Meditations from Zion

A popular phrase among the younger generation of believers is that they are following the “way of Jesus.” In essence, Paul asks for the same thing, but simply calls it a way of life . . . “the life.” On that way, we are transformed.

I Corinthians 4:16-17a
Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, . . .

This way is all about our responses: how we react to challenges along that path.

I’d like to say I do well in this regard, but that would really cause my Pinocchio nose to grow. It’s not that I don’t want to be on the way. I do. I can even say with confidence that I am on this way. I just don’t seem to be going in a straight line.

The way includes a lot of the “turn the other cheek” stuff. It includes accepting my current situation and making the best of it. In means “When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly.” [I Cor 4:12b-13a] We love.

There must be a moment of transcendence when things like persecution or even success no longer matter, when Spirit trumps 3-D.

But right now, all my cares and troubles and disappointments are causing tremendous stress. A woman friend I have know since I was three years old called me the other day. She told me she has stage 3 breast cancer. She’s fighting hard. The thing that makes her most angry, she said, was that she was so damn “healthy” up until then. She didn’t smoke or drink. She worked out regularly. She was happily married. She had a good job and a successful son. She had wealth and security. And yet, her life was filled with stress: staying on top of it all, doing the right thing at the right moment, working 7 days a week and long hours, juggling family and work, and racing from one thing to another. She believes the stress made her sick.

This is not the life. This is not the way.

Practicing the presence of God is an exchange: replacing the normal brain hi-jinks with Spirit.