Falling Upward by Richard Rohr
In love with this book!
The subtitle says it all: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
Anyone who has read the Bruce & Marie Hafen's book, Faith is not Blind, will resonate with this poignant book with the same message. In the first half of our lives we learning and governed by rules. We are part of a family, a group of friends, a culture. And then, at some point we fall.
But just as the Fall of Adam and Eve was necessary for their growth and our progression, so is our fall necessary for that same purpose. If we are to truly grow spiritually, we must go through a change of some sort. We must "leave father and mother," take a journey through the wilderness and find our true selves wrapped up in God.
"Our Western dualistic minds do not process paradoxes very well. Without a contemplative mind, we do not know how to hold creative tensions (23)."
Tension is not comfortable. Yet, we are taught that there is law of opposition in God's great plan. This opposition is not optional. Nor is it "just a part of mortality." This law is necessary for our becoming. To resist or ignore such tension only stunts our growth. A seed planted in the spring must find the courage to push through the pressure of the earth in order to reach its full potential. Could humans be much different?
Of course, our early years are foundational. This "loyal soldier" (as Rohr calls it) keeps us safe and secure for the first half of our lives. A strong foundation only sets us up for an even greater second half of life. The certainty we gain as children, so necessary for that deep foundation, no longer feels so certain. And so as we journey on downward we continue to seek, ask questions, knock on God's door for answers and wisdom as we begin our ascent into the second half of life! "Too-quick answers keep us from necessary searching (25)."
Quoting W.H. Auden, Rohr writes,"We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment and let our illusions die (41)." We hate change! And yet it seems our souls want change, craving something more. This reminds me of Michelle Craig's talk years ago on Divine Discontent. She says this:
Divine discontent comes when we compare 'what we are [to] what we have the power to become.' Each of us, if we are honest, feels a gap between where and who we are, and where and who we want to become. We yearn for greater personal capacity. We have these feelings because we are daughters and sons of God, born with the Light of Christ yet living in a fallen world. These feelings are God given and create an urgency to act.
We want more! We want to reach our highest potential. Rohr asks the question, "Wouldn't it make sense that God would plant in us a desire for what God already wants to give us (56)?" He continues by talking about spiritual homesickness -- though, not in a literal location of home, but rather a connection with God that he calls "co-breathing."
"Home is another word for the Spirit that we are, our True Self in God. The self-same moment that we find God in ourselves, we also find ourselves inside God...(57)." We are home.
Even as the prodigal son "came to himself" and then made his journey home, we too long to make that journey. We do so by, again, leaving what we once knew to travel into the unknown. We do so by continuing to ask the questions. We do so by engaging in that deep spiritual work of climbing the craggy mountain in order to truly find God.
This is what I'm learning from Richard Rohr. So much of his words resonate with my very soul, calling me to reach higher but first validating the valley through which I have travelled.
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The truth is that each of us is one generation away from Diety--each is a child of God. And just as He has done with both prophets and ordinary men and women through the ages, so Heavenly Father intends to transform us.
-- Michelle Craig
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