our tidy box of understanding
[my year in review 04]
Watch a scene from Preacher . . .
Clip from Preacher (season 1 episode 10) ‘Call and Response’
In the scene from Preacher, based on the graphic novel, you’ll see a congregation gathered on a live “skype” call with God. What precedes this moment in the clip is a kind of Q & A with God — many people asking all kinds of theological and practical questions — all hoping for answers to their every concern.
Read an excerpt from Dark Night of the Soul . . .
Gerald May’s, Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness & Spiritual Growth
We cling to things, people, beliefs, and behaviors not because we love them, but because we are terrified of losing them . . . We want to be free, compassionate, and happy, but in the face of our attachments we are clinging, grasping, and fearfully self-absorbed . . .
May’s book is an exploration of Saint John of the Cross’ work of the same name. The Dark Night, as understood by both, is a process toward freedom — and yet, within the disorienting nature of such a journey, we would almost always wish for no change. We would like our beliefs, our certainty, our understanding of the world to all remain in the tidy box that we have made for them. And yet, the dark night, always leaves that box torn open.
Liberation, whether experienced pleasurably or painfully, always involves relinquishment, some kind of loss. It may be a loss of something we’re glad to be rid of, like a bad habit, or something we cling to for dear life, like a love relationship. Either way it’s still a loss . . .
Our box has been torn open.
If we are honest, I think we have to admit that we will likely try to sabotage any movement toward true freedom. If we really knew what we were called to relinquish on this journey, our defenses would never allow us to take the first step. Sometimes the only way we can enter the deeper dimensions of the journey is by being unable to see where we’re going . . .
And yet there is so much more beyond the box.
John says the dark night of the soul is “happy,” “glad,” “guiding,” and full of “absolute grace.” It is the secret way in which God not only liberates us from our attachments and idolatries, but also brings us to the realization of our true nature. The night is the means by which we find our heart’s desire, our freedom for love . . .
Maybe we can count our torn boxes as the absolute grace of God. Maybe?
Reflect.
So much to consider here. The gnawing absurdity of the scene in Preacher. The ‘oh so true’ nature of the observations by May. I, personally, glean the message of freedom to love from both the words and the scene.
How has the past year been a tearing open of your box of certainty?
How has your experience of the past year become a disorienting revelation?
Now, think about these things through a new lens . . .
How has the past disorienting/uncertainty caused a movement within you toward a freedom to love?
