It’s not at all a matter of the end product.
The single factor that most distinguishes a real Christian Mystic from other believers is a commitment to obey convictions simply because they are convictions, without any regard for outcomes. We embrace the consequences as the gift and glory of God. We know that God grants the results in this world as He sees fit. Our only part in this is to obey.
Being able to unlink from the logic of outcomes is by far the greatest freedom of all in this life. Among Christian Mystics, perhaps the greatest heresy is the illusion of control. This is the very foundation of the Fall. It appears in the The Trinity of Temptation: Lust of the Flesh, Lust of the Eyes and the Boastful Pride of Life. All three of them have that one common theme of seeking to control things that are simply not within our grasp. We want to indulge the fleshly appetites and satisfy their cravings. We have an insatiable curiosity about things because it appears to contribute to our power to control. We boast that we are able to do anything we want, if only we can find the means of leverage.
It’s the same fundamental deception in the Fall: We can decide what ought to be. Satan tells us we can establish for ourselves what is good and bad and take it from there. That’s the Forbidden Fruit.
But we do not decide. Reality does not respond to our manipulations because there is already established an inherent truth about what is good and bad, and reality answers to that moral truth. Reality has its own agenda that is quite different from anything we can gin up from our experiences and reason. We are not in control, and never can we be in control of the outcomes. There will always be factors for which we cannot possibly calculate, in part because the calculus includes a factor of moral truth that we simply cannot arrive at without revelation.
And taking hold of revelation means surrendering the illusion of control. You cannot grasp revelation until you bow the knee. This is why God used the image of the Flaming Sword at the Gate of Eden: You must take the sword and turn it upon yourself voluntarily. Otherwise it will remain to deny you access. If Eden represents all desirable outcomes, then you can’t have it without first sacrificing your fleshly demand to control.
So Yoda was totally wrong when he suggested that there is no place in our thinking for “trying.” To the contrary, trying is all we have. And the only thing worthy of trying is obedience to our convictions. It matters not whether we can gain what appears to be our objective. Our only objective is to obey, to try. The outcome is never for one moment in our hands. Once we surrender the outcomes to God, we have no need for controlling any part of the process except our own inner desire to obey.
When all we have is trying, there are no grounds for seeking organization as humans think of such things. There is no need for orthodoxy or orthopraxy. There is only a personal bond of compassion between us, a compassion that tolerates a lot of apparent contradiction. Communion doesn’t rest on how much we are alike, but in how close our paths bring us to each other. The measure of what makes us a community is not human uniformity of any kind, but of moral conformance on a different level entirely. We all agree we must pursue our convictions, and that we should work together when the convictions permit, and separate to protect each other from interference when obedience pushes us apart. It’s the obedience that controls, and the obedience must be directed from above.
Given human frailty against time-space constraints, there must always be some kind of organization and leadership, but this is more than adequately addressed in divine revelation. It will always be guided by a moral vision of process, not product. The sole duty of leadership is to maintain an atmosphere of clinging to conviction itself, not where it’s driving us. The only valid objective is communion and fellowship. Social stability is the whole thrust of Biblical Law.
This business of focusing on process instead of product is easily the hardest thing for which we strive in Radix Fidem.
