Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr, once said: "I don't give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would die for the simplicity on the other side."
To journey to the other side of complexity, we are challenged to make a radical shift in thought.
We are invited to move way beyond any simplistic understanding in order to consider what strict scientists might call the God Theory.
Walking this other side is to embark on a path into the invisible realm.
We cannot discover the radical truths of God through a rigid stance of static certainty.
A cautious but commanding sense of "Knowing with Humility" is required.
Like life, the other side of complexity is not always linear, nor static.
It is, much like life, ultimately a process.
This process involves mystery at its core, but it also encompasses a journey of change, healing, and of the acquisition of Wisdom.
On this journey onto the other side we may experience a sense of epiphany - those flashes of insight where many things that seemed quit complex begin to make more sense when viewed from a Spiritual Perspective.
To do so, we can no longer simplistically interpret life through the Limited Lens of Materialism.
Like all transitions in life, the transitions we make toward understanding the other side of complexity are likely to be difficult, even chaotic.
But there are enough hints about human spiritual behavior to constitute a science of sorts, and a wealth of happenings that cannot be explained without resorting to "The God Theory."
In fact, many things in science that we think of as great truths are mainly theories in the minds of most scientists.
The "Big Bang" theory of the origin of the universe, for instance, is just that: a theory.
So all things point to God only to some people. And given the fact that God cannot be measured, many simply do not believe in her existence.
Materialists and those who are highly Secular require proof in the form of visible evidence.
Basically, materialists live by the central belief that reality is only that which the five senses can detect. In other words, their motto is likely to be "What you see is what you get."
Perhaps it can be most simply defined by comparing it with its opposite.
This is what the theologian Michael Novak did so clearly when he distinguished what he called the sacred consciousness and the secular consciousness.
The individual with a secular consciousness essentially thinks that he is the center of the universe.
Consequently, intelligent though they may be, people with a secular consciousness are prone to feel a bit lost within this hugeness and, despite their "Centrality," to often experience a sense of meaningless and insignificance.
The person with Sacred Consciousness, on the other hand, does not think of themselves as the center of the universe.
For him or her the center resides elsewhere, specifically in God - in the Sacred.
Yet despite this lack of centrality, he or she is actually less likely to feel themselves insignificant or meaningless than the secularist is, because they see themselves existing in relationship with that Sacred Other, and it is from this relationship that he or she derives their meaning and significance.
The problem is Unwritten (Politico) Social Contracts never worked and historically trended to become downright diabolic.
The word "diabolic" comes from the Greek diaballein, which means to throw apart or to separate, to compartmentalize.
It is the opposite of "symbolic," which comes from the word symballein, meaning to throw together, to unify.
Simple English: Unwritten social contracts do indeed tear us apart.
Thanks to the secularization of education, we can't even teach values in our public schools and its result speaks for self.
In reality, we currently teach our children Materialism by not teaching Spirituality and by implication, we are sending a message that values are simply not important.
Those who object to values being taught fail to see that we have already interjected a basic nihilistic value into school curriculum's.
Nihilism suggests that there's no unseen order to things, that anything goes and there is no particular meaning in life's experiences.
To Teach Values is to suggest That Things Do Matter.
Share: The Road Less Traveled and Beyond.
M. Robert Mulholland.
God inhabits our bodies, delighting in every inch of us. Every eccentricity and peculiarity is received. Every longing and self-destructive habit is known.
God knows us through and through and still wants to make his home inside of us.
The fact that the Holy Spirit wants to abide in us is one way we know how infinitely precious and beloved we are.
We are God's own prized possessions. Prized possessions are something you take care of .
Yet for some of us taking care of our bodies seems sub-biblical.
Somewhere or other we learned the acronym for JOY that went like this: Jesus First, Others second,, Yourself last. There is Truth in this adage, but it can also morph into a twisted theology about human worthlessness. Human beings are never worthless. God gave his dearest and only Son to love human beings - beings he treasures and adores.
One of the greatest gifts we have next to Jesus is our own selves. We are gifts of God. His Spirit lives in and let it form us into a place of Prayer.
Love is not a quantity we use up. It is a quality of God that grows within us, enlarging our Hearts and our capacity to give and receive.
Self love is not about Self-centeredness.
Its about caring for the body the Holy Spirit Inhabits. Self care can be a spiritual act of worship.
In Romans 12:1-2 Paul says that the spiritual act of worship happens in our bodies.
Spirituality doesn't happen somewhere in your head, outside the concreteness of your own body life.
The spiritual life shows up in bodies that love God and our Neighbor as Ourselves.
Parker Palmer writes in Let Your Life Speak, "Self -care is never a Selfish Act - it is simply Good Stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others."
By listening to them we can detect Lethargy, Escape Strategies, Energy levels, Dependence of caffeine, Addiction to food, Compulsion to work, Signs of Burnout and So On.
These messages are meant to be taken Seriously.
Self-care need not be a selfish act.
Exercise, rest and nourishing food aren't meant to be Luxuries but the Staples of Good Self-care.
Regular checkups, eating healthy food, spending time with friends: these habits Honor the way God made us.
Respecting our bodies (including their limitations) is a way God communicates his Council and Will to us. Our Tiredness reveals that we are not infinite beings. We need boundaries. We need rest.
We need to say No as well as Yes. We need to know that what we can do sometimes, we Cannot do all the time.
There is nothing wrong with excellence and doing ones best. But when the quest for excellence drives the body beyond it limits we have left the realm of appropriate self-care where trying to prove something to someone - even if its self.
The Trinity doesn't call us to overload our bodies and ignore physical symptoms of Disease and Distress. Rather we are called to Recognize Body Information that can help us make Good Choices about how we spend our time, grow relationships, and Nurture our Souls.
As we practice self-care we intentionally receive ourselves as God's own beloved.
Receiving this Love into our bodies Births the Ability to Give Love and forgiveness to ourselves and others.
Share: Spiritual Disciplines Handbook.
Practicing self-awareness rather than self-absorption is what makes people comfortable in their own skin.
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