Recently Dr. Wayne Dyer passed away. While not a professed Christian, he preferred to advise people to be Christ-like rather than Christian, he had quite an impact on me. Dyer sprang up during an era of late 90's self-help, pseudo-mysticism gurus.
My first memory of him was watching PBS really late at night during one of my seasons of insomnia. It was during Telethon time, a most distressing week to watch public broadcasting, and they were showing highlights of the show to come. Here was this guy talking about Lao Tzu, the Tao, Zen, quantum physics, eastern mysticism, returning to Source, and I thought, "Oh great. Here we go. Another one hopping on the Deepak Chopra bandwagon." I have a great distaste for Chopra. While he raises some interesting notions I never got the feeling that he actually lived what he believed. Dyer, on the other hand, radiated authenticity. You could tell that despite any fame he had achieved he was constantly working on an understanding of humanity and spirituality. Like some mad self-help scientist he was experimenting on himself first.
So, why do I bring this up on a blog that is, ostensibly, one on Christian Spirituality? Well, if I haven't mentioned it before, I claim truth wherever I find it. Bits of Zen, scraps of Kabbalah, and even the odd snippet of Carl Jung all contain little bits of truth. When I find something that works in a way that doesn't directly contradict scripture, I tend to consider it.
In "celebration" of Dr. Dyer's passing his company is giving away for free his movie called "The Shift". I watched it and...predictably it altered my perception and was of great benefit. Sometimes it takes hearing the same thing from a different perspective. He began with talking about the Ego.
If you've followed my spiritual journey as of late, you know that I think of the Ego as the enemy within. I'm constantly of the opinion that, yes, Satan is an entity but the greatest threat to my spiritual life and godliness is my Ego. The Lord and I have done some good work in surgically removing slivers of the shrapnel scattered throughout my soul as a result of the Ego grenade having gone off. I'd never been deluded enough to think I've managed to eliminate it from my spirit. I was always hoping and praying for more renewing of my mind in this regard. And then the Lord sent "The Shift".
Chief among the many lessons gleaned from the movie was in regards to Dyer's example of a baby. For nine months we are in the womb, perfectly helpless but perfectly taken care of. All our needs are met. What if once we leave the womb our needs continue being met?
Now, of course, at this point he gets all self-help and he talks about the universe giving us whatever we need, that we should return to "Source" and a ton of other things that would set a Fundamentalist Evangelical Christian's teeth on edge...HOWEVER...Is he on to something here?
In Philippians Paul says "My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus". We sing choruses (well...we used to back in the day) about Jehovah Jirah, God the Provider, and we pay lip service to the verses such as "Be Anxious for Nothing" and "Consider the lilies of the field" and what does our mind say? Logic kicks in and we mutter, "Yeah right, Lord. That's fine for lilies and sparrows, but I've got a mortgage and student loans. You don't know what it's like." But what is it like? What REALLY?
We Christians have pretty much no right to complain. We chuckle at the people of Israel in the Old Testament as God is throwing Manna and quail at them, creating streams in the desert and still they doubt, still they worry, still they complain. "God's not taking care of us. Oh, if only we were in bondage like the old days. Sure, our masters were cruel but our bellies were full." Are we much different? We don't take Him at his word. All of our anxiety and cares He tells us to cast on HIM. Why? Because He loves us, because we are His children. What father does not care for his children? What father says, "Listen, don't worry about it. I've got this. Cattle on a thousand hills, ya know? I'll take care of you son/daughter."
Where does sin spring from? Sure, our very nature as fleshy creatures, but the motivation of sin from the garden, to Cain, to Abraham lying about Sarai let alone that business with Hagar, to Simon Peter, to Judas, to you and me sinning a few hours ago is one thought, "God doesn't know what he's talking about and I have to take care of myself and make sure I get what I deserve." That thinking has a name, and it is Ego...the Flesh.
I just spent my first whole day believing that all of my needs were met and/or going to be met as I needed them to be and it was amazing. Every need from physical, mental, spiritual, sexual, psychological...I believed it and received because 1) He is a big enough God and 2) If He was going to lie about it then what kind of God is He? I released any "What about me?" thought and let the Lord pick up the slack. And He showed up. Some of the stories are too personal for such a public forum, but suffice to say He did as He promised.
He loves us so much and He is just waiting for us to get over ourselves; to let go of the constant need to program, analyze, control, to make sure we get our portion, and take care of it all in our own power.
For some reason it reminds me of a few things I've heard about the foundations of spiritual walks. It was once asked of a Zen Buddhist what one must do to attain Enlightenment and he said,, "Chop wood, carry water." Another Zen master said, "wash your bowl after eating." While the Gospel of Thomas may not be canon, one saying that strikes me as true is when Jesus supposedly says, "Lift a stone and you will find me. Split a piece of wood and I am there."
So, why bring up Zen and a rogue "Gospel"? Because spirituality even among the non-believers is in the quiet simple moments and day to day routine. In our modern day we are constantly making lists, focusing on the "doing", keeping to schedules, being distracted by Candy Crush, worrying about what we are going to eat, what we are going to drink, what we are going to wear...and we are not so different from the people whom Jesus told to stop running after those things. The pagans do that. Stop it. Be different. When we stop He shows up. When we rest in Him we find rest. It is our Ego that drives us to busy and crazy because it whispers in our ear how important we are, how critical we must be, how this relationship or that would fail if it wasn't for us, if it wasn't for our SELF doing it.
And it's a lie.
W
