Plugged into God: Christian Wisdom

Plugged into God: A Christian Perspective on Wisdom

Preface

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
- C. S. Lewis

In my youth, I raced sailboats.  Over time, I graduated through the classes from dinghies to ocean-going yachts.  In search of the “perfect” competitive racing yacht, a partner and I purchased a record- setting 38’ sloop once owned by a former Olympic Gold Medal winner.  We were really committed to the sport.

Late one night I was alone at the helm during a long-distance ocean race while the rest of the crew slept below in their bunks.  The clear sky provided a black canvas for the full panoply of stars and a quarter moon.  The seas were moderate and the trade winds steady.  In other words, a perfect night to be alone on the water.

A major difference between sailing at night and sailing during the day is the absence of the horizon.  Without the horizontal reference point, the world shrinks to the borders of the cockpit and what little else can be seen under the starlight.  Sensory messages intensify.  Each creak of the rigging, each minute shift in the wind, and each tiny change in the shape of the waves are magnified by the mind’s diminished world.  Nothing exists beyond the darkness.  The only reality is the few feet of the boat, its sails, and the helm. 

With a sense of reverential awe, I closed my eyes.  Almost immediately I became aware of the forces acting on the boat.  I felt the wind in the sails as it hit the leading edge, then along the sides, and finally leaving the trailing edge.  I felt the rush of the water on the bow as it knifed into each wave and as it flowed around the seven-foot keel.  With each small adjustment in the direction of the helm, I felt the resulting changes in the forces of the wind and of the water.  I heard the musical sounds created as each force waxed and waned.  And then I merged with the boat.  There are no other words to describe the experience.  The boat and I became one. 

I kept my eyes closed.  I no longer “steered” the boat.  Without seeing, I could anticipate each wave as it broke ahead of me.  Without observing the tell tales on the sails (the pieces of red ribbon that show the wind flow along the sail), I anticipated each subtle shift in wind direction.  The boat and I moved together as we made the best use of wind and current to move through the water.  I was one with the boat, one with the forces of nature. 

After a few minutes of this pure joy, I opened my eyes.  Before closing them, the speedometer indicated eight knots of speed through the water.  With no increase in the force of the wind, when I opened my eyes we were making tens knots.  I was amazed.  Without “trying”, we had increased our speed significantly. 

I wish I could say that we won the race.  We did not.  But I never forgot that feeling of becoming one with the boat and the forces of nature.  It felt real, it felt alive, it felt spiritual.  Positive psychologists call this feeling an “optimal experience”.  In ancient times, Aristotle called it “eudemonia”, human flourishing.  Theologians call it transcendence.  No matter what it is called, all of us have experienced it.  It may have happened when riding a horse, walking along a beach, flying an airplane, working in the garden, hiking in the mountains, or playing a sport.  In fact, athletes call it “being in the zone”; a place where everything slows down and actions require little effort.  A natural high, as it is sometimes described.

The author of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes warned that these experiences are not to be trusted.  “Vanities, it’s all vanities”, he said.  It is better to eat, drink, and be merry than to seek these optimal experiences.  From our own life, however, we know that these experiences are not “vanities”, not worthless.  Instead, we value these special times.  When we are in that place, we feel connected to God, to the Great Spirit, to the divine, to the universe or to whatever name we give to the “other” outside of ourselves.  We are plugged in.

  According to Aristotle, modern research psychologists, and spiritual leaders in all ages, this “plugged in” experience is much more than a momentary joy or fleeting happiness.  It’s one of the things that separate wise people from the unwise.  To be sure, there are other factors as well; things like being able to make good decisions, knowing how the world works, and understanding human nature at a deeper level.  But just about everybody’s list of the difference between wise people and others includes this connectedness to the whole, to the universe, to the divine.  Wise people are simply plugged in more often and with more intensity than the non-wise.

If this is true, how then do we obtain more of this wisdom?  How do we become connected to the divine more often and at a deeper level?  The answers to these questions are as varied as the hues of the rainbow.  In our search, we have tried hallucinogenic drugs, meditation, yoga, contemplative prayer, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, sweat lodge ceremonies, wilderness survival experiences, and more.  The self-help and religion shelves of bookstores offer in abundance the latest gurus hawking their particular path to nirvana.  Just a few titles include: “Your Time is Now”, “The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom”, “The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Awakening”, “The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have”, and my personal favorite, “Think and Grow Rich”.

In our obsessive quest for the next “in” prescription to satisfy the longing of our soul, we jump from one guru to the next nearly as a fast as they appear on this week’s program of Oprah.  Norman Vincent Peale had the answers for our parents--Joel Osteen has the answers for today, but for tomorrow those names may be remembered but their teachings will most likely fades away.  The fast-food McDonald’s approach to wisdom development does not satisfy our long-term hunger.  Eventually, we yearn for the meat and potatoes, the wisdom food with long-lasting substance.

So what about religion?  Have we found the path to soul satisfying wisdom through the practices and beliefs of organized faith?  At least in the United States, the answer is no.  In its 2008 survey of 35,000 people across the country, the Pew Research foundation found that: 

         More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion - or no religion at all. If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, 44% of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.

And further:

         The survey finds that constant movement characterizes the American religious marketplace, as every major religious group is simultaneously gaining and losing adherents. Those that are growing as a result of religious change are simply gaining new members at a faster rate than they are losing members. Conversely, those that are declining in number because of religious change simply are not attracting enough new members to offset the number of adherents who are leaving those particular faiths.

To summarize, Pew found that Americans have no brand loyalty when it comes to religion.  Similar studies found the same in Europe.  People are dissatisfied with the church of their childhood, dissatisfied with the church they attended last week, and they defy any expectation of adherence to a particular set of denominational beliefs over a lifetime.  Constant movement, as Pew noted, is the defining characteristic of religion in America.

Why?  There are almost as many reasons as there are pundits to offer them.  But one reason shows up most often in the research, particularly among younger people.  Organized religions don’t have what they want.  When they look at the lives of believers, too often they do not see wisdom, or peace, or serenity, or any other evidence of a life well-lived.  True, there are some exceptions.  But on the most part, the adherents of the religious paths to the mountain top do not epitomize the kind of life that they seek.  Religious believers do not have what they want.

Every once in a while, I say to myself, “When I grow up, I want to be just like so-and-so”.  Now in my seventh decade, you would think I would abandon this kind of thinking.  But sometimes I run across a person that has the qualities and traits I would like to emulate.  They have what I want.  When I was younger, the qualities I admired most focused on fame, fortune, and unusual skills (like athletics).  But, no longer.  I now value more the qualities of wisdom, altruism, compassion, empathy, love, conscience, and the sense of justice.  I have learned through experience that a life well-lived has little to do with possessions or fame.  As Einstein once said, “The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. . . . The ordinary objects of human endeavor -- property, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.”

Alcoholics Anonymous calls itself a program of attraction rather than promotion.  They say, “If you want what we have and are willing to go to any lengths to get it, here are certain steps that we took…”  At first, newcomers will say that all they want is sobriety.  Later on, they will realize that sobriety is only the first step in learning how to live “life on life’s terms”.  Much, much more than simple sobriety is part of a life well-lived.

In this book, we focus on the Christian religion.  It is widely reported that in North America, all denominations, with the exception of the Pentecostals, are losing members. The solution, according to denominational leaders, is more outreach, more missional efforts into the community.  Training programs are sponsored teaching to Pastors and lay leaders the marketing approach for church growth.  The language of sales such as “prospecting”, “making the pitch”, “closing the deal” is often heard in regional meetings.  Pastors are held accountable for “metrics”, that is, for the numbers in their church.  They are expected to show growth in membership, worship attendance, Sunday school participation, and so on.  Filling the pews by becoming more attractive to “seekers”, to the unchurched, is the goal.  Recruiting warm bodies, consumers of religion, purchasers of the product will reverse the downward slope in the numbers game cry the church growth consultants.  No wonder so many of the unchurched view present-day evangelists and ministers as nothing more than religious used-car salespersons.

We need to acknowledge that sometimes the consumer driven marketing approach works.  The research tells us, however, that it works only when the church has a charismatic pastor, someone personally attractive in much the same way as film or television stars.  These churches grow as long as the charismatic leader remains in place.  When the leader leaves for whatever reason, the church membership declines unless they are replaced by someone equally as charismatic.  Almost invariably, church growth is not the result of personal evangelism (one believer “converting” a non-believer), nor the denominational affiliation, nor the theological bent of congregation.  The professional quality of the music, the attractiveness of the building, and the appeal of the senior pastor has a much greater influence on church growth.

Over 50% of churches in North America have less than 75 members and budgets of less than $90,000.  They cannot afford the professional musicians or the “hotshot” pastor.  Their buildings are older and expensive to maintain.  A study conducted by Duke University notes that these are the very churches that barely hold their own.  Each year, they account for the majority of the membership decline in all denominations.  Whatever growth occurs in the large churches is more than offset by the decline in the small churches. 

Further exploration by the researchers noted that the growth in the large churches recorded during the last twenty years is also deceiving.  The retention rate of current members is low.  These churches grow only because the front door is slightly larger than the back door.  The average length of time that a member stays in a large church is only three years.  Many factors contribute to this trend.  Moving away from the community and personality conflicts are some of the reasons why someone leaves a church.  There are others that are more statistically significant.

The most telling statistic of all is the fact that the majority of those leaving the churches of any size do not start attending another church.  They quit the church completely.  They join the fastest growing sub-population group in North America called the “Nones”, those with no religious preference.  In the United Kingdom, they are called the “de-churched”.  Organized religion does not have what they want.
It is interesting to observe that this group does not stop believing in God.  When questioned by a Gallup Poll, they identify themselves as spiritual but not religious.  They still seek enlightenment, they still seek pathways to being connected with the Divine, and they still seek connections with like-minded people.  They have stopped believing, however, that they can find the things they seek in a Christian Church.  As Csikszentmihalyi pointed out, “those who seek consolation in existing churches often pay for their peace of mind with a tacit agreement to ignore a great deal of what is known about the way the world works.” (Csikszentmihalyi & Rathunde, 1990)

How large is this group?  According to the US Census, in the year 2000, 16% of all adults selected “No Religious Preference”.  In the United Kingdom, the similar group, the “de-churched”, comprise 33% of the total adult population or twice as many as the US. 

If greater emphasis on mission outreach and consumer driven marketing strategies do not attract lasting converts to Christianity, as these statistics point out, what will?  Here is recent research on why men, usually a much more difficult “sell” on religion than women, are attracted to the Eastern Orthodox Church:

         Men also appreciate that this challenge [greater discipline in spiritual life] has a goal of union with God. One said that in a previous church "I didn't feel I was getting anywhere in my spiritual life (or that there was anywhere to get to — I was already there, right?) But something, who knew what, was missing. Isn't there SOMETHING I should be doing, Lord?"  Orthodoxy preserves and transmits ancient Christian wisdom about how to progress toward this union, which is called "theosis." Every sacrament or spiritual exercise is designed to bring the person, body and soul, further into continual awareness of the presence of Christ within, and also within every other human being. As a cloth becomes saturated with dye by osmosis, we are saturated with God by theosis.

Personal challenge, discipline, seeking theosis; does it really work?  Are more people, both men and women, attracted to a religion that requires them to work for spiritual growth?  Yes and no.  If the goal is increased numbers, more bodies in the pews, the answer is no.  The hard way is never the popular way.  But if the goal is committed Christians, ones who truly live the life first described by Christ, then the hard way is the only way.  (“Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life, and there are few who find it”.  Matthew 7: 13-14) 

So here is the core question for every Christian who aspires to discipleship:  If a non-Christian were to take a look at your life, not just your church life but every aspect of your life, would they say “I want what you have”?  Disciples are not super-salespeople running around the world selling the gospel as if it were a used car.  The gospel message is not the blue plate special to be offered during an alter call.  As Marshall McLuhan said in the 1950’s, “The medium is the message”.  That was true in the first century when Jesus Christ himself was the message from God.  That is true in the twenty-first century when the life of the disciple is the message.  Do you have the flourishing life that others will give anything to obtain?

This book argues that the grueling task of seeking spiritual maturity results in greater union with God, or greater theosis.  That sounds so obvious that it requires no illumination.  However, what is not so simplistic is the acknowledgment that the path to spiritual maturity is found along the serpentine road that leads to spiritual wisdom. Discipleship is the result of a developmental process that increases the luminance of God's light in the life of a believer.  The light at its pinnacle becomes a reflection or mirror of the wisdom of God as revealed through Christ to the world.  Thus, the desired maturation process for disciples is progress up the staircase towards wisdom in all its holy forms.  In this manner, they become beacons of "attraction" for the path of Christianity.

Furthermore, this book argues that the personification of spiritual wisdom, the highest form of wisdom, is found in God’s revelation through his son, Jesus Christ.  It is by knowing him, by learning more about him, by emulating him, that the path to the “plugged into God” feeling is best developed.  Nonetheless, there is a caveat seldom appreciated by many Christians--God’s revealed wisdom may also be found in other traditions.  Jesus is the clearest example of personified spiritual wisdom but God provided other examples as well.  The Christian disciple, who seeks to live the abundant life described by Jesus, learns from God’s revelation to other traditions beyond the boundaries of the Bible.

In developing this argument, the book is divided into three parts.  The first part looks at the historical paths others have followed in seeking wisdom.  5,000 years ago the Sumerians, the inventors of written language, called wisdom the most worthy of human pursuits.  Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, Eastern Mystics, Desert Fathers, Medieval Monks and more wrote about it.  Throughout the ages and in all cultures, the questions regarding wisdom remained the same.  Is wisdom a special collection of knowledge, a set of characteristics, or a combination of both?  Where can it be found?  Who has it?  How do you attain it?  Is it a destination or a journey?

In part two, we look at modern efforts to detail the roadmap leading to wisdom.  Psychology, philosophy, economics, political science, ethics, neuroscience, ecology, and biology as well as other fields are researching wisdom.  Some go so far as to claim that the very survival of humanity depends upon our becoming wiser in the decisions we make, personally and collectively.  Their research provides important new insights taking us beyond the teachings of the ancients.

Finally, we bring both the ancient and modern paths in focus on the Christian perspective of wisdom.  As Christians and as the Christian Church, what can we learn about the abundant life from these diverse efforts in human inquiry?  What can we learn about the path to wisdom from the Bible, from Christian tradition, and from Christian theology?  And finally, how do we incorporate the striving for greater spiritual wisdom in our own lives and in the life of the Church?

As disciples we are asked by the world, “Do you have what I want?”  The answer depends on our ability as Christians to demonstrate to the world that through our path to wisdom, the connection with the divine is increased.  With this increase in theosis, we then experience a life well-lived, an abundant life both now and for all eternity.  It results in our being “plugged in” to God.