Tag Archives: Dimension

Chapter-a-Day

Eye Opening

Leave a comment

Eye-Opening (CaD Ps 40) – Wayfarer

He put a new song in my mouth,
    a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord
    and put their trust in him.
Psalm 40:3 (NIV)

In the Great Story, faith is described as “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

The spiritual journey is often referred to as a faith journey, and along my personal journey following Jesus I’ve found that it is the increasing understanding of spiritual realities amidst contrasting circumstances in this physical world.

There is a great story of the ancient prophet Elisha who, along with his servant, was staying in the town of Dothan. The king of Aram wanted Elisha dead because God, through Elisha, had been tipping off the King of Israel regarding the Aramian army’s location. So in the middle of the night, the Aramian army surrounded Dothan. Elisha and his servant woke up the next morning to find themselves surrounded. Elisha’s servant freaked out.

“Don’t worry,” the prophet said calmly. “There are more with us than against us.”

“Dude,” his servant said. “What have you been smoking? Don’t you see the entire Aramian army out there?!”

Elisha then prayed, “Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.”

The eyes of his servants were then opened to see the realm of the Spirit dimension, and he saw that the hills surrounding Dothan were filled with an entire army of angels sitting on chariots of fire.

David psyched me out a bit this morning as I began to read Psalm 40. After two songs (Psalm 38 and Psalm 39) in which he has been lamenting his poor health and despairing over his circumstances, he beings Psalm 40 with a declaration of being restored and delivered. He’s pulled up out of the muddy pit and firmly established on solid rock. He’s singing a “new song.”

“Yes!” I thought to myself. “After patiently waiting, David has finally experienced healing and restoration!”

But then as I continued reading David’s song lyrics it becomes clear that his circumstances really haven’t changed. He’s still poor and needy, his troubles still surround him, and his heart is still failing.

So what has changed to inspire the opening lines of the song?

Faith.

As with Elisha’s servant, the eyes of David’s heart are being opened to see the realities of Spirit amidst his physical circumstances. His spiritual confidence is growing and allowing him to actually experience that for which he is hoping for despite there being no change in his temporal earthly realities.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about our current earthly realities that are creating so much fear and anxiety. It can feel a bit like being surrounded with no possible way out.

I’m personally praying Elisha’s prayer.

“Lord, open the eyes of my heart to see Your reality in the realm of the Spirit dimension.”

Jesus said to His followers, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Eyes Open and Aware

3 Comments

And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lordopened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
2 Kings 6:17 (NIV)

There was one summer back in my later high school days when I happened to pal around with a couple of guys who were in their early twenties. It just so happened that every time the three of us got together we found ourselves in circumstances in which we had opportunity to  help others. One afternoon we happened upon a boy who had just been struck on his bicycle by a truck. We sprung into action to try and help both the situation and the boy’s family as best we could. Another time we happened to show up at a nearby lake just as a child fell out of the boat near shore and we were able to dive in and help the boy to shore. Upon hearing of our string of adventures, the mother of one of my friends jokingly referred to our threesome as  “Angels Unaware.”

Throughout God’s message there is reference made to a spiritual dimension that exists all around us. We are, for the most part, completely unaware. There are multiple instances across the Great Story of people being visited by the divine, or by those from the spiritual realm. From the early chapters of Genesis in which Abraham receives three mysterious visitors to the visions of Revelation which, John chronicles, were revealed to him while he was “in the Spirit.” Paul speaks of being caught up to heaven “in the Spirit.” The author of Hebrews tells followers of Jesus to be hospitable to strangers because you never know when you might entertain “angels unaware.” Thus the moniker given to my trio of friends back in the day.

Here in the west our culture is one of science and reason. We tend to believe only what can be quantified by our physical senses and proven by science. I find it fascinating that science is now pushing into places that a generation ago would have seemed the make-believe world of science fiction. Physicists tell us that there are 10-11 facets, or dimensions, to what we perceive to be reality. In other words, there’s a whole lot more going on than that which our physical senses perceive. Fascinating. I find that not unlike what Elisha’s servant experienced in today’s chapter. There was a reality that existed in the spiritual dimension that he couldn’t see until his spiritual eyes were opened. The further I get in my journey the more I have come to believe that the lines between science and spirit is not as distinct or defined as many scientists and/or theologians would have us believe.

In his letter to the followers of Jesus in Ephesus, Paul wrote, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened….” I think that’s what happened to Elisha’s servant. I think that’s what happened to Jesus companions on the road to Emmaus. There are physical eyes that see things in the physical realm, and there are spiritual eyes that perceive things in the spiritual realm.

This morning I’m thinking about the spiritual realm and the eyes of my heart. I hope that as my physical sight continues to diminish that my spiritual sight becomes more acute. I pray that the eyes of my heart will be enlightened in unimagined ways that I may see things clearly that I once may have never perceived. Until then, I hope that my physical eyes will be more attuned to identify daily opportunities to be someone else’s “angel unaware.”

Theatre Journal, Wayfarer's Journal

The “Sui Generis” Moment on Stage

2 Comments

It happened last night at rehearsal for Almost, Maine. It surprised me. It’s early in the rehearsal process and, while it’s not unheard of at this point in that process, it’s relatively rare in my experience.

The Latin term “sui generis” means “one of a kind,” and there is an experience that occasionally, mysteriously happens on stage that I find to be sui generis in life. It is an experience I have found unique to the art of acting, and actors who experience it once usually long to experience it ever after. It is a moment on stage that is other worldly, when actors cross over into another dimension, into the reality of the scene they are playing. It doesn’t happen all the time. You can’t predict it and there is no formula for conjuring it. But, when it happens you never forget it.

When this moment happens, when you cross over, you feel the emotions your character feels and think the thoughts that are flying through your character’s brain. You are at once in both dimensions: being two actors on the community center stage in Pella Iowa, and being two characters in a living room at 9:00 p.m. on a dark winter’s night in northern Maine.

It is an indescribable experience. It is sui generis.

Wendy and I were rehearsing our scene Getting it Back last night. We haven’t rehearsed it many times. Our lines are not memorized, we don’t have all our props, and we’re still struggling to remember our blocking. Yet, as our characters began to argue and things escalated between Gayle and Lendall, it happened. We crossed over. It was incredible. When it happens, I can sometimes also feel those watching being ushered into the moment with us. That happened last night, too.

Wendy and I often comment that we love the rehearsal process almost more than performances. Last night was an example of why. It is in the rehearsal process that you do the work of excavation and exploration. It is in rehearsal that you seek out the doorway to that sui generis moment. Like the portals into Narnia the portals to those moments can mysteriously appear and disappear. The same entrance can sometimes usher you to that moment multiple times. Then, suddenly, the way is shut and you pick up the quest once more.

The quest for that sui generis moment is part of the mystery and magic of acting. It is what draws me back again and again. And when the moment surprises you, like it did at rehearsal last night, it is a one of a kind experience of Life.

I can’t wait for rehearsal on Thursday.

Chapter-a-Day

Heaven, Quantum Theory, and the Wonder of it All

2 Comments

source: Bill Shupp via Flickr
source: Bill Shupp via Flickr

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Ephesians 1:3 (NIV)

Earlier this week I was reading about new discoveries in the scientific community relating to physics. Wendy and I have enjoyed long conversations through the years about our faith and science. I credit Wendy with introducing me to the writings and works of Madeleine L’Engle, whose fiction and non-fiction writings both explore the intersection of these two disciplines which have famously warred with one another through the centuries. Wendy and I don’t feel tremendous conflict between the two. Faith that denies science is foolish, as is science that denies its inherent faith. For Wendy and me, our creative imaginations find all sorts of fascinating correlations that complement both.

What I read earlier this week dealt with the theory of relativity and time. It explored the idea of parallel realities and time existing in different dimensions. The possibilities are mind blowing, and it makes me shake my head in gleeful wonder. Despite all that we’ve learned throughout history, I sense that we have only scratched the surface of the depth and complexity that our Creator wove into all creation. As for things existing at once in different dimensions, that’s already hinted at in God’s story.

The verse above from Paul’s letter to the Jesus followers in Ephesus is one of my favorites to chew on in the same vein with which I chew on my rudimentary understanding of relativity and quantum theory. We live on this earth in the moment, our lives bound by the realities of flawed humanity, sickness, conflict, tragedy, and monotony. At the same moment, according to this verse, we have been (past tense) blessed in heavenly realms (is this what science would call another dimension in another or outside of our present time?) with every spiritual blessing in Christ. We exist simultaneously in different realities, bound in earthly time and blessed in spiritual eternity. Talk about mind blowing.

Today, as I write this, we are celebrating Good Friday when Jesus was beaten and crucified. For those of faith, we believe that on the cross and in the empty tomb that was to follow on Sunday morning, there was a fundamental shift in both the earthly and spiritual dimensions which forever altered our present earthly reality and the reality of our standing in the spiritual dimension/realm that exists beyond time. While I do not claim to understand it all, I have faith in the glimpse of it I have been given, and once again I shake my head in the wonder of it all.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Hebrews 1

2 Comments

Angel 013Therefore, angels are only servants—spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation. Hebrews 1:14 (NLT)

Walking the journey each day, slogging through the task list and managing life’s daily routine, it is easy to forget that there is another dimension, a spiritual dimension, that exists simultaneously with our own. Because it cannot be seen with our natural eyes does not make it less real. In fact, after thirty years of studying God’s Message, I’ve come to believe that in the context of eternity the spiritual realm is indeed more “real” than the physical dimension in which we exist.

During his three-years of public teaching Jesus intersected and engaged in the spiritual realm all the time. Reading the first hand accounts of those who walked with him tell of Jesus speaking to spirits, casting them out of their human host, being guided by Holy Spirit, being visited by angels, being transfigured into the spiritual and speaking with the prophets. He made it clear that there is more to this journey than our eyes can see and our fingers can touch.

Today I am reminded that all around me is a spiritual dimension of God’s grand design. I purpose today to set my mind on spiritual things and not just earthly things.