Living in the Humility of Grace: Part II Choosing Wonderland

The radical scandal of grace means that we have the freedom to  choose to live in a kingdom of superlatives - unspeakable joy, unmeasurable love, incomprehensible peace, unfathomable intimacy with Christ and infalliable justice. Part II of Living in the Humility of Grace explores the spiritual trail we need to walk  in order to leave behind the shackles our removed offenses and find our entrance to Wonderland - the land of Christ's grace.  Our companions will be Faith and Meekness who hold our spiritual weapons of Awe and Praise. Bliss and ecstasy await us.

Heb 12:15 (ISV) See to it that no one misses the grace of God and no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many...

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Wonderland: Living in the Humility of Grace - Part I Hostage by Offense

Kathleen Ann Thompson shines light on the understanding that the offenses we hold onto are often hidden out of our awareness. Through denial, suppression, resistance and lack of introspection these offenses live like trolls in our life. They padlock the gate to 'Wonderland', the land of grace which Christ brought back from the grave for our inhabitance. These offenses enslave us and create habitual and addictive behaviors which feed them until they completely own us. Letting go of our held offenses frees us like opening a bird cage to let the singing canary fly free. Wonderland holds a land of superlatives for us - our inheritance from Christ's redeeming work on the cross.  Learn how to embrace your freedom from offense and enter the bliss and ecstasy of Wonderland.

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Are You There? Is God Really Present in Our Daily Personal Lives?

 Where are you God?  This question dogs much of our spiritual queries as we travel our challenge-packed journey through life. Is it possible that we are missing his ever-present personal involvement in  our daily lives?  Kathleen Ann Thompson engages the listener in a supposition that if we change the perceptions of our mind so they perceive the world as God designed it to be seen and experienced, he would readily be discovered by us, Immanuel, God with us.

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The Source of the Demand that Fuels Human Traffickig

Follow up to SEE ME!  HEAR ME! - Performances at St Paul's Cathedral, San Diego Oct 8-10

What can we do about the 'demand'?

      The audience was in a contemplative silence in the great Roone Arledge  auditorium at Columbia University in 2009 as SEE ME! HEAR ME! concluded it’s U.S. premiere performance.  The applause then broke out and I stepped with, not a little, anxiety to the lip of the stage as the applause faded to begin the Q & A.   A moment of anticipatory silence ensued before a man (typical professor type) in the back row rose to his feet and thoughtfully asked his question:  “ You have addressed the subject of supply quite well in your production. Could you address the ‘demand’ portion of your equation for human trafficking?”.

      I had a ‘deer in the headlights’ moment as I thought; ‘Well, nothing like jumping into the deep part of the pool first’.  I considered my answer for an interminable couple of seconds.  Do I give this man a true but innocuous answer that covered social counseling  like twelve step sex-addiction programs, criminal procedures for predators, legislative lobbying attempts, etc. or do I address the core problem with demand for sex slaves.

      I elected at that moment to tell the hard truth.  That truth is that we are not really going to make a noticeable and effective dent in this cavernous container of demand until we change the way we are mentoring young people in their understanding of sexual activity.   Intimate sexual encounters are not a recreational event but a divine sacrament - a physical expression of a deep spiritual truth.  Sexual intimacy within our covenant unions is a gift of God to us which includes pleasure, a sense of being loved and valued, a wholeness, a mystery of oneness and fascination. 

        In lieu of  experiencing  this fulfilling  sexual intimacy within a promised monogamous relationship, our society has bent the knee to the idol of sex any where, any time, with any body. Promiscuous sexual encounters promise a false pleasure, fool’s gold, whose allurement is like a glittering distraction object that the fool turns our head with while the enemy targets the  knock out punch to our soul, robbing us of the God’s intended condition of wholeness and fulfillment.

 In our current cultural stream of sexual attitudinal behavior we have an environment which treats sexual relationships as simply a ‘hook up’, often without even formal introduction. Sexual parts are sold by advertisers in the culture as bonafide  credentials for intoxicating pleasure and a valid identity card that we are a desirable person. The problem is that this card is forged and bogus and quickly discovered as phony.  The holder of the false identity is left without entrance to the land of God’s intended delights in this divine sacrament.

         The true answer, in my opinion, to defeated this horrendous crime industry is to dry up the demand by uncovering the glorious treasures experienced in  God’s gift to us of intimate sexual relationship in a promised union -  a type that points to the ultimate union of each believer with God. 

For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband,  present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  II Corinthian 11:2

                                                       Obedience

One thing was for sure, as the little maid grew, her father found discipline to be one of the first traits which he wanted her to learn. He started with very small things so that obeying would become a habit. Perhaps, you don’t think a KING would pay attention to small, everyday things like dressing a little girl’s hair every morning.  Nobody really knows where the KING learned how to dress a maiden’s hair - but then, he has many mysteries that no one understands. His hands would fly in lyric arcs as he combed her long, silky hair so that all hairs lined up obediently ready for parting and pinning. 

As she grew, the KING wisely taught her to dress her own hair – one step at a time. It took a graceful curve in the line of the comb’s movement, a twist in the wrist to wind a curl, precise placement of the fingers as she pinned the bundle. Of course, this took several years, with the KING doing less and less as her fingers and hands learned to obey the patterns she was being taught.  By the time she was six years old, an amazing thing happened.  One morning she rose up before the morning star had set and went to sit in front of the glass at her table. Cautiously, but with an inner confidence, she let her hands and fingers remember the habits of obedience she had been practicing every day under the close tutelage of her father.  Yes, it worked!  She was six and almost a lady – father would be so proud. Obeying father always made her feel so close to him as did dis-obedience make her feel so alone. She would lose him. However, then all she needed to do was to come to him carrying her little penitent heart, holding it out to his mercy. Much later she would find out that he would not allow anything, not even her greatest disobedience, to separate her from him.

                   

 

                                                         Humility

 

The tiny baby under the KING’s cloak survived and physically flourished under the KING’s nourishing fatherhood. Now, I said she flourished physically – but it was not so in her soul. Too young to remember her rescue from the palace steps, her soul had fury in it Her heart knew it had been abused, rejected and abandoned and was disconsolate. Small though she was, this fury sometimes broke out in her and she tasted bitterness as she clenched her angry fists and reacted with pushing hands.

 

Such was the kind of storm raging in her one morning while she was planting springs seeds. Her whole body shook like an earth quake as she pounded the dirt with her seed stick and then stomped the ground. The tears came following fast. The KING watched paternally from the door of the goat shed – for he saw all things. He sighed deeply and walked to his little maid and knelt in the fresh earth next to her. Her face turned down to the ground and her shoulders were rigid as he lifted her face in his hands he said; Your anger, bitterness and jealousy are separating you from my love. There’s no room in your soul for my love. I want you to run with all your might into my arms when your heart is having a terrible storm. Then, as I hold you tight in my arms the storm will be squeezed dry and you will only feel my love.

 

But, those little hands pushed the KING’s hands away and then pushed out her chest and started to plant those seeds with a new fury. The KING, being so wise, knew he couldn’t reach her heart at that moment. Therefore, he finished cleaning the goat shed, chopping the wood and fixing the midday meal before this small maid would collapsed on the ground, frustrated and exhausted.

Suddenly, the KING was holding her small tear-stained face in his oversized hands and scooping her up in his long arms. He sat with her nesting in his lap in a large rocking chair on the front porch and sang a song whose notes soaked up her tears – now, she would listen. Her fists were limp as he softly said; Yes, you were left for the vultures to devour, but I have rescued you and chosen freely to be your Father - to love you. All your work earns you not one measurement of my love. Will you allow me to provide and protect you? It gives me such pleasure.

 

Yes, she would stop trying to earn her bread and cheese at the table. When the storm in her soul returned she would remember his song and run into his arms. It’s a mistake to think that very small people are too young to learn very large lessons of life. The small maid, not yet five years of age, was already learning in the KING’s meticulous mentoring care. What could he have in mind for this adopted child?

                                                 
The Ancient Forest

 

The KING disappeared into a part of the forest that was older than man – a place of great mysteries and untold stories – a place the realm knew nothing about. Here he determined to let the destiny which his subjects had chosen to play out.  He was certain the truth would be revealed in time and he would return to the throne.  Meanwhile, he would raise the prince and his newly adopted baby daughter (yes, the ‘it’ was a baby girl) to prepare them for their royal life to come. Unencumbered by all the royal trappings and environs of the court, he would live a simple and rustic life in a small cottage - which was the best environment anyway for teaching children the ways of royalty and noble character.

The KING maintained contact with the realm through a confident – a currier of exceptional talent. He was faster than mercury, faithful as the son, smarter than a learned wizard and almost as invisible as the wind.  He could travel in and out of the realm almost unnoticed and worked like a cobweb among the subjects to learn how their thinking was developing.

 

And so the years of sequester began. They were long years, by the standard of ordinary men, but by the KING’s standard, they were just right - the exact amount of time to prepare his heirs for their royal destiny. I say heirs because the KING had now fully adopted that baby girl as his own precious and valued child.

                                                  
                                                                 -- Next Episode - Humility-