Tipping point

You hear all about a climatic tipping point where greenhouse gases, having reached some critical volume, crash the weather system and dramatically change the face of the planet.

I think there is also a tipping point in our spiritual life. Having being transformed sufficiently into Christ’s likeness, God’s power is released through us and despite us and by us.  Up until this point, faith is a fickle thing and religion seems mighty attractive. After, and the values and personality of Christ are so intermingled in us that the two seem inseparable and our spiritual life becomes like breathing. At least, that’s the theory.

In my experience it is not at all obvious when we are being used by God in another’s life. God may actively hide this from us to prevent us from becoming self-conceited. If we can handle it, he may choose to encourage or inspire us by giving us glimpses of what he is doing. This is entirely at his discretion and we should be grateful when it occurs.

Just imagine what it would be like to see as God sees. The Australian poet James McAuley (1917-76) and a late convert to Catholicism once put it like this (JESUS):

Then turning from the book he rose and walked
Among the stones and beasts and flowers of earth;
They turned their muted faces to their Lord,
Their real faces, seen by God alone;
And people moved before him undisguised;
He thrust his speech among them like a sword.

That which is hidden from us in our corporeal form is plainly visible to God who as the risen Christ walks amongst us still.  If we stay in step with Christ then through Christ we can sometimes see that which God is accomplishing in the world through us; even using our imperfection and failings.

Personally I’m glad most of its hidden from me. Not because I don’t want to see what God is doing but rather because I’d get distracted by it and then take my eyes of Jesus.  “No one”, said Jesus, “who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke). Therefore, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith...” (Hebrews).  Besides, I noticed early in life I have a genetic predisposition toward vanity and self-aggrandisement.  I’ve often been poisoned by drinking too deeply from the challis of my own accomplishments. God knows that I don’t need the validation, temptation or the distraction so he keeps it from me most of the time.

But from time-to-time he shows me that which is accomplishing through me, this for his own good purposes as well as mine. It seems to me that and as I have matured in Christ he is accomplishing more through me (I shouldn’t be surprised by this but I am). I am actually becoming useful to him; rather than just dependant on him.  Here’s the nub of it, I think I’ve finally grown up! I have reached the tipping point, I have received a right-of-passage and everything seems to be accelerating. It is clearly not of my own making. I just finally drifted into the path of the trade winds – which was God’s intention the whole time.

Last week on my way home from Brisbane I had a kind of Philip experience (Acts). Instead of an angel giving me directions to an Ethiopian on a chariot I was dropped off at a taxi rank outside a busy pub. The Ethiopian official was a Sekh taxi driver, complete with kirpān (ceremonial short sword), square-cut beard and turban. He was not, admittedly, returning to the Queen’s court in Candace but was returning to court in Deli, India as a barrister once his Master-in-law studies were completed.

I knew a little about Sekhism and, out of genuine curiosity, asked him about his religion.  He became highly animated as he explained its historical role as the defender of Hindus against the aggression of Islam.  Sekhism stands distinct from Hinduism in many ways including their rejection of polytheism and the cast system. When he returns to India his family will arrange a wife for him; he was entirely happy with this arrangement explaining that most love-marriages don’t work.

He asked me about my faith and I explained that when seeking out the truth I found Jesus. He expressed amazement at this. The essence of Sikh teaching is summed up by Nanak, the founding teacher, as, "Realisation of Truth is higher than all else. Higher still is truthful living.".

He asked me what Christianity said about sex and how this might work in such a pluralistic, secular and permissive society like Australia. I told him that Jesus taught that to look lustfully upon a married woman was to commit adultery with her in your heart. I told him that my wife and I had come together sexually for the first time on our wedding night. This impressed him greatly.

Learning that he was trained to fight, I asked him what he thought about Jesus’ teaching that we should love our enemy and do good to those who persecute us. He said that Sikhism had a similar teaching and that he agreed.

I quoted Jesus saying that the greatest two commandments were to love God with all of your heart, soul and mind and to love your neighbour as yourself. This impressed him greatly.

According to Sikhism, the goal of life is to progress on a spiritual scale from self-centred (Manmukh) to God-centred (Gurmukh). This sounded to me like a familiar doctrine. So I asked him whether he knew anything about Jesus. He only knew that Jesus was born of a virgin.

I asked him if he had every read or seen a bible. He hadn’t so I explain a bit about it and offered him one. He was overwhelmingly grateful. When we stopped at the airport he gave me his address, asked me to send the bible to India (English and Hindi please), effusively invited me to visit as an honoured guest, and spoke of God’s providence is allowing him to meet me. He told me that many of his friends had converted to Christianity and that when he returns to India, like others in his law-firm family, he will enter the legislature!

Unlike Philip, I didn’t get to baptise him nor did I get instantly zapped home (which would have been amusing given that I had just paid $60 to arrive on time at an airport).  But I had not planned this. I had not expected this. There was nothing strategic on my part happening here. I did nothing except to love him, ask him a few questions and quote some of the sayings of Jesus. Something in the spiritual realm was happening; and of this I was given a glimpse. I sensed the opening of his heart, the lifting of his eyes to heaven. I think he recognised, reflected in me, something of that which he yearned for. “Blessed”, said Jesus, “are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.” (Matthew).  Jesus said, “For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke).  My taxi driver was knocking and by brilliant logistical planning on God’s part, it was me who opened the taxi door.

It didn’t end there. I met an old friend at the gate-lounge and had an encouraging hour with him due to a delayed flight. I finally sat on the plane looking forward to a glass of wine and an hour to myself and who should sit next to me but a petro-chemical engineer on way his home from Darwin and wanting to talk. We discussed his recent conversion to Catholicism and by the end of the conversation he had given me his business card and insisted that were now friends and should get together soon!

I can’t explain it but this kind of thing seems to be happening to me more frequently. So maybe I have crossed some kind of tipping point and finally become a spiritual man.  Go figure!

Hollow men

“Man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart” God told Samuel when choosing the first king of Israel. This is an important theme in the bible. God values more highly the internal than the external and we should value the same. It is easy to be seduced by the external and it is easy for the external to seduce. But it’s the internal that has real lasting power and it’s the internal which is of great worth. Let’s be more than hollow men.

I’ve been working in companies including the operation of my own for 20 years. In all of that time I have consistently (not perfectly) acted in accordance with the principles embodied in the teachings of Jesus. Throughout this time I have attached greater value to the health of my inter life than I have the appearance of my outer life; which seems superficial and temporary. The quality of my relationship with God has been paramount and for the most part I have put the care of others above the achievement of my own ambitions (of which there have been many). It’s all about the long game; laying down the foundations for righteousness.

The first fallacy I would like to dispel is that career ambition and faith are incompatible, if fact a career can benefit greatly as can a spiritual man in a career. I have often been surprised that this idea is not more broadly accepted. Most people spend the majority of their time thinking about and engaging in career-related activities, much more time than any spiritual activity. Yet we believe the small matter of the soul is of the highest importance in the light of eternity. Surely then, the balance is wrong. Our lives are short, take it from a mid-life man, and they can be easily overwhelmed by the opportunities and distractions that present themselves. As most of us must work hard to meet our basic needs why not then submit our work, as we do more personal matters, to God’s oversight? Should we do this then amazing things will start to happen.

Here then there is no compartmentalisation of our life but instead unity and consistency. We are no longer hollow men. Should we do this, we have promises that the blessings of God will provide for our every need and even, according to his good nature, some of our wants. If we keep separate our faith-life from our career-life we not only miss out on the blessings but we are in danger of being swallowed alive. I’ve seen it happen! A career is progressing prima facie well and then his wife just leaves. He talks about spiritual matters after the church service but there is nothing substantially spiritual evident anywhere in his life. She talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk and then it all falls apart surprising everyone. If you give credence verbally to that which you believe but have no other transforming practice you spiritual growth will be stunted and the inner-life will wither and die. It all unravels from the inside taking quite a while to appear on the outside. These then are the hollow men among us having everything except, on closer inspection, that which is important. The beauty we aspire to should be that of the inner self which is of great worth in God’s sight. It must be carefully tended and encouraged if it is to survive.

There is another way to work and though I can’t say I have mastered it, I am certain that it may be mastered. If you subjugate your career-life to God he will become master of it. Your job will no longer be just an economic necessity but rather a means of spiritual growth. If you subjugate your work ambitions to God then they will no longer be just a means of paying the bills but rather they will become a beachhead through which the blessing of God will flow.

There is a spiritual principle at work here. Whatever is brought under the jurisdiction of God, will become the possession and tool of God to extend his kingdom in the world. Though we may not always see it, the world is a battlefield of our own making. In Christ we have the power to win every battle not by taking on but by giving up. Surrender, then, and brokenness, and humility (those things that make the inner-life beautiful) describe the attitude through which God’s power is liberated into the world. The man, says Jesus, who would take up his life will lose it but the man who would give up his life will find it. The first will be last, said Jesus, and last first. Blessed are the meek in spirit, said Jesus, for they will inherit the Earth. This of course goes against all common sense but what is foolishness to the world is wisdom to those being redeemed. We understand intrinsically this attitude of the heart because of the spirit he gave as a deposit what is to come.

I think a business, like an individual, can be a spiritual entity in its own right. The idea that the institutional church is the only organisation which can claim to be God’s workhorse in the world is naive. Para church organisations have been active in the Western world for hundreds of years caring for the poor and spreading the message of the gospel with great effect. It is not much of an extension then to think about the potential of a business, guided along different lines, to be a spiritual entity. Think about a business actually being part of God’s church rather than just a means of accumulating wealth. It is actively engaged in the world, reaching territory inaccessible to the institutional church. If we believe that the institutional church, full of faithful believers, is God’s instrument in the world how much more so a busy business full of faithful believers or one with a kingdom centred agenda. Let’s then sanctify and commission our business leaders and their businesses and encourage them to take up the mantle of spiritual responsibility that results from this shifted paradigm.

If you can accept this then you may also be able to accept that when Jesus said seek first his kingdom and his righteousness then all else will be added unto to you, the promise of provision might be extended to include your business or career. If this is true, and you were to accept it, I bet it would transform your business practice. It has transformed mine.

I wonder what would happen if you prayed for your staff, colleagues, customers and suppliers daily. I wonder what would happen if you made decisions according to faith and hope rather than just profit and growth.

The small taste I have had of this, I’m pleased to say, reminds me of home. Oh, but what a ride!