Christianity is the True Zen: A Biblical Response to New Age, Personal Growth & Eastern Mysticism
(For the video documentary please click here.)
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
During my college years and well into my 30’s, I was seduced by New Age teachings and personal growth philosophy. Having come from a strict upbringing of institutionalized religion and attending religious schools, the sudden shift to a liberal college life was naturally accompanied by a change in my spirituality. I became more relativistic, more interested in Eastern mysticism and in New Age ideas, and I became more open — but not in a good way because there is such a thing as being too open.
Another important influence on my spirituality was through my career. As a professional dance teacher who studied movement and taught my students subjective things like self-expression, freedom, sensuality, passion, courage, partnership and stillness — I was exposed to principles of energy and duality through what I did on a daily basis, making it easy to relate to New Age principles and Eastern thought. And because partner dancing is dualistic in and of itself, I became pretty versed in the language of Yin and Yang, masculine and feminine energies and other similar things.
The dance industry in general is also very liberal and open to these types of ideas, so it only made my transition into the New Age smoother and quicker.
My new spirituality refined over the course of many years, eventually culminating into an entire life’s philosophy based on the fusion of New Age principles with my unique experience in dance. I was obsessed with figures like Alan Watts and I listened to countless hours of his recordings. I read the Tao te Ching, and I employed many of its principles into my teaching and life. I organized my room according to Feng Shui principles, and whenever I was anxious I would consult the I-Ching, which is an ancient Chinese divination book based on Taoist dualism. I also engaged in transcendental meditation, Yoga, consulting spirit guide mediums, attending New Age retreats, receiving Reiki or other energy work and taking psychedelic mushrooms or smoking marijuana to facilitate creativity and spiritual experiences.
In between all of these things I read (or listened to) countless self-development books, attended seminars and grew wise in the world’s wisdom, accumulating many ideas from the best in the world like Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer, Napoleon Hill, Rhonda Byrne, (the author of The Secret) Deepak Choprah and several others both contemporary and ancient.
Add to this that in 2018, at the ripe young age of 34, I began my podcast after about 15 years of these attitudes shaping my mind. At that point in my life I was getting tired of my job. I didn’t want to teach people just steps and choreography all day, because I had seen what dance could do on a spiritual level to transform someone’s life and confidence. The studio I had worked at for many years had become toxic and stale, and I wanted to add meaning back into my life somehow. I wanted to take what I did to another level and help people create a life they loved, to align their body, mind and soul and to “dance their way through life.”
Besides this slogan, I had another catchy one:
“When alignment is present, movement is natural.”
We’ll come back to it later, so put a pin in it for now.
Although I smirk as I recount these things to you today, and I marvel at what God has done in my life since then to reveal His glory, I want to remind you that nothing God does is wasted. The bible also tells us that God uses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. (1 Corinthians 1:27-31) I started my career as a professional athlete because a girl had walked out on me during a dance at some old salsa club, and God used my hurt pride to weave a thread full of amazing life lessons and experiences that I could have never predicted or planned for — all of which would one day give me a unique outlook and ability to exercise discernment so that I could help others.
So, the important thing to understand is that everything has a purpose — and that purpose is to (ultimately) reveal the glory of God.
With this in mind there is another important caveat I want to make. In no way do I condone Eastern mysticism or Eastern spirituality or New Age ideas today. In fact I speak against these things, because the gospel is the truth and there are many counterfeits in the world. Nevertheless, my unique experiences have given me a deeper-than-average insight into these things than most people. I believe this is part of God’s plan, so that my work today can reach into these strongholds and proclaim the gospel to those who will hear because they find themselves in my story.
Today there are indeed many counterfeits in the world, but here’s the important part that many don’t realize: a good counterfeit has to be convincing. In other words, a good counterfeit always has some part of the truth, which is why it is a counterfeit in the first place. With that in mind, I’d like to share an important perspective with you having come from being deeply involved with these beliefs to now being a born again Christian that loves the bible, loves Jesus and loves the truth.
Believe it or not, all of these things that are so trendy and popular today, like Zen or New Age or even personal growth, are actually just copies of the truth found in Christ — and my goal today is to show you exactly how by looking at some major principles found within these practices. We will look at how they are actually fulfilled in Christ and the gospel or God’s word, which is the bible as a whole, and how Christianity is the original of which these things are ultimately a counterfeit of.
To “fulfill” means “to complete” or “to make full” — as in, to make your understanding complete or full in the absolute sense. Christ said He came to fulfill the scriptures, (Matthew 5:17) and anyone who has studied typology in the bible, or the pictures of Christ in the Old Testament, will agree wholeheartedly with His statement because the bible is full of pictures of Christ in every single book. In the same sense, what we will look at today in these popular practices actually finds its fullest understanding in Christ and the gospel because they are shadows of the ultimate reality, which is God.
This is why I say that Christianity is the true Zen, and I hope that by the end of this presentation you too will marvel, like I do, at this simple and profound truth.
Now some may immediately say, “wait a minute! Christianity isn’t as old as Buddhism or Eastern mysticism. How can these things be counterfeits if Christianity came later?” The truth is that Christianity did not begin with Jesus of Nazareth walking the streets of Jerusalem nor even with the crucifixion. According to the bible, God’s plan of salvation in Christ began before the world was ever created. In Acts 4:26-28, the New Testament tells us that the cross was predestined, and anyone studying the life of Jesus through the gospels will see that He had foreknowledge of when His time would be, (John 2:4) as well as who would betray Him. (John 13:11)
In fact the gospel itself, that a Messiah would come to rescue humanity, was announced to Eve in Genesis 3 — right after the fall of humanity. God cursed mankind with death but also gave the promise of redemption from the very beginning. By the time Jesus walked the Earth and did the things He did, it was the completion (or fulfillment) of God’s words many thousands of years later.
But the devil was also in Eden, as many know even without studying the bible because the story of man’s fall is known throughout the world. From the beginning the devil knew his day would come when a Messiah would be born, and because the devil’s chief aim is to be like God — the rest, as they say is history. Many counterfeits and false religions and false saviors were created throughout this age, each with a slice of the truth, but in the end they are all governed by the same lie from the garden of Eden — that man can be like God through his own efforts, meaning that man can govern himself without God.
The gospel is unique in history, and through the ensuing points in today’s presentation I hope that you will see exactly just how unique and beautiful it truly is. Nevertheless, Christianity was predestined because Jesus’ life and death were predestined before time began, meaning it is in fact the first, the original and the thing which all the others have copied.
Duality & Non-Dualism
The iconic symbol of Yin and Yang made its appearances in most of my teachings and even a logo for my online academy at one point. For the record, the book of Genesis tells us that God created duality. It was He, in His infinite genius, who designed male and female, heaven and earth, fire and water, up and down, left and right, in and out, light and dark, good and evil. The dualistic Dance of Life that testifies to God’s wisdom and brilliance any time we take a walk outside should not be shunned or avoided, because duality is beautiful. Male and female are beautiful. Dancing is beautiful.
Where things like Zen, New Age and occult mystical practices make their mistake is as with everything else: they take what God has created and use it to elevate man or creation rather than glorifying the Creator. This is the lie from the garden of Eden, which is the first thing the bible warns us about and also the reason why humanity is in the mess it is today.
Nevertheless, duality is a good thing and it is a fascinating testament of God’s genius everywhere you look. In the east, duality is the basis of many things, like Chinese medicine or acupuncture or Feng Shui. I have had many authentic Chinese medicine treatments and I can say that the difference in approach that these ancient traditions offer is something Western medicine really needs to consider because they are uniquely effective and they consider problems (and health in general) from a totally different perspective.
But what is also part of these traditions is a desire to transcend duality, often through practices and mindsets like Zen or transcendental meditation. The non-dualist recognizes duality, but interestingly just like the Gnostics of the west — sees duality as a prison that one needs to escape from, with ultimate reality being total nothingness. At one point I thought these things were so romantic and interesting, yet today as God has given me new life I see them as deceptions leading many to their deaths because death is exactly that: nothing.
What is now fascinating to realize is that the bible expresses to you dualistic principles throughout both testaments, and these are designed to foster an important skill, which is having right judgment. The Proverbs of Solomon, one of the wisest human beings who ever lived (besides Christ), are written as pairs of statements that paint a dualistic picture for various situations. For example, consider Proverbs 26:4-5:
“Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.”
These statements appear as contradictions, yet in reality they paint the dualistic nature of our reality and give you both ways to handle the situation: the aggressive and confrontational way (Yang, or masculine-driven) or the energy-conserving way. (Yin, or feminine-driven) As we consider both perspectives with wisdom, and put them into practice, our ability to judge rightly will emerge over time through mistakes and successes — but both are equally important to understand and have as part of your toolbelt for handling life.
Sometimes you may need to answer a fool according to his folly so he doesn’t consider himself too wise, and at other times it should be avoided so that you do not make yourself a fool by entangling with a buffoon in a conflict. When is the right time to do which, then? The answer lies in wisdom, which is what Solomon asked God for before he took the throne. This exchange is found in 1 Kings 3, where God appears to Solomon and asks him what He should give him. Solomon in return simply asks for wisdom, to know what is good and what is evil so that he can lead and judge with right judgment.
It is important to notice here that Solomon did not ask for transcending duality in any way, but rather the ability to dance within it. This is a key understanding, so keep it in mind.
Nevertheless, it is because of this request that God grants Solomon many blessings, because Solomon asked for the ability to judge rightly and because he came to God for wisdom rather than asking for riches or power or relying on himself. The bible portrays Solomon as a type (or picture) for Christ, who obeyed God perfectly, and there is also a sense that Adam’s mistake of seeking wisdom from the snake is redeemed in this event, which is also important. God wants us to be wise, but the world’s wisdom is folly to God (1 Corinthians 3:19) and true wisdom comes from going to and submitting ourselves to God.
Indeed the bible tells us many times that wisdom begins when we fear the Lord. (Proverbs 9:10, other places) Notice something interesting though: this is just the beginning of wisdom, meaning that humility and faith open the door for an endless journey with God as we grow wiser in His ways and His word.
Another example of dualism in the bible is with the plan of salvation itself. In 1 Corinthians 6:20 Paul reminds us that we were bought for a price, yet in Ephesians 1:14 we are told that the Holy Spirit God grants us when we place our faith in Him is God’s guarantee that we will inherit a new body and a new world. There is an incredibly important point to be made here, so let’s break it down.
Having just one of these verses in your mind leads to an imbalance, much like carrying a heavy weight unevenly will lead to an injury. If you are a perfectionist, like yours truly, and you consider the unimaginable price Christ paid for you — the danger is to succumb to the voice of the enemy and feel condemned because you will never feel worthy of such a gift. I have personally dealt with this and have met many perfectionists in the same boat. Yes, we were bought for a price we can’t even imagine. The humiliation and pain that Christ, who is God, endured on our behalf should break us and remind us of how utterly unworthy we are of God’s grace every single moment of every single day.
But here’s a great lesson: you can’t stop there. If you do, you leave the door wide open for the enemy to whisper condemning thoughts into your mind and you will actually depart from grace by panicking in response. Depending on a variety of things this may manifest as trying to work your way into God’s approval with perfect performance, or it might show up as abandoning your faith altogether because you feel you can never be worthy or forgiven and are ashamed to even approach God in prayer.
This is why Ephesians 1:14 (and several others like it) is the balancing force in the dance of a Christian life. Yes, we were bought for a price — but that purchase is God’s guarantee that He will not abandon you. You can rest surely in Christ’s perfect work and in God finishing the outcome of your born-again salvation. He is the Author and Finisher of our faith according to Hebrews 12:2. Yet here one can easily drift into error as well, because if we get too comfortable with that guarantee then it is easy to be pulled toward permissiveness and lack of concern for obedience because God is loving and merciful.
This is how many get sucked into the duality of life, into either one side or the other of the dialectic. In my experience as a professional dancer I learned to spot imbalances quickly and find the narrow road in terms of my bodyweight, because the narrow road is the only place you can actually dance. If your weight is too far forward, you will always arrive early on the beat because you’re predictable and under momentum. Conversely, if your weight is too far backward, you will always be late because your movement is predictable as well. One is an imbalance due to desire and over-action, while the other is an imbalance due to fear and under-action. To be “centered” with your bodyweight in movement simply means to be able to move in any direction freely, which also means that your movement becomes authentic rather than predictable or strained, but it can’t be this way if your bodyweight is misaligned or you’re under momentum from misalignment or mismanaged emotions.
In His gracious love, God also taught me the value of the narrow road through my health. For the majority of my life I burned my body out through what I did. As an athlete, I often had to compete and go full out at ridiculous hours, like eleven at night or even midnight, because of the way things were scheduled. I worked over 60 hours a week sometimes training myself and others, traveling often and having to be ready to perform on a moment’s notice. Even as I transitioned off the dance floor, my work continued from morning to evening as an entrepreneur and content creator — the only difference was that I wasn’t burning as many calories.
What all of this lead to was a constant dance between hyperactivity and exhaustion, throwing my HPA axis, circadian rhythm and metabolism into chaos. Today I’m still recovering and it has been an incredibly sensitive process, requiring discernment about everything from the timing of my meals, to what I eat, to when I work out and how much, to how much energy I give certain commitments and many other things. The narrow road in health, just as it is in dancing and in life, is to learn to navigate between the extremes of doing too much and doing too little.
These are the rules, and because God is a genius and consistent in what He does — the physical things also help us understand our emotions and spiritual life as well.
Interestingly, the bible tells us not to swerve to the right or to the left over 18 times. There is a reason for this, because the devil is a master of duality and uses dualism to throw people off of the narrow road, which is the truth. This idea of the narrow road comes from Matthew 7:13-14, where Jesus warns that the road to destruction is wide and easily found, whereas the narrow road is much harder to find and few there are who end up on it. I believe this has profound implications as we consider the nature of our dualistic reality and how not to get swept up in it by the enemy.
When it comes to salvation, people throughout history have always been either legalists, thinking they need to obey perfectly in order to earn God’s favor, or they had a license to sin because they thought they had a free pass from God for whatever reason. The modern Progressive Christianity movement is an example of the latter, with its over-emphasis on God’s love without pointing to God’s sense of justice and the need for genuine repentance. For the former, a few examples are groups like the Jehova’s Witnesses, Sacred Name movement, Torah Keepers, Unitarians, subordinationists, Hebrew Roots movement and many others.
Being saved doesn’t mean you get perfect theology, but part of the work of the Holy Spirit in regenerating one’s heart is to make them truly aware of the gospel of grace. It is normal to bounce around in the dialectic, and some stumble over certain things until they die, but once we are born again the Holy Spirit guides us to all truth (John 16:13) and also reminds us of our right standing with God. (John 16:18) And if we make it a habit to pray for wisdom as Solomon did, then we know that God gives generously to all who ask of Him. (James 1:5)
So, how does all of this relate to the principle of Non-Dualism?
In Genesis, God looked upon creation and said it was good. This is important, because it means that this dualistic dance of life between male and female, up and down, hot and cold, dark and light is a good thing. Life in its simplest expression exists as a wave, and a wave has both ups and downs. Isn’t that what we say about life, too? That it has its “ups and downs.”
There are always two things, and these two things are opposites that are also complimentary and work in dynamic balance with one another over time. This is the formula for the dance of life. It isn’t evil or occult. It is beautiful and it reveals God’s absolute genius and glory, and it can be applied to practically any topic — health, relationships, business, movement and even our spiritual lives. Duality is the genius of God because God is the source of life. It is not to be escaped from like the Gnostics believed or transcended like the Eastern mystics still try to do today.
Nevertheless, the bible does tell us that creation has been cursed, and until Christ returns it is the devil’s kingdom. The devil is a master of duality that uses it to try to be like God, to elevate himself to power, to create dialectics and to divide and deceive people every day and in every way possible to achieve his agenda.
If he can’t get you with the liberal left, he will get you with the conservative right. If he can’t get you with darkness of atheism or wokeism, he will get you with false light of the New Age, personal growth or Christian nationalism. If he can’t get you with fear, he will get you with desire. If he can’t get you with poverty, he will get you with wealth. If he can’t get you with ascetism and self-denial, he will get you with gluttony and greed. If he can’t get you with legalism, he will get you with progressive Christianity. This is why the narrow road is so important and why Christ’s words — and in fact the whole testimony of scripture — have such profound significance for our lives.
They are instructions on how to embrace our existence in a cursed dualistic world without succumbing to the dualism, which is spiritual slavery and what the gospel frees you from. Note: Jesus did not come to free us from the dualism of creation but rather from the dualism of the world. There’s a big difference. One is good, and it will be our permanent home when the Dance of Life is renewed upon Christ’s return. The world, on the other hand, is the kingdom of darkness with all of the devil’s dialectical schemes as previously mentioned, designed to constantly throw you off balance and into destruction by hiding the truth.
It is the system, the thing that some like to call “the Matrix” or the structure of ideas and attitudes on top of reality, that are designed to destroy your mind and alienate you from God.
To learn to see passed these dialectics is how one learns to walk the narrow road. It is why all of this is so important, because we live in age of increasing dualism and dialectical schemes as the end approaches rapidly. The most important thing in a world governed by deception is to have right judgment. One of the consistent rebukes God has against rebellious Israel in the Old Testament is that they perverted justice, and the scriptures are full of reminders to avoid dualism in judgment by not being partial to the rich or even to the poor. (Leviticus 19:15)
This is why the invitation to walk the narrow road with God Himself is such a beautiful thing. We cannot navigate this dualistic storm by ourselves. The devil is much too clever and duality is a powerful thing. We must go to God for wisdom, and we must use the only objectively true standard that can discern good from evil — which is the word of God — as our light in the darkness.
True non-dualism is learning to exercise right judgment, not escape from creation. To judge rightly is really to understand both sides of the issue, to embrace the dualistic system God created and meditate on its workings, to marvel at its beauty and genius and poetry and timing — yet in our judgments to neither swerve to the right nor to the left but always do what is good, honorable, true and right according to God.
Non-Attachment
One of the main hallmarks of Eastern spirituality is non-attachment. It is ironic that in the hyper-materialistic culture of the United States, things like Yoga and meditation are becoming very popular, when these practices were designed to rip one from the material world rather than become brands of leggings or trendy activities you can do with your friends. Nevertheless, the bible has much to say about non-attachment as part of the Christian walk, and it behooves us to study its wisdom so that we can see what this important habit really means.
Christ’s famous words in Matthew 16:24 immediately come to mind:
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
The founder of Christianity was a poor carpenter, born in a manger and often did not have a secure place to lay His head. (Matthew 8:20) The prophet Isaiah says of Jesus in Isaiah 53 that there was nothing attractive about Him, nothing to make us desire Him in any way. Think about that for just a moment. The Creator of the universe, the most magnificent, glorious being, full of indescribable beauty and majesty — hid Himself in a humble form that would not throw anyone off balance either to the right nor to the left so that they could receive the truth.
In God’s infinite wisdom, He revealed His glory through His words so that He would be seen through the lens of humility and childlike faith by those who would see past appearances and who would judge rightly. This is why through Jesus’ life as a whole we see a fascinating example of non-attachment to the world and to worldly outcomes.
Jesus also says the following in John 6:27:
“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
His words mirror God’s words in Isaiah 55:2-3:
“Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance.”
In Luke 12:15, Jesus famously reminds us to, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” In Mark 8:36-37 He asks, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?”
These and countless other similar examples throughout both the Old and New Testaments together paint a picture of what truly matters in life: wisdom, good character, a relationship with God, right judgment, humility and love. As Christians we are reminded in Jesus’ High Priestly prayer that although we are in the world we are not of the world, (John 17:14-19) which again points to the distinction between embracing the Dance of Life that God created while also rejecting the dialectical Dance of Death that the devil has orchestrated through his many schemes in the kingdom of darkness.
Christianity espouses non-attachment, yet it does so in the truest and most God-honoring way by anchoring it within God. In contrast, Eastern mystical practices teach similar things but because they are a counterfeit of the truth they divert you into non-dualistic practices (like transcendental meditation) which are designed to escape reality and any sort of judgment whatsoever. To the Eastern mystic, judgment is something that needs to be suspended and abolished, whereas to the Christian it is something that is meant to be sharpened so that it can glorify God through good decisions.
This is the key difference and why the gospel’s non-attachment (walking the narrow road) leads to life, whereas Eastern non-attachment (non-dualism) leads to, literally, nothing, or death.
A joke I once heard went something like this: if you were being robbed, who would you rather have walk by you, a Christian or a Zen Buddhist? Of course these are conjectures, but the point is clear: non-attachment in and of itself without an anchor back to God becomes a trap like everything else.
It is important to mention that even within Christianity today there are similar errors. The ascetic practices of various monk orders who shut themselves away up on high mountains to pray all day are not in alignment with God’s word. I’m looking at you, Eastern Orthodoxy. It bears repeating that we are told to be in the world but not be of the world. The bible commands us to proclaim the gospel, to love our neighbor and to use our gifts to glorify God — all of which require us to be among others and get down and dirty with life like Jesus did. We are also encouraged to have families, to work and to be a productive part of society.
It is in this way that the bible’s wisdom is revealed, showing us how to avoid the trap of non-dualism by anchoring our non-attachment into God and His glory. In this way we can divorce the world, yet avoid the imbalance of divorcing all of reality in the process.
Another good example that comes to mind is from Proverbs 30, written by a man named Agur. In verses 7 through 9 he says the following:
Two things I ask of you;
deny them not to me before I die:
Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.
The apostle Paul echoes these attitudes in Philippians 4:11-13:
“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
Taken together, these important scriptures beautifully illustrate the narrow road of Christianity as it navigates the dualism of the world. The bible makes you aware of the dualism, and fulfills these things by guiding you toward the narrow road between them which is the truth, and that truth is Christ.
In the end it all comes back to God, and this is why all of these practices are ultimately counterfeits. They touch on some of the truth, surely, because otherwise they wouldn’t be so proliferated through history and wouldn’t have palpably true things about them that we can sense and grasp at. It is good to be non-attached and to be less materialistic, and coming from our already imbalanced Western world into something like transcendental meditation or Eastern mysticism — the initial results of this shift may seem like we’ve stumbled onto the truth. But what’s really happened is that we have just moved from one side of the dialectic to the other, from one imbalance to another — instead of walking the narrow road, and this is why wisdom matters.
This ping-pong dance is how the devil gets you and it is something I have devoted my life to exposing through the work that I do, because I feel it is more important than ever given the time we live in. It is why sound judgment is needed and why the only way to judge rightly is by the word of God, who is the Author of all things. The bible testifies of itself as being the sword of truth, sharper than any physical sword and able to rightly divide reality because it is the very words of our perfect and all-knowing Creator. (Hebrews 4:12) Without God as the anchor, all pursuits become self-serving and eventually lead to death, both spiritually and physically. ,
One can simply look at the Pharisees, which Jesus called whitewashed tombs, (Matthew 23:27) as examples of doing and saying all the right things but being dead inside. Isaiah famously said that even our deeds are like filthy rags before God if they are not grounded in a genuine relationship with Him, (Isaiah 64:6) which is why the gospel reiterates over and over again that one must be born again in order to be truly transformed.
This is why ascetism, which the bible actually warns against (Colossians 2:18) or stoicism or self-denial or non-dualistic removal from the world will never get you closer to God. Isn’t that ironic? For those who really know God, it is a funny thing to see people retreat into far off places thinking they will get closer to God because God is intimate, close and always there by way of repentance and faith — not by climbing a mountain or going to a reclusive temple.
Our God is the God who is there with you when you are on the floor, holding your knees and crying in a dark room. Our God is there when you are at the end of your rope, when you are most ashamed and when you want to give up completely. As of Christ, we no longer need to go through elaborate purification rituals or rigorous discipline or countless middlemen to reach God. Why? Because God has come to us.
An ironic thing worth mentioning is that New Age practices tell you to “look within” and, ultimately, focus on your self for the answers. Why this is ironic is that focusing on your self is the very root of attachment. In Christianity we are always looking outside of ourselves — something that is very contrary to the world’s wisdom — yet it is how you can truly stay unattached. By focusing on Christ’s total sovereignty and perfection, the gospel allows you to continually practice forgetting yourself by remembering His perfect Self instead. As a result you are truly free to love, forgive and transcend the world and its many concerns.
This is sustainable non-attachment that bears fruit and aligns with reality rather than runs away from it. Christ is the ultimate reality since He created reality, and when we focus on Him we gain the strength to forget our worldly attachments and many grievances.
Remember this: God did not create this beautiful world for you to remove yourself from it. God did not give you a unique self so that you could try to delete it through non-dualism and transcendental meditation. God did not impart upon you a conscience so that you could become a relativist. Non-attachment is an important spiritual tool, but as a Christian it doesn’t mean moral relativism, mystical exercises or extreme physical denial. It is rather the narrow road (or as I like to call it the Dance of Life) between being “in” the world and being “of” the world — and as our eyes stay fixed on Christ we will be able to walk (or dance) that path without getting lost in the marshes.
Being Present
Another key component to Eastern ideas and practices is the notion of being present — something that deserves a funny story from my past. At one time in my life, a young missionary came to share the gospel with me and I dismissed her arrogantly, telling her I didn’t care about an afterlife because I was too busy “living in the now.” Ugh. Even thinking of this memory makes me cringe inside, but I hope it testifies to my foolishness and to God’s grace in choosing to open my eyes despite my arrogance.
Nonetheless, this is a very common attitude in today’s “YOLO” world which is why it needs to be addressed.
Out of all the deceptions of the New Age or Eastern philosophies, I believe this is perhaps one of the deadliest. The bible warns us to be sober minded because the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8) We are also told that the world is embroiled in a cosmic spiritual battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. (Ephesians 6:12) Lastly, the bible warns you that the devil is not some red-skinned, half-goat man with a pitchfork, but rather appears as beautiful angel of light. (2 Corinthians 11:14)
If we recall the story of Adam and Eve, it is important to point out that they fell because of seduction — not because of intimidation. This means that the things that are the most evil in life will come dressed up as things that seem good, reasonable, desirable and enticing. The bible certainly has many things to say about the evils of success, and this is again why sound judgment is so important.
Another important point is that the meaning of “meditation” in the bible is the focusing of the mind intently on a topic — usually God’s words. We are never commanded to transcend our consciousness, to enter alternative states, to do things that subvert our alertness or to commune with the spirit world. In fact all of these things are expressly prohibited because of the nature of the spiritual conflict we exist in, as mentioned previously. God gave you a mind to use, not one to escape from or to try to erase.
Yet despite all of these stern warnings, Jesus also reminds us not to worry in Matthew 6:27-34:
“And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
This is one of my favorite passages about being present, and it again reveals to us the wisdom of God in advising us how to navigate the narrow road. Creation is good, our senses are good. The mouth was made for eating and drinking and speaking. The ears were made for enjoying music and the hands were made for doing work. We are to live, to meet with others, to play and to comfort one another in times of sadness. All of these things are good and needed. We are to be in creation and work in it, enjoying what God has made as well as the fruit of our labor one moment at a time.
Nevertheless, consistent with everything we’ve discussed, the bible presents you with a dual perspective so that you can walk the narrow road in between the extremes. On one hand all of these things are true, and yet on the other you are surrounded by the kingdom of darkness and a formidable foe that seeks to devour and deceive you at every turn with dialectics. You must be vigilant and watchful, otherwise you stand no chance because the devil and his demons are not some cartoon characters but truly dangerous, invisible beings — and they often come disguised as what is good and fun and profitable.
As Christians we are reminded to take things one day at a time, hand in hand with God Himself, and indeed treat life as a journey rather than worrying about the destination. Certainly eternity itself will be a never-ending “now” in perfect glory and beauty, where time as we consider it today will be irrelevant. This is the true “eternal now” — but it is one that awaits, because the current now dies away every moment just like our bodies. Without a relationship to Christ we cannot live forever. We are born into a sinking ship and unless you find the lifeboat you will surely perish. Sadly, many are too distracted by the music on that sinking ship to notice the water coming up to their knees, elbows and even their throat.
Yet when we submit to God’s will through repentance and faith we are given eyes to see our true condition, and from there a new journey begins because we also see the world in its true condition as a sinking ship. The present moment we occupy actually hides a raging spiritual war between good and evil in a dying world, and while that war has already been won, its battles must be played out and we must in turn be sober minded so that we do not become a casualty.
For the Christian, the true reward is on the horizon, not on the sinking ship. Our journey once we place our trust in Jesus is the journey of sanctification by the work of the Holy Spirit, and it is a mindful one, but have you ever considered the meaning of “mindful”? It means that your mind is full, not that your mind is empty. When we walk with Christ we are meditating regularly on God’s words so that we can gain wisdom and discernment, and our minds fill with His grace and perfection every time we sit in prayer or reflection.
This life is certainly filled with challenges, because once God opens our eyes to the world we realize that we can no longer be part of it. Yet there is also great joy with the gospel, because once we are given a new heart and a new conscience with new desires and values — life truly does transform forever. Did you know that the word “joy” occurs more than 170 times in the bible? That isn’t even counting derivative words like “rejoice” or “joyful.” That’s because the bible, at it’s core, is a story of great joy — the joy between a Father and a Son, the joy of God to bring into existence life and beauty from nothing, and the joy we will have as believers by being invited into that love for eternity.
Today I can tell you that I have more joy from what I do than I ever did chasing my own tail as a New Age personal growth guru who believed in manifesting his own reality. I have also found a new level of appreciation for animals, nature and God’s brilliance in creation without having to do any transcendental meditation or smoke anything to alter my state of consciousness or level of appreciation in the present moment. I have gained wisdom and knowledge about many things that I never even found interesting in the past, like the bible, and all of that is to the credit and glory of God for working in my life.
The gifts God has given each of us come alive when we align with Christ, and suddenly a new sense of purpose emerges that we could have never predicted. I never in my life thought that my pagan New Age experiences, or my zeal to be the master of my life or even my drive to look good on the dance floor would one day glorify God — yet here we are looking at why Christianity is the true Zen. Everything will glorify God in the end, and it is truly a beautiful thing to be part of that process. This is our new journey when we are born again, and every day — truly every moment — is an adventure because God will always surprise you.
The Breath
Thomas Watson, a well-known Westminster Puritan theologian of the 17th century once said the following profound and very true statement:
“Every time we draw our breath we suck in mercy.”
Much like the focus on being present, the breath is yet another element of the Eastern and New Age worldview that ties into everything else. It is believed that breathing can alter one’s state, and certainly that’s true to some extent because your rate of breathing is directly tied to your nervous system and circulatory system. As a professional athlete I had to learn to regulate the way I breathed so I could conserve energy in between rounds, and what that means is learning to use the diaphragm to do full-bodied breathing much like how animals (or babies) breathe naturally.
Yet mysticism takes this many steps further by diverting the intimacy of our breath as a connection to God into self worship, creation worship or escape from reality altogether. This is the consistent problem with all of these practices, and I hope by now you’re starting to see the pattern. There is nothing wrong with learning to train your breathing, especially if you have a high-performing job or you’re very active. In fact it is recommended regardless, and I have even written detailed guides on how to train this valuable skill on my health blog.
There is also nothing wrong with becoming aware of the mystery of life as it cycles through you one breath at a time and just being present to that. Life is a mystery. We do not control our breath, it just happens. We are able to influence it, yet breathing happens whether we are paying attention or not and this alone is a profound thing to come to terms with, because it destroys the idea that we are the center of the universe and the cause of what is happening.
The truth is that we are completely contingent beings, and every breath that we take is a reminder of God’s mercy because we are in the palm of His hands from the womb to the grave. In a world governed by interdependence, with everything ultimately being dependent upon God, boasting is irrational — unless we boast in the Lord just as the bible says. (Jeremiah 9:23-24, 2 Corinthians 10:17)
An important point is that the word for “spirit” in the scriptures can also mean “breath” — and interestingly this applies to both Hebrew (ruah) and Greek (pneuma). In the book of Genesis it says that God breathed the breath of life into Adam’s nostrils, who at that point was sculpted from the ground, and as a result Adam became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7)
In a fulfillment of this Old Testament picture, Christ blessed the apostles before He was about to ascend back to heaven — breathing on them the Holy Spirit and giving them new spiritual life, gifts and awareness. (John 20:22) In the book of Hebrews it says that Jesus sustains all things by the word of His power, (Hebrews 1:3) and in the book of Job we are reminded that if God were to withdraw His Spirit from creation all things would immediately perish. (Job 34:13-15)
Even one of Jesus’ most well-known titles, which is the Word of God, draws on the idea of breath. In the first chapter of John, Jesus is called the Word and the bible teaches that it was by God’s Word that all things were created. Yet the bible reveals that God is also a triune being of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which although impossible for us to fully comprehend from our limited reality, is very much akin to a speaker, His words and the breath behind those words.
These attitudes are echoed throughout the bible, especially in places like the Psalms, or the book of Job, which are very poetic and often reflect on the nature of life and death. In fact the book of Ecclesiastes, one of my favorite books and probably the most “Zen” book of the bible, discusses the impermanence and vanity of all things in this temporary existence of ours, the need for being present and why having a relationship with God, who lives forever, is what truly matters in life.
It is important to now distinguish something about death and the soul, which unfortunately is a very contradictory position to have in the world today. The Hebrews and Israelites, that is the people who wrote the bible, did not believe in an immortal soul that persists after we die. They were unique in their view of the afterlife because practically every pagan culture shared the belief in an immortal soul in common. This is why the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:23 that the resurrection was folly to the Gentiles (meaning, especially the Greeks or Greek culture) — because the Greeks, like every other culture before them and around them, believed that the soul lived on forever and that this physical reality had to be escaped or transcended somehow in favor of the spiritual one.
To the Greek or pagan mind, which was by that point in time heavily influenced by Platonic philosophy like idealism and immortality of the soul, and many other mystical traditions before that, the notion that you would come back to your body after dying was total foolishness. This is why resurrection was a unique thing specific to the bible and to the Israelites and Hebrews, and ultimately it was uniquely tied to God and His power over life and death.
In response to the Sadducees, a group who denied the resurrection and who tried to trap Jesus in a philosophical problem concerning marriage, He tells them that God is God of the living, not of the dead. (Mark 12) This has many profound consequences that we need to break down. First, it is clear that Jesus is showing in this exchange that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — who are named by God as who He is the God of many times in the Old Testament — that they will be resurrected as themselves and that this is already a done deal.
In other words, Jesus knew and expected that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would be resurrected at the end of time and so, in God’s mind, they were “living” not truly dead.
But a deeper look at these words reveals an important point on why the Hebrews and Israelites were unique in their views on the breath, the soul and the afterlife. “God is not God of the dead.” What does this mean? On face value it relates to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob not being lost — but there is a deeper meaning that relates to everything we are discussing, and that has to do with the false gods of ancient times and the worship they received through death rites and the worship of the dead.
In opening lines of Genesis 3, the devil is described as the most subtle of all creatures God had made, meaning of all created beings he is as crafty as it gets. He knew God is perfectly just and he knew that the punishment for disobedience would be death, which is why he tempted mankind with disobedience. By doing so, we would be cursed with death and in the process inherit a cursed world that would keep us in a constant rat race, indirectly giving our energy to death through everything that we do.
Think about this carefully now. Death is the greatest idol mankind has ever had. Everything we do today is shaped by the ultimate reality that we will disappear one day. As we see others around us disappear into nothing, this stark realization gets heavier and heavier on our hearts and we structure everything in our life around accomplishing and doing and living and accumulating the most we can before we die.
Death shapes our decisions of when to get married, what career we should have, how we should feel about our age or progress in life at a given moment in time and a million other things. It is what we fear the most, and the devil knew it. In this way, the devil created an entire false system of worship based on death, by deceiving mankind on the nature of the soul and of our complete and total dependence on in God every breath we take.
In his classic pattern of treachery, the devil inverted reality. The truth is that there is no life outside of a relationship with God. Death is the end. The bible says everyone will be resurrected at the end of time, but those who rejected God will be destroyed. In order to hide this stark reality, the devil convinced mankind through these various practices and religions that there is eternal life outside of a relationship to God, by lying and elevating man to an immortal being — whether that is by being inherently divine or having an immortal soul or whatever else.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Genesis 3:2-5
This ancient lie, which governs most of the world today, takes the anxiety we naturally experience when we realize our contingent nature and turns it into a false assurance of peace and a false assurance of continuation after death. This is why I said that New Age and Eastern mystical practices are leading people (blissfully) to their deaths — because they have been totally deceived on the nature of life and on what happens when you die.
The exact details of this deception, especially as it was played out further by the angels who fell to Earth and created hybrid offspring who were worshipped as gods in ancient times, is a complex story with many chapters which we are not going to worry about here. Nevertheless, because the Hebrews had been set apart by God from the nations, they had a unique view of the intimacy and fragility of life because they believed in a contingent soul and contingent immortality through faith in God and the resurrection.
Contrary to practically every culture in history, this truth brings the focus back to our total dependence on God for life, and also His intimate involvement in every breath that we take. We do not control our breathing because He is controlling it for us, and this is why Christianity is the true Zen. The most fundamental aspect of our physical life — breathing — is something that is being done for us by a perfect being who sustains all things, leading to the realization that life, at it’s core, operates on total surrender.
Whether we are aware of that surrender or not is a totally different matter, and something God must choose to open up within us, yet nonetheless it is the beautiful, astounding and totally humbling truth.
Every time we inhale it is a chance for gratitude, awe and marveling at the mystery and miracle of life. This feeling can also be found through New Age or Eastern practices, but because it is not grounded properly in the true Source, which is God, that gratitude, awe and marveling is quickly redirected by the enemy to worship the self or creation or, simply, nothing.
The breath is the foundation of life, yet our breath is not our own and this is the profound realization that the bible points to over and over again. It is the Spirit of God, who animates all things — even the wicked, which reveals His mercy because God doesn’t owe anyone anything, let alone existence.
These thoughts are insulting to a world that operates according to the lie from the garden of Eden, which says that we will not die and that we can govern ourselves without the need for God. This is the illusion of the self, that we are it. We are the cause of what is going on, we are the center of the universe and we have life within ourselves, just like God. “You will be like God” is the devil’s promise, a promise designed to separate us from God and destroy us forever.
One of the tracks that used to be my favorite from Alan Watts was called exactly by this idea. “You Are It.” It was a great track, yet it is totally wrong and deceptive and that is why it is all the more dangerous. The fundamental illusion of the self that Satan played to is that we are the cause of all things, and if we are the cause then it means we can choose without influence. If we can choose without influence it means we can choose the good, and if we can choose the good it means we can ultimately govern ourselves. If we are the cause we also live forever in some way because the cause never dies. This ideology is what rules the New Age and personal growth movements today, and it is also what has ruled every religion in history one way or another because if you are the cause then it is up to you to make salvation happen.
Yet the bible tells you the truth in the very beginning in Genesis 3:19:
“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
We are nothing but dust, my friend. Today science still does not know at what point dead things like proteins and fats suddenly come alive and create cells that work and reproduce. We will never understand life because life is a mystery, and that mystery brings a great sense of fearful awe at our own existence when we learn the truth that we are dust and we will return to dust without a relationship to God.
Death is a frightening thing, but Christ reminds us powerfully that He overcame both death and the world in John 16:33, and other places. God destroyed our greatest idol through His own death on the cross, so that we could return our fear where it rightly belongs: pointed at our Creator. Remember, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom — and that wisdom is that fear of God takes away the fear of death.
Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection mankind was given an unbreakable promise of eternal life, and indeed being “like God” through a glorified, perfect body in the resurrection where we will not die, where we will have perfect wisdom and where we will enjoy creation forever in its perfected state with the Creator. No other spiritual path or god or teacher or prophet in history spoke like Jesus nor promised the things He promised, because nobody could do what He did and nobody had the authority to promise the things He promised.
By faith in His perfect work, our fear is returned to God and our anxieties about a dying world and a dying body disappear in the glorious realization of the truth of an eternal life with God in paradise. It is pure genius, and it inverts the inversion that the devil made back in Eden.
Because of the gospel we have the solid rock of God Himself to anchor every single breath we take in gratitude. Without such a foundation, the uncertainty that you cannot control when you disappear into oblivion is the ultimate existential problem — yet through Christ we know that our very next waking moments after that uncomfortable jump over the great beyond will be in a new world with infinite, rejuvenating breaths waiting for us to praise and glorify God for His mercy forever.
Karma
“Whoever digs a pit will fall into it,
and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling.”Proverbs 26:27
Today many believe in the idea of “karma” whether they espouse New Age ideas or not. On a basic level, it is the intuitive sense — based in observation of the natural world and the situations of our lives — that “what comes around goes around.” That is to say, if you treat others well then life will reward you. If you treat others poorly, it will come back upon your head one way or another.
It is justice, and because we all have a conscience programmed by God to desire justice, these ideas are natural and common.
Yet like most beliefs people have, they are hardly ever scrutinized for their implications. The bible describes God as the Judge of the Earth (Genesis 18:25) and justice is one of God’s most obvious qualities throughout the bible. God not only brings justice but also cares that we uphold justice in what we do, especially when in positions of leadership.
Believe it or not, you actually don’t even need the bible to know that God is perfectly just. When we examine the natural world, we see two powerful pieces of evidence about God as a righteous Judge. The first is that even animals have an inherent sense of justice and fairness, which points to the truth that the Creator of all things designed the conscience intentionally to reflect His character.
Another piece of evidence comes from the fact that nature is incredibly well designed and harmonious. Remember that duality is God’s invention, but in order to create such perfect duality and timing in this Dance of Life one must know what is good and what is not good. One must know both sides perfectly well, and in this sense one must be a perfect Judge in order to create a perfectly harmonious universe. Anything less than perfect judgment would result in reality collapsing from imbalance — yet we see harmony and beauty everywhere we look, even though the world has been cursed for thousands of years.
So you see, because the natural world reflects God’s character it is easy for counterfeits to develop that have a part of the truth in them. Karma, in its basic sense, has something true that it tells you: justice will be served. But who is doing the serving? This is where we run into the problem. With karma there is actually nobody doing the serving, just an impersonal mechanism that determines your results based on your works. Sort of like a cosmic robot judge.
The implications of such an idea are very worrisome, but thankfully they’re not true. Nevertheless, according to traditional notions of karma, our deeds in this life determine the quality of our next life through reincarnation. This plays off of the lie from the garden of Eden by creating a false sense of continuation, when in reality the bible tells you the truth: that every man dies and then faces judgment in their next waking moment. (Hebrew 9:27)
But even if reincarnation and karma were true, it would mean total slavery. This is because from birth we inherit the momentum of mistakes from everyone before us, dooming us to develop an ego of our own and sin countless times before we have any idea of our need for spiritual growth. For both the Christian and the Eastern mystic this is bad news, yet only the Christian has the solution to this problem because of the gospel.
The reality is that all of us commit countless sins, and in a world that is governed by justice it means that we have to pay somehow. If those who believe in reincarnation and karma were honest, they would realize that it is impossible to progress forward through countless lifetimes because from the very first one you would be guilty and deserve punishment. If the system is perfectly just then it cannot forgive sins, and in fact this is also true of God according to the bible.
Did you know that God does not forgive sins? He actually forgives sinners. No perfect judge, whether that is God or a cosmic robot judge, can forgive your sins and remain perfectly just. When the prophet Nathaniel told David he was forgiven, after raping Bathsheba and murdering her husband, imagine for a moment being Uriah’s father in that situation and how you would feel about God’s sense of justice.
This is the great price God paid over time by being merciful to so many people, and it is exactly why the gospel is such good news. The Son of God, who has infinite value, gave His life as a ransom to prove that God was completely serious about sin and did not take disobedience lightly as the Judge of the Earth. Yet in this brilliant move of genius and poetry, God also provided a way for Him to be merciful without compromising on His perfect justice. This is why it is often said that “justice and mercy kissed at the foot of the cross.”
But now we return back to the idea of karma, a mechanical system that has no precedent for grace and no character of unconditional love that would obligate it in any way to be merciful to anyone. With God we have His perfect righteousness, word and character to anchor both justice and grace. When God swears by Himself and His own righteousness, it is a guarantee because the sovereign God of the universe accomplishes all that He purposes and His glory is infinitely valuable.
But karma doesn’t have any such thing. It is a totally different reality, and thank God it isn’t true because it would be better to never have been born in such a system if it were the case. In a cursed world, each successive life would get worse and worse because karma must punish you according to your deeds. The only way to escape would be to live a sinless life from the beginning, like Jesus did, yet this is impossible which is why we need grace.
Another important thing to consider is that Jesus’ life as a suffering servant inverted the dominant paradigm of the time, which was the understanding that good deeds led to being blessed by God and bad deeds led to being cursed. The Hebrews and Israelites did not believe in karma, but people did believe that if bad things happened to you then you must have been cursed by God in some way for having done evil.
This is why the apostles asked Jesus regarding a man who had been born blind, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:1-2) Jesus heals the man, and instructs them that it wasn’t because he sinned that he was born blind but rather to reveal the glory of God. Of course in context we know that Jesus didn’t mean the man was sinless, but rather that not all unfortunate things that happened were the result of being punished by God.
This is a profoundly important point, so let’s break it down.
Everyone knew that God is the Judge of the Earth and that He sees all things, so whether you were pagan or Israelite there was a commonly held view that prosperity meant moral virtue and poverty or disease meant moral wickedness. This is why the book of Job — which details the life of a man who lived before Abraham — is so scandalous, and why Job’s dialogue with his friends is entirely centered around the confounding issue of a righteous person suffering in a world ruled by a perfect Judge.
Just as it made sense to the apostles that a blind man had probably offended God somehow, it made sense to Job’s friends that his troubles were the result of some hidden wickedness. Yet God rebuked Job’s friends, because they did not understand God’s ways nor what was going on. In the greater scheme of things Job is one of many pictures of Christ in the Old Testament, and that picture reminds us that Christ came as a suffering servant to experience injustice on behalf of others so that they could experience grace in return.
The idea of a completely righteous person facing the worst possible torment is the ultimate injustice in history. There is no greater juxtaposition between two things than what we see happening at the cross. Jesus was totally sinless and good, yet faced the most agonizing and shameful death one can imagine.
Yet this great injustice had an amazing purpose — to act as a propitiation (or payment) that could be imputed (transferred over) to mankind. Because Jesus was totally innocent, yet faced the greatest injustice, His innocence can be imparted to a guilty sinner through faith. This entire process of making one legally innocent in God’s eyes through Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice is a gift that the Judge of the Earth determined in His good pleasure and by His grace. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
It is through the life of Christ that all suffering is anchored and, ultimately, inverted into hope. Karma and reincarnation cannot offer you hope of any kind, because they do not have a loving, gracious (and sovereign) Person behind the decision desk. Karma and reincarnation also have no propitiation to offer you, meaning that you’re on your own — and because nobody can live a sinless life it means you are doomed to rely on your own efforts and spiral into nothing without anyone to vouch for you or pay your debts.
It is an absolutely horrible system, but again thank God it isn’t true.
For the Christian, suffering is something we are told to embrace as joy because it is part of God’s plan to conform us to His perfect character of unconditional love. (James 1:2) The bible teaches us to have mercy on others, because God is merciful to us. These attitudes destroy the old paradigm that wealth and prosperity was equivalent to moral virtue, and they reveal why Christianity is the truth in a world full of counterfeits.
For those who really want to obey the principles of karma, then they must be honest and realize that there is nothing to anchor compassion to others in. This is because karma says that those who suffer must work out their karma without anyone interfering. In other words, helping someone who seems cursed by life is interfering with their karmic path and should be avoided. Yet Jesus’ teachings consistently dismantle these beliefs, with a classic example being the parable of the Good Samaritan.
In sharp and beautiful contrast to the world’s wisdom, the gospel inverts the inversion and creates a foundation for compassion as well as a life that embraces suffering as profitable rather than something to be escaped from. In God’s infinite genius, He solved the greatest problem of the universe: that is, how can a perfect Judge forgive sinners and remain just. Through the gospel, God designed a way to honor His perfect sense of justice and yet also be perfectly merciful — something that karma or any other system of justice can never accomplish. By allowing imperfect sinners to enjoy salvation from their mistakes through a relationship rather than by way of moral performance, the gospel brings justice to the world while also bathing it in total grace and mercy.
This is the good news, and why what karma points to — which is justice — finds its true fulfilment in Christ.
God’s image as a perfect judge was reconciled through the death of the perfect Son of God, something that will forever be marked in time as proof that God is dead serious about sin. Along with the cross and the proclamation of the kingdom, God has also appointed a date to judge the world — which Christians know as the final judgment — and those who reject God’s offer of grace will face total, penetrating, horrible and final justice at the end of time for their wicked deeds.
With these simple truths, the bible tells you that there is a definite end to evil, suffering and sin. It offers total completion to the human experience, and that completion is grounded in the power of a gracious, sovereign God — not in living countless hopeless lifetimes or in your own effort or in a heartless mechanism that could care less about you.
Karma, while on the surface seems intuitively right, is actually horrible news. Both in its hopelessness at redeeming anyone and in its never-ending nature, because you will always be striving and never escape the spiritual rat race despite the carrot of enlightenment that is thrown in front of you. Thank God the gospel tells you the truth, that all of this is coming to an end so that we can live the way we were meant to live forever. Thank God also that He works all suffering in our lives for the good (Romans 8:28-30) and that experiencing failure or evil doesn’t mean we are being punished or cursed but rather tested and conformed to His perfect character.
Through the gospel we can receive mercy and salvation despite living less than perfect lives, and it is why we have true hope that transcends anything the world can offer.
Desire
There is an old Zen story about desire that I want to share with you, and it goes something like this:
Buddha was teaching in a village and a young pupil approached him, asking him for help.
“Lord Buddha, I want to escape from my suffering,” he begged.
Buddha looked at him and smiled, “You suffer because you desire. Go and let go of desiring, and you will stop suffering.”
The pupil nodded and rushed away, only to return in a few days back to Buddha.
“How are you my child?” Buddha asked.
“Lord Buddha, I am still suffering. I tried to stop desiring, but all I find myself doing is desiring not to desire,” the pupil exclaimed, seemingly exhausted from the last few days.
Buddha nodded slowly and looked away to the ground as if deep in thought for a few moments.
“Go then and stop desiring to stop desiring.”
The pupil looked at Buddha a bit perplexed but soon nodded and hurried along just as before.
A few more days passed, and like clockwork the pupil returned to Buddha, this time even more exhausted and disheveled.
“How are you my child?” Buddha asked.
“Lord Buddha, I do not understand what to do. I have tried to stop desiring, and this only leads to a greater desire to stop desiring. After your last instructions, the same thing happened again. I am just going in circles.”
Buddha smiled and nodded, “It seems you are beginning to get the point.”
Although such stories are charming on the surface, and seem to strike at some truth, they are actually laced with poison. Nevertheless I offer it as an example so that we can fulfill our mission today of seeing why Christianity is the true Zen.
The truth is that Buddha was on to something when he recognized the problem of desire. It is a trap, because the only way to benefit from desire is for it to never be fulfilled. Think about it. When you have a desire for something (or maybe someone) you are filled with newfound life, energy and optimism. But the moment you obtain what you want (or lose it, for that matter) — all of that life and energy disappears and you become complacent again.
There are three solutions to this fundamental problem of life that the world offers.
The first is to go the hedonistic route and saturate yourself with as much physical pleasure as possible. Sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, baby. Yet history plainly shows us that though this lifestyle seems like heaven on earth, it is in fact quite the opposite and leads to total burnout — and because God is just He will reward all those who do not repent from pursuing their lusts with fiery justice on the last day.
The second way to handle this problem of desire is to anchor it in something that is difficult to achieve. This is the personal growth route or the route of the stoic. It is the path of delaying one’s gratification and embracing discipline so that the reward is greater and the benefits of desire can be sustained for longer. Yet this too is a never-ending rat race because it ultimately results in slavery to the material world. This kind of slavery may look very different than hedonistic slavery, but it is still slavery nonetheless.
We cannot control anything on a fundamental level and we do not know when we will die. These are fundamental truths that many forget in today’s world of optimistic motivational memes, personal growth mantras and happiness culture. Thus, anchoring our desire in the material world and its outcomes is a futile endeavor yet again.
It is here that Buddha came to the realization that the only solution to solving the problem of desire is to try to dissolve it altogether, which is the path of non-dualism we discussed previously. But as you hopefully saw, non-dualism has serious issues because it is part truth and part lie. True non-dualism is walking the narrow road with Christ and not straying to the right or to the left, exercising right judgment and avoiding extremes. Yet nonetheless we are still walking (or maybe dancing?) and living life, unlike the non-dualist who seeks to erase their operating system and sit in a meditative trance most of the day doing, well, nothing.
Desire is indeed a trap and it is one of the main ways that the enemy pulls you off the narrow road. This is why Eastern principles of non-attachment do touch on some truth, and why Buddha’s observations about desire were correct. But Buddha lacked an important distinction, because Buddha didn’t have a relationship with the sovereign God of the universe, and that distinction is that desire itself is not evil — anchoring it in the world is what is evil.
Remember that in the beginning God looked upon His creation and said it was good. Mankind was made in the image of God, and while there are many views on what this means, the truth is that we share in the ability to create, to plan, to analyze, to engage in moral activity, to have aspirations and goals and dreams. These are shadows of our Creator, who also creates and plans and has desires that He fulfills. The key difference between us and God is that God is completely sovereign and accomplishes all that He pleases without anyone frustrating His plans. (Psalm 115:3)
So it is good and normal to have desires. God gave us desires to work, desires to have meaning and purpose, desires to procreate, desires to have friendships, desires to love animals, desires to nurture and desires for justice. Desire is a beautiful thing, but because we have inherited a cursed world — like all things God has made, the devil has inverted human desire to suit his agenda through various dialectics and distractions.
Today most people are slaves to the three paths I listed for you previously, desperately thirsty and in a constant chase to fulfill what only God can fulfill. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14 that the road to destruction is wide and that there are few who find the narrow one. We are all born with a desire that ultimately only God can fulfill, but because the world has blinded us from the awareness of God, the enemy redirects that desire and longing back toward the world through these various channels. Either we become hedonists, or personal growth junkies or relativists or transcendental meditators addicted to nothing.
I’ve been all these, so I don’t judge anyone, but the truth is that each option leads to the same thing: a dead end.
The only way to harness the power of desire is to anchor it in what is endless and also the source of life. There is only one candidate in this category, and that is the sovereign God revealed through the bible — a God who promises to give you a new heart with new desires once you repent and trust in Christ.
Awareness, desire and action create a cycle together that is important to understand. You cannot have new actions unless you have a desire to do these actions, and you cannot have a new desire to do anything unless you gain new awareness. Think about anything that you were really motivated to do in your life, and you will always find that before that motivation happened — a significant shift in your awareness also occurred.
Yet here an important point needs to be made, and it has to do with the second law of thermodynamics.
This law tells us that an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted on by an external force. In dancing I experienced this law quite a bit because the study of dance is ultimately the study of momentum — both in how to cancel unwanted momentum and how to harness momentum intentionally for maximum effect.
Why this is significant in our spiritual lives is because we are all born in the momentum of sin and a cursed world. We are completely conditional beings who decide, believe, think, feel and desire based on what came before and what comes next. We are slaves, and that is why we need an external force to grant us truly new awareness which can in turn lead to new desires and new actions.
As long as we are in the world and of the world, our desires are predictable and the ways we aim to fulfill those desires are also predictable — as you have hopefully seen by now. True freedom is only found in Christ, because only Christ is the full truth and only Christ can give the light of a new life. This supernatural change of awareness is what the bible calls the second birth, when God resurrects the spiritually dead sinner through the gift of the Holy Spirit and forever changes their life and future.
As long as desires are anchored in the world they are a trap no matter how noble they seem on paper. Today the personal growth industry idolizes ideas like “leaving a legacy,” but in the face of death these things are utterly meaningless. The world will be judged and everything will be destroyed. Leaving a legacy in a dying world that you are not even around to enjoy is totally senseless if you are going to be resurrected and thrown into the lake of fire for your rebellion. As Jesus famously said, it profits man nothing to gain the world but lose his soul in the end. (Mark 8:36)
This is where the gospel provides the ultimate anchor for our desires through the promise of an eternal life with God. This world is passing away, and what lies on the horizon for the believer is an eternity of bliss with their brothers and sisters and the Creator Himself. All worldly desires pale in comparison to such a glorious outcome. It is the ultimate delay of gratification, and that’s how Christianity offers you a way to enjoy the benefits of your new desires in this life while also guaranteeing you the ultimate fulfillment of those desires in the future.
By offering absolute certainty that you will be rewarded with a legacy you can actually enjoy one day, the gospel gives you something the world can never provide which is true, lasting and unshakeable hope.
The Holy Spirit also gives us new gifts and callings, creating a meaningful life that longs to share the truth with others and is never short on purpose or fulfillment. As we are conformed to the image of Christ by the supernatural work of God Himself, our compassion, creativity, courage, persistence, wisdom and love also grow. In this way we as Christians can truly live life newly and embrace desire without succumbing to its trap — and this is why Christianity is the true Zen.
A final thing to say about desire is this. On the other side of desire lies fear, and the enemy uses both to push and pull you in the storm of life so that you stay hooked into the world rather than on the narrow road with Christ. The bible says the phrases, “fear not” or “do not be afraid” or “do not fear” over 120 times, and it also warns you about the dangers of the desires of this life like adultery, greed, murder, stealing, pride, ambition, empty success and many other things.
Yet unlike Buddha, the bible does not condemn desire in and of itself because desire is a good thing created by God. Rather, the scriptures reveal to you both the right and the left — both desire and fear — advising you how to walk the narrow road between them by anchoring your desire (and fear) in God so that you can be fulfilled and so that all your worldly fears are dissolved.
This is why true freedom exists only in Christ, and why Jesus says that if He sets you free then you are free indeed. (John 8:36)
When we pursue God’s glory it is our highest joy. The connection between these two things is understood when we properly understand the gospel as a revelation by the sovereign God of the universe who controls all things and has predetermined reality to reveal His glory. In other words, God is not a million-armed octopus that doesn’t know the future and is just responding to our choices super fast — rather He is completely sovereign and has decreed all things to reveal His amazing glory, one moment at a time, one story at a time. This glory is both of a righteous Judge who is all powerful and has great wrath, and as a merciful Father who provides for and loves His children.
When we see reality properly through this lens, then we realize that our purpose is to glorify God in all that we do as being made in His image. This means that it is OK to do things, to work, to have desires, to plan, to use our gifts and to live the Dance of Life. It is God who gives us life and it is God who works in us for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13) Desire that is pointed toward God is then a good and profitable thing, and the gospel promises that this desire will be maximized when Jesus returns to the Earth to inaugurate eternity for those who believe, because experiencing His glory is our highest possible joy and what we were made for.
One day we will be face to face with the Creator of the universe, basking in His eternal presence for all of time. We see glimpses of what that might be like in examples like Moses going up on Mount Sinai and talking with God for 40 days and 40 nights, not needing food nor water and coming back glowing with energy. (Exodus 34) As amazing as these supernatural accounts may seem, they are just shadows of the reality found in Christ and in the resurrected state that awaits all those who believe.
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul discusses this final state of glory and says that “God will be all in all” when Jesus returns. Creation will be renewed, the Holy Spirit will be in every believer, there will be no more evil, no more death, we will have glorified bodies and God will be physically present on Earth forever. It will be the ultimate state of joy and the ultimate fulfillment of our deepest desire, which is to be reconciled and united with the divine.
Only the gospel can promise this because only the gospel is the truth. It does not anchor your desires in transient motivation gimmicks, nor does it try to subvert your desire by erasing who you are. Rather it reveals to you where the gift of desire needs to be pointed so that you can be maximally fulfilled forever — and that is God, the One who made you, who provides for you, who forgives you and who renews you to the praise of His glorious grace.
Identity, Self-Love & Self-Esteem
Today we live in a world where identity has become increasingly more central to every aspect of life. Social media has a lot to do with this, and the Internet as a whole with its impact on business has only added fuel to the fire. Again, I’m not judging anyone here because I’ve spent a lot of money and time for photoshoots and video shoots to develop a personal brand. That’s what all of the business seminars and personal growth gurus recommended, and it’s what everyone was doing to be successful.
But just as we saw in previous points, an imbalanced focus on the self and the material world is what leads to more problems.
Self-esteem, personal growth and the pursuit of happiness all have a fatal flaw in common because they are just spiritual rat races. The world’s intense focus on self-esteem as the solution to suffering is actually a major cause of more of the same problems, because true liberty comes not in focusing on and amplifying ourselves but rather in losing ourselves in the infinite and perfect, in the arms of the Creator which made us.
Today people are so obsessed with political correctness and not inflaming anyone’s self-esteem that we have produced a generation of anxious narcissists who have no clue how to be happy or at peace with the world because they need constant validation from others. This is why the gospel offers true freedom. Instead of fighting a never-ending war against the world to defend your dying body and dying ego — the gospel invites you to partake in validating God, who is perfect and the source of all life and joy.
When we lose ourselves in the Lord we actually find ourselves. This is especially true if you’re a people pleaser, like I was. Who am I kidding, I still am, but it’s very different now. When we connect our self-worth, value and identity to validating God rather than validating ourselves, we gain freedom from the slavery of our identity. This doesn’t mean we have a license to be rude, but it does mean that we are not ashamed of the truth or hinge our value on what other people think. Rather, we rely on what God thinks — since His opinion is the only one that truly matters in the end.
And because the bible says that God never changes, (Numbers 23:19) knowing we stand right with God is the best, most validating news there is — especially in a world full of insults, failure and suffering.
The pursuit of happiness is also a house of cards, because happiness as a core value of life is an illusion. This world is a world of change, pain and ultimately death. This is the morbid reality that the glitzy lights of social media and our cozy Western World desperately try to hide. We die. Those we love die. The things we love die. Everything dies. This is the Genesis curse, a curse that God put on the world because of Adam’s disobedience so that we might learn we have eternal life through Christ because of His obedience in our place. It’s all by design. The death inherent to this world is supposed to make us realize we are completely dependent on God and cry out for a Savior.
But according to the philosophy of happiness you just need to keep chasing what makes you happy, whatever that is. The great problem here, in light of what I just said, should be obvious. In a world where things are fundamentally out of your control it is impossible to be happy all the time. In fact statistically you will be more unhappy than happy, which means this is at best poor advice. We need stronger advice on how to deal with life’s many slings and arrows, and that advice comes from the gospel:
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”
2 Peter 1:3-4
According to the New Testament, once we are born again and receive Christ as the payment for our sins — we receive a new life and a new identity. Unlike anything the world offers, this identity is not based on our own actions or achievements or talents or physical qualities, but rather completely anchored in the perfect nature and character of God. We become partakers in that nature through the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we are conformed to the perfect character of Jesus every day. When Christ returns we receive a brand new body and mind that is incapable of sinning or evil, and our real life begins.
In Revelation 2:17, Jesus promises those who endure the reward of a “white stone with a new name written on it.” While many have debated the meaning of this symbol, the truth that it points to is that our identities are not something we need to obsess over because it is God who determines who and what we are. We were made in God’s image, belong to God and are renewed in God’s image through Christ when we repent and believe. Rather than worrying about self-love, affirmations, pursuing happiness or raising our self-esteem — we as Christians are invited into God’s love and God’s unshakeable happiness.
And by affirming Him, we experience a genuine transformation inside and out that the world can never offer.
Remember this: your identity in the world will always be based on things that are transient. There is nothing you can anchor your sense of self-love or self-esteem into that will not pass away. This is why it is an empty and meaningless pursuit to focus on the self. God gave each of us a sex, eye color, hair color, skin color, a name and unique life experiences. But these are not there to be obsessed over. Rather they are there to image God in a unique way and to glorify Him in all that we do.
True development of identity exists in meditating not on what we must do for ourselves or what we have achieved — rather it rests on what God has said and achieved. It is a profoundly different way of defining yourself, yet in this way you are freed from the shackles of self-obsession and from the need to defend your ego, while also purchasing priceless humility in the process.
Never forget that the mother of all sins is pride. It’s how the devil fell, it’s how Adam and Eve fell and it is at the source of every sin there is. The focus on the self is not the answer, because it is impossible to focus on yourself and avoid pride or attachment. This is why we were made to focus on God, and why alignment with Him is the only way to see ourselves rightly.
Wu Wei
Another interesting point I want to share with you today is on something Eastern philosophy calls “Wu Wei,” or the art of aligning with what is. A more direct description might be something like, “the art of effortless action.” This too has many valuable lessons to offer, especially in our capitalistic Western world, and I want to show you how they reach their fulfilment in Christ and the gospel.
Wu Wei is a fascinating school of thought because essentially it is the “work smarter, not harder” approach to life. It is understanding how to work and focus on alignment principles, and recognize what is not immediately obvious, so that you do not waste effort or resources. I discovered this principle through my career in competitive ballroom dancing, because as I became a better professional and teacher I eventually came up with that catchy little slogan I told you a while back ago. Do you remember what it is?
“When alignment is present, movement is natural.”
This seems like just a cute phrase, but in reality it is a profound truth of the reality we live in. When things are aligned properly, action comes naturally and without effort. Today we live in an action-focused world because people have lost their appreciation for subtlety and for the non-obvious. People have lost their desire to master a process, improve their technique or build consistency because everything has become increasingly more outcome driven. Long gone are the days of class, tact, patience, persistence and common sense. As a result of this carnal-minded culture we live in today, a lot of energy is wasted in people’s careers, relationships, health and even their spiritual lives — leading to burnout and existential dread, especially in the younger generations.
In movement, especially the aesthetics-focused movement of ballroom dancing that I made a career out of for many years, the body must align properly for action to be easy so that we can strike nice looking poses for the audience and the cameras. But if your bones and bodyweight are not properly aligned, the natural result of pushing movement or energy through your body in this state will be resistance. Resistance naturally results in a loss of energy (or maybe worse, an injury) and that’s why some can feel so tired at what they do while others feel great with no problem.
This goes for dancing as it does for life. It is all about alignment.
I have studied these principles intimately for many years, and I thank God for revealing them to me because they have helped me shift from my dominant, action-focused, “type A” personality into learning to recognize value in the opposite and the subtle. In life we will always go with what is obvious and natural to us, but if we can build an appreciation for what is not obvious — then we will be empowered to walk the narrow road and use right judgment.
Without knowing both sides you cannot have right judgment. This is why Solomon asked God for the wisdom to judge what is good and also what is evil. Wisdom is weighing the scales properly and discerning the truth. Because everyone is either action-focused or action-averse, it means that we all inherently have predictable strengths and predictable biases. The loud and obvious ones are good at certain things and the quiet and shy types are good at others, while both suffer predictably in the areas least obvious to them. God created both the loud and the shy for His glory, but if you stay within your comfort zone it will be easy for the enemy to pull you off the narrow road with your weaknesses because remember that these personality types are imbalances with predictable behavior.
For example, if all you understand is the language of action, then it is easy to seduce you with flashy marketing and excitement or emotions. Upon closer analysis though, or after wasting your money, you may find out that the deal in question was a total waste of effort and resources. Don’t even ask me how many times I made these kinds of mistakes because I wasn’t sufficiently patient, discerning, detail oriented, critical, hesitant or skeptical — all valuable character traits that were not obvious to me when I was younger, yet much more obvious to me now.
For many years I would easily judge things that were full of energy, active, attractive or loud as “good” and anything that wasn’t as loud or exciting as “not good.” Today I see great value in the subtle, in the quiet, in the passive and in the meek. For you it may be the other way around. Maybe learning to take initiative, to be courageous or excited or risky is what has been a challenge or foreign. Both have a purpose, and we must master both if we want to employ right judgment and walk the narrow road, otherwise whatever is lacking will be easily used by the devil to throw you either to the right or to the left.
Remember that God in His infinite genius created the dualistic world we live in. He is the author of Yin and Yang, of male and female, up and down, strong and weak, softness and hardness. In Isaiah 45:7 God powerfully reminds us that it is He who formed light and shapes darkness, so we must not let the occult or Eastern mysticism claim something that they never actually created.
In either case, from our perspective we need wisdom concerning how to dance the Dance of Life. To procure this wisdom we must humbly ask God to help us understand both sides of creation, like Solomon did, so that we know what is good and when — and what is evil and when. Giving water to a plant is good, but not if you give too much water to a seedling or too little water to a full grown tree. In both cases, the thing that is good actually becomes evil because of misalignment and this is the point. This is why the study of timing is important in both dancing and in life, and why I am so grateful for the unique experiences God has given me through my career as a professional athlete because life truly is a dance, and I believe that by asking God for wisdom we can learn to dance it well.
Many years ago, when I attended a going away party for a Japanese friend of mine, he taught me the secret to cutting salmon sashimi. Hiro was a great sushi chef, and a great guy too, and he showed me that cutting the salmon against the grain was the key to a great sashimi — something I would have never guessed because the obvious thing (to me, at least) was to cut the meat with the grain.
This is a simple example, but it illustrates the importance of wisdom and learning to recognize what is not obvious. We aren’t talking about anything occult or esoteric here, but rather the ability to have discernment. Many Christians today walk into countless theological errors because they immediately go for what is obvious. In fact most of the bible studies I’ve published are geared at addressing this exact issue, because we’re living in the time of the end and deception is at a maximum. People today form their theology from cherry-picked bible verses, personal revelations or things they hear from others — rather than building a case, weighing the evidence and looking at the context.
The bible tells you to have discernment and to study to show yourself approved, (2 Timothy 2:15) and this means recognizing what is not immediately obvious, like reading the surrounding verses and chapters or considering the perspectives of the author and their audience or culture. When you implement these principles in your interpretation you are much more likely to get at the truth rather than relying on your own understanding, as many unfortunately do today.
With all of this in mind, another aspect of the Wu Wei mindset is that of going with what is, or simply “going with the flow” as it is often said these days. The idea is that when we focus on alignment, action and results come naturally because this is how the universe was created. Again, nothing New Age here — just simple facts. Dancing at a high level can be easy and beautiful or it can be rough and exhausting. I’ve done both and I can tell you that the difference lies in alignment. If you have good posture your body functions better than if you have poor posture, and a hose that’s pinched off is not going to water your garden as well as one that is open and clear.
We now can put these two Wu Wei principles together and see something very important and profound about the gospel. The first principle was learning to recognize what is not obvious, and the second principle is focusing on alignment rather than action. In this regard, the alignment that matters most in life — and yet ironically is the least obvious — is our alignment to God.
In Jesus’ words regarding worrying, cited previously in Matthew 6, He told us to focus on pursuing the kingdom of God first and all other things would be added to us. From the perspective of what we have just discussed, a better way to understand this invitation is less from the lens of “effort” and “doing” and more from the lens of alignment. In other words, if we align with the kingdom of God then action, or bearing fruit and experiencing a blessed life, will happen naturally.
But how do we align with the kingdom of God? What must we do? Jesus gives us the answer in John 3, when He speaks with a renowned teacher named Nicodemus:
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
To align ourselves with the kingdom of God requires a profound and life-changing paradigm shift, which Jesus calls being born again. It is a spiritual birth, a transformation of our being, which happens when we see the cross for what it truly is — the most important event in human history and the answer to all of our problems, including death. When we repent of our unbelief and turn to Christ as our Savior, trusting in Him to deliver us, to guide us and to provide for us, our heart is permanently changed and we see what was hidden to our worldly eyes.
Remember that when Paul preached to the Greeks and Jews he was often ridiculed, because the cross was a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Greeks. (1 Corinthians 1:23) This is because the Jews expected a military savior to come and deliver them into a golden age, so they couldn’t get passed the fact that the Savior actually came dressed as a humble homeless teacher who got humiliated by their pagan oppressors.
To the Jewish mind that wanted the loud, flashy and supernatural — the cross of Christ was the ultimate foolishness and the least obvious thing in the world.
It was no different with the Greeks, but from another angle. Remember that the Greeks believed in the immortality of the soul, which meant that the promise of resurrection — let alone a man coming back from the dead — seemed like a total fairytale. The cross is also incredibly simple, so simple that Jesus reminds us we must be like little children in order see Him for who He is. (Matthew 18:3) To the ancient Greek mind, the profound significance of the cross evaded their understanding because they equated sophisticated philosophy to the truth and they also elevated themselves with worldly knowledge.
This is why some have said that the bar for salvation is set very low, and why the only way to access Christ is through humility, which leads to repentance, which in turn leads to faith.
It is important to remember that Paul also writes that the god of this world, who is Satan, has blinded the minds of unbelievers. (2 Corinthians 4:4) Indeed the cross is foolishness to the world (1 Corinthians 1:18) because the world is focused on what is obvious, loud, shiny and pleasurable. The world is self-serving, whereas the cross is the ultimate example of selflessness.
So in the cross we have the least obvious thing, yet also the thing that has the greatest consequence if we do not align with it. It is not something we can work toward or earn in any way, because it is based on faith, and it requires something completely contrary to what the world tells us, which is humility. Yet when we truly place our faith in Christ we become born again, our spiritual alignment changes, and as a result we experience a new life, new desires and new actions. This doesn’t mean prosperity or success necessarily, but it does mean new and good things that glorify God and that give us a uniquely profound sense of meaning and joy.
Seek the kingdom first, and everything else will follow.
To experience this paradigm shift requires perhaps the greatest expression of the principle of Wu Wei that I can think of, because it means you have to recognize what is least obvious in this world and focus your eyes on alignment, which is faith, rather than effort, which is works. Every religion in history tells you to do something in order to achieve the result, whereas Christianity tells you, “It is finished.” (John 19:30)
To a world that runs on pride and ambition, the humiliating example of Jesus and the invitation to humble one’s self at the foot of the cross is the most counter-intuitive thing that can possibly be conceived. In His brilliant genius, God hid Himself behind a veil of humility so that those who came to Him would come in truth — not swayed by external appearances or superficial values. For the carnal mind, to repent and trust in Christ is the most unnatural, risky, nonsensical thing you could ever do — yet this shift in alignment is exactly what we need and it is a matter of life or death.
Yet the beautiful and profound message of the gospel is that this change is not something we ourselves are responsible for creating or even maintaining. Remember that it is God who works through us for His good pleasure, (Philippians 2:13) and Jesus told Nicodemus that being born again is like the wind — you know not where it comes from nor where it goes. In other words, it is a mystery. It is according to God’s plan and purposes for each individual He’s chosen to reveal Himself to. That means if you do have a relationship with Christ today — then treasure it, because it is a gift that not everyone receives.
If you do not yet walk with the Lord, then my invitation to you is to check in right now. If my story and words touch your heart, if you feel convicted, if you feel curious — lean into those feelings. Pray and ask Christ to show Himself to you, because He is generous with all who come to Him with an earnest desire to be made new.
The good news is that once God does change your heart, you can rest forever in His work because God will never let you go and He always does perfect work. Christianity is not about doing, it is about being — and because God is the source of all being, it is He that sustains us and preserves us even when we feel hopeless. The bible says that the Holy Spirit given to someone when they are born again is God’s guarantee that He is good on His promises. (Ephesians 1:14) Paul also wrote that all things work for the good for those who trust in God, (Romans 8:28-30) and what that means is although life may not be roses and butterflies all the time as a Christian — we have gained that which matters most: a relationship with the living God Himself.
Through this new and proper alignment back to our Source, eternal life and an unimaginable future of glory now flow into being naturally and effortlessly — one day at a time and one moment at a time as we walk with the Lord forevermore.
Doing & Being
The world’s religions and philosophies generally have one thing in common: that you must “do” in order to “be.” In other words, people chase a state of being by attempting various works to get to it. For the world, “doing” leads to “being.” This is the proverbial rat race, and what practically every single program that sells you any result bases its strategy on. When I sold dance lessons I wasn’t selling lessons but rather selling confidence, sex appeal, connection and fun. Those who understand these things are the best salesmen on Earth, but without wisdom and a conscience they can also become the worst manipulators in history.
The study of doing and being is the foundation of all philosophical and spiritual thought, and it is here that we see the unique wisdom of God through the gospel. In stark contrast to the world’s way of doing things — the gospel of Jesus Christ tells you the exact opposite: rather than “doing” to achieve “being,” it is the other way around.
In Christianity, “being” results in “doing.”
Remember what Jesus said in John 3, that nobody can enter the kingdom of heaven unless they are born again. Yet, He continues, this experience is much like the wind — you know not where it comes from nor where it goes. In John 6 He also states that nobody can come to Him unless the Father draws them (John 6:44), teaches them (John 6:45) and grants them the ability to come to Jesus. (John 6:65) This means that a condition of believing in Christ and becoming born again is that God must do something in your life first.
These statements, and their implications, are the subject of great discussion and controversy today because we live in a world that is consumed with the lie from the garden of Eden, which is libertarian free will. Yet if we take Christ’s words plainly, the revelation is profound: a born again believer is given a new heart and a new life by God. This process is not something we can invoke or control through our own will or effort because the bible teaches we are dead in our sins and incapable of coming to the awareness that Christ is the Savior.
This is why salvation is described as a gift (Ephesians 2:8-9, and other places) and why the world considers the cross foolishness as we’ve previously discussed. The bible tells you the simple and profound truth: that you are dead, and that God must resurrect you in order for you to live — both in this life through a new heart and in the next one through a new and perfect body. That is why I said earlier if you feel convicted, curious or touched by my words — lean into them because it may be that God is already working in your life to bring you closer to Him.
This is also why I say that Christianity is the true Zen. It is all based on a new state of being, which then results in new actions and new desires from a new spiritual alignment. Unlike the rest of the world, Christianity tells you that it is about your direction rather than your speed or effort. All of the previous points that we have outlined now integrate into this one. When God causes someone to be born again, their state of being changes forever. The gift of salvation is a new state of being, because God who is the source of all being shares His being with you. As a result you experience true transformation that expresses itself in things the world could have never taught you — like truly loving God and loving your neighbor.
Rather than the emptiness of a constant chase from one side of the dialectic to the other, which is the slavery of the world, you are given everlasting life on the narrow road with a heart that lives for God. Rather than thirsting to create fleeting states of being like confidence or connection or happiness, which pass away like leaves in the wind, Christianity invites you to repent and trust in Christ — with the reward being eternal life both in the now as your spirit is renewed and in the future as your body follows suit.
And because whether you end up repenting or not is actually a work of God, the genuine believer has complete certainty in God’s work and in their new reality. This is the peace beyond all understanding mentioned in Philippians 4:7, and the peace that Jesus gives us by overcoming the world as He states in John 16:33. It is a peace that the world, because it is ruled by uncertainty, can never provide. The best it can do is offer you a counterfeit peace that relies on bending or inverting the truth, as you have hopefully seen by now.
Many certainly succumb to these things because they haven’t woken up to the reality that they are dying and that God has appointed a time to judge the world with only one way out, which is Christ, so this is why the gospel is so important.
Besides a new state of being that is intimately connected to God forever, Christianity also promises a never-ending present moment with God’s presence in your life viscerally, physically and in full glory when He returns. It is the ultimate experience possible and it will be very real. As we live out the remaining days of history on this side of eternity, we are given previews of this final reality through the gifts of the Spirit which pour forth love, courage, wisdom, creativity and compassion from the new, infinite fountain in our resurrected heart. In truth it is not our own fountain, but the water of God’s life that Jesus has shared with us through the second birth.
Consider the words Jesus famously said to the woman at the well in John 4:14:
“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
This is the profoundly different reality that Christianity presents you with. It is an inversion of the inversion, not just another chase with a different flavor. The devil convinced Adam and Eve that by being their own god they could be like God and in so doing he inverted reality. In other words, he made them believe that by doing something they could attain the ultimate state of being, which is godhood. In order to pull this off, he took advantage of the illusion that we all have as physical beings in a physical world — that is, that from our perspective, it seems that we are the center of the universe and the cause of all that happens.
This is incredibly important to understand, but sadly many will reject it. Nevertheless, it is the truth. If we buy into the illusion and believe we are the cause of what happens then the next logical thought is that we can choose free of influence. If we can choose free of influence, then we can choose the good equally as we choose the evil, and therefore it is up to us to make the right choice. And now this is how the devil subverted humanity and continues to subvert it today: if we can choose the good, then we do not need God because we can govern ourselves and achieve godhood through our own effort.
Do you see the lie? Do you see the forbidden fruit?
This is why doing to be is the ultimate deception, but sadly it is what most of the world believes in one way or another. The gospel is unique in history because it tells you the opposite, that you must be in order to do. Important to understand here is that you must be made new, not just simply be yourself as the New Age or modern culture teaches you. This is the offensive part to the world, that you must be made new, but the truth is never popular in a world of lies.
Yet remember now that the gospel goes one step further by telling you that this new state of being comes from God as a gift, and by having faith and trust in Christ we are granted this new state of being freely apart from our works or past. It is effortless action at its finest. Eastern mysticism, the occult, religion, the New Age or personal growth — or any other spiritual path that exists — do not have a sovereign God and therefore cannot provide what the gospel provides because the gospel is intimately connected to a completely sovereign God who is in control of all things and has predetermined them for His glory.
Although these practices do have gods, whether that god is the self or nothing or the devil or a pantheon or something else, they do not have a sovereign God and this is the difference and why the gospel is unique.
Waking up to the reality that God is totally sovereign is a shift in your being, because it dissolves the lie from the garden of Eden and creates an entirely new space. You wake up to the reality that you are not the cause, but rather part of the cause, which is God. I don’t mean this in the sense that we are all part of God in a pantheistic understanding, but rather that we are conditional beings that are completely dependent on God and part of His unfolding plan to reveal His glory. As such we cannot choose free of influence or choose unconditionally because we are dependent on what comes before and after by existing in time and space. Only God has true, libertarian freewill because only God is self-existent and outside of time and space.
This is why the devil’s lie is so appealing and why he promised Adam and Eve that they could be “like” God. Of course, it’s not true, but the illusion is profound because we are made in the image of God with a center of consciousness and a self. Nonetheless, waking up to the big lie reveals an uncomfortable truth: that you cannot choose free of influence, and what that means is that you cannot choose the good because being born in a cursed world with the momentum of sin has already predetermined your behavior and your destination — which is destruction.
This is why the message of the gospel is so counter-cultural. Besides the fact that it states the opposite of the world, that you must be in order to do rather than do in order to be — it also says that this state of being is impossible for you to create or align to on your own because of the fallen state of the world and of humanity. At first this seems like bad news, but this is why the gospel is called The Good News, or in Aramaic, “The Happy News.” The awareness we receive as a gift from God to see Christ and the gospel for what they are — our salvation — is a supernatural change that is facilitated by God at His discretion in our lives at the appointed time and not something we can control.
In other words, salvation depends on God, not on man, and this is what makes the gospel unique in history and consistently at odds with the world’s way of thinking.
You and I cannot save ourselves. We cannot choose differently outside of a new heart from God. We cannot earn our way to reconciliation with a perfect Judge. We cannot rely on your own wisdom or effort or belongings or experience or friends or riches or intelligence to escape sin and death. We need Someone to pay our debt, we need Someone to save us, to give us a new heart and a new life. You and I need Someone perfect to take over our will and guide us step by step on the way that we should go.
Coming to terms with this pivotal truth is when the golden moment of repentance happens. We realize we are nothing without God, but rather vessels made for His glory and that He is the source of life that sustains us. It is in this moment that we truly discover surrender, when our awareness truly shifts and our lives truly begin to change. In dancing you can’t follow without surrender, both to the music and to your partner, but once you do surrender — then you can finally begin to dance.
In my many years of studying movement, I came to realize that good movement always followed a sequence. Momentum always had to be dissolved from the previous step in order to create the next pattern or shape in the body. It’s like driving at high speed and trying to do a U-turn. Not a good idea, because momentum has to go somewhere and it will always take you with it.
This is the second law of thermodynamics and it is profoundly relevant to our spirituality. We are born into the momentum of the world, into the momentum of our parents’ choices and the momentum of everything around us. We are not free, autonomous beings that create our reality with our intentions and words. We are not inherently good and capable of governing ourselves, either. We are conditional beings that decide based on what came before and what comes ahead. We are in constant momentum from the day that we enter the world until the day we leave it, and what the second law of thermodynamics tells you is that an object in momentum will stay in that state unless an external force acts upon it to change its direction or speed.
The momentum of sin is very real, and it has a sure destination. Waking up to this reality points us to the need for a Savior, and this is why humility, repentance, fear of the Lord and faith all intersect when one is born again. Without God rescuing us and sharing His life through the Holy Spirit we simply cannot escape the momentum of reality which leads to certain death.
Eastern mysticism, New Age, personal growth and other similar practices or philosophies deal with this stark truth by counterfeiting the peace of God and giving people a false sense of assurance. This is done through a variety of ways, like the never-ending stream of motivational mantras to keep one feeling on top of the world or by way of positive messages that everything works out for the good, which is true in some sense, but without a relationship to the sovereign God it is not true because the world will be judged.
The thing is these practices and attitudes have nothing to anchor the idea of “going with the flow” or surrendering into, because without a sovereign, perfect and loving God who is completely wise and completely gracious governing reality (your life included) — you are left with nothing but a heartless mechanism. To go with the flow of this mechanism is just a fancy way of describing total, hopeless slavery.
The universe does not care about you, God does. As a Christian we have the peace beyond understanding because God cannot lie and His efforts can never be thwarted. He is the Creator, the self-existent one and the source of all being. In fact this is the name God identified Himself with when He spoke with Moses. “I am the being one” is a rough translation, or perhaps something like, “I am the source of all being” is a little more to the point in English.
What a profound thought, and even more profound is that the lie from the garden of Eden is actually half true. Did you know that? Like all good counterfeits, it actually imitates the truth really well and that’s why it is so dangerous. Believe it or not it was always God’s plan to make us “like God” through the gospel. We are not only conformed to His perfect character by the work of the Holy Spirit once we’re born again, but we will receive perfect and immortal bodies that will enjoy a perfect creation for all of time. We will indeed be like God. This is the promise of the gospel and what all things are leading to, but the great revelation of the bible is that this outcome is not something you or I do to obtain — but rather it is new state of being given as a gift by the sovereign God of the universe to reveal His glory and love.
Prayer
I remember the days when I would passionately talk about manifesting one’s reality by holding intentions in the mind, or how to “hack manifestation” by doing things like affirmations, vision boards and all the usual stuff that you would expect in the New Age personal growth sphere. In the first few years of my podcast, I interviewed dozens of top experts in the field of meditation, manifestation, spiritual growth, ascension and whatever else is in between. At one point in my life I even used to do sage burning rituals on my porch, believing that my efforts would somehow attract the life and people I wanted most if I was intentional enough.
My, how things have changed.
In early 2022, I lost my voice for an unknown reason and had to take a back seat from creating content, coaching and doing practically everything that I was doing. God eventually sent someone into my life that helped me recover, but for a good 9 months — somewhat like Zechariah (John the Baptist’s father) — I was practically silent because it simply hurt too much to speak.
It was a very solemn period of my life, because speaking was what I did for a living and it was the center of my sense of purpose. Yet during that quiet period I got much closer to God and learned the value of prayer as both an ongoing conversation with God, and a practice of gratitude rather than an attempt to get something from God or create an outcome.
Because every spiritual practice in history embraces the “doing to be” model described previously, it inevitably shows up in prayer as lack and striving. Regardless of what anyone will tell you, this is just simply what happens because the fundamental denominator is you rather than God. I look back at my life in the New Age and I find it funny that my sense of spiritual striving was no different than when I was Eastern Orthodox, saying prayers monotonously over and over again in church or at home because that’s just what we did.
Jesus addresses this prayer paradigm in Matthew 6:7-8 when He says the following:
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
There is so much to realize even in these short statements, so let’s unpack it.
First, the warning is against heaping up empty phrases to God like the Gentiles (or pagan nations) did and continue to do today. Whether it is chanting mantras or doing affirmations or running through the rosary, all of these practices have something in common — they operate on the idea that repetition (or effort) will create a result. Depending on the particular flavor of religion, that result may be some sort of transcendental state, or God hearing you or manifesting something you want.
Regardless of what it is, Christ warns us not to align ourselves with this kind of thinking. But why?
The answer is found in the next verse: because our Father in heaven already knows what we need before we ask it. In other words, God is omniscient and that means there is nothing He doesn’t know ahead of time — including what you will ask Him. So, the idea of putting in effort and recited, ritualistic prayers in order to convince or make God do something for you is a total falsehood. It is prayer the way the devil wants you to do it, because in your striving you separate yourself from grace and from what prayer truly is: a time to practice your relationship with God.
The bible reveals that God is completely sovereign, and because He is completely sovereign this means a vastly different way of relating to the divine. We as Christians have the peace that is beyond understanding because God is sovereign, whereas every other faith always leaves room for anxiety because it cannot anchor prayer or reality in a sovereign God. Only the gospel preaches a sovereign God, and that is why prayer for the Christian is truly anchored in gratitude, peace, joy and relationship.
Knowing that God is completely in control of all things, and that He works all things for the good for those who trust in Him, and that everything that happens is in accordance with His good pleasure and wisdom — all such realizations lead us to see and use prayer not as a way to get something from God or to strive after an outcome, but rather the opposite: it allows us to detach from the outcome and practice gratitude, faith, courage, hope and patience. Prayer becomes a chance to experience God, to communicate with God and to spend time with God because He is a loving person that knows you.
For the Christian, prayer is a spontaneous, ongoing conversation with God that emerges from the new state of being we are given when we are born again. Yet in sharp contrast, for everybody else it must be a method for getting something because they cannot anchor their worldview in a sovereign God. Do you see the connection? By embracing the lie from the garden, which ultimately promised freedom, it actually leads to slavery — and this is the point.
Another important thing to consider is that the intimacy of prayer provided by the gospel is unique to the gospel. Remember that God is perfectly just, and a just Judge must require payment for breaking the law. That is why both the Old Testament and the New Testament say there can be no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood. (Leviticus 17:11, Hebrews 9:22)
Why this is important is that from Adam to Christ, being able to communicate with or approach God, who is perfectly holy, was always by way of a sacrifice through a mediator. This same concept ruled pagan religions, too. If you wanted to beseech the gods in any way or procure their favor, you had to offer a sacrifice and it had to be done in a special place, which was usually a temple. The notion that man could have a direct connection to the divine any time he wanted was unheard of until Jesus walked the Earth, because man always needed a mediator and always needed a sacrifice in order to offer any sort of prayer.
Today these old attitudes are alive and well in many ways and in many places. In institutionalized religion, like Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy, people often go to “holy sites” or monasteries believing that they can get closer to God. Pagan religions are no different with their temples, and that is because all of these religions fundamentally operate according to the same principle of doing in order to be.
What is so drastically different about Christ’s work and the gospel is that Christianity offers a once for all sacrifice to appease God, and in so doing destroys the need for constant mediators or going to special places in order to pray or reach God with our prayers. Jesus says that where two or more are gathered in His name, there He is present with them, (Matthew 18:20) and because He lives forever to intercede directly on our behalf it means we have the perfect mediator anywhere, anytime.
We do not need to go to a temple because Jesus is omnipresent and always hears our prayers, therefore through Him we have gained what was lost back in the garden of Eden, which is constant communion with God.
We as Christians are not limited by location, nor do we need to do anything special to pray or to make sure that our prayers reach God. In fact Jesus’ death and resurrection have completely transformed what it means to pray altogether. Prior to these events you always had a priestly class and the normal class, with the mediator praying on your behalf and offering sacrifices. But because Jesus is both the sacrifice and the mediator, and He’s also God, we have an immediate and direct link to the Creator forever.
This is why prayer is so different for the Christian than it is for the mystic or anyone else. Remember that we cannot control when we die nor can we even control our own breath, meaning that believing you can manifest your reality through intentional thoughts and repetitive prayers is a lie. There is something to be said about selective attention, and how paying attention to new things often creates new results (because you are noticing things you didn’t before), but we are not the masters of reality nor does anything happen in life unless it is God’s will and this is the truth.
Without a sovereign God, prayer is by default something you must do in order to achieve the outcome — because, after all, it’s up to you. Some may think of it as “co-creating with the universe” or other such similar ideas, but when you get down to it, it always comes back on you and what you have to do. And guess what? It’s never enough.
Yet when you anchor reality as it should be — in God’s hands — you align with a position of surrender and peace, because you know God works all things for the good for those who trust in Him. This opens the space for a completely new dimension of prayer — a dimension that is based on gratitude rather than effort. It is prayer that is truly based in being, not in doing, and that is why Christianity is the true Zen.
Epilogue
The cross of Christ is the most profound and important event in human history. In fact all of reality is grounded in the cross and was created because of the cross. In Jesus’ atonement we see the integration and reconciliation of opposite absolutes and dualities. It is truly incredible how all things are anchored in Him. Mercy and justice, life and death, righteousness and sin, wrath and grace, sadness and joy, judgment and justification, the tree of knowledge and the tree of life, man and God, and heaven and Earth — they all come together at the cross.
In fact the very shape of the cross — two perpendicular lines — illustrates this last point perfectly and poetically, with a horizontal line symbolizing the Earth because of the horizon and a vertical line symbolizing heaven because it is far above, with Christ as the singularity where these dualities converge.
Jesus’ life on Earth was what all of human history was leading up to prior to the New Testament, and Jesus’ return to rule on Earth is what all of human history will culminate in. Indeed, history is His Story — the story of God revealing Himself and reconciling all things back into relationship with Him. He is the Author, the beginning and the ending, and the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only solution to the human condition.
The reason it is the only solution is because it is the only way to be free from the slavery of “doing” in order to be. This is the lie from the garden of Eden, the devil’s Dance of Death, and it has infected all of mankind through our original ancestors. It is what takes you off of the narrow road, off of the Dance of Life, because it deceives you into believing it is all up to you. But the bible tells you the truth: that we are born into a cursed world and with that comes the trauma and ego that we inherit from our parents and those around us. This is original sin, and it creates a constant need for reconciliation from a young age — a need that we fill with relationships, achievements, materialism, drugs, violence, selfish ambition or whatever else as we bump and bounce through our own story and challenges.
The inevitable, stark reality of humanity without God is that we are always spiritually thirsty, always seeking and always looking to fill the endless void in our heart. Another way to look at it is that we are always under momentum, and because we are under momentum we can never truly dance the Dance of Life. And because the devil wants to be worshipped, he uses the duality of the world to keep you seeking and doing, thirsty yet never satisfied. In this way he can destroy you while also obtaining worship indirectly by pulling your attention and energy toward his system of lies.
The great irony that God reveals to us is that we can never obtain what we most want through our own efforts. We can rescue ourselves from the pit, and even worse — we are not even aware of the pit until God opens our eyes. This is the big lie and it runs everything from personal growth to politics to religion to everything in between. It is why Christ’s words are so poignant and profound, cutting to the core and destroying all the smoke and mirrors of this ancient slave system. And what’s more, Jesus promises to not only fill the void of your heart but to actually invert it, to change your fundamental state of being permanently from one of consumption and thirst and death, into one of eternal life that is capable of giving, sacrificing, loving unconditionally, forgiving and being more like Him who lives forever. Amen.
This is why Christianity is the true Zen and also the only answer to the human condition. It is the only path that truly begins with “being” because God is the source of all being. In Acts 24:14, Paul calls it simply following “The Way,” which was a common name that early Christians used for their faith. Yet unlike the Daoist understanding of “The Way,” which I studied for many years, the true Way is a relationship with a personal, perfect and loving God and it leads to eternal life.
By aligning ourselves with Him through faith we gain newness of being and everything that comes with it. In this new way of being we learn to approach life as a discovery rather than with effort and striving, which is the default mentality of the world. Some may think this leads to complacency, but the truth is that there is no difference in our level of action or participation. Rather, the distinction is in how the journey is perceived — and this does, in fact, make all the difference.
The Dance of Life is beautiful and meant to be lived, but it can only be lived in Christ. To walk the narrow road is to dance the Dance of Life, because the narrow road is a practice of maintaining the truth and not swerving to the right nor to the left, but rather dancing between them with grace. To dance also requires surrender to the music and to the Leader, who is Christ, and this why one must be born again. It profits man nothing to gain the world yet lose everything upon death. (Mark 8:36)
So, if God has made Himself known to you — rejoice, because God never changes His mind and this is why the gospel is called Good News.
And if these things have opened up a new awareness for you today, I invite you to pursue it further. God works in mysterious ways and you will never predict how He will choose to work in your life — that I can assure you. What matters is that we are open to the truth and earnestly desire it above all else. Seek the Truth, and the Truth will make Himself known to you. Seek the Way, and He will reveal Himself to you. Seek life, and you will find it in Jesus Christ.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
John 14:1-8
Life can sometimes be overwhelming and the journey we walk with God is often filled with difficulties, setbacks and discouragement. It is during these times we need to lean into prayer, build a habit of gratitude and meditate on the words of scripture which remind us of God’s glory, promises and love.
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