Down the Mountain Part 3: What is the “real world”?
Many of us have experienced two worlds. One is a unique mountain top experiences where we encounter the sacred, feel rejuvenated and immersed in love, and then there is the “real world”. The “real world” is what we experience in our every day lives. it is where we work and play and where our relationships go through ups and downs. While God is often featured in our mountain top experiences, it can be difficult to find God in our every day lives here in the “real world”.
I asked the counselors at Sky Ranch Lutheran Camp to reflect on what it was like when they turned to God in the “real world”. They reflected that God is “sneaky”, hard to see in the moment but clear upon reflection. Noting God’s presence upon reflection helped them lighten difficult memories because they could see how God used those painful times as building blocks to deepen their relationship with God and to strengthen them. They shared that God often shows up when new people come into their lives and that they could look for God’s presence in those people. Observing God’s presence in the moment and in reflecting on the ways God has accompanied them in the past brought gratitude which was acknowledged as another source of strength.
With this in mind, we wondered together about God’s role in their return home to the “real world”. We talked about how intentionally turning to God on a regular basis and reflecting on our lives with God would keep them grounded in the very real experience of God’s continued presence and allow them to live more deeply as their true selves with God.
The truth is that the “real world” is not actually real, at least not in the way most of us experience it. Rather it is a partial glimpse of the world through the narrow lens of our particular perspective at a particular time. From that vantage point, the “real world” often presents itself as a series of masks and mirrors designed to make us feel insecure so that others can remain in control. Even when we are the ones with apparent power, forces within the world hold us in check by keeping us bent to society’s understandings of success and normative behavior. The culture’s values are clear. Be yourself as long as that means fitting into someone else’s expectations. Show just enough individuality to appear unique, but don’t be so different that you challenge the status quo. This understanding is drummed into children as they conform in school, and it continues into adulthood as they engage in careers and seek “the good life”. Society depends on order even if that order stifles expression.
Our society proclaims God’s love and the value of religion and faith, but chafes when our expressions of God’s love don’t fall within the clearly defined norms. Culture wars argue over which norms are appropriate pushing many people try to simply keep their heads down and get through the day.
This version of the “real world” represents a warped perspective of humanity created by the insistence that we are the center of the universe and that we are in control. In the “real world” we believe that our role is to do things for God, rather than doing things with God. We ask God about our purpose and pursue various goals with efficiency and effectiveness in an attempt to please God. When we do things for God in this way, we are performing, and we hope that God will appreciate our efforts and reward us in some way. Whether the reward we seek is guidance, presence or some material benefit, the relationship is clear – we act and God judges and rewards or punishes according to God’s rules. In this system, the roles and boundaries between God and us are clear.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church In America’s slogan “God’s Work, Our Hands” provides a good illustration. When “God’s work, our hands” means we do God’s work with our hands, we are operating in the “real world:”. From this perspective, we miss out on the life-giving relationship that we were created for in the first place. If, however “God’s work, our hands” instead means that God works with and through our hands, then our perspective shifts. God becomes a partner rather than a object of devotion, servitude, and/or fear.
Only by intentionally turning to God can we focus on our interactive relationship with God. When we engage with God, God offers us a different view of the world by removing the distorted lens of what we call the “real world” to see the actual world before us right here and now. That actual world is not encumbered by expectations of particular outcomes to indicate our success. It does not hold us accountable for reaching particular benchmarks or exhibiting specific behaviors. It simply is: right here, right now., with God
Mountain top experiences give us a taste of what God calls us to live into each day engaged in an interactive relationship with the Divine. One of the most important skills a Christian can learn is how to remain alert and focused within the present moment so that we can engage with God in the actual world. This is the point of spiritual practices and why they are so important. As long as our faith is purely intellectual (focused on what we think about God), then we are missing out on the primary gift of faith - a real-time, genuine, loving relationship with God. This is what Jesus calls us to when he proclaims that we are to love God, our neighbors and one another. Love is relational, not intellectual. Love can only happen in real time in the actual “real world” - the world where God meets us in each moment and walks beside us across time.
