Mystic.
This morning I was reading a post from friends of mine at Second Breath Center in Greensboro where they describe a simple practice for discerning God’s direction in murky situations. Intrigued, I immediately dove into the practice while holding a question I’ve been pondering for several months…and wouldn’t you know, I felt like I received guidance! From God. I believe the Holy Spirit spoke something into my heart that I will tend over the coming months and see where it leads.
When was the last time you felt that kind of thing? When did you last experience direct communion and communication with God? Maybe something simple but divine. It’s not audible, for me at least, but interacting directly with God and hearing God’s voice is so central and necessary that I can’t imagine life without it. I don’t think this makes me special; I believe this is God’s heart for all of us.
The craving for the direct, personal experience of God is the heart of the mystic. What is a mystic? A mystic is one who reaches for the conscious experience of God beyond intellect as the primary means of moving toward oneness with God. A Christian mystic is one who experiences that spiritual intimacy mediated in and through Jesus Christ. Famous Christian mystics include Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross.
Long held in suspicion by modern rationalism, at least in Protestant circles, we are seeing a resurgence of the mystical and contemplative in Christian practice in the twenty-first century. (And I use the terms mystical and contemplative interchangeably.) Which raises the important question of where we find spiritual authority: Do we find authority in experience? Do we find it in scripture? Do we find it in our spiritual traditions?
The “Wesleyan Quadrilateral,” reminds my scholarly friend Ethan Hardin, looked to all three of these channels (plus “reason” as the fourth) as crucial sources for a balanced theological understanding of God and the world, although Wesley specified scripture as primary. Church history could be organized through this very lens as various streams have prioritized one above others.
Luther famously elevated (one might say even isolated) scripture with his term sola scriptura in reaction to the Catholic proclivity to elevate tradition as the anchor of faith. Meanwhile, groups like the Quakers and later the Pentecostals and Charismatics placed particular emphasis upon the role of experience, or what we might call the mystical side of Christianity.
Each of these channels of revelation (scripture, tradition, and experience) hold a vital and sacred place within the faith journey, but there is a reason that I relate warmly to the terms mystical and contemplative: because in every season of history God is generally restoring the one component that has been either unconsciously lost or purposefully marginalized for generations. And I believe that in the current church milieu, it is the experiential dimension that is being championed and restored by the Holy Spirit. Not at the expense of scripture and tradition, mind you, but to perhaps form the necessarily orienting container with which to hold them.
I know that many loyal Christ-followers wouldn’t necessarily say that they experience that sense of hearing directly from God. Maybe they sense a holy presence…in worship or a mountain sunset or an inspired passage of scripture. If that describes you, it’s okay. You’re not a second-class citizen! But at the same time, keep leaning in for more intimacy. There is nothing God loves more than being face to face with us, hearing our hearts while we listen to the divine heart. Connection is the divine compulsion!
ThriveTip
Here are a couple fun applications to consider:
Check out a book by Gary Thomas called Sacred Pathways that describes nine different ways of connecting with God—“pathways” like nature, liturgy, solitude, and activism. Click here to see a summary of those. (By the way, there are intriguing connections between Thomas’ nine types and the nine Enneagram types!)
Take a look at the body-based discernment practice from the Second Breath Center I referenced at the beginning of this article.
Takeaway
We are hardwired for the mystical.