Why? Why write this? Who am I writing for?

I was thinking today, as I so often do, about the pure uncanniness of this life, this existence, how the universe has been here since the beginning of time—billions, perhaps trillions of years—and after all the time that has passed before, it opened a small space for me to occupy. Me, myself, I, this tiny being with an immeasurable expanse of soul, I get to be here, to occupy this space, to feel, to know, to witness and experience so much more than I can ever hope to take in. Then after a certain number of those time increments humans have named “years”, I will vanish, and the space eternity opened for me to occupy will close again behind me. Time will continue onward without me, for an even greater length than what it was before, as if I was never here. Our time here is so short in fact, that if you could take the continuum of eternity, contain it to a length of a million miles long, the span of a single human life on that sale would not be visible with even the most powerful microscopes we have humans, in all our cleverness, have devised. We are that brief.  We are, comparatively speaking and by all appearances, that excruciatingly meaningless. Except we aren’t. It is the very contrast of what we are against the backdrop of where we are that gives evidence to the miracle we are. And we all share this, whether we care to see it, acknowledge it, appreciate it, live it, or not. We are all participants in the greatest miracle to exist in the endless expanse of time & matter. We’ve seen no evidence yet of anything close to what we are.

It’s important to me that I bring this thing I know to the attention of as many as I can, because to not know and act on this, is to not fulfill our purpose in being where we are, in being who & what we are. We are, in this life, undergoing another period of gestation, much as we did the first nine months of what we know to be our existence. The difference in this second gestation is that we are afforded a greater range of faculties, of awareness, of the ability to learn, to make decisions based on that learning and to participate in our own development through this time of growing into what we are to become next. It is part of our duty to each other to share what we know to be truths  as they pertain to this growing and development. Not what we simply believe to be true. What we know to be true. There’s a difference, and we’ll explore that farther into the book.

These things we know to be truths are often anchored in world views that, though they may differ culturally, for the most part share a common thread: to grow it’s members spiritually as far as humanly possible during our time here, in preparation for the next leg of the journey. For me, the world view I embrace is that of Christianity, because I believe it to be the core structure upon which all (legitimate) others—however ancient some may appear—are tethered. The Christian worldview I embrace, though, is not the one (popularized) by the non-Christian and many of those who would call themselves Christians: the stereotypical image of the ranting, Bible-waving, self-righteous & scripturally bombastic fanatic who does more to drive others away from the welcoming gates of heaven* than to humbly serve them in their quest, as we are intended to do.

There is a specific kind of person I am writing for, or to, as the case may be. How to describe that person might be better served in the beginning by describing who the person is not. It is not that person who, despite a wealth of evidence staring us in the face each &  every day, has come to the conclusion (one of our language’s more dangerous words) that there simply is no being in or out of this existence, physical, spiritual, or any other form, of a higher existence than humankind. I won’t claim to have no desire to reach those. Of course I do. I would be failing myself and my God to not have that desire, and I could not not care for those any more than an angel might speak an untruth. A Christian, in its truer form, cannot not care. But as for where my best efforts might be put forth, those who have been shown the clear-running stream but decided vehemently to never drink from it have made a decision based on their own interpretation of human intelligence,  I will yield to their determination to be masters of their own, albeit unwittingly short, destiny. As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Often, you can’t even make it thirsty.

 

I am not writing to the person who assumes to have achieved such pinnacles of infinite knowledge that there is no room for this grandest of mysteries, made explicitly so to inspire us to reach beyond such self imposed, ego-driven barriers. It is exactly that person who is spoken of in what we call scripture as it implicitly, clearly states that not all are  destined to qualify for passage. It is written into the plan that many, perhaps even most, will not. We are being tested, not only for what we can learn, but as much as what we are able unlearn. Intellectualism not only is not a qualifying criteria but could well be a disqualifier.

I’m also not writing for those who are already in the fold, as it is often called. Though I hope what I have to say in these pages might reinforce, deepen or expand their faith, they are already inside the gate (and, yes: there is a gate, though very likely different from what you’re expecting). I do expect to hear from many within the (fold) who will will challenge what I’ll be saying—it will become apparent early on that I’m a Christian of a different bend—to whom I would say this: that there is a seat on the train for everyone, of every variety of graceful interpretation of our Creator’s words, and that all those things we claim to know to be fact are, in the end, only triangulated strands of evidence, my own, included. So let us be kind to one another and remember that it is the train we have humbled ourselves to be on that matters.

The person I am writing for, then, is what I call the threshold Christian.  That person who is toeing the line between the common world they’ve been a part of and the world of Christianity, but is stalled with hesitation. It is that person who I need to have understand that all of the fears and concerns you have about what will happen to you when you cross that threshold are either imagined in their substance or in their power over you, or both. There is no cult here(1).  You are not stepping into a vortex through which you’ll sucked inescapably into a world so foreign you can’t find your way out of again. You can turn around any time and leave. Many have and many will. It is one of the most identifying marks of true Christianity, that your embracing of it must, imperatively, be you own free will.

 

I am writing for that person who, as I did when I was too young to know of anything called God, knows and has known that all of this we call life is no accident, that we are part of a greater experience, and is looking for a way to engage and participate in a way commensurate with the eternaly significant aspect of that truth. If that is you, then these words I am typing in this singular moment among the trillions of other singular moments in my short life are being (done) to find their way into your hands to be read in this singular moment among trillions of other in your life. It is you I am writing for.

 

What I hope to do in this writing is share with you what I believe to be overwhelming evidence that might encourage you to step across the threshold and feel this lightness of being.

 

(1) There are certainly cults out there, and it is up to you and your own senses to know when you’ve likely wandered close to one. Be aware (as in “beware”) of those. But there is no such thing as a Christian cult, any more than there is any such thing as a Christian terrorist, Christian rapist, Christian murderer, etc. There are certainly cults whose doctrines are based on distortions of Christian scripture and teaching, but that does not make them Christian. Once a group of Christians begin behaving as cult, they cease behaving as Christians and cannot be called that any longer.

 

*More on exactly what Heaven might be later.