I really like the music to the song
Mindy sang for us today (I
Can Only Imagine). As I was writing for this week I played it over and over
and over.
One of the ideas in the lyric that
really caught my attention, especially in light of what I wanted to share this
week is the idea that, “I can only imagine.”
The singer is singing to Jesus about an
experience he wishes to have, an experience which he has clearly set in the
future, “I can only imagine what it will be like when I walk by your side. I
can only imagine what my eyes will see when Your face is before me.”
Why now walk by the side of Jesus
(Joy, Peace, Happiness, Love) now, look into the Face of Love, now? Then write some
words and music, and sing and play that
to me?
This idea of a future reward for a life
well lived now is confusing to me.
Did God invent the “carrot and stick”
idea? “I’m gonna promise them peace and happiness but it’s always just going to
be just out of reach – a moving target while they’re alive on earth.”
Would a loving God do this?
The lyricist of the song wonders
aloud what’ll happen when he meets Jesus – a symbol for Joy, Love, Peace,
Happiness: will I dance or will I fall to my knees. What I hear is, “Will I
express Joy or will I feel so unworthy – like I’ve always been told I am by the
traditional church – that I’ll fall to my knees to demonstrate that, “I am less
than…”
Some people would say that is
humility. I say no. Humility would be to recognize our value is the same as
that of Jesus. We may not express that fully now, but our value is the same.
While I was writing another song
popped into mind, “I
Don’t Know How To Love Him” from JESUS CHRIST, SUPERSTAR.
Here are some of the thoughts
extended from those lyrics. Remember that the character singing the song, Mary,
has traditionally been portrayed by the church as a prostitute and she is
portrayed that way in the film. Current scholarship puts her on a level of at least
that of the disciples.
Mary sings:
- · I don’t to know how to love him, what to do. Do I look on Jesus as a man, treat him like a man? I don’t know how to take him.
- · I been changed, I’ve really changed. I seem like someone else.
- · Yes, we change when we “let Love in and let Love out!”
- · I don’t know why he moves me – he just a man.
- · She sees Jesus as a man. She can’t look beyond appearances and see the Presence of Love, although she certainly feels it.
- · When we look on Love as ordinary, common, we don’t see the uniqueness of it.
- · Should I speak of love, let my feelings out? (Yes!)
- · I never thought it’d come to this (nor did I in my life!)
- · She says, I’m the one whose always calm, so cool, running every show (ego) He scares me so (scared of Love)
- · Her constant question is, “What’s it all about?”
- · He scares me so, I want him so, I love him so
Clearly the character is confused
about Love. I think it’s because she’s looking at Love as a physical thing
while experiencing it Spiritually (as a heart and mind thing).
When we think of Love only in
physical terms, confusion reigns.
When we express love only in physical
terms, we can only imagine what spiritual Love is like.
You don’t have to imagine.
You can know.
And you know now when you
participate in what Charles Fillmore referred to as “second baptism.”
Let’s begin first with, “What is
Baptism?” Baptism is a ceremony in which we dedicate our life to spiritual
ideals. Baptism is also the activity of cleansing and purifying the soul and
the mind.
What is “Second Baptism?”
Mr. Fillmore says, “Don’t be baptized
into the church once and let that suffice, but be baptized every time you need
it. When you find that you are not getting on in your spiritual development it
is very necessary that you be baptized again. Deny something. Search your mind
and find out what mortal thought you are building that is interfering with the
perfect expression of the Spirit.” (Second Baptism 7/16/1916)
Maybe a better way to think of this
is as “Ongoing Baptism.” Whenever you are not “getting on” in your spiritual
development, baptize (cleanse) your negative and limiting thoughts.
Mr. Fillmore urges us to take a
proactive stance in pursuit of what the first song, “could only imagine,” and
the second song could feel the presence of, but was uncertain how to relate to
it: Love.
I really have no idea of how to
define capital L Love. I could say it’s, “The essence of God’s being,” but that
doesn’t really do it and the reason is capital L Love is an experience unlike
any other thing, an experience beyond all definition. The only way I know to
experience it is to remove the blocks to the awareness of its presence. When the blocks have been removed Love flows
forth in our experience. We don’t have to generate it, we don’t have to think
about, or choose to extend it; we simply “let.”
Nearly 100 years ago, in 1916, Mr.
Fillmore suggested we “re-baptize” every time we need it. Baptism is, after
all, between you and Spirit, and the cleansing of destructive thought can be
experienced whenever you wish.
Deny something, then follow it with
an affirmation.
Deny a statement or a thought that is
not true. And follow it with a positive statement of truth.
I have to do this all the time to
keep the rats away, so to speak. Baptism, the cleansing of the mind, is an
ongoing process, not a “one-and-done” ceremony.
If you no longer want to “only
imagine,” if you want to know how to “Love Him,” the Lord, your God, practice
continuous baptism.
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