Jonah son of "My truth"

The book of Jonah begins this way:

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying,

It is worth remembering that this opening line is very similar to the modern day story opening, "Once upon a time..." This is to say that like any good story, the truth of Jonah is not limited to the historical or the scientific. The Truth in Jonah is of the poetic and mythical. 

And like any myth or poem, there are layers of meaning that go deeper than the surface. For instance in the name of Jonah's father - Amittai. 

Amittai means "my truth" in Hebrew. Which begs the question, what truth is Jonah the son of? Who is the "my". Is God the "my" or is Jonah's father the "my". Based upon the later actions of Jonah I think it is a safe assumption that Jonah is not the son of the Truth of God, but in fact the son of the anyone who has "my truth". 

You have your truth and I have my truth. It all depends on how we look at it. For instance, depending on how we look at light, it can be a wave or a particle. The problem is not that there are multi-truths in the world but when we are holding too tightly on "my truth" to not make room for other truths. This is a dangerous place to be. And this is the place Jonah is in. 

A brother asked one of the elders: What is humility? The elder answered him: To do good to those who do evil to you. The brother asked: Supposing a man cannot go that far, what should he do? The elder replied: Let him get away from them and keep his mouth shut.

Jonah is holding so tightly to his truth that he is unable to repent. The people of Nineveh repents (3:5), the king of Nineveh repents (3:8) and even God repents (3:10). But not Jonah. Jonah is the only one who is holding on to "my truth" so tightly that he cannot do what his enemies or even his God does. 

It seems to be the case that Christians have been known more for the tightness of truth that we cling to rather than the humble love of Christ we are called to. Even after all these years, even after all the times we have heard the tale of Jonah, even after the example of God in Christ, still many of us are convinced that "my truth" is "The Truth". 

Can we really be that certain of our understanding of "my truth" when we are so easily fooled by optical illusions and sleight of hand? Theist or Atheist, all of us share the same temptation - we all think that "my truth" is "The Truth" and "your truth" is just silly, wrong, fantasy, inaccurate, false, or a lie. 

Perhaps there is wisdom in the desert fathers and mothers who believed the goal of Christianity is not truth but Love. What would my life look like if I were to embrace love rather than grasping "my truth"?

Learning to swim on dry land

Mental Floss is a fantastic site. Like Brain Pickings, Mental Floss is full of wonderful internet curators of creative content. If you are just now hearing about these sites, then take a moment to peruse their stuff (and maybe make a donation). 

Recently Mental Floss posted these vintage photos of people learning how to swim. One of these photos quickly reminded me of the spiritual life:

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IMAGE CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES

I have no idea where these lads are, but from what I can see they are not near any water. Imagine that you have to teach people how to swim without the aid of a pool of water.

The Christian spiritual life is one that is built on practices: fasting, praying, studying, worship, contemplation, silence and sabbath (to name a few). These practices are not just things we try to do when we feel like it, these practices define the spiritual life. Put another way, if you are not doing these practices you are neither spiritual or religious. 

An often overlooked aspect of the spiritual life is one of the imagination. We tend to leave our imaginations behind when we become "adults" and this is to our detriment toward maturity. It is our imaginations that give us the creative space to find ways to do that which we thought to be impossible or improbable - like learning to swim on dry land.

Dry land is often the landscape of the spiritual life. Some Christian teachers will tell us that if you want to learn to swim in the abundance of God then you must first find water. There is no other way to swim. You have to find the living water, be baptized and then you can learn to swim in the abundance of God's sea of grace. Notice that this approach is not invalid, but it also lacks imagination for those who are in a deep desert and the only water that is visible are mirages. How do those in the wilderness learn to swim if there is no water? 

Imagination is required. Imagination is needed in the spiritual life. Imagination is not a child's play toy, but perhaps the most valuable gift we have to foster the spiritual life. 

Why I don't say "I was saved"

© 2010 chris m., Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio

In some Christian circles it is commonplace to be able to share the time, place or date of when you "were saved". Some Christians, like myself, don't have a moment in time that I can point to and say, "this is the moment". But that is not the reason I do not say "I was saved". Mine is more theological rather than biographical. 

I believe that salvation has little to do with what I do, say or feel. If there was a time that I "was saved" it was in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. I do not say "I was saved" in some moment in my life because God's action of reconciling all things predates my existence and actions. 

It may also be worth noting that what we are saved "from" is a large topic of discussion. And, as far as I can see, there is no one thing that everyone needs to be saved from. There are a lot of things. While some need to be saved from our pride, others need to be saved from our self hate. Some of us need to be saved from starvation and others of us need to be saved from slavery. To say all this is "Sin" may be generally accurate it also removes the specific need. God so loved the whole world and in this love God saved the world. 

The good news is we are saved and we did not do anything to earn it. Now, we get to live in thanksgiving, humility, gratitude and grace. And we have faith that living with the posture of thanksgiving, humility gratitude and grace leads to life eternal.