Organic Church – Holy Triage

What is comfort?

We are not much different you and I because we both long for comfort. What is comfort? Some people may define comfort as a general sense of well-being. In todays fast pace world life has become very complex and filled with an increased number of things that can go wrong. Could comfort be defined as simplifying life to a level where fewer things can go wrong? Some of us swear that we enjoy a fast paced life with a lot of variables. Where does our ego fit into this equation? We all like to feel important in our roles as employees, parents, friends and siblings. Generally we all just want to feel great in some capacity. What does it mean if we are constantly trying to feel great or important? Is this an indication that deep inside we are not feeling great or important? What is a feeling anyway? Some people take prescription medication to obtain a sense of comfort, while others have a personal vice like smoking, alcoholism or an illegal drug. Feelings can be chemically altered making our whole world appear differently through our own eyes. What about the eyes of others? How do other people see us? If we fix the way we feel inside be it naturally or chemically does it change the way we appear outside? Are we separate or do we experience all the same anxieties? Have some people mastered their anxieties or is this part of an act that people put on to convince others of their greatness?

The Road Blocks to Comfort

If all of the road blocks to comfort are lies, what are those lies? We are very complex multi dimensional creatures made in the image of God. Each of our dimensions goes two directions, looking in and looking out. The first dimension is how we see ourselves verses how others see us. The second dimension is how we see others verses how others see themselves. The third dimension is how we see God verses how God actually sees us. Does true comfort come from the perfect alignment of these three dimensions? Somewhere in the midst of misaligned dimensions comes fear of the unknown defined by the “what if” scenarios that keep some of us awake at night. How do we deal with the what ifs? Do we take a sleeping pill? Do we just expect the worst case scenario to happen and frantically construct battle plans in our head? Here is a great “what if”, what if 99% of the things your feared were lies? That would mean 99% of your frantic thinking was a waste of time and 99% of the sleep you lost was for nothing. What if I could give you 99% of your mind back, imagine what you could do with 99% more mind power. How about taking that 99% more mind and just not using it? Is this what defines spiritual rest? Could comfort be defined as inner freedom? Only the truth can set our minds free. Even if the truth is scary we must embrace it to be lead to comfort.

If Comfort was a Drug what would be the Ingredients?

To define comfort lets return to our mother’s womb. God designed a woman’s body to be the source of comfort in a number of ways. This is what I would truly define as the circle of life. As a man who was once single I can say that embracing my loneliness put me on a quest for a solution. Through a less then perfect search I began courting numerous candidates in search of true love. Love is multi dimensional so I dated a number of ladies looking for that special two way connection. I was uncomfortable being alone as in being without a woman until the day I met my beautiful wife Jana. The first thing I noticed was her pretty blue eyes, her smile and flowing blonde hair. When I was with Jana she was tuned in and completely present in the most beautiful way. As our love grew deeper our egos seemed to disappear and an amazing connection formed. Jana became a source of comfort to me and to this day she is always there for me. My wife is my home and without her our home would not be a home. Marriage is tricky and if not seen in the proper context a marriage can become the source of discomfort. For example sake I am using a healthy marriage to demonstrate a point. In a healthy marriage relationship love leads to consummation as a source of comfort and consummation leads to conception. Conception brings a life into a mother’s womb and she becomes the home for a developing baby. Inside her womb is warmth, nourishment and protection. As a fetus grows its environment adjusts and the womb grows. The mother and the baby both become uncomfortable as the baby grows. Child birth occurs when the body embraces discomfort and labor pains make this evident. The life that was inside a woman’s body is now resting in the warmth of her arms and nursing at her breasts. Babies are very honest as seen when they embrace their discomforts and cry. When a baby is hungry, thirsty or has a dirty diaper they cry. If a baby is healthy it cries. As a baby grows into a toddler this honesty is often regarded as misbehavior. At some point as we grow most of us stop crying, we start pretending and we stop embracing our discomfort.

You are Me and I am You

We are all the same and the minute we forget this fact we experience a sense of discomfort called loneliness. We all need love. We all need warmth. We all need to belong. We all hunger, we all thirst and we all are kept awake by the “what ifs” some nights. All of us want to feel great and we all want to feel important. At the most basic foundation of humanity we are all the same. The answer is not prescription drugs, illegal drugs, alcoholism or a life made frantic in an attempt to eliminate all the “what ifs”. The answer is not marriage, child birth, career or anything else people grasp hold of in an attempt to feel important. Your freedom comes from the truth and the truth is that you are not alone. The answer is in a word called presence. Right now I am present and I am writing truth that always was and always will be. The fact is that if you were not important you wouldn’t exist and I wouldn’t exist. You and I are in this together. I lay awake sometimes at night too. You are my child and every father worries that one day their child will forget just how important they are. It is not what you do that makes you important, but simply who you are. As a mother loves her baby so do I love you. I loved you before you learned to walk, to speak or use the restroom. Yet today your identity gets tied up in all the wrong things. I will always be waiting at home for you because “I AM” your home.

At the height of The Great Depression we heard FDR say “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” in his first inaugural address. The power of fear is wrecking havoc on America right now. If people refuse to spend their money because of fear then we will lose more and more jobs. Americans are causing the current economic crisis because they are living in fear. Our country is addicted to drama, we are glued to news channels and websites just waiting for the next catastrophe to happen. Our fears are actually creating the next catastrophe. Fear is an evil artist because it paints illusions that we will act upon and then our fears becomes reality. In the year 2005 a movie called Crash was released that painted a few brilliant pictures of how our fear actually causes bad things to happen. Americans today are gripped by fears of terrorism, opposing political forces, spiritual fears, economic fears and more. How are these fears negatively shaping our society? In America the number one prescribed drugs are for anxiety and depression.

- Antidepressants most-prescribed drugs in the U.S. according to The Center for Disease Control
- Of 2.4 billion prescriptions in 2005, 118 million were for antidepressants
- 25 percent of adults will have a major depressive episode at some point

The institutional church is just as guilty as the secular media of fear mongering. Fear is very, very damaging to society. Using fear to control people is witchcraft. Generating a sense of fear in people whether intentional or unintentional is placing a curse on people. Our fears are destroying both individuals and our nation. Using fear to control people is using a powerful psychological weapon. Using fear to motivate may produce quick results, but it literally will eat people alive from the inside out. In the movie Apocalypto Jaguar Paw teaches his son about fear in the line “Fear is a disease. Strike it from your heart”. How many times does God tell people in the Bible not to be afraid. Pastors who teach God’s word will be held to a higher accountability because they have the potential to plant the damaging seed of fear which becomes a disease inside of people souls. If there is one thing we should seek to abolish in the hearts of people all around us it is fear. If we can cure the fear then maybe we can avoid prescribing the drugs that only control the symptoms of fear. Using fear has provided a temporary benefit to drug company’s, to politicians, to pastors and many others. As fear destroys people from the inside out it will steal their focus, motivation, marriages, families and will eventually lead to reckless living, addictions or even suicide. Today it is fear that is truly America’s greatest threat.

- What are you afraid of?
- What important aspects of your life is fear currently destroying?

Fear is a demon:

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

In this world is a great illusion and like a machine it manufactures suffering. In an attempt to control the uncontrollable we collectively create all the problems in the world. People everywhere are trying to embrace something that does not exist. Solomon in the Bible called this chasing the wind. As we chase the wind we sacrifice what is real in exchange for a great illusion. Jesus said “if you seek to save your life you will lose it”.

If you don’t believe that chasing an illusion breeds suffering ask a suicidal Movie Star / Rock Star or a homeless person or ask the over 1% of the U.S. population sitting in prison cells or ask the people in America taking the number one prescribed drug for depression and anxiety. Oh and I am not finished! If you don’t believe that chasing an illusion breeds suffering ask someone with a college degree that cannot find a job, ask a day trader or retiree that lost everything in this economic downturn, ask a business man who is suffering the fear of losing his company or ask his employees that catch his fear like the plague and carry it home each day to their family or ask a divorced person whose marriage was based upon the illusion of financial security.

But don’t as a fundamentalist church because they are often too busy trying to save themselves to help you.

Recently I was taught in the most amazing way that spiritual growth is more about unlearning then learning. Jesus calls the experience being born again of spirit. It happened one morning when I was reading a good book in my backyard. I was just about to enter a section on meditation. I looked up away from the book to take a short break from reading. I noticed my cat sitting off in the distance watching some birds. Keep in mind my cat which was an indoor cat most of his life was now outside watching some birds in the distance. I was amused to see the excitement and curiosity in my cat’s eyes as he watched the birds. Suddenly truth hit me like a freight train. All those years of domestication had buried my cat’s instincts deep inside of him. My cat now identified himself with a safe, sedated life style indoors. As my cat was watching the birds I could see a sparkle of the instincts that were buried over time deep inside him. My cat knew that these weren’t just birds, he knew they were meant for something more then amusement. The picture became clear to me. My cat had become conformed to his world. Jesus said be in this world, but not of it. My cat was completely unaware that he had become of his world until the moment he stepped away from it and saw the birds in the back yard.

Now here is the lesson my cat taught me. Buried inside my cat are instincts, the instincts that God gave him. Let’s compare the differences between a wild cat and a domesticated cat. If my cat was not of his world or not a house cat here is how he’d see the birds. My cat would sit quietly in the still of the morning, his ears would be attuned to the tiniest sounds, his whiskers would pick up the slightest vibrations, he would position himself so the wind wouldn’t carry his scent, and he would use his incredible sense of smell, strength, speed, sharp teeth and claws to catch himself a meal. My cat was created with a purpose. As a domesticated house cat his gifts, tools and abilities are not being used for the purposes in which they were designed or intended. Jesus talks a little about this in the parable of the talents.

How do we find ourselves once again and live out the purpose for which God created us?

I must admit seeing this sparkle in my house cat’s eyes was a moment of bliss for me. I was so deeply put in touch with my own feelings that I sat there with tears in my eyes. As I too have recently stepped away from the noise. I too have had that tiny sparkle in my eye and have begun to tap into those instincts. This awakening has made me feel like a house cat dropped off in the desert. My hunger pains are growing stronger every day. Pain is driving those instincts out of me and teaching me to hunt meat. Today I am spending my mornings outside in the cool of the dawn with my cat and together we are exploring those instincts buried deep inside us. Over time without realizing it I conformed to a sedated lifestyle that prevented me from seeing what God desires to reveal in me. I have not just lived in this world, but slowly over the years become of this world. I have lost that childlike faith that enabled me to live in the moment. My senses are no longer what they were when I was a child experiencing and giving uninhibited love.

How will learning this lesson benefit the people around me?

Jesus said resist not evil. I recently learned that the word evil comes from the Greek and it means to veil or hide. Everyday I come into contact with people who are down right blind or their vision has been blurred. I see people panic struck by the mountains life has placed in their path, people who don’t even have the faith of a mustard seed. I see people with so much to give and yet they don’t seem to know how special they are in my eyes. I see a small sparkle in the eyes of people who attend church, but even they don’t seem to understand the instincts that have been buried so deeply inside them. Religious institutions seem to only point out peoples’ flaws only further burying these instincts. The world is full of fear that breeds wars and further divides people. Religious denominations number in the thousands. Most churches see the church up the road as a competitor rather then a partner. Greed has further clouded people’s vision with unimaginable debts that require long hours away from their families. Jesus said He came to set the captives free and open the eyes of the blind. To be blind is to not have the ability to see something that was already right in front of us all along. Sin occurs in the battle we fight in order to keep these areas hidden. Sin is the lie that conceals the truth and prevents us from knowing God. Meditation is shining a light on these dark areas of our souls. Light uncovers already existent truth inside us. When we wake up God gives us the ability to wake other people up. We become lights inside the world.

I see hope in my own children. My children carry a childlike faith that is yet unharmed by the ways of the word. My children are not blinded. My two sons Noah and Elijah have a pureness that I can learn from. The church is wrong when it says that children are born sinners because the Bible doesn’t say this anywhere. Pastors use the verse that says “in sin my mother conceived me” and mistranslate this verse to support their agenda. This verse was talking about David’s mother not David. Like Adam and Eve our children our born perfect and later in life they choose to use the freewill that God gave them to sin. In fact Enoch in the Bible proves perfection is possible, but nobody chooses perfection. As the book of Romans says there is no good man, no not one. Jesus died for people who sin willfully; people who choose to live in sin and suffer grave consequences here on earth for their sin. My sons are only perfect in my eyes. My sons are not perfect and will more then likely fall big time at some point, but I will do my best to instruct them in an attempt to delay this fall. When my children fall I will be there for them and even be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to save them. If you have young children I recommend stepping away with your children and then take some pointers from the childlike faith that you observe. Your kids if still innocent can live freely in the moment. Your kids if conscious are not living in the past or distracted by future worries. Spending time with young children is a great way to unlearn or uncover the instincts buried deep inside of you.

Jesus knew what it took to remain perfectly separated from the ways of the world. Jesus stepped away from His apostles many times to be alone. Jesus even took a 40 day break from food and wandered in the desert. Today most people are always busy either working, or they are hypnotized by the glare of a TV or computer monitor. Some people are all caught up in politics, while others are all caught up in religion. Our dramatic media is always making things out to be worse then they are as they did with the recent swine flu out break. The media will use whatever drama it takes to grab peoples’ attention. If drama doesn’t work they will use sex and others things that will hypnotize people. Recently the economic collapse was more triggered by fear then reality. When people became afraid they stopped spending creating a huge drop in demand for products and fear alone literally caused mass layoffs and deepened the foreclosure crisis further. When the world is manipulating or hypnotizing us with sex or drama we are even less likely to take the time to meditate as Jesus did.

I am only beginning to discover all that God has for me and those around me.