Fun For the Dynamicist: BEING & BEING KNOWN
I've had multiple conversations with people about what it means to be a dynamic BEING in a world of conformism and secular humanism. Cultural anthems of "melt into the pot"pervade even the most cutting edge cultures that confess to "break out of the closet". It is taught that if someone wants to own their identity, they must belong to a culture that promotes or relates to their newly burgeoned identity. Fact or fiction? Well...either way, let's discuss it.
Can I be a BEING who is truly autonomous or distinct? Or is it possible that my BEING exists, not because "I am", but because "I am, in conjunction with an 'I am'"? We have all heard the line that if a tree falls in a forest will anyone hear it? (Insert debate here). The same question can be applied to people and to being: if a person exists, however uniquely, will anyone know it unless it is heard/shared/experienced? I don't think so. It seems to me that to exist or to "BE" is to "BE KNOWN". Without being known, what reality is there for being?
Let's continue on the premise that to "BE is to BE KNOWN". What are the options of knowing? Do both participants require to be known in equal measure to each other? Must the knowing be cognitive, intuitive, relational, or relative?
At this point, I would venture a guess, and say that a person can be known in any matter and in any weight, test or measure. As long as their is some level of connection, then the reality can be confirmed, and thus, to BE is to BE KNOWN. For example, when a child is with her mother, do they need to talk about it to know that they are together? No, there is simply a known bond that is physical, emotional, chemical etc. They are being together.
I propose that our connection with God can be much the same as the knowing that is shared between a mother and her infant (let's leave gender outside of the conversation for simplicity). Yes, I believe that even in our own infancy, physically or emotionally, a person can simply "know" that they "know" that God exists. Faith, therefore, is the expounding on that early belief. Religion, furthermore, is the expounding on the unknown in regards to faith. (FORMULA: Knowing --> Faith --> Religion or Relationship).
For Moses, I infer that his faith was developed through the epiphany experienced by connecting to the voice that came from the un-burning yet burning bush (Exodus 3:2). Moses encountered an anomaly in the physical realm (fire not burning) that opened an epiphany of existence (introduction to I AM), that was otherwise withheld from his being (religion of Egypt and Hebrews). Thus, the declaration of "I AM" opened a canopy of existence, being, and connection that Moses and now the world is still exploring today.
Through quantum physics, faith, science, art, philosophy, humanism, and invention, people are still reaching for the eternal connection with every cognitive and spiritual avenue available to them (unless there are satiated with religion, in which case, they are usually quite content to sit and maintain a low frequency of existence). We are still looking to connect with the source behind the fire that didn't burn; the fire with a voice and a declaration of "I AM".
Circling the wagons back around again...
I believe that all creation exists because of its connection, in one form or another, to an "I AM", whether the perceived "I AM" is authentic or not. It is possible, based on empirical evidence, that not all bushes on fire are God. There is more than one intelligence and our integrity of BEING can be a definition, as in all human relationships, of the quality and accuracy of who our source of connection is to. If a person can be attracted an abusive human relationship, it is also possible to suggest that they could also attract an abusive, and therefore FALSE, "I AM" relationship. This would be the very definition of deceit and darkness.
It is interesting to note that Jesus said his followers would "know" his voice (John 10:27). To know someone's voice is to know it in the light (obvious conversation) but also a whisper in the dark (bringing us out of isolation and darkness). I mention this because if someone is of God, they will know his voice and be drawn into light. If someone does not know God (and knowing is reality), then they will meander in spiritual unreality and therefore darkness, regardless of whether or not that darkness is masked as light.
Moving along again...
To further Descartes philosophy, I might say, "I think, therefore I am aware that I existed before I thought. My thinking simply confirms what my BEING already knows--that is, I AM."
Thought, therefore, exists after being and is yet a confirmation of being because thought occurs in relation to something/someone else. Thought is a reflection or an echo; therefore it defines what it is in proximity or reaction to. So, "I think therefore I am" can more accurately be stated as "I think therefore I already know that I am".
So how does fun enter into this?
Fun, is the pursuit of every dynamic engagement I have with my connection to the eternal "I AM". Fun is the experience between being and thought and in response to the reality of the thought that resulted from being. Everything that stems from being is creative and is a creation. "I AM because HE IS". The knowledge of being, therefore, is the experience of the goodness and the delight in the knowing that I am known by the origin of all light, love, and goodness. In that atmosphere I can dream, explore, dance, hope, think, feel, and relate.
To add to the depths of the fun that exists in knowing and being known, God upped the status quo by creating the paradox of God as man: JESUS. Let the minds of every theologian, philosopher and cynic bend at the complexity of Jesus. He is the dynamicism of the Christian experience. It is both cerebral and ethereal; cognitive and discerned; pursued and pursuant; mystical and practical. He is in us, as we are in Him: CONNECTION!!
Furthermore, Jesus opened a gateway to the eternal, through which God's very Spirit engaged us further, in a shift in seasons for all human BEINGS. Through the Holy Spirit we have saints who walk through walls and heal the sick in prisons, we have orphans who pray and see the dead rise and so on. The engagement between heaven and earth breaks open, and all who know are are known by God, can experience existence through God. That is FUN FUN FUN!
FUN is whenever a person engages their "I AM" with God's "I AM". This connection, this source of all electricity and all life, is the origin of creative expression, hope, laughter, enjoyment, pleasure, ideas, invention, purity, and more. Fun is the encounter with the source of all of life; conscious or subconscious. We engage with God to "BE" as "HE IS".
Can a person engage their BEING without understanding the fullness of God, as He exists in Jesus, or through his Spirit? Hmmm...doubt it. But that doesn't mean that they cannot, on some levels, encounter God in a meaningful way. In fact, because God is good and God is love, so any experience a person has with goodness or with love, is an experience with an output from God.
So, in light of these things, and since God is love and God is light and God is good and God is love; if we experience any love, any light, any good, and any love--then we are experiencing God in some form. For me, I want my experience to be relational and eternal through a BOND (covenant) that can not be destroyed. I have such a bond with God, born in blood, and written for eternity. I am bonded to God through His full revelation as God, as man, and as Spirit.
It is a matter of relationship that determines the depths of life, love, and all things eternal that any of us can experience. After all, to explore eternity and all that is quantum, is to reach into the depths of God's heart. How could we get that close and not "know" him? I cannot. To know God is love God. To know God is to be of God. I am my beloved and he is mine...(from the mystical/experiential writing of Solomon 6:3).
In long, and in short, I believe (today):
- I am a dynamic being with unlimited means to know and be known
- Dynamicism is FUN because to BE in God is to have all goodness and the experience of it
- I AM because God Is
- To BE is to BE KNOWN
- I AM KNOWN because God is Known (Jesus)
- I AM dynamic because I engage with God's eternal dynamics
- This blog is going to need a lot more thought and editing... :)
