I wrote on the subject of gnosticism before describing myself as an epignostic. (Ever increasing in experience) But this morning as I was praying for my daughters my thoughts were once again thrust into the subject.
Gnosticism being, as I understand it, the thought that a person can spiritually draw closer to God by intellectually learning more and more. Sounds pretty good if you are a smart guy, but what if you are average like me, or mentally challenged like my dear friend Robert. Does that mean we cannot get as close to God? Does it me we are any less aware of God? Does it mean the smarter you are the better you are?
And here is where my daughters came in. Both have dated smart, handsome young men. But from the perspective of a father I know the brains may someday provide physical support, but I want to see them with someone of character. Character shaped in relationship to God. Instead I have observed some spiritual intellectualizing that has been a justification for character and behavior I would not approve of. In other words... some times we are too smart for our own britches. We can be biblically book smart, but absent in the relationship that makes us experienced.
We all do it. Myself among the worse of offenders. And though intelligence may help us to articulate an experience, it is not the experience. Though intelligence and a need to understand works well in moving up corporate and social ladders, it often stands as a hindrance to climbing the spirit ladder to heaven. In the end, our spiritual attainment is probably much more related to our love for God and desire to pursue him. In the interim we simply look like the pendulum drawing supplied to me by Jim Spivey.
We operate in this fleshly world of "intelligence," which is really nothing more that artificial intelligence. Artificial because it is normally based on lies. We walk through life in this schizophrenic stupor. At one end of the swing intelligently operating from a wounded self. In preservation our "intelligence" lets us see the boogie man around every corner looking to wound us again. Our intellect is there protecting us from a re-occurrence of the hurt or embarrassment.
On the other swing of the artificial intelligence our over inflated ego argues its self defense. We declare ourselves something, which in the eyes of God, we are truly not. But we are smart, and our smartness keeps us in this horizontal plane. Connected to God our swinging momentum of intelligently defending a self image and avoiding replays of the past keep us constantly pulling away from God.
Surrender as described so many times in my blog works is to allow God to help you stop swinging. It is then He draws us closer to him.
Look at the diagram. The pendulum can swing wildly the further from the point of attachment. (God) As the pendulum gets closer to God, (the string gets shorter) the swinging by the very nature of the attachment slows in it's degree of variation. Getting closer to God allows us to not react so violently to wounds. Getting closer to God allows us to not defend a false and inflated image of ourselves.
See the relationship? Getting closer creates the effect. Not vice versa.
Draw close to Him and everything else will take care of itself.
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