You must choose. . . the Red Pill or the Blue Pill. . . I choose the Green Pill
Wait. . . You can’t do that. You must choose Red or Blue! Those are the rules. This is America. Whose side are you on anyway? Ahh. . . you must be a Socialist.
I have been on this multi-year journey to learn to feel God’s love for me. Long ago I chose to follow God out of gratefulness for Jesus sacrificing himself on my behalf. I have been living out of this gratefulness ever since, but to be honest, despite my knowledge and appreciation of this great sacrifice, I rarely “feel” loved by God. I believe that if I can feel God’s love on a more regular basis then I will be much better at loving others. Without “feeling” it, I can and do take the love actions, but frankly they require a lot of willpower and I am not very good at them.
The more I pursue, the more I keep coming in contact with Dallas Willard, one of the the great philosopher/theologians of our time. I found that much of what Willard had been thinking in his latter days was not only helpful for me in my pursuit, but also very instructive as to our current Great American Divide. Much of what I will share comes from Renovated, an analysis of Dallas Willard’s last lectures by Jim Wilder (I will refer to them as Dallas and Jim).
Dallas says that the true test of Christlikeness is whether you can love your enemies spontaneously from the heart. Not sure about you, but I am not seeing many Christlike characters on TV, on the street, or in the mirror. To develop character like this, Jim says we need the kind of attachment love that does not come apart when things get rough. We must stay attached during suffering, even when others begin to act and feel like our enemies. If we wish to exhibit Christlike character, we must not let suffering turn others into enemies.
1 John 2:16 says that all that is in the world — the desires of the flesh (the natural desires of the embodied, socialized self), the desires of the eyes (the experiences of looking and being looked at that we find ourselves craving), and the pride of life (domination of others or being dominated) — is not from the father, but from the world.
America is engulfed with all that is in the world, but the Pride of Life stands out in our current climate of division. One side must dominate the other side in ALL issues, and politics is just a reflection of our current culture. According to the way John (and Dallas) saw the world, this way in which we live is not of the Father.
Life with Jesus in the Kingdom of God should relieve us of this kind of need for domination and the envious and resentful comparison that comes with it. By recognizing that I have a place in the Kingdom of God and that is what I am seeking, I am allowed to say, “I don’t need to be a part of this.” And frankly I do not feel like I do.
So what exactly is the Kingdom of God? There is definitely some argument around this definition. Dallas says that that the Kingdom of God is God in action. . . a world where what God wants done IS done. If that is the case, while we can see glimpses of the Kingdom of God, there can not be more than glimpses where fallible humans are involved. This probably explains why the only place I really FEEL God’s love is in nature, especially the mountains, but that is a discussion for another day. If the most important thing I can do on this earth is “seek first the Kingdom of God”, then why do I want to be a part of fighting about who wins “the Pride of Life” fight.
So how then do we engage in public discourse, such as we are likely to be engaged in throughout this entire decade?
We cannot run off to a monastery (I know, that sounds awesome right now!). We are called to engage the culture. It’s here where the fruit of the spirit must take the place of the works of the flesh. If we are truly seeking Christlikeness, the fruit of the spirit becomes more evident as natural expression of our daily existence (including what we say on social media). We are increasingly moving away from being dominated by our feelings and desires and are moving toward harmony with the Kingdom of God. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control start showing up more naturally. I see virtually NONE of this in the public discourse of our day.
Why? Maybe the trauma of life has something to do with it (the dreaded Human Condition). . .
I learned that when people are traumatized, they stop maturing in the area of their identity altered by trauma. Trauma comes from bad things happening or crucial good things not happening. It is much harder to correct trauma caused by crucial good things not happening. According to this definition, everyone has experienced trauma of some sort. If we do not recognize this and work to overcome (and most do neither), our identity growth will be stunted.
Often when more trauma comes, and it always does, people react according to their desires, feelings and emotions and reactions are aimed at whatever is directly in their way. When this system takes over, they fail to see any value in the person before them. Being unable to regulate feelings, emotions, and desires is the description of spiritual and emotional immaturity.
So how do we overcome our own individual trauma and grow in our identity? Interestingly, identity is a rather protected brain function. We do not easily allow any other mind to change who we are. Access to establish or change one’s identity is limited to those who are closely attached. The people we know and love shape our character and our identity. Attachment love is the key to shaping our character and our identity. Where do we find this kind of love? Not on Facebook or Fox News, but in our families, friends and neighbors.
According to Dallas and Jim, who loves us and whom we love have far more impact on identity and character than what we believe. Whom we unconditionally love dominates our unconscious fast thinking. What we believe runs through our conscious slow thinking, our rational brain. See Thinking Fast and Slow. For character development, the brain needs joyful and loving attachments both with something greater (Jesus) and with “our people” (anyone we Love). This harmony of vertical and horizontal attachment love is what scripture calls Shalom. Shalom is characteristic of the Kingdom of God, and what scripture says we should all be seeking.
I don’t know about you, but on this very strange Independence Day, I am seeking Wholeness, Growth, New Life, Rest, Maturity, Hope, Joy, the Glory of God: Shalom.
One Nation Under God, and therefore Indivisible. . . It is my understanding that this stuff is found in the Green Pill, so that is the one I will be taking.
After taking the green pill, I will be spending my time engaged with God and those around me in my immediate vicinity. I will be practicing showing Christ’s love to them everyday, Red or Yellow, Black or White, Mask or no Mask, in person or on a zoom call. My hope is that this will move me a little closer to spiritual and emotional maturity, my true identity, and maybe some joy along the way. I would venture to say that if we all engaged in this pursuit, the Great American Divide would begin to close at least a little.
If you you want to dive deeper into any of this subject, I highly encourage you to pick up Jim Wilder’s book, Renovated.
Originally published at http://www.troyaustin.com on June 30, 2020.
