A quick meditation not yet fully formed or incarnated, yet…but from a reading of an early monk’s meditation on this passage from the prophet Isaiah:

 “That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.”

“One of the reasons He transforms us-or puts us on a path of healing- is so that others may see that it is God who did it—this is the motivation for true transformation! That’s the point. It’s not just about us getting better, though that’s a a very pleasant side effect for us. Our motivation is that He wants to reveal Himself first in us, and then through us! This is why inner transformation by union with Jesus, is the priority in the Christian walk, and defines it really.

What is a christian? Someone who has chosen Christ’s spirituality as their own. Someone in union with Christ progressively gaining, embodying more of His Actual Life through union and intimacy with Jesus. The practices, prayer, study, helping the poor etc are mediums for union and increasing intimacy with the Person and Nature of Christ. We should see the fruits of His Life increasing in us over time—all the fruits of His spirit should be growing in us who are with and in Him.  Isaiah 41:20—”that they may see and recognize, consider and gain insight, that the hand of the Lord has done this!”

As we allow Him to heal and transform us, we become living signs pointing to God. That should be our motivation for becoming more whole or healed. That others would know, and therefore love God.

What was Jesus’ personal spirituality: prayer study, helping others, returning always to His Father, would be the simplest version of the basics. And as He did so, He bore the fruits of God. So that is the path or practical walking out of this way, and does distinguish it from other religions. We are uniting with His Nature and Way. We are entering into that space between the Son and His Father. That’s the core metaphor of christian spirituality.

The practice of christian spirituality is to merge with Jesus’ spirituality and Life, the fruits are His. Apart from Him, i can do nothing which last past myself…

The secret of longevity of impact is allowing Him to come more fully inside of us—the starting point is the Heart of our will or center, but the journey from salvation into a deeper sanctification or moving more fully in His Nature is life long. He must be invited into the whole house. The first salvation is just the porch. We are called to become more than mere apprentices, we are called to at least become spiritual adults. To be more than followers, but to take on our Master or Mentor’s characteristics.

 This christian spirituality of union with Him Himself is unique—we see Him as more than an example of how to live, we union or bond (religare—religion) with His actual Life and Being. It is a spirituality of union with Jesus! We shine, so that He may be seen! That’s the basics.

 But our motivation for spiritual growth, must be that He Himself is revealed in us and through us.He reveals us as stories of redemption of gradual transformation-but the point is, He reveals Himself by transforming us into ourselves!

 He wants to make mini-priest, mini-versions of Himself; and as He does, we will ironically look more like our selves (we lose ourselves into Him in order to find ourselves and be useful to others and the world)—be more authentic and real. We will be even more nuanced and particularly ourselves, as we merge and enter depth intimacy with Him. That really is one of God’s ironies! St Paul became himself, when He was blinded! When he lost a vision of what he valued and thought about himself, he came into a deeper understanding of who he really was. Peter did the same. He was named as He saw who Jesus was.

 We are not representatives of religion, but symbols of Christ-even our own stories and identities are meant to be living testimonies of who He really is. We are representatives (symbols) or rather, embodied manifestations of the sons and daughters of God—the brothers and sisters of Jesus. That’s His aim. To find ourselves by knowing Himself. Our motivation is that He would be known. Your testimony is about His ability to transform humanity by who He is. And it’s point is that others may see and know the One who is able to do so-to cause us to shine in His Glory, and by doing so, be who and what we truly are.”

On my morning walk, I came across an abandoned jar of honey on a white rock-seriously! So, this poem came. Seems to be about identity and seasons of life—we’ll see!

Honey on stone at sunset:

I can travel into  what I see now

I don’t have to be in it to know it.

my inner heart’s eyes know, by engulfing what i see in love.

for the first half of life, i touched it all, drank it down, let it

wet my lips until parched. I broke the jar, until i knew.

now i can appreciate it as is… as light passing slowly

as sunset, through a jar of honey sitting alone on a hill

on a white stone i never saw before.

casually mentioning, or whispering, my other name to me.

From morning studies today:

Been reading elders, so much peace when you read people who, like King David, just didn’t care anymore what other’s think, and even your opinion of yourself starts to fade, from my own experience!

These little poetic prose thoughts came today as visitors and are something about letting go of spiritual perfectionism—the need to always get it right in order to please God, or feel on course in life. They came to me this morning while i was sorting out what i “should” do today. It reminded me of St Augustine’s great quote: “Love God, and do what you will.” For me, poems or poetic prose are invited visitors! I’ve always felt this. When they arrive, i always welcome them as friends!

Go take a walk, it doesn’t matter anymore where you go, you will meet Him there.

Go down to the cafe, look at stranger’s faces again and be thankful for that light.

Or up on the hill, with the birds still hunting their prey. But don’t grow tired watching them work

so hard. Just watch and be grateful, and return. Maybe you’ll have something left

to say. Or maybe, one day, you will just be silent again, as in the womb. And more yourself. More governed, by Love.

spiritual aging:

There were the days, when getting it right was everything

obedience was meeting God

then came that season of choice

when He could be met wherever you stepped

and would correct your falter with Wisdom

And now, you can’t mess up as long as you

find Him there!

I met him in timing then only.

Later, it was space itself.

When the two came together

I was barely there.

Another monk’s quote: (my translation)-word i was considering as i wandered through the muraled alleyway church today!

“I keep waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me, but God keeps it there. I expect it to be pulled out, based on my experience, but  He’s kind to keep it there. Maybe in the Kingdom, despite our distrust in Reality to hold, the rug never does get pulled out from under us, we are always loved, always included in the beloved, always cared for. Maybe we have to learn to live with that fact, embarrassing as it is—for God so loved us…The foundational truth in Reality, is that we are dearly loved, despite our performance. Everything else starts there.”

A morning visitor, or two or three is always nice!

These came today as visitors, and are something about letting go of spiritual perfectionism—the need to always get it right in order to please God. It came to me this morning while i was sorting out what i “should” do today. It reminded me of St Augustine’s great quote: “Love God, and do what you will.” For me, poems or poetic prose are invited visitors! I’ve always felt this. When they arrive, i always welcome them as friends!/////////

Go take a walk, it doesn’t matter anymore where you go, you will meet Him there.

Go down to the cafe, look at stranger’s faces again and be thankful for that light.

Or up on the hill, with the birds still hunting their prey. But don’t grow tired watching them work

so hard. Just watch and be grateful, and return. Maybe you’ll have something left

to say. Or maybe, one day, you will just be silent again, as in the womb. And more yourself.

 /////

spiritual aging:

There were the days, when getting it right was everything

obedience was meeting God

then came that season of choice

when He could be met wherever you stepped

and would correct your falter with Wisdom

And now, you can’t mess up as long as you

find Him there!

I met him in timing then only.

Later, it was space itself.

When the two came together

I was barely there.

 /////

 On my morning walk, I came across an abandoned jar of honey on a white rock-seriously! So, this poem came. Seems to be about identity and seasons of life—we’ll see!

 /////

Honey on stone at sunset:

I can travel into  what I see now

I don’t have to be in it to know it.

my inner heart’s eyes know, by engulfing what i see in love.

for the first half of life, i touched it all, drank it down, let it

wet my lips until parched. I broke the jar, until i knew.

now i can appreciate it as is… as light passing slowly

as sunset, through a jar of honey sitting alone on a hill

on a white stone i never saw before.

casually mentioning, or whispering, my other name to me.

 //////

The flutter of red leaves against sky, outside this window

is enough to know forever

we belong. And why would we doubt, when they are joined by the hover

of hummingbirds gathering to taste her berries, or doubt when blue bird

shows up and scares off the tremoring of this pane.

There were the days, when getting it right was everything

obedience was meeting God

then came that season of choice

when He could be met wherever you stepped

and would correct your falter with Wisdom

And now, you can’t mess up as long as you

find Him there!

I met him in timing then only.

Later, it was space itself.

When the two came together

I was barely there.

Go take a walk, it doesn’t matter anymore where you go, you will meet Him there.

Go down to the cafe, look at stranger’s faces again and be thankful for that light.

Or up on the hill, with the birds still hunting their prey. But don’t grow tired watching them work

so hard. Just watch and be grateful, and return. Maybe you’ll have something left

to say. Or maybe, one day, you will just be silent again. And more yourself.

For an article they are writing on creative spiritual people, someone asked me for a quick summation of what makes me tick? Here was the live recording, so unedited. It was a long answer, but i was surprised what was emphasized:

I have a hard time feeling settled anywhere down here. When I first saw those floating world Chagall paintings, I related to that landscape—somewhere between worlds. I used to do drawings when young of a man walking a wire between worlds. I would drawn the earth in the bottom right corner and the Sun filled with music in the upper right corner—it’s rays were people of God (the saints), and below were the cities and seas. My home was in between where the actual music was. I had a vision once of the funnel of music between the realms. As long as I was staring at Jesus, I could enjoy the music and how it touched the earth and issued from he heavens. I could travel back and forth. The vision felt true. Since then I’ve had many other dreams and vision about the simultaneous realms.

Another way i came to look at it was in layers. I started writing poems about the Kingdom being present at cafes as people were talking. I’ve never seen it as “way over there”, but rather as interfacing here. Wasn’t that Jesus point, to come to earth and bring it here! The highway, the new city—they are meant to be coming here!

Anyway, at my wedding i wore at least nine watches! I love something about simultaneous times going on at once. I still collect watches. I have hundreds. God is Lord over space and time. Time is where Jesus entered from space.

The Jews write lots about consecrating time and space. I relate to that.

Much of my direct interaction with the spiritual has happened in transit, on the road or train stations or on airplanes. God meets me in the liminal-the in between is sort of home to me. Prayer art space is my home.

Mysticism is just the way things actually are to me. There are multiple realms interacting all the time—that’s biblical. Daniel (one of my favorite king prophets!) saw it, as did all the prophets really. What I like about Daniel is he was a practical prophet. Met God is rulership as well as mystical experiences. Anyway…

God has chosen to emphasize my identity, to use that as part of His Story about Himself. “You are being what we are talking about” as one friend put it to me. This idea of the life itself, being part of the message-i relate to that way. That your actual life is God prophesying about Himself! Yes, we also prophecy, and i do often, but we are also ourselves prophecies! That’s an important thing to see well. We are living stories or testimonies, and that is half the content. The vehicle of the message is part of the message–if you get my point.

In the Old Testament, where the prophets lived, if they were married or not, where they gave their messages, which direction they were facing when speaking–all were part of the content of the message itself. I’ve always felt that was true. So just being somewhere at a certain time, is part of what He is communicating through me. What I wear (prophetic fashion has always interested me-the cover of a book reveals the content! Christian publishing missed this), or my tone is part of what He wants to express. That is part of the art of the prophetic. I call it prophetic orientation. But you can’t get the full message of the older prophets if you don’t consider all this. Their identities were part of what God was saying!

Jeremiah and Paul both had anointed autobiographies. I relate to that. Like King David’s life story was part of the message. I’ve always related to that.

Sometimes God highlights identity. That’s been so in my case. Not in an egotistical way, but in a way in which God uses the story of Paul’s life as part of his message.

So my life passages were always celebrating identity—Jeremiah’s calling: I knew you, therefore I called you; or in Ephesians: we are His poetry…etc. It’s a unique calling, but it’s how my life has been. Who I am, is part of His story or whatever He is saying through me.

One’s life story is part of God’s message to others and to the earth itself. We are symbolic and symbolizing creatures. Some of us highlight that. We are poems and books about and from God, expressing aspects of who He is, as we get out of the way (lose our lives in Christ), and come into His Way, we shine as more our true selves. That much is simple. Peter stares at and sees who Jesus is, and Jesus tells him who he is- Peter’s true name. To know ourselves, is to know Jesus. The white stone name then starts getting whispered.

 True or authentic identity then, has been my life’s theme. Jesus turns out to be the source and revealer of true identity-so is the way to really know oneself and others, for that matter. God’s song of myself.

It’s a thin line to consider identity so often without “making it all about yourself”—the line between narcissism and allowing God to celebrate your true identity (David did it well!), and looks stupid, but as in my dream about Bono-where from the audience’s perspective he looked like just a rock star, but from behind he was praying and being priestly, and actually suffering (bruised all over his body, in the dream)—that is how it is for me. God has chosen to use me as a disco ball, outwardly shining and appearing as this or that, depending on context, but inwardly just being in and with Him.

We are close friends, and that is my basic spirituality—friendship with Jesus. That’s not changed since i was young.

Context has, but not content.

When you emphasize unique identity, you often meet the most unique people in the world. And I have. Many of them. Some very high impact personalities. Some very connected, some very lonely, but all of them remarkable, one of a kind people—God’s favorites.

I’ve been blessed to know myself and to get to know many other remarkables.

Yet, i can’t remember ever feeling at home anywhere here. Not really home.

I had a vision I was in a landscape like Ireland, but even greener. God was giving me messages and I was running and delivering them to people in joy. I was allowed to be very creative how i gave the words, and God enjoyed how I would choose to communicate them.

That also hasn’t changed. I talk to God, and tell people and places what He said. I try to tell them in a way which is in their language or tone or style. I’ve gotten better at expressing the messages, but the process has been the same for many years.

So my spirituality is friendship, but my calling is expression. Specifically expressing what God tells me to express to others.

What has grown in the process is getting to know His Ways through doing it. To be blown away by how kind He is and His desire to specifically communicate to so many. Carrying the poetry of His thousands of thoughts towards each us daily has been a privilege, and continues to be.

So, identity and expression are the two words written on my heart. But I’ve gotten to grow in knowledge and love as I’ve gone.

He also integrated my creativity and my spirituality. He did that. I’m thankful. I think I help people integrate their’s as well. I also was given the gift of authenticity. I am able to help people have an authentic not a borrowed, spirituality. And I think i model that. So He made me an authenticator in His Body. And an integrator.

Again, I’m thankful. To give people permission to have their own authentic relationship with God is wonderful. I enjoy that. You can have a unique-you shaped relationship with God, because He is personal, and He made you unique. You two have your own style of relating. And it’s a gift to others in the end.

It’s not just do your own thing, but it is be yourself in Him.

In another dream, i was teaching some seminary students that they could be themselves. I taught from Psalm 139 about celebrating yourself as a poem of God. In the dream, i gave them permission to find their true identity in Christ. That He was the Namer and Author of who they really were. So there was no need to interface through some external system to have direct relationship with God. Jesus brought God to us.

We can be ourselves. We can be authentic and creative. We can be both artist and followers of Christ. There is no need to make art about God, but rather from your relationship with Him. To make authentic expressions flowing from the journey of your relationship and growth in Christ.

So I give people permission to be real or authentic, and permission to integrate their creative process. I think that is one area where i move in healing or helping make things whole. I think its the same with cities for me—i like to help mend and integrate the imaginations of cities. I’m very interested in people having a baptized imaginations. And when cities do this—heal their cultural expression; something amazing happens. They become living testimonies of God.

I have favor in the art world and the church world, and that has always been the case. He allows me to contextualize the art world, and to free up the church world. It’s been a neat role in both arenas. I feel fortunate to be able to freely be myself in both art and church worlds. Both need different things.

The art world needs a way of interpreting true value and context of the creative process outside of materialism or entertainment; the church world needs to be freed up to make authentic art flowing from their relationship with God. One needs an interpretive context, the other permission to be and express freely!

I’ve been able to walk in both worlds as myself. And it’s a joy.

This is part of my testimony, i suppose. To be allowed to be fully myself in the art world and in the church world. And I’ve gotten to know very high impact leaders in both over my life. Thankful again.

I think the kingdom contextualizes the art world and the church world. The Kingdom is bigger than the church, and is certainly bigger than the narrow confines of the art world.

I’ve tried to live from The Kingdom, and let my friendship with Jesus dictate everything else.

Thanks for asking….(to the interviewer)

Again, i’d say my personal spirituality is about friendship with Jesus, and my outer expression of that has been to live as an artist. Or to let my life itself become His art.

I also like helping people integrate these areas of spirituality and creativity.

He mainly talks to me through dreams, study, visions—most often through the symbolic. But He also talks to me directly in words and images during prayer. Prayer is a central daily practice in my life. It’s where i see and hear things, which later turn into art or ministry.

To the church, i would be given as a prophetic person. To the art world, more as a guide. I’m thankful He’s used me in both worlds to bring the fragrance of Himself and His Kingdom. I doubt that will ever end. I’m blessed, and we are friends, and He enjoys me running around and expressing from our friendship, all that He tells and shows me.

I have so many stories of meeting famous people like Madonna, and getting to prophecy to her and her entourage. And getting to talk a man off a suicide bridge in Paris entirely in tongues and by sketching some images. Stories of what must be miracles as well. For many years, He would directly tell me where to go exactly when. Once, He told me which airline to get on and when to leave, and flew me in to bear witness to 911. This sort of direct leading has never stopped for me, and is part of our relationship. But my angels have the best footage of all this. I’ve forgotten half of it.

Even meeting my wife was a divine appointment, but I’ve had so many of these they are normal spirituality now. Go to this parking lot and wait. Ok, ask that lady if she knows your friend. This happened when i was first getting to know my wife. The woman he told me to ask turned out to be her best friend. God knows stuff if we listen and act. These tales increase and continue daily—that’s never changed for me, and I suppose it keeps me jazzed, or helps make me tick. I like collaborating with God daily.

What would you challenge people with?

I would challenge you to let God pronounce the poem of who you are, less interrupted. To let Him prophecy your life to yourself firstly, then out to others. It sounds simple, but most of us don’t lose our lives to find them enough! We don’t live near the cross, as the old timers used to put it. We don’t die daily in order to become the glorious poetry we actually are in Him. That would be my challenge. To allow God to share His Own art—the art of who you are, to His People, to the world, and into the heavens. He wants to pronounce us as His Own poems ultimately about Himself and who He is. When people hear these poems, they will realize what a wonderful Poet King and Almighty Creator He actually is. He wants to reveal who He is—His True Identity—through yours! Our job is to get out of the way, and let Him do so. The way to know and express who we really are, is to get to know who Jesus and His Father really are. That’s the journey or trajectory. God is making us His art, and we are meant to be collaborators in this process, yielding to His pronunciation of ourselves.

Barefoot prayer dancing on the walls of San Fran!

Just landed back on the walls of my lovely friend San Fran today. Ridges, rivers and rims are usually where i end up landing. Always feel like a sentinel, or unidentified flying object, landing on walls and gazing. Prayer before action, as one monk put it.

Vision precedes implementation, in a more serious rendering!

Barefoot dancing on walls helps me land anyways. I’m sure it’s not for everyone, and I do not recommend this at home, unless you’re in my home.  But, nice to be dancing on your walls again friend, and watching! I always feel just like myself here! Thanks. Good to be back.

Always, nice to be barefoot dancing on your edges again-your liminal spaces shimmer! Helps me get my feet on the ground. (I pray for you so often, i never felt like I’ve ever really left, cities are like people to me, this one’s always been a close friend and creative collaborator-a symbolizing city.)

Anyway, a little morning prayer dancing, helped me see you better, and myself! It’s been a long collaboration we’ve had—thankful for the returning shimmer of the years! Look forward to spending some time with you. I love landing and gazing at cities from above before i get my feet wet, as they say. Pray to see, then to act, seems to be the pattern at least for me. In this case, prayer dancing…who said prayer had to be boring? Good to be back, look forward to seeing all my friends and family here this month.

“Lots of people’s thing is about knowing lots of people, and influencing the world, my own thing is about becoming so rich internally in His Love, that i know and love people forever. I’m trying to minister from my future self in this world.” one of my favorite monks. And I agree with that sentiment.