Category: Wildman Journey (Page 53 of 87)

Brendan O”Neill has observed that “Self-identification is one of the most notable developments of the 21st century so far.”  The New York times calls 2015, “the year we obsessed over identity,” noting our nation is “in the midst of a great cultural identity migration.”  The phrase, “I identify as…” speaks to a crisis in character.  In past individuals were.  “I am a man.”  There was a certainty about identity.  Today individuals identify as something.  “I identify as a man.” “It speaks to a shift from being to passing through; from a clear sense of presence in the world to a feeling of transience; from identities that were rooted, to identities that are tentative, insecure, questionable.”  Identity has become unstable, open to change. Feeling have become the reality.  The result is, ” a minimal self,” who out of insecurity expects validation and acceptance from society.  “Self-identifiers claim words wound, that individuals are vulnerable, and that their ‘mental safety’ is threatened by those who question their right to exist.”

Men, the new phenomena of identity-making is a crisis in the meaning of  personhood, leading to a great uncertainty about being fully alive and fully human.  As  wild men, who are fully alive to their masculine souls, we can  offer an alternative  to the alienated, subjective identity-making that is creating a quiet despair in our  culture  – “Who really am I.”  Let us rise up as an army of men, who have solid identities in Christ, and present a positive example to a lost culture.  “What we are facing in the 21st century,” warns O’Neill,  “is the very serious situation where all the objective underpinnings of human identity has frayed or died.”  Here are a few reminders of your identity as a man in Christ.

First, understand that personhood is a gift given by a  relational  God, who desires  relationship.  Our identity is given by God addressing us as his  “beloved.” It is bestowed by a loving God. “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26).  God who exists in relationship, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, created each of us, endowing us with a  unique individuality as persons.  When God is absent from the cultural narrative there is no valid basis for being addressed as persons. We are left to create our own identity.  So celebrate your uniqueness, by coming to know your unique personhood as a man.  Along with the Psalmist praise God:  “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I  know it” (Ps 139: 14 NLT).  Resist self-making, by allowing your heavenly Father  to love you into becoming a person, fully alive and human..

Secondly, accept the reality of our “flawed nature” with its tendency to live independently of God. Our sin causes us to be separated from God as well as from ourselves. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way.” (Isaiah 53:6).  We live as individuals in separation, not persons in relationship. We have wandered into the far country, living as orphans away from home, with no sense of identity or place.  But our loving, heavenly Father calls us home, affirming our identity as men.

Thirdly, our culture has lost the story of relational homecoming.  With the lack of identity comes the sense of homelessness; a kind of wandering in a desert of relational weightlessness.  We have the unique opportunity to share the story of our coming home to the Father, who identifies us as his children. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who live in loving community, invite us into this relationship.  We are called home into a perfect loving community.

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I spent years practicing what one spiritual writer called “spiritual bypassing.” In looking for a quick spiritual fix, I would  bypass or simply ignore want was going on in my soul.  I lived on the surface, in my head,  dependent on my thoughts and feelings, while dealing superficial with what was going on at the center.  My walk with God was not based on reality  but rather my image of a spiritual man.  I was trying to be good, while on the inside I was living like a “brute” spiritually.  “When my heart was grieved, and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a brute before you” (Ps 73:21-22).  I lived in spiritual flight from my weaknesses, shame and sin.

It is natural to want to stay on the surface. We are familiar with our own thoughts and experience.  They give us some  control and understanding of our journey.  Richard Rohr observes that men, “move comfortably in the outer world of things with their heads, which is used as their control tower.” This is only an illusion of the real. Only God who sees things as they really are can show us true reality.  Paul reminds us that, “the reality…is found in Christ” (Col 2:17), not our projections.  A vital transition on the spiritual journey is the transition men make  when they begin to define themselves from the center rather then the circumference, or the surface of things.    Men can get trapped in the comfort zone of their small egos, thinking they understand objective reality.

The Desert Fathers, who gave us such vivid descriptions of the life of the  soul, insisted that before we can ascend to God, we must first descend into our souls, that is  our real life.  Saint Anthony said, “The way to ascend to God is to descend into our own reality.”  They saw the story of Jacob’s ladder in Gen 28 as embodying this spiritual truth.  “He [Jacob] had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it” (v 12).  We may  resist the descent for fear of facing our untamed passions and desires.  They can not be harnessed to fit our image of a spiritual man.

I am learning not to resist, but rather descend  into my soul to encounter the good and the bad.  Jesus waits at the center.  The Desert Fathers counsel us to “climb down into our passions.”  They tell us,  “Dive away from sin into yourself and then you will find steps on which you can climb up.”  In other words, you can’t bypass your soul life.  I still have difficulty accepting  that God is closer to me than my own thoughts. His presence is incomprehensible. Incredibly, this also means that if I commit a sin, I sin in God, for He sees and knows all.  That is very freeing and liberating.  For me it has meant that I can accept my sinful behavior, while desiring to be more like Jesus.  I don’t have to hide and live in shame.  I am totally known by God, yet loved unconditionally.

So my advise men – don’t be afraid of the inner journey.  Remember descent comes before ascent.  Jesus tells us, “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Matt 23:12).  Henri Nouwen  calls this “downward mobility.”  I am learning to taste that the Lord is good, while still dealing with the darkness within.

Here is an insightful definition of a victim from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.  “Defining yourself as a victim is a denial of what makes us human.  We see ourselves as objects, not subjects.  We become done-to; passive, not active.  Blame bars the path to responsibility. The victim, ascribing his condition to others, locates the cause of his situation outside himself, thus rendering himself incapable of breaking free from his self-created trap.” Men, don’t allow the cultural narrative of maleness as a liability, cause you to doubt the reality of your masculine soul,  rendering  you passive and silent, unable to break free from a “self-created trap.”  Don’t allow the angry feminist voices intimidate you, pushing you into a neutral  corner, feeling unable to act on your god given instincts  as a man.  We need to stand and fight with the weapons of love and humility.  There are too many men suffering in silence.  They need to be rescued one by one.  Here are four  observations.

First,  accept opposition as a normal in our gender confused culture. An anti-male narrative is now the accepted norm.  We accept the challenge of wanting to change the narrative of  men as  stupid, refusing to be a “male victim.”  We lament the fact that a spiritual alive masculine soul is alien in our culture. We humbly acknowledge that men have failed badly in the past, but we refuse to become passive. “Don’t give the opposition a second thought.  Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, our Master.  Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy” ( I Peter 3:1516 – Message).  Take up the mantle of a godly man and get into the fight.   Find other guys who are engaged.

Secondly, join the growing army of men who are coming alive in the Spirit, having tasted the energy and strength of their masculine soul.  Men, God is raising up a new generation of godly men, who are finding healing for their masculine soul in the name of Jesus. “Deep longings lie dormant in the unawakened soul,” observes Larry Crabb. “Souls stay asleep in order to avoid feeling pain and facing failure.  But an alive and sustaining sense of purpose that survives the inevitable disappointments and tragedies of life is available to every person who wakes up to discover his or her gendered center.”  This army of men refuses to allow themselves to be defined by the feminist narrative.

Thirdly, this new army of men refuse to be intimated. They are willing to take responsibility for  not only their failures, but the failure of the past generation. Women have done their soul work, more faithfully  then men.  They have been liberated in some positive ways.  Men today are being forced to ask questions that are new in their relationship to women, acknowledging the need for a new accommodation between men and women in our culture.  In this new realignment of roles, responsibilities and even identity, men need to be humble and open minded.  But we will not become victims. With the masculine energy that is released through surrender and obedience to the Lord Jesus, men are willing to risk misunderstanding and rejection to stand firm in the Lord

Finally, in finding our masculine soul, there is a desire for men today, to be supportive of women in finding their feminine soul.  “The fullness of being human…lies not only in the male or only the female but in the communion of male and female” (Mauro Meuzzi).  Remember a secure man in Jesus, is not threatened by the feminine.

Kurt Schlichter caught my attention with an article he wrote about men entitled, “Being a man and having a traditional family is a rebel act.”  He writes: “being a man – not merely bearing the physical accoutrements of maleness but actually being a man – is a rebel act.  By being man, you reject the role the liberal elite has prepared for you, that of a weak, confused manchild unfit to be sovereign over your own destiny.  Taking care of your family yourself repudiates them…..Raising your children as strong, independent, Americans instead of spoiled, crybullying snowflakes, repudiated them.  Just being normal repudiates them.”

It occurred to me that “the Wildman journey” is a rebel act.  I would like to suggest four attitudes that would be considered rebellious in our gender confused culture. A fully alive, fully awakened and fully human male will be a  threat.   My suggestions relate to Christian husbands and fathers. I hope these suggestions cause you to rise up in your spirit, helping you  to break free from the “male box” our culture has imposed on men, sending many into a lonely, confused silence.  Let us shout with the Psalmist, “We have escape like a bird from the fowler’s snare; the snare  has been broken and we have escaped” (Ps. 124:7).

First, God has made men to be an initiator.  A man who has found his male voice will be considered a rebel. In the beginning God took Adam and “put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Gen. 2:15).  Later, Eve came along to be a “suitable helper.”  It is definitely a rebel act to assume responsibility, taking the initiative in leading  your family.  Men, the “buck” stops with us not our wives. In taking the initiative we give direction, order, purpose and orientation to our family. To “move out” in  loving, humble servanthood within your family takes courage and faith.

Secondly, it is a rebel act to be “a one woman man.”  Men, we are to cherish our wives.  “May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.  A loving doe, a graceful deer – may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love” (Prov. 5:18-19).  We have eyes only for the one who is our bride.  In a sensuous culture we say with Job, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman” (Job 31:1).  We do not objectify the feminine, but rather celebrate the feminine as a compliment to our masculine.  We rejoice in the unique difference.

Thirdly, it is a rebel act to say that your most important task after cherishing your wife, is to be a good Dad.  Yes, we have a career along with other important outside committments.  But our children have only one father.  Being a dad will keep you humble.  There is no real measure of success.  The odds at stacked against being a God-fearing Father, who wants his children to follow Jesus.  This kind of dad is swimming up stream, with little cultural encouragement. But God sees what is done in secret.

Fourthly, it is a rebel act to believe that the influence  of a “tough and tender” masculinity soul is vital for the survival of our culture.  By his example, a Wildman desires to be an influence on other men in a  gender confused culture.  He is  committed to passing on to younger men a godly example, perpetuating a quiet revolt against the culture.  We take as our watchword I Cor. 16:13 -14, “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.”

The response in  the New York Daily News, to the tragic shootings  recently in San Bernardino, Cal., seems almost blasphemes.  The headlines declared “God isn’t fixing this.”  What arrogance and presumption. They gave a round-up of responses from the various candidates and then gave this assessment: “Prayers aren’t working.” What spiritual blindness.  That prompted a new social media debate called “prayer shaming.”  Emma Green of the Atlantic saw it as: “Anger about the shooting was turned not toward the perpetrator or perpetrators…..but at those who offered prayers.”  She offers this chilling commentary: “There’s  a clear claim being made here, and one with an edge: Democrats care about doing something and taking action while Republicans waste time offering meaningless prayers.  These two reactions, policy-making and praying, are portrayed as mutually exclusive, coming from totally contrasting worldviews.”

When a writer at the New York Times twits: “Dear ‘thought and prayers’ people: Please shut up and slink away.  You are the problem, and everyone know it,” it seems to me that we have come a cultural moment, when the voices wanting to silence the public witness of a biblical faith will become more vocal. Men, we need to stand together in this cultural moment.  “Stand united, singular in vision, contending ….not flinching or dodging in the slightest before the opposition.  Your courage and unity will show them what they’re up against” (Phil 1:27-8 – The message). Here are a few reflections.

First, before you do or  say anything, submit to Jesus and his kingdom. Before any political or cultural allegiance, be a humble follower of Jesus. In Rev. 5:10 we read: “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” We are reassured in Col 1:17 that, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Then pray as Jesus taught us to pray:, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Be deeply grateful to be part of Jesus’ kingdom reign is this world since Jesus  has declared, “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt 28:18).   Men, submit yourself under the reign of King Jesus.

Secondly, act and speak with conviction and compassion, but first be a man of prayer.  Don’t minimize your prayers as a follower of Jesus.  Cry out  for God to be merciful.  The Psalms are full of such prayers, as the psalmist call out to Almighty God.  “I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy.  I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble (Ps 142:1-2). Turn to the Lord and pray, “Restore us, O Lord God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved” (Ps 80:19).

Thirdly, pray that God will give you a heart that is loving, yet firm in conviction (tough and tender). Refuse to be a victim.  Anticipate darker days, but be determined to “walk in the light of the Lord ( Isaiah 2:5). The cultural conflict will only get worse – be prepared but not alarmed..  As David French observed, the attack on “thoughts and prayers”  is a convergence of anti-Christian bigotry and the impulse to shame and silence a Christian witness. Pray to be strong hearted as you take the arrows of accusation that will come.  Embrace the words of Jesus in Luke 5:11-12, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way the persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

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Shortly after I retired, I led an intercessory prayer group in our church to pray specifically for the transition period as we called a new pastor. Toward the end of our prayer time, the words “rightly ordering our relationships” came to mind. As I thought about that phrase, I sensed that it applied to relationships between men and women in our church. The women in the prayer group agreed that the idea of focusing some attention to male and female relationships was needed.  As I thought further about the subject, three key thoughts came to mind:

First, men, be committed to a church or fellowship of men where the truth of God’s Word is taught regarding relationships, especially with our wives. There is a kind of “suffering silence” and “soulful grieving” among Christian men, particularly regarding the feminine.  There are layers of emotions to be examined.  Truth and redeeming grace, combined with a climate of vulnerability, creates a “safe place” for men to explore being rightly related to women. “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ’ (John 1:17).   Further, as men, we need the witness of those “exemplars” who practice and model healthy relationships with their wives.  “A deacon must be faithful to his wife and must manage his children and his household well” (I Tim 3:12).  With all the confusion regarding gender relationships, men desperately need to “absorb” the witness of men who “rightly order” their lives and relationships. Men, I encourage you to open your heart and drink in the life of the men who are witnesses to you, especially in their emotional lives.

Secondly, I have found that in ordering my relationships, I had to deal with images of male and female from my past that had been planted and buried in my heart from my family of origin.  I had to face negative attitudes toward both my father and my mother. Remember the one commandment with a promise: “Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12).  I had in essence “digested” both the good and bad of my family.  I had to get it all out by confession, forgiveness, and repentance.  Men, you will never rightly order your relationships until you honestly face your past and bring it to the light.  Proverbs 20:20 is a warning: “If someone curses their father or mother, their lamp will be snuffed out in the pitch darkness.” But through surrender, you create an inner space for the Spirit of God to reorder your relationships.

Thirdly, rightly ordering our relationships means coming to peace regarding our masculine soul.  Men need to embrace Paul’s words in Romans 8:1, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  My burden for each man reading this is that you may live fully and freely out of your masculine soul.  Celebrate your uniqueness as a man.  Allow yourself, by the grace of God, to sink into your soul, secure in Christ, to find healing and affirmation regarding who you are as a man. Then in the ordering of your relationships, you will be able to embrace the complementarity of the feminine, especially within your wife.  My contention is that when a man is affirmed and secure in his maleness, he will then be able to rightly relate to the feminine both within himself and in other women.  He will be able to heed the words of Ephesians 5:21, “Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another” (Message).

This blog is an interlude, in which I would like to reflect on my blog  with the readers.

“The Sovereign lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary.  He awakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught” (Is 50:4). These words have been an encouragement to me as I write my blogs.  I write because God has called me to this task.  It is hard work.  I pray that my words are of spiritual help to men.  A theme verse for this blog could be Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

I began blogging over five years ago.  I never dreamed  I would be doing  this in my retirement years. I am both humbled and encouraged that men are helped by the content of this blog.  I identify with Paul words when I reflect on my labor. “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weaknesses” (II Cor 11:30).  I work on a blog, send it out, praying that it might minister to “the hungry, thirsty souls of men.”  Just a few encouragements is enough to keep me going.  Some of you who reading this blog are new comers. You might be  wonder, “Who is this guy who writes?”  “Why does he write?”  A further question might be,”Why is the blog called “the wild man journey?”  I want to answer these three questions in this blog.

First, I am a retired Lutheran Pastor (40 years), who has worked continually on the spiritual formation of my own masculine soul.  My wife and I moved to our lake home in Northern Minnesota to run a retreat house ministry called “Canaan’s Rest.”  I call Judy and I a “monk and a nun.” We welcome spiritual pilgrims to our place, while being involved in Evangelical Free Church in town. From my post in the north woods,  I sense this blog to be my primary ministry.  So be assured there is much prayer and earnest labor with each post.  It is a calling not a choice.  Some days involve spiritual warfare and nagging doubt.

Secondly,  I write because of a life long burden to help men. This began in my second church back in 1976.  The work evolved over the years as I matured and learned to give soul care to men.  I have found significant healing for my own soul over the years.  My particular “spiritual gift mix” is suited to soul care, that is, “going from the mind into soul” and discerning what God is doing in the soul of a man.  It is the work of spiritual direction; helping men on the “inner journey.”  As an ENFJ on the Myers-Briggs I am highly motivated to help men with the healing of their wounded and confused souls.

Thirdly, this blog is entitled “The Wild Man Journey.”  A wild man is some one who is moving off of the “default mode” of being in control, attempting by personal spiritual improvement projects to be good enough, to being willing to descent into the soul, to find his true self and a passion to live for God.  Augustine said it well, “Let me know thee, O God and myself, that is all.”  He has tasted and seen that the Lord is good.  Men who continue on this journey with this blog can be described as”soulful men” who desire to be fully alive, fully awake, and fully human.  I firmly believe that the contemplative dimension of the journey is a missing, vital ingredient for men in our day.

Men there is no neutral ground in our spiritual journey today. Jesus declares, “This is war, and there is no neutral ground.  If you’re not on my side, you’re the enemy; if you’re not helping, you’re making things worse” (Luke  11:23 – The Message).  In Matthew 10: 22-23 we are exhorted to be survivors. “When people realize it is the living God you are presenting and not some idol that makes them feel good, they are going to turn on you, even people in your own family. There is a great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate.  But don’t quit.  Don’t cave in.  It is all well worth it in the end.  It is not success you are after in such times but survival.  Be survivors!  Before you’ve run out of options, the Son of Man will have arrived” – The Message.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1969 before he became Pope Benedict XVI, seemed to be taking about survival.  “From the crisis of today a new Church of tomorrow will emerge – a Church that has lost much.  She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning.  She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity.  As the number of her adherents diminishes, so she will lose many of her social privileges…. .But in all [this]…..the Church will find her essence afresh and with full conviction in that which was always at her center: faith in the triune God, in Jesus Christ, the son of God made man, in the presence of the Spirit until the end of the world.”

Has “the cultural and political tsunami” described by the Cardinal now reached our shores?  Are Christians, “losing their home field advantage?”  Christianity is not necessarily collapsing, but rather being clarified.  As Ed Stetzer at Christianity Today puts it, “Christianity is no longer the first choice of many seeking spiritual meaning and identifying as Christian is not necessary to be an accepted part of society.” Tim Keller maintains, “The number of the devout people in the country is increasing, as well as the number of secular people ….. the big change is the erosion in the middle…..you don’t so much see secularization as polarization” as the middle erodes.

The forces of secularization, along with a distrust and outright rejection of biblical faith is having an eroding effect on the church in America.  Cultural Christianity, which makes up the middle is eroding.  Men, the storm clouds are gathering over our culture. In the days to come, each of us will be faced with how we will choose to follow Jesus. Don’t allow yourself to be found in the middle, like a bench warmer and not a player.   I want to be found among those who not only survive, but thrive in the midst of the collapse  of cultural Christianity.  We need to heed the warnings given by Jesus to be aware of the changes taking place. I assure you as a committed follower of Jesus, you will be made to choose.

We hear Jesus saying to us in Mark 13, “Watch out that no one deceives you”(v 5), “”You must be on your guard” (v 9),  “So be on your guard” (v 23), “Be on guard! Be alert!” (v 33).  Jesus reminds us to learn from the fig tree.  “From the moment you notice its buds form, the merest hint of green, you know summer’s just around the corner.  And so it is with you.  When you see all these things, you know he is at the door ” (Mark 13:28-30 – The Message).  The implication of these words are to pay attention to the changes taking place right before your eyes.

The following quote from Thomas Merton has stuck with me for many years.  In these later years it makes more experiential sense.  “Therefore there is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace, and my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering God.  If I find Him I will find myself and if I find my true self I will find Him.”  David Benner in his fine book, “The Gift of Being Yourself” reflects on this truth.  “Nowhere is the uniqueness of the Christian spiritual journey more apparent than in the Christian understanding of the self and its relation to God.  The self is not God.  But it is the place where we meet God.  There can be no genuine spiritual transformation if we seek some external meeting place.  God’s intended home is our heart, and it is meeting God in our depths that transforms us from the inside out.”

What I now know by experiential knowledge, I deeply desire for readers of this blog to also comprehend and know by experience.  Benner calls it, “transformational knowing.”   It is simply this – when I allow my  real self to be loved by God, I am able to live from the center of my inner life (soul) and experience both the presence of God within and an acceptance of myself as deeply love by God.  God meets me at the center. I visualize my soul as the center.  It is not so much a place, but the awareness of the presence of God.  I spend many years living “alongside of myself” that is, on the outside looking in.  I thought of God more as an  object outside myself, rather than being present within.  As a result, I could not accepted my true self as deeply loved by God.

Paul’s prayer in Eph 3:17-19 has new meaning for me.  “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord’s holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”  Like so many who write about the spiritual life, the experiencing of this love and its implication for my spiritual life, “surpasses knowledge.”  I can only say that I lived for years with a head knowledge of God and a view of myself that was a product of my own making. I was fearful of both God and who I really was on the inside.

My counsel is to allow yourself to “sink” to the center to be embraced by love. Don’t stay on the edges looking in.  There is the story told of the old man, who had lost his keys and was looking by the street light.  A friend asked where he might have lost them.  The old man replied that he had lost them in the house, but that he was looking outside because the light was much better there. Like the old man we tend to look outside where it is easier to search but the key is inside, in the dark.

The secret place where we encounter God is in our inner self.  David Benner observes that as we look at God looking at us, “we see how deeply loved we are by God – in our depths, complexity, totality, and sinfulness – we dare to allow God more complete access to the dark parts of our soul that most need transformation.  God precedes us on this journey, waiting to meet us in the depths of our self.”

This blog is written just after Halloween.  I was struck by the contrast between the controversy this Halloween on university and college campuses regarding costumes that might be offensive and the fun I  had in my last church with over 40 senior members of my church, who came to our retreat house dressed in some very outlandish outfits for Halloween.  We all laughed and joked till some of us began to cry.  But it is a different story on campuses.

There actually were costume-consultants available to  help students to find outfits that were culturally sensitive.  Using the  new yardstick of “cultural appropriation” there was the attempt to stop the practice of pretending to have fun at the expense of members of ethnic, racial or gender groups to which one does not belong.  One poster asked, “Unsure if your costume might be offensive?  Don’t be afraid to ask questions?” As one observer put it, the message was “it is dangerous to pretend.”  It is hard to imagine those students having any fun on Halloween.  No freedom to celebrate, but the burden of having to be culturally sensitive.  Remember it is just about pretending.

What a contrast from my wife’s party for the seniors.  We had a great time pretending to be someone else.  My favorites was a lady who wanted to be a nun and another  lady who wanted to be an opera singer.  What would have happened to our party if one of the costume consultants had dropped in on us wild seniors up in the north woods.  I still remember marveling at how much fun a group of Christians can have when we have freedom in Christ.

Men, my concern is that we do not become so burdened down by the political correct culture that we lose our freedom.  Remember in Christ you have been set free. Paul tells us in Galatians 5:1, “Christ has set us free to live a free life.  So take your stand!  Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.” When the seniors got together, there was a freedom from all the “shoulds” and “oughts” of  the cultural sensitivity concerns that were like a “harness of slavery” for those college kids.  Instead of freedom to just have fun pretending on Halloween, the campuses became a thicket of”shoulds” and “oughts” taking all the fun out of Halloween

How could those seniors have so much fun up in the north woods? Because they have been freed from the tyranny of their false self, which is more concerned about approval and doing the right thing according to the norms of the culture.  We could just be ourselves, while laughing at one another and even ourselves. There was no PC police evaluating our party.  My memory of the day with the seniors still brings a smile as I think of the great time we had.

But we need to be mindful that our freedom is to be always expressed in love, that is, in being sensitive to others, but not burdened by their demands.  Later in the chapter 5 of Galatians Paul reminds us of why we are free. “It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life.  Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom.  Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows.  For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others, as you love yourself.  That’s an act of true freedom” (Gal 5:13-15 – The Message). Men, be sensitive, but don’t become burdened.