoid pride and my own flesh getting in the way, simply remove me... let me be the instrument, the sheepdog...this is enough for me.
Father Thomas Keating, the controversial proponent of Centering Prayer, says that we can have as much of God's presence as we want as long as we don't try to posess it. At the moment we do, it vanishes. For his other faults, this seems to resonate truth.
: * * *
: I remember a night in 1995 when you came to a prayer meeting at Crossover from the mortgage company (?) customer service job you were working. You routinely dealt with hundreds of problems (read: people) regarding late payments and defaulted loans and other headaches you were expected to resolve. Not a position that cultivated compassionate identification with those people you interacted with; rather, an ordered detachment was necessary to do your job well, I would suppose. Anyway, this night you came in to the group and were pretty much overjoyed because God had just melted your heart that day for this one lady on the phone, and you had handled the conversation with genuine empathy for her suffering and an inwardly prayerful desire for her well being. Now you may remember that God had been showing us that the desire and realization of such instances of unnatural, divinely-inspired compassion and willingness to share others' pain were what being Christian was all about (and as such, were also evidence of the reality of the Spirit in us). May I inform you that on that day your compassion had a durable spiritual effect that cannot be undone, and will not be voided or forgotten ever. How can I say this? I remember it vividly; it meant something to me and still does. This is an act both of compassion and power. This is living authentically. I don't know how to explain it any better, except maybe to say that I can hear Jesus saying, "This do, and you will live."