I tend to think of our plane of existence as a bubble, but I’m sure you get the reference to “thinking outside the box.”
Again, this exercise assumes you are alert both intellectually and spiritually. Otherwise, it will not make much sense. Sure, if you grew up in a cultural tradition that tends to value mysticism, you might get it. Human wisdom begins with acknowledging there are things you’ll never understand. However, that is no excuse for resignation, but offers a challenge to the intellect to find its valid place in service to something far bigger.
The simplest example begins with linear thinking. Mysticism requires you know how to branch, to accept multiple conflicting answers. When it comes to the petty debates typical of religious people, you can often read between the lines: “Only one of us can be right, and I think it’s me.” The underlying assumption is that the issue of discussion is wholly contained in our universe, when the entire range of divine revelation is rooted outside it. Mysticism means you don’t take yourself too seriously, that you can be convicted firmly of the necessity of your choices even as you realize they might not work for someone else. You tend to view the topic as something no one really could possibly understand with their minds in the first place, and so conflicts between one answer or another does not negate either one. It doesn’t have to make sense on our level.
I’ve cited more than once my dissatisfaction with the manosphere, particularly the Christians who should know better: Spiritual values are a wholly different sexual marketplace than that of the flesh. I recognize and use the weakness of the flesh in secular Game to communicate the gospel message; it’s part of the human language. But it’s not the final truth to which I commit myself, and I don’t rely too much on what the fleshly approach can accomplish. The power of the Spirit can overcome the whole thing. The best woman or man that God could place in your life may or may not match all the points on the canonical list of traits. You’ve got to evaluate from that eternal perspective: What makes for a truly blessed marriage? So, for example, men with a truly spiritual frame of reference are likely to be deeply moved by the voice of Kelly Willard as she descants in this recording:
The quality of Kelly’s voice is about as feminine as it gets. It calls out to the manly spirit; it’s the sound of a real lady who is fully self-conscious and reveling in what it means to be a woman in spiritual terms. Not some untouchable saint, but someone whose voice invites you to come closer. You can conclude all that without ever seeing her face. She was pretty enough in her prime (a month older than me), but when you reach beyond the perspective of the flesh, a godly man wants what that voice is advertising.
What I find most disturbing in American Christianity is the shocking disconnect between the verbiage and the reflexes. My talk of otherworldly focus is not much of a problem for them, but they choke on the connotations. When I suggest we look forward to escaping this Vale of Sorrow, they nod and smile. When I go on to discuss the implications of that sentiment, I get some pretty nasty arguments.
When I say large church organizations with big budgets and a very active membership don’t necessarily signify God’s pleasure and presence in the particular church, it can get really ugly. In other words, they are still hung up entirely on the externals and whether the music moves their emotions. God simply must be there; who could imagine otherwise? They can’t envision how mankind could emulate that. Try any competitive reality show. Huge crowds in huge facilities with very moving performances, and sometimes frankly religious music and God-talk. They say nice things about what could be if people only tried, etc. So, talk to me about the church that was destroyed by “an act of God” or by arson and persecution because they didn’t have the proper permits. Talk to me about a spiritual commitment that needs none of the flash and cash to find a reason to keep doing the things Christ commanded.
Don’t talk to me about their theology; nobody has that perfectly right. Talk to me about the power to keep pushing when there is no earthly reason for it. Talk to me about the motivations and desires that make no reference to the lies from which this whole world is constituted. Who is the Richard Wurmbrand of our age?
Think outside the universe.
