Dave Brisbin 5.17.26
Jesus never told his friends to worship him.

He told them to follow him…not conceptually or theologically or even physically, but to follow his Way of living and seeing. To worship Jesus as savior is a passive waiting for transformation to be gifted from outside in, a static bestowal for which we conform, not transform. But Jesus insists that the awakening that is Kingdom is not out there somewhere to be entered from outside in. To follow Jesus is to actively emulate his Way of becoming attuned to an experience of God’s presence directly, from inside out.

Following Jesus’ Way develops the one skill that changes everything, or better, opens the door to everything: awareness—the ability to notice thought itself. To be able to step back from the torrent of our minds’ activity, to observe it without identifying with it any longer. To realize that our thoughts aren’t us, just the by-product of what minds do.

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Without this one skill nothing else along Jesus’ Way is available because, carried along by thoughts and their attendant emotions, we can’t be present, see what is really sharing the moment with us, give what love requires. Cognitively fused with unconscious beliefs and fears, we’re trapped inside a bubble that extends only as far as the inside of our eyelids. When Jesus says from the cross, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing, he is speaking to this unaware state. When he urges to sell all we possess, he’s showing us how to strip down to naked awareness of a truth that makes us free.

He starts with the law.

As long as unquestioned thoughts believe blind obedience is enough, will contractually gain God’s favor, we’re not free, not aware that passive conformance doesn’t even scratch the active surface of transformation. Yet Jesus isn’t abolishing. He deconstructs only what is necessary to reclaim awareness. That’s the lesson. Not deconstruction for its own sake, but to graduate from blind obedience to thoughts that rule like law, to develop that one skill…to notice our thoughts, not as mandates to obey, but a threshold to cross on the Way to reclaim our awareness and remember who we are.

 

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Everyone is recovering from something… Admitting this is the first step in spiritual life, because any unfinished business in our lives–trauma, unforgiveness, fear-based perceptions–fosters compulsive behavior and keeps us from connecting spiritually and emotionally.

Since we’re all recovering, we accept everyone right as they are—no expiration dates or deadlines. We don’t tell anyone what to believe or do. We present points of view that we hope will engage seekers in their own journey; help them unlearn limiting perceptions, beliefs, and compulsions; give opportunities to get involved in community, building the trust we all need to find real identity, meaning, and purpose. In other words, to engage the transforming Way of living life that Jesus called Kingdom…non-religiously understood from a first century Hebrew point of view.

 

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