by Doug Hammack
beach sunrise
As we’ve seen these last two weeks, “the descriptive self” is a faulty and inadequate way of seeing ourselves. In this final lesson in the series we consider how our sense of self keeps us from remaining present to the moment, keeps us from peace, keeps us from inner tranquility.
HEB. 3:7-8
Today, when you hear God’s voice, do not harden your hearts
I encourage you to read Hebrews 3 and 4
It uses the word “rest” to talk about the inner peace we’ve been discussing in this current lesson
We’ll come back to this line in Chapter 3 at the end of today’s lesson
Inner peace is an essential ingredient for the spiritual journey
• As we’ve said, Xn spirituality is unhealthy in our generation
• Happens cyclical throughout history, but it is so in ours
• Many factors have caused this decline
• One factor is the loss of inner quiet, the loss of inner peace
• Our spiritual practices often create noise instead of quieting it
• Sadly, many times, our spirituality produces the same interior nosiness we’ve come to expect in our society
So, to restore us to a healthy Xn spirituality, we’re talking about taking back our rest, taking back inner quiet
• We’ve used the term “Sabbath consciousness”
• We’re talking about factors that work toward this interior space
• Spiritual practices and spiritual mindsets that gain us inner peace
In this lesson, we’ve been drawing on ancient wisdom, ancient texts
• We’ve been digging up spiritual practices and ways of seeing from those times when Xn spirituality was healthy
• One thing we looked at was Jesus’ teaching about staying present to the moment
• Not borrowing troubles from future; regrets/shame from the past
That was before Christmas
• In this current lesson, we’re seeing this…
• How we define ourselves as the sum of a series of descriptors…
This also steals away our peace.
• Today I want to link these two ideas
Staying present to the moment
Living out of our descriptive selves
But before we begin, a caveat
• My brain works in the abstract realm most of the time
• Sometimes this is a very good thing
• But sometimes, it makes me a bit incomprehensible
• My wife is a wonderful help to me in pointing out the times I become incomprehensible
• So often, when I’m preparing a lesson, I hear her voice in my head
• Huh? What does that have to do w/ anything?
Now, according to her, she’s done a pretty good job keeping me on that good path; I usually do pretty good job of making things concrete
• But as I was preparing today, I was a little worried I might not.
• Today, I need your help
• Put on your theoretical hat instead of your real-life hat for a bit
• Instead of thinking the way our brains are wired to think, I’d like us to think about the actual way we think about stuff
I’d like us to take an imaginary flight of fancy, into the realm of how we could see the reality we live in
• I’d like to not work from starting point of how we already see it
For the last two weeks I’ve laid a foundation for this flight of fancy
• I’ve talked about how we are trained in our society, to define ourselves as our descriptive selves
How we come to see ourselves and present ourselves to others as a list of categorical descriptions
• In the category of race, I am this checkbox
• In the category of beauty, I am this checkbox
• In the category of health, this checkbox
• In the category of socio-economic strata, that checkbox
• And in the realm of accomplishments…
• Here is my resume, my CV
• These accomplishments distinguish me, define me
• my education, my work, my family, my victories, my attainments
the flip side of this view of ourselves is the categories we don’t really like to talk about, our anti-accomplishments
• if we’re fully disclosing, here are the failures that define me too
• here are my embarrassments the devastations I’ve sustained, the lack I have felt, the needs that have gone unmet
And the accumulation of these categorical descriptors becomes the me I think of as me
• It becomes the me I represent to you
• And since I define my “me” in these categories, these are the categories I look to, to define “you” to myself as well
Again, we define ourselves by our categories.
• And as I said, as soon as we define ourselves in these categories, the path of our lives is set before us
• The rest of our days are spent gaining a favorable degree of this categorical description
• Being nice enough, religious enough, rich enough, good enough, traveled enough, educated enough, respected enough…
And, we said…
The truly toxic part about defining ourselves as our descriptive selves
• From that point on, our value and worth determined by same criteria that determine value in the marketplace
…scarcity and envy
We determine our value by comparison w/ others
• Our worth is defined by how we compare to others
(I didn’t check w/ Denise before using this slide)
• If everybody can run a 4 minute mile, it’s no accomplishment
• If everybody has a Lexus, it doesn’t distinguish us
• If everybody has a pretty face or granite countertops, these no longer make us feel important
So some have to compare unfavorably for others to compare favorably
• We become locked in a world of comparative values
• We become locked in a world of struggle to be distinguished
• We become locked in a world of win-lose, of scarcity and envy
• And these criteria become the defining characteristics of our worth/value
Everything that can be said about us, is said in comparison w/ some other person
• Are we tall, or are we taller than the others in our cohort
• Are we handsome, or handsomer than most
• Are we smart, or are we smarter than 90th percentile of SAT takers
• Are we wealthy, or wealthier than our cohort from college
And as we define ourselves by gender, sexiness, politics, religious fervor, character, etc, etc, etc…
• always in comparison to someone else or a composite average
And as I said last time, when we define ourselves this way, getting our way is critical to defend our sense of worth
• Pressing advantage isn’t mere selfishness
• It’s survival of our sense of self
OK… that’s a quick review
Remember this is background…
• What we’re considering are the enemies to our inner peace
• When we are not present to the moment…
• When we borrow trouble from tomorrow; regrets from yesterday
Peace is stolen
• When we believe ourselves to be our descriptive selves…
Peace is stolen
Today, I want us to consider how seeing ourselves as our descriptive selves makes it impossible to stay present to the moment
Let’s think about comparisons for a moment…
• When I define myself as the sum of my categorical descriptors…
• There is a time element present in my considerations
• I am thinking, as I compare myself w/ others…
how I have compared in the past?
how will I compare in the future?
My comparisons of my descriptive self to others…
Has either a past or a future element to it…
• I regret/savor how I compared to others yesterday
• I’m working hard to make sure I compare favorably tomorrow
And being our descriptive selves, the present moment lost in shuffle
Our sense of our self is made up of…
• Memories of how our categories fared yesterday
• Desires for how our categories will be tomorrow
And it is this very sense of being, that healthy Xn spirituality challenges
When we embark on the spiritual journey…
• When we experience a healthy Xn spirituality
• The journey helps us transcend…
• As we saturate ourselves in truth, like Jesus teaching…
• As we meditate…
• As we reflect on ancient texts, ancient truths…
• As we talk about our souls in spiritual friendships…
…something happens to us
…and we should settle for nothing less
The spiritual journey that the ancients laid out before us helps us transcend our limited, toxic, confining view of self
• It chips away at our belief that we are our descriptive selves
• These ancient practices are designed to help us transcend ego-consciousness…
• If we are faithful to the practices, we begin to think of ourselves, less as a series of categories
• I see myself as more than my maleness
• I see myself as more than my Americanness
• more than my IQ
• more than my accomplishments
• more than my job, my house, my parenting, my spouse-ness
• I am more than my comparisons to you, or to the national average
And…
A corollary reason we do these spiritual practices…
as we do, we stop thinking of ourselves in terms of past and future
• We become less bound by how our categories compared in past
• We are less driven to be sure our categories compare well in the future
When Jesus taught us to stay present to the moment…
When he taught us sufficient for the day were the evils thereof…
Don’t worry about tomorrow, but let tomorrow take care of itself…
• He was showing us a pathway to internal growth
• If we stay present to moment, we have all that we need to grow
• If we stay connected to the Divine center in this moment, we have all we need to be and become
Think about it this way…
To compare ourselves to others, we have to remain static
…and they have to remain static
We can’t compare things that won’t stay the same
• So we have to think of ourselves like still photographs
• A memory of this comparison or that, locked in time
• I did a bad thing, or I did a good thing
• I was a bad person, or I was a good person
• I compared favorably, or I compared negatively
My beauty, wealth, Christian devotion, locked in time like a photo
• I have to have static view of me, to compare it around
…to see how it fares
• And we extend the favor to those around us
• Locking them into a still photo caricature of themselves
• To our understanding, they remain the narrow band of description we locked them in to make a comparison
But this just isn’t a sufficient way to see ourselves or others
• The Spirit of God w/in us is a dynamic force for life and change
• We are constantly changing, evolving, growing
• And a locked-in view of our comparative selves hinders the force for life and redemption that is within us
• As it does the same to those around us
but when we follow Jesus…
when we travel the spiritual journey…
when we practice the ancient spiritual disciplines…
• How we see ourselves and others changes
• That’s the point of healthy Xn spirituality
• We are freed from tyranny of the past/future images
• We are not our comparisons, our past is not shrouded in regret
• We are not our comparisons, we do not borrow worry from future
Our categorical self-definitions get dismantled over time
who we are begins to unravel
• I am not my career, or my beauty, wealth, or accomplishments
• I am not how I once was
• I am not how I will be tomorrow
So what is left to be me when my descriptive self breaks away?
• What is left is this very present moment
• What is left is my very realest self
• What is left is the me beyond descriptions, the naked soul
• An unvarnished sense of being
• An undistorted essence of aliveness
•
(remember, I warned about the abstractness…)
As healthy Xn spirituality dismantles our limited view of self…
• We find ourselves left w/ a sense of self that is able to live quietly and simply in the present moment
Regrets, fears, guilt, shame, anxiety, all these begin to fade
Because, they just become irrelevant
• We begin to see what the saints before us tell us about…
• The present moment is intersection of eternity with time
• Those very ethereal words the ancient saints before us used, become for us a real experience for real people
• We become a people able to do our jobs, raise kids, be friends, and find a dimension of life that is connected to eternity
• We live in a place of soul-rest; a place of inner peace that is connected to the moment, and to the eternal
• It is a posture of inner Sabbath consciousness that is rooted in our most real selves
• Rooted in our connection beyond the limits of finitude
• Rooted in our oneness with the Divine Center in each of us
Don’t misunderstand. This is not to say that we should not think of the past or future
• Yes, we should study history and plan for times to come
• What we are talking about here, is how we think of our own deepest being
• our sense of who we really are
• a sense of where our reality is ultimately rooted
…and this changes everything
We’re finally coming to the text we read at the beginning…
Heb 4:11 tells us to strive to enter this place of rest…
Let us labor, let us strive, let us try as hard as we can…
To enter this place of inner rest
• boy, that’s an oxymoron
• strive, work, and push…
• to rest, relax, and be at peace
what does that mean?
• We know that striving doesn’t produce peace
• Grinding and pushing doesn’t lead to inner peace
• What is this author saying?
This is where our text comes in…
• Heb. 3 and 4 are all about entering this place of inner rest
• This place of inner quiet and peace
• And smack in the middle of it, there is this line…
“Today, when you hear God’s voice, do not harden your hearts”
Today—that is, right now, right in this present moment…
“When you hear God’s voice”
• People often puzzled w/ this idea of “hearing God’s Voice”
• Usually because they hear it quite literally
• But very powerful image to help us take an inner listening posture
• When a nudge comes to be gracious, not punitive, this is Voice
• When the idea comes to call someone in need, this is Voice
• For God is gracious, God is compassionate, God is caring
“when you hear His voice”
• When you awaken to the eternal realm, the realm of all that is Good, Right, Beautiful that is within you…
• When you sense the dimension of peace, virtue, kindness
When you sense wisdom, freedom, truthfulness
• You will have had a listening, alert, awareness…
• And do not turn away from it when you sense it
• Do not harden your heart
If we would be people who experience divine rest…
here’s what we must strive to do…
• Strive simply to be present and participate w/ God inside us
• Stay relaxed, stay in a listening posture
• Allow ourselves to be drawn to the life that is inside of us…
• And then participate; go with it
Now adopting this posture is a very Not-Doing-Something activity
We’re not producing stuff, not doing stuff, we’re simply adopting a stance of receptivity to what is always w/in us
• Receptive to the inner Divine stirrings
• Receptive to Divine Truths, Divine Ways, Divine Life
• That stuff that is always living inside us
So the word “striving” can be deceptive; actually we’re striving not to strive
• We’re not trying to be good, not trying to compare well
• But instead being receptive to Divine Life all around, and in us
• and when you sense it, trying not to harden our hearts
and so I return to this image we began with before Christmas…
this simple image of a man relaxing by a lake
because the spiritual path is a path of not-doing and un-doing
• it is a path of relaxation
• relaxing our descriptive self comparisons
• relaxing our dependence on the past to define us
• relaxing our dependence on the future to drive us forward
• relaxing into a place of present-to-the-moment-ness
and when we relax w/ this kind of intentionality, we live a different kind of spirituality
• instead of striving, doing, pushing, trying…
• we find life to be a matter of relaxing, letting go
• we stop clinging to how things should be
• we stop insisting on our way
• we stop tensing ourselves to achieve this or to resist that
things don’t typically think of as spiritual exercises, in fact quite spiritual
• unwinding, letting go, calming ourselves
it becomes very spiritual to attend to relaxation
• first, to relax our bodies
• simply unwinding after our work becomes very spiritual
• second, relaxing our minds and emotions
• a relaxed posture, is a posture of sensitivity
• sensitive to see what is deep, deep inside of us
• to see the inner Light of God’s love
• to see the inner Life of Jesus
• to find the inner Way; inner Truth
Contemplative spirituality tells us that our humanity is like a lake
• when it is agitated and stirred up, we can’t see in it
• but when the surface stills, we see deeply into it
when we relax our bodies, our thoughts, our feelings
• the surface parts of us calm, and the waves subside
• and without any religious effort…
• without striving, pushing, or driving, we simply see to the bottom
In a relaxed state, we perceive what lies deep inside of us
• and at this foundation of who we are, there is the Spirit of God
• And because Spirit of God is w/in us, the peace of God is w/in us
• Because HS is w/in us, love of God is w/in us
• Because HS is w/in us, goodness of God is w/in us
• At the depths of who we are, there is divine Eternity
The saints before us tell us… our minds can rest steadily in this state
• Even going about our business, doing the things that need to be done, we can remain in this state
• This state of Sabbath Consciousness
• Inner Rest; inner peace
It is possible for us to remain present to the moment
• Not stuck in the favorable/unfavorable comparisons of our past
• Not chasing favorable/unfavorable comparisons for our futures
And present to this moment, we are able to relax
• And relaxation awakens us to God inside us
• When we relax our bodies, relax our thoughts, relax emotions…
• We are able to see through to the bottom of who we are
• And there all along, Jesus is alive in our hearts
So today…
And in the series of present moments that lay before you
Relax yourself
Relax your body, relax your mind, pursue peace
And in your relaxed state, when you become aware of Divine Voice
Do not harden yourself, do not tense yourself
Simply participate in the Divine presence
Simply respond to the Divine Life w/in you
And as we do this, we will recover a healthy Christian spirituality