So, what’s up with all the weirdness of the Old Testament and yet when someone today asks if Mary really was a virgin they get booted off the religious island? What’s up with Isaiah 20: 2-4 “At the same time spoke the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amos, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.”
Three years Isaiah was naked!
There are so many ways to translate the Bible. There are so many different glasses through which we can see, or not see, what’s before us. But do we ever take the time to cleanse our lens or maybe to put on a new lens? Who has time for true introspection today? Even the Greek Philosophers understood the necessity to go within and discover the truth of our being.
“An unexamined life isn’t worth living”, Plato.
And yet we go on drinking skim milk at best, never eating the fine filet that’s been prepared for us because we’re simply too busy! We must take the kids to this, work demands that, social events require our attendance at so-n-so, and of course there’s TV and all the entertainment options to occupy our minds. Who has time for the REAL QUESTIONS of life? Who has time for God’s sake to slow down and meditate a couple minutes of the day?
Who? Do you?
How much RESPONSIBILITY do we have for our very lives? Has God already decided how our life will be and therefore there’s little that we can do? Deeper yet, what is the role of the one who created ALL of life? Are we in constant communication with the ONE, as Jesus was? What IF the Creator of the universe has PLANS for us (why else would he create us?) and we’re failing because we’re not listening to his recommendations. We do have FREE WILL you know. We can choose NOT to listen, but how NOT COOL would that be?
What IF our early fathers developed a view of God whereby God was defined in terms of what a god ought to be to be God- according to them- then! Wow! Can you get the depth of that question? How long will we continue to interpret and live by the Bible based on the ASSUMPTIONS of those who lived 2,000+ years ago, with limited knowledge, and a lower level of consciousness. How much more could we understand if we’d lay the religious MAP aside and follow the COMPASS!
We were created for INTIMACY- not rule keeping! Are you THERE?
How naked are you before the One within, the Creator, Abba Father (without gender)?
Only with the Spirit’s help can we see and be with our nakedness. Learning to appreciate that which our darkness and shadows reveal in addition to that which is rendered in the LIGHT.
I am one for learning to listen and obey the compass as he leads off the map and lives go “OFF the ChARTS”!
The same Lord speaks by each of us saying, “Go and uncover the divine secrets embedded within you, and remove the confines of your limited human understanding.” And we do so, stripped of our former self conceptions, exposing the glory that was with us before that the world was.
Naked?! Sakes, I thought I felt a draft…where did I put those metaphorical leaves? =) All kidding aside I LOVE being a part of a community rather than travel this journey alone. There’s more than one way to chart a course for sure but the DAILY interaction reflects how we’re all so intertwined. I read a book early this morning, tuned in just now to read your post and shook my head in agreement at the communion that’s tangibly going on in the spirit.
The Seekers Guide by Elizabeth Lesser:
“In some ways, it is easier to live in a country ruled by a king or a tyrant. You know the rules, and you understand the consequences for following and not following them. You have someone to blame when things go wrong, and someone to worship when things go right. It’s the same with the spiritual life. A well-worn path, directions for the journey, rules for the followers, roles for the leaders – these can make for a far less demanding journey than the one I am calling the New American spirituality.
In democratizing the spiritual life, the burden is on “you”, the seeker. You are entitled to your own beliefs and practices, but you are also accountable for your own morality and enlightenment. Your path is your own, but you must walk side by side with others, with compassion and generosity as your beacons.”
Are we tuning in? Are we resonating for that matter? Do we dare to believe that our ordinary lives, with the day to day mundane, can in fact be the catalyst that catapults us into our glorious future? The awesome news is that it can be “experienced” here and NOW! The manure of the past has greatly given birth to the garden of my today which will decompose and fertilize an even greater tomorrow. So is the circle of this Earthly life…
May my pioneering footprints be a marker and a gift for my children’s children who will be free to walk their own paths in love and without judgment.
Being naked is what we are now. When we venture into the next dimension we do not walk in this prison…oh sorry..body. The eyes we are peering through is only a window and we are inside looking out. But when we choose to WALK IN THE SPIRIT Prana happens. It is a state of behold all things becomes new! We are not living by the rules and there is no fear of living outside of God’s will because we are in it. This parenthesis we call life is for our pleasure to have fun, we take the parenthesis too seriously. It;s just a punctuation not the whole story. When we walk in the spirit our chakras are in align and the fourth one is unconditional love. can’t walk in the spirit without it. So no fear of slipping and falling. When we truely go back to the Source, Source will say “How was your vacation? did you plan a lot of fun things to do?” Will we say “no I was waiting for you to make the plans for me.” (Parable of the talents)
We are co-creators make it a good life! You have the license and there is nothing stopping you but fear.
Prana- I went through this at a lower level. Isaiah went through and i believe I am going through this. I did not eat or sleep much during this state of being. I was well nourished in the spirit. When we search out the spirit we will be fed. This is when I understood why Jesus was not hungry after he talked to the woman at the well…Prana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ittn0fnEAF4
True introspection isn’t all it is cracked up to be, and the ones that don’t practice it inherintely know this somehow. Unimpeded self introspection has been mostly forsaken. Now we tend to let others be introspective for us. But given our pension to want to find leaders or (professionals) this should not be surprising. We still ask Moses to go up the mountain and speak to God for us, in so many ways.
I used to frequent benches in the inner-city area when I would prayer walk or what have you. Most people could feel the quietness of my soul I suppose and would readily approuch myself and sit, what would be to most, awkwardly close. We would usually sit in somewhat abject contented silence for quite sometime admiring the horizon or birds before they would attempt to speak. They would often ask how it was that I seemed so content and at peace, and how might they become as such? I would tell them, you just have to be utterly truthful with yourself, become naked unto yourself. Most times the reply would be an earnest and sincere ‘Oh, I can’t do that.’ The funny thing was they just had been truthful with themselves, such is our vision at times. I also remember a Christian brother who had come to my door and while talking he had postioned his head against the door in a manner that seemed to resemble something the actor James Dean would do. After my saying the actors name aloud out of context, my friend astonishingly says ‘I just got gifted a James Dean poster for my apartment. How did you know?’ I suppose feeling my statement to be some big revelation of the Holy Spirit unto myself. I had known him for quite sometime and never before did he ever seem to represent that actor in his movements or his language. How such a minute trigger could set off such a change in an individual was very eye opening. If any generation would have the hardest time finding their true selves or even want to, we are standing among them. In all things be blessed.