Well, here we are in the New year. Time to think in things new! On the first day of Narnia the talking beasts were gathered in front of Aslan to hear him enunciate the principles of the Kingdom. The beasts, it may be noted were the taking beasts – not the dumb beasts who live in slavery in our world. Here were beasts that had been given an intelligence and insight that placed them above the ordinary beast of the kind we usually think of when we say the words, ‘dumb beast.’ And it has to be said that there are humans of the world who have more in common with the dumb beasts who are slaves, than they do with the taking beasts of Narnia who can be quite astute; more so than some humans. It’s not generally known that the donkey who rebuked foolish Balaam was once of these talking beasts of Narnia, placed in our time and space to rebuke a stupid man with the mind of a donkey and the heart of a charlatan.
It’s a truth that many who think themselves most in charge, most in control of their lives; who think of themselves the most deserving on account of their expertise in practical affairs, are at 0ne and the same time the most enslaved and the most ignorant of their bondage. They live from themselves and to themselves, laboring to raise a family, buy a house, purchase a car or two or more, then a swimming pool and an investment property and as well as this, labouring to educate their children so that they can step onto the same treadmill that has been their life.
There is nothing wrong with these things in themselves. They are fine in themselves. Some of them are necessities for living in the world. It’s not the doing of them that’s the problem. It’s the living in them that shrivels our being, boosts our ego and leaves us slaves of the earth rather than sons of God and representatives of the Kingdom of Heaven.
It’s those who have a hunger for God that change the world and inherit the earth – not those who absorb themselves in the pedestrian. Live from the pedestrian and you will produce pedestrian. Live in God and pedestrian things will vibrate with the life of God.
There are good, practical people who exclaim, ‘There are things to be done,’ and so there are. But we are not meant to live out of ‘The Things To Be Done.’ Our privilege is to live in God and live out of His life into the world. The result of this arrangement is that the things to be done are the things God means us to do as a result of our nature and calling. More importantly the things we do are filled with His life – filled with the Spirit of Life actually. Such deeds having been birthed in Life Itself produce more life, since they are self-multiplying and innately fertile.
Living out of ‘Things to be done’ has a cause, which is the original curse that resulted from Adam’s choice to cast his lot with living in and from himself in his own version of what is right and what is wrong, rather than living in God and intuitively living the good, the peaceful and the creative.
Living out of ourselves is living in Adam. We do it because we believe Satan’s lie that Father cannot be trusted – cannot be trusted to draw us into who we really are; cannot be trusted to love us enough to fill our deep need for love and acceptance; cannot be trusted to reveal our true worth and situate us in our true place in society. In short we choose not to believe that Father cannot be trusted to burnish us as His daughters and sons, so by the sweat of our brow, we labour to do all this ourselves. Thus rather than living as sons we live as slaves. The meek labour in quiet perseverance in God. Others labour in desperation, slowly killing their heart spiritually and physically. The proud make so bold as to make a virtue of their slavery. Some are relieved to encounter the real Jesus who lifts these burdens. Others rise up to kill the givers of life.
The poor in spirit, not only get to see God. They get to know Him as He is. As a result they come to know themselves.
On the first day of Narnia the talking beasts were gathered in front of Aslan to hear him enunciate the principles of the Kingdom. Aslan spoke, ‘I give you yourselves, I give you forever this land of Narnia. I give you the stars and I give you myself.’
Through the cross and the Spirit poured out we have been given ourselves. Open your heart and receive the gift of WHO YOU ARE.We were made to live in God, which is to say, created to live from the Father’s being in the Spirit of life. Adam broke the union. Jesus rejoined us to God, made us one with ourselves and our fellow humans and most importantly, made a new and living way by which we can be ourselves. This ‘way’ is not a method, it’s not keys, formulae or things we have to do. It’s Jesus. The only ‘doing’ part in the deal is for us to believe – to live in the Son of God instead of living in ourselves.
Sadly there are Believers who strive by obedience to live in the intimacy with Jesus that is already theirs and which can never be taken away. Those who live in Jesus will increasingly obey. Those who seek intimacy through obedience will pretend, despise themselves and bind others in their own captivity.
The curious thing is that by denying self to live in God, we are enveloped in the Spirit of His Son. We become who we are. We begin to live as who were made to be and delight ourselves in doing the tasks we are called to accomplish, rather than the tasks others would lay on us, or more specifically the talks with which we burden ourselves in order to earn respect, love or both.
The efforts of the slave to earn love are a barrier between Jesus and ourselves, obstructing the flow of intimacy, love and assurance that we crave in order to find love and be ourselves. As we live in Christ we become more fully ourselves, more poignantly the priest-kings the Kingdom God calls us to be. The fact that God has already given Himself to us, means that we are already bought, already His possession, already able to be ourselves and build the Kingdom of God.
Keith Allen
