2.3 How to Make Changes in Your Life
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But first, a Point to Ponder
If your father had been a famous painter, like Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo, would you rather he leave you with his valuable paintings or his ability to paint? Which would lead to a more fulfilling life?
In the previous section, we saw how passionately Jesus felt about a place of "reverent silence" in his life and the life of his people. It is the keystone to a fulfilling, interior life and is difficult to find in today’s clamorous world. Now, we will look at people's most human-like reactions to someone telling them that there should be a change in their lives.
2:18 The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.Here, we see our "inner critic" who wants to jump up and shout, "Who are you to tell me what to do?” "What gives you the right?" "Who died and made you king?” It's the voice of that uncoachable creature in me who is always right, resistant to change, and wants to do things the way I want. To this demand for credentials, Jesus gives an answer that slaps, “Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.”
I often wonder, “If Jesus didn't mean what he said, why didn't he say what he meant?" Why didn't he? The answer lies in his objective. He was not explaining facts for us to learn, like dates in history class, but changing our consciousness, which can only come from inside us. He spoke and acted in ways that challenged people to "rethink" their entire way of thinking. This required a mental slap in the face, "shock and awe”- extreme hyperbole and actions. After all, how else could someone change their realization of themselves and the world around them? The Tao says, “The Master helps people lose everything they know, everything they desire, and creates confusion in those who think that they know.”
Change and Resistance to Change.
Let's look at two examples from my era to help us understand this concept of teaching by "shock and awe" when words alone would not work. Again, I’ll cite incidents from the civil rights movement: Rosa Parks on the city bus and the Greensboro sit-in. Both of these were extreme actions, but they caused people like me to rethink.
From the National Constitution Center. Rosa Parks decided to sit down for her rights on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, putting the effort to end segregation on a fast track. Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, after she refused to give up her seat on a crowded bus to a white passenger.
From the History Channel. The Greensboro sit-in was a civil rights protest that started in 1960, when young African American students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and refused to leave after being denied service. The sit-in movement soon spread to college towns throughout the South.
These two incidents were extreme in their time, but they caused people to "rethink" who they were, both black and white, and consciousness continued unfolding. In like manner, Jesus is not just "driving out, overturning, destroying, and rebuilding.” He is using extreme hyperbole and action to teach, forcing everyone to confront challenging questions within themselves. Jesus was an expert at causing each person to question their beliefs and come to the answers on their own, within themselves. Like Ms. Parks and the students, he knew that was the only way to raise consciousness, gain commitment, and battle this resistance to change. By observing his words and actions throughout John's story, I can see him do this repeatedly, showing what a masterful teacher Jesus was.
Love the Questions Themselves
The questions are good! No, the questions are crucial! I have difficulty changing my thought patterns, but I want to become more “coachable,” and less change-resistant. Difficult or unanswerable questions prompt me to reconsider my belief structure. As I do, I can either "dig in and defend" or take a new yoke, learn, and get "a feeling of discovered ignorance,” as Clint Smith calls it. Even now, my inner voice says, "Relax and allow. It will come to you.”
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. ”
21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body. Could We Look at this Statement Again?
John’s statement about "the temple of his body" holds meaning beyond the disciples’ initial interpretation. Unfortunately, we have reduced it to merely the resurrection inference, emphasizing the need to believe in the resurrection as a ticket to heaven. Then we sing an invitation hymn and go home. That’s understandable. This way, the church gains new members, and the members gain a ticket to heaven, but most other things remain unchanged. Most often, there is no significant transformation in the members' lives. But could there be an additional way to look at it?
According to Sarah E. Fisher, the Temple was a place where heaven and earth overlapped for the Hebrew people of that time. It was where God was made manifest on the planet. Thus, the above demonstration was performed by Jesus. But it’s not a stretch to see that “the temple of his body" also refers to the personal and individual Temple within a person. It is where God is made manifest on the planet - in his people - one by one. This is confirmed by Paul, who later asked, "Do you not know that your bodies are temples?" This raises crucial internal questions that can spark transformation.
This was news to me! The center of my being is to be a temple, a place of silent reverence, where God is made manifest, or real, in and through me. Put another way, there should be an expression of his genes in my being's DNA.
Instead, for over half a century, the center of my being has been a marketplace clamoring with ideas of how to make money, turn a profit, and fund a family. However, in these deep-grief days since Millie's passing, I have sensed a driving out of “the money changers” in my soul and a gradual repurchase of its shares.
“As there is a code written into my body (genetics), there is also a code written into my being.”
In the first-century Jewish consciousness, the Temple was the earthly location of God's presence, the exact spot where Abraham came to sacrifice Isaac, and God intervened. Then Jesus came along and proposed that the Creator’s presence was "at hand,” here and now, within. Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” In my words, “You might destroy the building and the body, but you cannot stop the consciousness of God's presence from unfolding.”
This brings the body into an entirely new light. Dallas Willard taught that we can only exist within time, space, and human history through our bodies. Jesus believed that the creator of the universe, of which our bodies are a part, resides within us. Paul believed our body is a temple where heaven and earth overlap, a physical vessel for God’s becoming real on earth.
What about outside Judaism and Christianity? In Taoism, the body is seen as a crowded pantheon housing a multitude of gods. Similarly, the Greeks were fascinated by the human body and believed their gods took on human form. In Buddhism, the body is viewed as a tool for developing insight. Even atheists will agree that the body is a system of inherent intelligence and energy.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Effectively creating positive change in life starts with allowing our consciousness to change, and that begins by visiting the quiet Temple of the soul and listening carefully. For example, here are a few of the soul whispers I have heard that have created positive change in my life:
“do the fundamentals. “
“stay where you are.”
“walk, walkable lifestyle”
“Madison”
“call”
“visit”
“give”
‘write”
Why not spend some regular time in silence, go inside your body, listen carefully, and see what you hear there? Don't worry about hearing the wrong words or making the wrong moves, because it's a trial-and-error process for everyone. You'll learn to recognize the correct ones by the calm anxiety they produce within, that heavier sense of knowing that you know, and the peace they produce when completed.
Changes you make will be more effective and make your life more adventurous and meaningful.
