Greg Proffit Writing

Tag: spirituality

  • No Amount of Navel Gazing Will Make You Spiritual

    beautiful butterfly has completed metamorphosis
    This butterfly has completed metamorphosis. Beautiful, huh?

    # 29 on my, 99 Life Tips – A List is: No amount of navel-gazing, self-reflection, or self-help is Spiritual. That is CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy).

    Let’s begin with a few simple definitions so we can understand each other. That’s tongue-in-cheek because there is actually little agreement about what constitutes spirituality. I use the term spiritual to refer to those realities that are nonmaterial, bodiless, and having no measurable physical substance. I also use the term to refer to those resources, energies, or powers that do not derive from human sources. This is the key point. Navel gazing in the form of self effort cannot generate spiritual life or spirituality. If one wishes to become spiritual, and derive the benefits, one must look outward, and receive spiritual life from outside oneself.

    We humans have a spirit (in the same way we have a mind and a body) and can certainly become spiritual, but the purpose of the spirit is to apprehend the spiritual world, in the same way the purpose of the senses is to apprehend the physical world. Similarly, the purpose of the mind (not to say ”brain”) is to engage in the immaterial, unseen world of reason, emotion, and will. 

    Like communicates with like

    By design, the parts and functions we enjoy and employ communicate and interact within their own respective spheres. Minds communicate with minds. Bodies with bodies, And, likewise, spirit with Spirit. Like always communicates with like. Therefore, one cannot become more spiritual by looking inward, by any physical exercise or activity whatsoever, or by a heightened awareness of mental processes, or emotional states.

    If you accept those statements, it becomes evident that one cannot become spiritual by looking within. For one, with what instrument does one look? With the mind of course, not with the eye or the visual interpretive functions of the brain. And second, what is the object of observation? If it is merely mind observing mind, then once again, we’ve aimed at the wrong target and unfortunately, hit it. Where is one to find Spirituality, if not within?

    If not within oneself, where is Spirituality to be found?

    No, true spirituality is found outside ourselves. One becomes spiritual by contemplation and meditative focus on another Source, another Power, altogether.

    Belonging to the Christian tradition, I find the answer in this verse: 

    ”But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

    ~2 Cor. 3:18

    This verse declares that it is by looking at the glory of the Lord, that one is transformed into that same image by the Spirit of the Lord.

    This transformation (which in greek literally means metamorphosis) does not happen by looking at oneself. It does not happen by focusing either on one’s successes or failures. Nor does it  come about by self-diagnosis, self-help, or self-effort. No amount of navel gazing will make you spiritual. A spiritual life comes by a persistent gazing upon the perfections and glories of Jesus Christ himself. 

    And where does one see these glories? Scripture presents a view that is the equivalent of looking in a mirror. The image in a mirror is not the thing itself, but only a replica. But in this case, the replica is sufficient to bring about spiritual change.

    I hope this helps.

  • Thirty-Five…still ALIVE!

    Hampton Coliseum: This Hell in a Bucket became my Altar of Remembrance.

    Like the Old Testament figures who faced a crisis, had an encounter with God, and erected a pillar of stones to commemorate the place, this day on the calendar is my altar of remembrance.

    Today marks 35 years since I was lost enough to let myself be led, to borrow words from my favorite Rich Mullins song, Hard to Get.

    Two questions and one answer forever changed the trajectory of my life and have given me these thirty-five years, quite literally, on the house.

    Question one: Are you having that much fun?

    Question two: How much are you worth?

    Answer: God thinks you’re worth the death of His Son.

    Thirty-five years in, and I’m as amazed today at how and where Jesus found me as in the hour I first believed.

    I’m certain many people are looking for God. They just don’t know they’re looking for Him. 

    Many, like my 21-yr-old self, think they’ve already found Him. He’s the all-inclusive, Grand Cosmic Guru running everything, hidden in everything, maintaining everything, right? He’s the One conducting the Acid Tests. He’s the One encouraging you to Be Here, Now. He’s the one that’s totally cool with you as long as you don’t hurt anyone else, right? Not considering that a life spent groping around in a dark room when there’s a light switch on the wall, hurt’s everyone else…right?

    And believing they already know Him at least as well if not better than the slick, well-dressed TV professionals; carnival hawkers pitching a snake-oil version of God, they aren’t looking in the traditionally right places. Because, face it, most of those places are oh-so-stuffy-and-judgmental, and frankly,…dead.

    They know instinctively God must be bigger than that. And so, rejecting the organizational part of religion, they feel themselves adrift, looking for something in the next port, the next experience, the next drug.

    Bobby Weir, 3-19-86 singing the lyric that led to the Question one. You don’t have to be a televangelist to be used by God.

    They can’t say why they’re pushing every envelope, testing every limit, hopping the fence at every boundary. Like me, they don’t know why they think every door they open, will be THE DOOR of the universe. They just know there must be more to all of this than what the world is selling.

    Let me just say, I feel ya!

    But sometimes in all your manic searching you can get yourself so inextricably tangled up and lost, that you’re ready to hold out your hands and take a Day-Glo green pamphlet from a hippy chick you’ll never meet again, read it, and like a snake shedding it’s skin, walk away a different person. 

    The switch clicks, the Light comes on, and you get found by the One who has been holding you in His outstretched hands. And the only appropriate words, even thirty-five years later, are simply, Thank You. 

    The outside of the tract said, How Much Are You Worth? God thinks you’re worth the death of His Son, was written inside the tract…with an image like this one.

    A few years ago, I wrote out this version of my testimony . I re-read it this morning. It could benefit from some edits, and it’s kind of long, but if you have any interest in whether or not Jesus goes to Grateful Dead shows, it’s there for the reading.

  • Truth is Reality

    Get ready Dorothy, this ain’t gonna look like Kansas anymore…

    ”You will know the Truth and the Truth will make you free.” ~ John 8:32

    I’ve been thinking about this verse a lot. My life was turned around nearly 35 years ago when I bumped into the Truth. I found out that Truth is a Person. I had erroneously thought that truth was an accumulation of facts and knowledge, but it is so much more than that.

    The NT was written in Greek. In this language, the word truth is the same as the word reality. I am fascinated by this. I try to think of truth and reality and the person Jesus as equivalents. 

    The verse above indicates that knowing truth can set one free. 

    But just what can it set you free from?

    Only from a lie, right?

    The interesting thing about being enslaved by a lie is this. If it is clever enough, subtle enough, and deeply imbedded enough, you won’t even know you’re enslaved by it. That was me. Think of Keanu Reeves character Neo in the Matrix before Lawrence’s Fishburne’s Morpheus gives him that red pill and he takes it.

    The verse implies that a person desires to be freed from enslaving lies. It implies an implicit value of truth over lies. It implies that truth should be loved, and sought, and applied, specifically for its power to make one free.

    I am not afraid of truth. Even the most uncomfortable ones. Like Neo, I’d rather eat gruel in reality, than eat steak in an illusory fantasy of my own creation.

  • Thoughts On Cain & Abel

    It occurred to me today that the first murder recorded in the Bible was the killing of Abel by his brother, Cain. I’ve read the story many times, but it never registered that this was the first mention of homicide. More interesting to me today, was the realization that this was a religiously motivated murder. 

    So, combining the concepts, there is a lot going on. There’s fratricide, religious murder, and the first homicide all rolled up into the same event. 

    People have many different views of the Bible. The inclusion of this story has many lessons for the reader, no matter what view may be taken.

    One is this, all murder is fratricide. We’re all members of the same human family.

    Another is that a person who tries to earn favor with God by works (as Cain did in bringing an offering consisting of the works of his own hands), will be outraged when those works don’t secure the righteousness they think it will. 

    That rage can be multiplied and converted to murder when coupled with jealousy towards one who is deemed to be righteous, not by working for it, but by believing for it, as Abel was.

    It is curious to see the relationships between religious works, disappointment, jealousy, anger, and murder. It is sadly curious that the combination of these is stronger than blood.

    This thread runs through the Bible (and human history) and culminates with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ by the religious rulers of his day. Let’s take heed and try to treat each other with decency and respect, we’re family after all.

  • As It Is In Heaven

    “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done; on earth as it is in heaven…“

    I wonder how many stop to think how the will of God is done in heaven. 

    Some pray these words as if they are inviting God to impose His Will on the citizens of earth…even upon those who don’t want it.

    But the ”as it is in heaven” part. Does anyone imagine that there is a single inhabitant of heaven who does not want the Will of God to be done? That there are perhaps some residents whose obedience must be coerced by law, and who must be cowed by fear?

    I think not. In another place we are taught, ”Perfect love casts out fear for fear involves punishment…he that fears has not been perfected in love.”

    As a much younger man, I was willful and self-governed. I was free and un-fettered. I used my freedom to explore the boundaries of life, both external and internal. I discovered that life has an edge that one can fall off. I followed my will and used my freedom to strut right up to that edge on more than one occasion. Being persuasive by gift and curse, I convinced others to march to the edge with me. And I knew some who fell in, either outwardly or inwardly. 

    But in a place where I was not looking for governance, I was found by the Governor. I was found in a time when I was so sick of my own lies, that I was quite literally begging for Truth, so blinded by my errors that I stretched out my hands to be led. Like a lost and frightened sheep, I was found by a Shepherd who could see further down the road than I could see. One who knew where to find green pastures I could lie down in, and gentle streams I could drink from. One so strong, that when my enemies appeared, He would declare, ”Let’s eat!” and set out a table before me, so confident in His own ability to protect, defend, and keep me. 

    I learned by experience that God is Love. And what does Love require, but a lover? …I became determined that He need not look past me to find one.

    After many years, I still want to be governed. I need to be governed. I crave and value and relish and happily submit to the governance of my Redeemer. When I stray, He doesn’t have to threaten me. He doesn’t have to whip me. He doesn’t have to ridicule me, or exclude me. He loves me back to Him. And when the sunshine of His Love bursts forth, I am still determined that it will not hit me in the back. 

    Ive found that God Loves me better than I can. I’ve found that I can trust Him more than I can trust myself. I found that His Kingdom must start in me and when I enter heaven (whatever that may be), I won’t need any convincing to kneel, or to bow, or to worship. I won’t need a New User’s Manual. 

    God’s will is done in Heaven by inhabitants who are delighted by that will; by those who want nothing more, and who would be satisfied by nothing less. His will on earth (if done as it is in heaven) is done by the persons with the same heart. Not by imposition, but by supplication. Not by people having it legislated upon them, but by people who cannot get enough of it. 

    That is what the phrase in the Lord’s Prayer means. It is a crying out for the God who is Love to suborn obedience to His Will by that Love. For God to love the disobedient into submission. For God to win hearts and minds into the voluntary servitude of delight in His pleasure.

    God already governs the Universe, but the Peace of that government, the wholeness of it, is only enjoyed wholly by those who want to be governed, and happily yield. God governs, not because it is good for Him, but because it is good for us.

    How are they who do not know these things to find out? By law, by threats, by the sword? There are other religions who employ such methods. My God would rather be stabbed than stab. When He finds one who will not yield, He is the one with tears in His eyes.

    No-one will be dragged into heaven kicking and screaming. And every single unfortunate soul who falls into hell will fall there against every power God can wisely wield to prevent it. 

    The only place that the Kingdom of God can be found on earth and where His will is done, ”as it is in Heaven” is in those of us, like our counterparts in Heaven, who crave it so badly for ourselves we can’t get enough.

  • The Problem With Anger — It Will Not Achieve The Result You Want

    Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

    ~ James 1:19,20

    # 19 on my 99 Life Tips–A List is: Anger will not achieve the result you want. If you’re angry, keep your mouth shut.

    I beg those of my readers who don’t consider themselves to be adherents to the Christian traditions, or see themselves as convinced by an appeal to scripture, just bear with me. Follow my thoughts with an open mind to the end, and with an eye towards your own past experiences.

    I can attest to the truth of the above verses in my own life. I’ve had more dramatic scenes of anger, wrath, and righteous indignation than I care to count. Times when I could not hear. I could not see. I could not think straight. A few instances in particular stand out. I will spare you the details. Suffice it to say, no one involved had any doubt about my emotional state.

    Anger has never achieved my desired result

    But NOT ONE TIME have I lashed out in anger and achieved the result I really wanted. In my entire life. Not…one…time.

    Search your own memory banks. Remember the last time you were so angry you couldn’t see straight? You struck out in the throes of that feeling, so certain of your righteousness that no argument could convince you otherwise. How did that situation turn out? Did it go the way you wanted?

    Your mileage may vary. I can only testify to my own experience. 

    When I feel angry now, I am immediately certain that if I speak or act, I will be wrong. When I am angry now, it is an indicator that I am far from the kind of person who can be a vessel of the righteousness of God.

    I’m writing this because our nation is torn apart. We treat each other, Americans, even ones who grew up together, as if we’re sworn enemies. We’ve been co-opted into believing that anyone with a different political view is a villain. We’re told that the “others” aren’t American, and they aren’t putting “America First”. That they are “taking your country”! We’ve lost our collective minds!

    I challenge you to watch the events of January 6th with James in mind. Listen to the run-up. Listen to the speeches playing upon fear, prejudice, paranoia, just stoking up the anger to a boiling venomous cauldron. Are these people quick to hear the other side? Slow to speak about them or to them?

    I’m not sure what those who marched on the Capital thought they were doing. They were acting like they believed their anger would produce the righteousness of God.

    The words of Scripture above reveal that deception for exactly what it is.

    I just want to ask you…my brother…my sister…are you angry?

    “Well, You say you want a Revolution, you better change your mind instead.”

    ~ The Beatles: Revolution

  • God is not a White, Republican (Democrat) American

    I have something to say this morning.

    It’s this:

    I love God. And, I love America.

    But I distinctly remember receiving the paradigm-shifting, thunderclap epiphany that ”God is not American, nor is He white.”

    (I was in the parking lot of the old Regency Theater on Albemarle Road in Charlotte, NC and I had tears streaming down my face because I’d just seen Dances With Wolves and I felt ashamed to belong to a race that had so misled and mistreated and murdered and manipulated American Indians)

    I’d rather love my neighbor as myself than be a card-carrying mouthpiece for a particular political idealogy. (Even though I too often forget that and become an ass-bag fool spouting political verbiage…as if ANY political system could actually impart spiritual life to anyone)

    I’d like to think that if I was the Samaritan in the parable, I would stop to help a bleeding and beaten muslim by the side of the road (or rap star, or liberal democrat, or tea-party zealot).

    I’m not sure I would and that means no matter how ”right” I am, I’m the one who’s wrong…

    Ya know what I mean?