Mysteries

and other commonplaces

ver. : 01 May 2008

There's no mystery about choosing the part you want:

• Are We/Can We Be Gods?
• What is mystery, anyway?
• Some definitions
• A different look at paranormal stuff
• A definition for metaphysical
• What are near-death experiences about? And what about death and dying?
• Questions

ARE WE GODS?

(yeah, right...)

Part of us wants to believe that we can become gods, that somehow we can in our very nature become mighty enough so that no harm can be forced on us and those we deem to protect. Part of us wants to be more than what we really are. In a way, it's natural that we seek that. It's an almost-genetic-level recognition that we were designed to be more than we are (see Ecclesiastes 3:11). Yet it's a horrible evil in most other ways, because our reaction to that instinct is to try to make ourselves greater. The efforts inevitably exaggerate and distort us, warping us like comic ink on Silly Putty as the putty gets stretched, garbling us like a scrambled video signal. We can, after all, make ourselves greater in some ways, but in the process and at the same time, we also make ourselves worse. Ever-higher highs give us ever-lower lows. The warpage is in the very root of us, you can't go into yourself far enough to escape it, for it is in there deeper than you are able to go. We humans abuse and murder those we love, make peace but build A-bombs, offer greater mobility and slums, make for greater diversity and ethnic cleansing, create unparalleled wealth for some but deep poverty for billions of people, cause unprecedented levels of social participation and a growing sense of social cynicism. There's no much new about it except today's more potent technology and with it a greater urge to push everything to extremes. Our fallenness makes such paradoxes possible, and we're too caught up in it to put life back into balance.

Ultimately, it takes Someone greater than ourselves to make us greater than what we are. And God aims to do just that ! The One who created us with the ability to choose, the One who we told where to go as we marched off to distort ourselves long ago, that is the One who didn't quit on us. This is the mystery of Christian faith, that God loves us so much that whatever it took to bring us out of the grinder our paradoxes put us in, God would do it. Even if that meant being executed at our hands.
back to the Beginning....

WHAT IS MYSTERY, ANYWAY?

When we speak of the mysteries of existence, we're not usually talking about things such as Sock Heaven, even if the whereabouts of lost socks is one of the great mysteries of the universe. Generally, 'down-to-earth' is not what the people of today think of as 'mystery'. I guess that's one of the big problems that modern-day nouveau supernaturalists have with Christian spirituality -- no matter how otherworldly a Christian gets, there's always the walking, talking, bleeding, executed Jesus to deal with, a Jesus whose very presence here was God's solidarity with the material that God created. If God, a spirit, didn't see material reality as something to shed or flee or pretend away, then certainly we, who were created by God to be material beings, have no cause to escape it. To Christians, God isn't out to merge everything into some shapeless oneness that is everything but also nothing. God wants to have robust relationships with creatures that God created to be individual persons who live in all sorts of quasi-onenesses like families and societies. God loves the stuff that is you. God's intent is not a wipe-out of material reality, but a healing of it. God is out to change it so that it becomes what God had intended all along. God made it, and it was good. Material living, to a Christian, was good, will once again be good, and even now is shot through with good, even amidst its horrible ugliness and evil. Jesus will come back! God has made us all heirs to the promise made to Abraham, part of the same 'body', the same Kingdom of God.

We've been let in on the 'secret'. Now spread it around.
back to index

What Is Meant by 'Mystery'?

to define undefinables : a word-field

The following terms are often used in such a fashion that they really mean nothing at all. If you are hearing these words used that way, look out. If you catch yourself using these words that way, clamp the lips together at the soonest possible moment and engage the mind before reopening the mouth with meaning.

ephemeral : transient, temporary, fleeting, passing, here-and-gone.

ethereal : having very little material; foggy; vacuous; otherworldly; outer-space-ish.

holism : involving the whole [Greek holos  (whole)]. Holistic approaches treat something as a whole, within its living context, rather than breaking it down and treating its parts as separate things.

material : made of matter or tangible things that can be sensed by the human body; having stuff-ness or object-ness; solid; being of a tangible/physical nature. Is often used in contrast to 'spiritual', 'supernatural', 'emotional', 'ideal', or 'intellectual'.

numinous : filled with the sense of the presence of divinity. [L numen (spiritual force of a place/object/being)]

paradox : a situation where two facts/situations are opposite or contradictory, yet both appear to be (and sometimes are) true. A 'paradoxical tension' is when the two contradictory truths hold each other accountable; each keeps the other true.

supernatural : that which is not from the observable, detectable, tangible or measurable universe, especially regarding divine things / beings / actions / realms.

back to the start

QUOTES

"Everything that's worthwhile in life is scary. Choosing a school, choosing a career, getting married, having kids -- all those things are scary. If it is not fearful, it is not worthwhile."
---- Paul Tournier

"We cover our deep ignorance with words, but we are ashamed to wonder, we are afraid to whisper 'mystery'."
---- A.W. Tozer, *The Knowledge Of the Holy* (Harper, 1961)

Delve Into the Mysteries...

• A college professor once told me that a mystery is merely something we give up on understanding. Another professor told me that a mystery is something so all-encompassing and so complex that it's too much for our minds. Still another told me it's something we ought not try to understand, but take note of how it affects everything else. How worthwhile is each statement, as you see it? In what ways? Why?
• When you realize that you've run across a mystery (assuming you have, at some point), what did you feel? For example, frustration? relief? confusion? resignation? fear? a sense of discovery? of inadequacy? a state of panic? of awe?
• Do you agree or disagree with the idea that God wants us to know the key to the mysteries of existence? Why/why not? How does that affect your spiritual life?
• What has brought God's presence or purpose to you? Write down what you're thinking, and how you could tell God was there.