Worn out?
Freely and Lightly series, #2.
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
~ Matthew 11:28-30 msg
In my last post, we explored the human experience of getting tired—how mental, emotional, and physical fatigue infiltrates our journey through life and how Jesus invites us to name it…and then find him in it. How is that going for you so far?
Today we want to continue that same conversation as we consider the second phrase of this empathetic passage: Worn out? Jesus asks. Are you feeling worn out today? Worn out in this day, this week, or this season of your life?
We can’t really talk honestly about the experience of “worn out” without acknowledging the global reality of COVID and its unparalleled impact on our collective human experience for the past year. The enormous vacuum of hugs and handshakes and dinner parties and church gatherings. The delayed weddings, the empty funerals, the sparse holiday celebrations. We have a whole new context for “worn out” now. And even as we begin to emerge from its shadow, we are haunted by nameless lingering griefs.
If ever the cry for “Freely and Lightly” has risen in our hearts, it is now.
There were many cultural conflicts simmering prior to COVID: agitated pots with isolated bubbles rising to the surface, just waiting for the heat to hit a tipping point into full-on boil. Racial injustice. A bloated educational system. Student debt. Political trauma. Economic crises in Europe. Environmental disasters. And COVID managed to yank the knob on the stove toward “high,” sending some of those pots into chaos. Other pots may not be far behind.
Some of these pots that have boiled over have brought needed attention to our cultural brokenness… and helped spark crucial shifts toward justice. And on other fronts, the conversation is just beginning, with solutions still far ahead of us. Even positive movement, however, can leave us feeling worn out, especially when we’re still disconnected from one another so profoundly.
Today let’s talk about a powerful shift to reconnect us with our vision for Freely and Lightly! We must find a way to train our souls by way of an essential, but uncommon, spiritual skill—moving beyond a dualistic worldview. Until we unshackle ourselves from dualism, Freely and Lightly remains a pipe dream.
Dualism is where we start in life: I know who I am because I am not you. I am a white, male, Protestant American …because I am not a black, female, Catholic Canadian. Dualism is binary and tribal. It’s ruthlessly black and white. It is the language of exclusion and competition. Dualism is a necessary tool for mathematics and commerce, so it’s not evil. But it is harmful in our social evolution and utterly useless in the realm of the Spirit. What got us here cannot get us there…and we’ll talk more about the alternative to dualism later.
In addition to its social pathology, dualism is the primary cause of our soul fatigue, and this is how it works. Regardless of our virile theology of grace, we tend to evaluate the state of our soul by tallying up the “good” things in our lives and subtracting the “bad” things. Consolations - Desolations = Heaviness or Lightness depending on the sum. But divine math doesn’t work this way. “All things work together for good,” Paul outrageously suggested!
Seriously? Are you saying that COVID is good? No, COVID is evil. But good triumphs over evil…if we let it. The seeds of circumstance bring both consolations and desolations into our lives most every day. Our spiritual “work” is to meet Christ in both and be transformed by both and then to transcend both. The Kingdom life operates on a plane above our pleasure or our pain. Those things aren’t irrelevant, which is why Jesus entered into our bodily experience…to then show us how to participate in a Reality untethered from circumstantial polarities.
Before we get too cosmic here, let’s bring it back to a “peace that surpasses understanding.” There is a way to walk through a pandemic and all the other vacillations of daily life with an inner gyroscope that remains steady-as-she-goes. And this is where Jesus is taking us with his talk of Freely and Lightly. We’re just getting started on the richness of this passage, so let’s keep our sights set on that goal.
Contemplate
How is your Breath Prayer going? If you haven’t tried it yet, take a look here. Then move on to the Daily Examen. Try practicing that each evening this week and see what you think. It’s an especially great way to reconnect with a spouse or roommate.
Takeaway
Let’s go non-dual.