1.5 Catch the Wind
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This blog was born out of two deaths in 2021: my three-year-old granddaughter, Millie, and my faith. It is a travelogue of my second journey in search of meaning. Its primary intended audience is – me. You see, only as I write do I get a good glimpse of what I think, and only as I review it in black and white do I understand what I believe. That is my goal: to come face-to-face with what I genuinely think. My secondary goal is to leave a record of this exploration for my grandchildren and their children, hoping it may benefit them one day. It is not my intention to offend or convince but to merely think out loud. I hope it will be of some help to you.
As a catalyst for my thinking, I engaged John's account of his friend Jesus. I read it as one would “a Rorschach reading or inkblot interpretation,” as Crossan warned against by adding, “which is when an ancient text means whatever your modern mind decides it means.” Nevertheless, for this exercise, I trusted myself to interpret.
In the previous segment, we discovered that we share the same life force that enables the stars to shine, the trees to grow, and the flowers to bloom.
This energy courses through us, empowering us to live our daily lives. Bundled with this power is our purpose.
In the following verses, John introduces another witness to corroborate his testimony, John the Baptizer. You may be familiar with the story if raised in the church. However, I'm looking for fresh insights to spring from the ordinary.
John 1:15 (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ ”) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
As I read the passage, I was transported back to a dozen Bible studies and soon became entangled in the well-known theological concepts. When I found myself down the rabbit hole of past understanding, I was tempted to stop studying, close the book, and move on to my daily to-do list. Nevertheless, I poured a 2nd cup of coffee and looked carefully for new growth on these old-world plants. Bear with me momentarily as I try to cautiously unravel these four verses.
Remember, John's story was written to members of the early church, who were Jewish or converted Greeks known as God-fearers, both very familiar with the Jewish religion. To establish Jesus’ credibility, John needed to connect the Baptizer’s testimony to Moses’ law and the Prophets. The law of Moses was the Word of God, his original intention or plan carved in stone. The Baptizer was God’s modern-day prophet for them, translating God's first-century plans into easily understandable words. He was a man the audience knew, or at least heard about, like Billy Graham to my generation. The Baptizer confirms the authority of Jesus by placing him before and above the prophets.
The passage reminded me of how crucial credibility is in our current legal, business, and personal situations. After an expert witness takes oath in court, the next step is demonstrating his/her credentials. I recall taking a course on Strategic Selling years ago, where I learned the importance of being referred to a prospect. The more credible the referring person is to the prospect, the more valuable the referral becomes. When being introduced to a new person, consider the importance you place on the person who is introducing you. If you like the person introducing, you are more likely to like the person being introduced. John adeptly used this principle in his personal story to introduce his friend Jesus to his people.
John established Jesus’ credentials and ranked him ahead of the Baptizer because he came "before" the older prophet. He says, "Before me, he was.” Wait. A. Minute! Isn't that like saying you came before your older sibling? I'm going to need a different kind of "thinking cap" to contemplate this.
In the next line, “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace,” I saw new growth that produced usable insight for me. After reflecting on it, I realized that these words are simply labels. Essentially, all words are labels. My label is “Alan” for most people. “George” for others, “Dad,” “Pa,” or “GPa,” but all these labels are placed on the same person. Grace, love, and God are labels we put on the same ineffable mystery.
It's mysterious that even though we have experienced grace, love, and spirit, we have never seen them. We can only see the effects after these nouns become active.
If the conifers and sagebrush are soloists, the wheat field is a corps de ballet, each stem following all the rest in bursts of movement, a million ballerinas bending, one after the other, as great gales dent their golden heads. The shape of that dent lasts only a moment and is as close as anyone gets to seeing wind.
Tara Westover, Educated
During and after Millie's final days, I silently shouted, "Where are you, God?” “How could you let her die and inflict deep internal wounds on the rest of us? “How could you fracture my family to the point of not even knowing what to say to each other?” “Where are you?” Then, when I looked beyond this soul-deadening experience, I saw the food, cards, people offering help and support, and people crying or simply being with us. That's when I realized that these were grace, love, and God in the form of acts of kindness and empathy. From his fullness, flowing through friends and neighbors, we have all received, grace upon grace. This is as close as anyone gets to seeing the mystery we label grace, love, and God.
John is saying that Jesus personified this mystery called Grace. He had an endless supply of it (fullness) because he allowed it to flow through him. (Think stream, not lake.) How did they know? They received the effects of his grace over and over and over again. It was by allowing this grace to flow through him that Jesus put "truth in motion” and “made God known” by demonstrating the very intention (heart) of God. While the religious hierarchy saw the actions of Jesus as blasphemous, John connected them to the law of Moses and the very intention of the Creator of the universe.
The Law reflects divine intelligence decoded by Moses and carved in stone as objective rules to guide our actions.
However, it's essential to understand that seeing those rules as merely "what to believe" and trying to put them into action is living from the outside-in perspective. On the other hand, realizing who we are and acknowledging that this intelligence is available within our consciousness allows grace and truth to flow through us as actions with visible results or effects. Continually living in this manner is "living from the inside out," demonstrating “how to believe.”
I believe God (the Creator) is not a physical entity but an intelligent and energetic force that resides within and flows through all creation, including our consciousness. God cannot be seen except through the miracle of life itself and the actions taken by those who operate from this inner consciousness. Jesus personified this. It is as if he built the architect’s building in front of John’s very eyes. He showed us how to do the same thing.
Here is a link to an original 10-minute guided morning meditation about daily choices that I found helpful.
Key Takeaways
You are a part of the creator’s original intention, and his energy flows through you.
If you want to see that original intention in action, just watch what Jesus did, and did not do.
Look for God in the everyday actions of grace and truth of your neighbors, friends, and others.
In the next segment, I will come to another fork in the road on the path to discovering new insights. It was like taking a guided tour of my hometown and seeing old, familiar things for the first time.
