Captivity Liberation Shadow & Light

Passion Week, or Holy Week, continues to be a season in my life where the veil between heaven and earth exhibits an opaqueness allowing me to gaze more deeply into myself and the heart of God.

From the Triumphal entry to the empty tomb, I have learned that life is a journey of captivity, liberation, wilderness, and freedom. Learning the layered lessons embedded in the Passion of Yeshua is worthy of a lifetime of prayer, meditation, study and practice.

The story, or rather the stories, that comprise the final week of Yeshua’s life cascade out of larger story. To miss the larger story will diminish the power of the latter. In this week of cumulative passion Yeshua uses the Passover as the framework to display His compassionate redemptive mission. The Passover story itself is part of a larger narrative displaying God’s saving and intimate connection with humanity, the Exodus.

The moments and movements found in the Exodus story include Captivity, Liberation, Wilderness, and the gift of freedom.

This week I chose the spiritual practice that Jung called “shadow work.” Shadow work, or sanctificational reflection, is when I allow Holy Spirit to shine the light of Yeshua in my soul in order to reveal both light and shadow, the twin growth partners of our human journey,

I went on a slow walk. While walking, my attention was drawn to my physical shadow displayed before me on the path. Pausing, I reflected on how the light more easily helped me see my shadow. That thought is worthy of a divine pause. I took a picture of my shadow on the ground. Next I looked at the image and asked Holy Spirit to illuminate the moments and movements where I have been living more from my shadow-self than from my true self.

As I reflected on my shadow in the picture I felt the nudge of the Spirit beginning to speak. I felt drawn to reflect on how my shadow has been showing up in my life, relationships, unspoken thoughts, and subconscious interactions.

In that moment I remembered one of my favorite “shadow” or ” imposter” quotes Brennan Manning wrote years ago:

“When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.”

I simply love that quote. Closing my eyes I can hear Brennan intone those thoughts to me the last time he spoke at a church I pastored. Perhaps even more to the point Brennan also has said:

To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God’s grace means.”

Why is shadow work important?

I believe there are multiple reasons, however, two that immediately come to mind are, first, that people who don’t do the deeper shadow/soul work cause great harm to others by their lack of personal awareness and stunted emotional and relational intelligence. Often, they are unaware of how their interactions cause pain.

The second reason is exactly what Brennan said: In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God’s grace means.” To stand in confessed awareness before God and receive His grace helps us better know both Trinity and self.

Do you see shadow at work throughout the Passion Week as the radiant light of the Resurrection shines fully?

Pondering the liberation experienced by the people of Israel as their Exodus journey began, I quickly realize that liberation and freedom are two very different things. God moved powerfully against the hard-hearted Pharoah in a display of power and strength over the gods of Egypt. The final judgment, “Death of the firstborn” was the ultimate blow crumbling Pharaoh’s impenetrable heart. God’s people were liberated.

The “Death Angel”, however, spared the firstborn of Israel by “Passing over” every house that had the blood of an innocent lamb applied to the doorframe of their houses. The blood of the lamb was the sign for the “Death Angel” to Pass Over and spare that house.

This resulted in light for some, but darkness for others.

While liberation came for the Children of Israel that night it took forty years to experience the freedom they inherited on that “Passover night.”

Those were forty years of “shadow work.”

As the people escaped slavery, tasting the sweetness of liberation for the first time, they experienced the highest highs and the lowest lows. As a people they were:

  • Delivered, yet never satisfied…Where are we going Moses, it was better in Egypt.
  • Divinely fed yet never thankful…Really, manna again?
  • Spiritually Taught, yet slow to learn…Hey I have an idea, let’s craft a golden calf idol.
  • Continually rescued, yet never appreciative…Does Yahweh even care about us!

“The journey from liberation to freedom is long, hard, and takes as long as it takes.”

I wonder if the years of wilderness wandering might have been shorter had they spent more time embracing the wilderness rather than trying to escape the wilderness. In my life I continue to learn through doing my shadow work that trusting God in the wilderness creates a greater capacity to be satisfied with the unseen traits of the ordinariness of freedom.

God is not in a hurry, Trinity prefers the long game.
The spiritual/human journey is a marathon, not a sprint.
The movements from liberation to freedom pass through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

In the passion week of Yeshua we see Him:

* Destroying the way of power and empire as he enters Jerusalem on a donkey and not a war stallion.
* Eating with and serving those He knew would deeply betray and deny Him.
* Wrestling with the conflict between His desire and the will of Abba in the shadows of Gethsemane.
* Longing for his followers to pray with Him rather than fight for Him.

Even in His final week Yeshua reveals that the path from liberation to freedom travels through the darker spaces and places of life. The only way to embrace the light is to journey through the dark. The beauty of life is through the wilderness of death.

Shadow work not only asks the question, “What is it that is causing me anxiety?” But it also seeks to understand “Why am I so anxious?”

Shadow work not only reveals what wounds I carry, but also helps me ask deeper questions such as, ” Why do I still carry the wound around allowing it to define me?”, or, “Why am I choosing to hold onto bitter wounds rather than allow God to transform them into sacred wounds through forgiveness and grace?”

Shadow work not only allows me to be honest about who has hurt me and how I have been betrayed, it also takes me to deeper into my heart becoming aware of and acknowledge those I have hurt and who need me to make amends. Deeper still I am able to see where I have betrayed myself and God by inflicting pain on others.

Shadow work is the journey between the triumphal entry and the resurrection. Between Liberation and freedom.

There are no shortcuts, bypasses, or alternate routes if your desire is the freedom only found in God.

Perhaps this is why the Passion Week remains a “thin space” for me where the veil between who I am and who I am becoming is more profoundly seen, and why the opaque veil between an earthly reality and a heavenly present-future hope is calling me to trust God in the journey. The result is feeling the embrace of His light.

Finally, I hold to the truth that as the Divine Light that is Yeshua bathes me in grace and mercy,, I am able to trust that His all encompassing Light is far greater than any darkness in me.

Breathe in: I am not my shadow
Breathe out: I am becoming love

Why Martin Luther King Day Matters Now More Than Ever

Martin Luther King Jr. in the Birmingham Jail

Today your Facebook, Instagram, Linked-in, Twitter, and Tik-Tok feeds will be full of powerful quotes and images of Martin Luther King Jr. as they should be. The impact he had moving the Civil Rights needle forward is to be celebrated, remembered, and affirmed.

The problem with one-day memorials is that the impact tends to last only for the day. The moment gives way to matters more personally urgent as the daily grind washes the brain, acting as both desensitizer and eraser of everything it deems non-essential.

In 2020 we were living through history in the making. From daily COVID updates, information, and misinformation to confronting our racism in real-time. The death/killing of George Floyd by police officers sparked anger, unrest, and demonstrations resulting in some of the most widespread civil unrest in years. And rightly so.

The unrest has revealed how far we have to go in racial reconciliation in the U.S. In 2020 Confederate flag wielders, alt-right-white-supremacist-Aryan-hate-groups, and Q-anon types, felt safe to show who they were and what they believed. The visible hate and the support for that hate created many “I don’t believe what I am seeing!” moments. Perhaps what saddened me most was to see how some of these groups were proclaiming Jesus.

So, yes, that’s why I believe that Martin Luther King Jr. Day matters now more than ever.

Over the weekend, I re-read MLK’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” Have you read it? If your answer is no, I will encourage you to put it at the top of your list. You can download it HERE:

On April 12, 1963, a group of eight white clergy from Alabama issued a statement titled “A Call For Unity.” In their statement, they condemned the demonstration in Birmingham led by Martin Luther King Jr. The “Letter From Birmingham Jail” was MLK’s response to the statement.

In the letter King writes:

“Several months ago our local affiliate here in Birmingham invited us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promises. So I am here, along with several members of my staff, because we were invited here. I am here because I have basic organizational ties here. 

Beyond this, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the eighth-century prophets left their little villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their hometowns; and just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Greco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.”

The line “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here” sparks my inner prophet. I can imagine hearing Jesus say similar words, “I am in Jerusalem because injustice is here, and my mission is to right the wrongs of sin and death, bringing an end to injustice everywhere.” The theme of justice baptizes His Messianic Mission statement found in Luke 4:18-19. As Jesus reads the words of Isaiah, He connects them and attributes them as His personal mission statement:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Help the poor; release the prisoners; heal the blind; free those oppressed; proclaim God’s favor. These words sing with justice images. These words echo the words of Micah 6:8, “What does YHWH require of you? To do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God…”

Doing justice is the call of every follower of Jesus. Doing justice happens when we work to create with God a world where every person has the access and opportunity to live and develop the life God designed them to live. To know Him and unleash the gifts He embedded in their soul. 

So, as Jesus did, we work to eliminate the outcast, the marginalized, the ostracized, the least of these. Further along in King’s letter, he notes:

Further along in King’s letter he notes:

“You deplore the demonstrations that are presently taking place in Birmingham. But I am sorry that your statement did not express a similar concern for the conditions that brought the demonstrations into being. I am sure that each of you would want to go beyond the superficial social analyst who looks merely at effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. I would not hesitate to say that it is unfortunate that so-called demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham at this time, but I would say in more emphatic terms that it is even more unfortunate that the white power structure of this city left the Negro community with no other alternative.”

Did you catch what King gently states: “I am sure that each of you would want to go beyond the superficial social analyst who looks merely at effects and does not grapple with underlying causes.” 

Pause.

Our culture is not grappling with underlying causes because we have chosen the superficial social analysts of Twitter, Facebook, News entertainment channels, and talk radio. When we do wrestle with the underlying causes, people tend to get antsy, squeamish, and often move toward shame rather than repentance. Shame calls upon her cousin Guilt and the two launch back at the truth with the vitriol of justifications and accusations. 

Dealing with systemic sin is painful. It hurts, but it is the only healing path for us all.

MLK’s Dream was freedom and equality because this is how God designed us. King riffs on that theme when he said: “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The urge for freedom will eventually come. This is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom; something without has reminded him that he can gain it.”

Paul cries out to the Galatians (5:1), “It is for freedom that Christ has set; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

Four Things You Can Do To Celebrate MLK Day Everyday.

RESPOND: When someone asks me if I believe “Black Lives Matter,” my answer is an unqualified YES. I don’t need to remind them that all lives matter, or blue lives matter, or pastor’s lives matter. The question is singular; therefore, the best response is not another justification that diminishes the question’s intent. This is one way to celebrate MLK Day every day.

ACKNOWLEDGE: Many people believe that since anti-discrimination laws exist the problem of racism is in the past. This is blatantly untrue. I can celebrate MLK Day everyday by acknowledging that discrimination, racism, and systemic evil do indeed exist.

RECOGNIZE: Everyone has implicit bias, which are attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. You can celebrate MLK Day everyday by reading books that will challenge you and educate you. I have previously written and given book recommendations in a post called, “Educating Monty, (on racism, injustice, and white supremacy) read it HERE.

ACT: Micah calls us to “do justice.” You can celebrate MLK Day everyday when you call it out when you encounter ethnic slurs, intentional limited access, or blatant racism. King’s non-violent protests, and the reason for them, stand in stark contrast to the events of violence, outrage, and sedition we have recently experienced in our nation’s capital. Our calling is to act, God’s responsibility is to heal, deliver, and restore.

May we refuse to allow this MLK Day become a one quote wonder. Choose to do all you can to Respond, Acknowledge, Recognize and Act in such a way that the beauty of Revelation 7:9-12 would manifest on earth as it is in heaven.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels stood round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.””

This year MLK Day matters more than ever.

My Tuesday Tweets

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Tuesday is my day to refocus, recharge, and realign. That focus tends to open up a window in my soul. Today these were the thoughts knocking about in my heart:

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A generous spirit doesn’t keep score on who deserves generosity.

 

Freedom happens when your desire for connectedness becomes greater than your desire for correctness.

 

Critics will always be there…focus on the creator not the critic and you’ll find your life.

 

The best destinations have the hardest route…go anyway! #itsworththeeffort

 

 

 

Breathe In Grace & Exhale Peace

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For me… Sabbath is the most powerful ally in finding peace, God, and myself. Sabbath was breathed out by God so that we would find His voice and receive His presence and freedom from anxiety. This morning, as the wispy licks of heat rose from my coffee, creating a holy space of goodness, I read the following piece by Maya Angelou. While she doesn’t mention it by name, I sense her soul seeing sabbath as a resistance to the compressing reality of life.

Slow down…read it slowly…breathe in grace and exhale peace…

“Every person needs to take one day away.  A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future.  Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence.  Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.  Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.”

We create our chaos, which then defines who we are and convinces us we can never have what we long for.

Sabbath reminds me who I really am…

Sabbath reminds me who God is…

Sabbath reminds me whose I am…

Sabbath frees me from my Atlas ego who tries to convince me I don’t have time to pause…

Then somewhere in the midst of realigning and letting go something beautiful emerges in that space where my soul is marinated in God’s presence.

What if you took that day away every week?
What if you took a handful of minutes or hours away every week?

Can you feel the smile rising and your soul expanding…