Day 270- Falling to Pieces

📖Daily Reading

1 Corinthians 1-2

🎥 Video  

Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.

 

📝 Reflection 

 1 Corinthians 1: 12-13

'Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter, ” or “I follow only Christ.” Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not! '

I'm going to go in a little bit different direction today. I am going to relate it to the text but I'm also going to share a personal story and application. I've got some big ideas to share to be a personal example of spirituality and spiritual growth. Whether you believe in the label of God, the Bible, Jesus or not we are all spiritual beings having a physical experience. We get so caught up in the physical world because we have physical bodies that we have to contend with and move through life with and the world. Many of us just shut off the spiritual because we're not really sure, it is to ‘weird’ or mysterious, so we just tune out and pretend it’s not there. But it is….  

For many of us, we'll let ourselves acknowledge maybe in the privacy of our own minds glimpses of the spiritual but it kind of freaks us out. But if you can open your mind and your heart and willingly get curious a whole new aspect of you will be born. But this is where free will comes in. Our physical bodies have a natural aging process that they go through, and usually brain development emotional development kind of follows the aging process, but not always, depending on the kind of caregivers you have, what you're born into your family of origin, what you're taught, how mature your parents are, how spiritual they are like that help these different parts of you develop, along with the physical aging of our bodies. 

Anyway, the physical aging of our bodies is an automatic process. The more we learn about science and quantum physics and that whole realm of epi-genetics, the things that we can't see, but we can because the evidence of them and the consequences of them show up in our physical bodies. So all of those factors of stress. What we believe about ourselves, the stories we believe, all of that affect our physical self. And we know this, this isn't ’woowoo’. If it woo woo to you, then that's okay. You're just not ready for it or you're choosing to block that off. And that's ok, no judgement I was there once too, I intentionally shut myself off to that part of me. 

So Paul is writing this letter here to the church of Corinth, understanding that many in the church are like spiritual babies or children that are easily confused. And some of them are just blocked. He also realized that some of them  had a spiritual awakening but then fell back asleep. All kinds of confusion, likely the same thing we deal with internally, like ‘can this really be real’, it is easier to just believe in the messenger of the way, like Paul or Apollos  than it is to believe in Jesus.

I laughed when he says ‘this is not the gospel of Paul and people are not being baptized in my name.’ I'm just teaching I'm just sharing a message. Don't believe in me. Don't believe in Apollos, don't believe in Peter believe in the message of the cross. He even says it like that - the message of the cross. He is imploring them to open their spiritual eyes to see that there is a bigger message here.  He wants to inspire them to begin their spiritual development. If we look at the physical development process as a model to help us think about our spiritual birth, and that it also has to go through stages. 

The spiritual stages of development aren't on autopilot like our physical bodies are. This depends on you, and your willingness and it's not going to be done for you. This is where free will comes in to the human equation, and says, Okay, I'm ready to be a baby now and be spoon fed. And I'm ready to be move on to toddler-hood and start walking on my own. And now I'm ready to be a child and be all wide eyed and curious. But what children also do, they pretend they watch the adults and they mimic the adults. They play games like house and cops and robbers and you know all these things. Anyway. So let's put on our metaphorical hats: this is like spiritually. Many of us stay in the childhood phase of our spiritual development. We are playing and mimicking what we think mature spiritually people are doing. We go to church on Sunday, we pray, we read a devotional, go to a bible study. We are going through the motions, and this is a necessary and a beautiful stage, but just a stage not a place to spend your life.

There's no judgment here. And no judgment. Because I think I stayed in this stage for a long time. I think that's where I was. And I was like, I was just in this stage, going through the motions doing all the things, putting on the costume, doing the things was watching the more mature Christians mimicking them, thinking that I was one following me. And then as I've really said, Wait a minute. I think there's more for me here. What if I really did the things that like really did all the things that the more mature Christians did, like actually read the Bible for myself instead of just reading what they're telling me about it, or taking their word for it? 

I went and read it for myself. And then it's like the spiritual floodgates kind of opened and the Holy Spirit comes in when you're open and you're choosing it. So my personal story is that I've had sort of a breakthrough about the overall theme of the Bible. The main them is love over fear and the ego and then dying to the ego. Love God, love yourself, love your neighbor, be humble and things that go okay for you. And anyway, with this is coming a sense of overwhelming freedom. And I was starting to entertain thoughts like “I've got this message Do I really need to even finish the Bible? Like,… I got it, I’ve arrived!” Doesn’t that sound a little like an arrogant teenager? 

I'm calling myself out here. I'm like, “oh, oh, well, I've I've kind of had a breakthrough where I realize I'm not that child pretending anymore” But not so fast, I'm not really an adult yet either. I've got some awareness I've got some capabilities. But I need to not be too arrogant or complacent to think I got it figured out here yet. 

The spiritual world is a mystery and Paul talks about that in these first two chapters. He says ‘we can't know the mind of God’ and that he speaks to each one of us individually, in a different ways, and through our minds and through the Spirit and so you need to be humble. And know that you don't know. I don't know. You don't know. Paul is saying things like “I'm not trying to speak in my own wisdom or in human wisdom. Look, God even picked you people who are nothing and made you something just so he can demonstrate to the people who know something or think they know something of human wisdom. All the greatest philosophers and debaters and religious leaders.” 

He’s calling them out. He's like, they think they know something. And now they're blocking really knowing something because they think they know something with human wisdom and the rulers and here you all have been given this gift of understanding. But part of the requirement for understanding is that you need to know that you don't understand anything paradox, like catch 22. Don't think too highly of yourself just because you've been chosen because it is a chosenness and a giftedness  and you have to partner willingly and stay humble. I caught myself being prideful, arrogant, thinking I know something.  

Boy, I could have really fallen off a cliff there, and fallen to pieces. I was feeling a little bit of complacency and a little bit of arrogance popping into my head going. “Do I really need to read what Paul wrote I think I've got this thing. I think I've got the message. I'm good”  Thank goodness I've got some spiritual people in my life that are more mature. We need to intentionally put people in our lives that are ahead of us, so that we don't fall into this trap, or if we do we can be pulled out. We need to be pulled and encouraged forward, so that we can keep ourselves humble. 

✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt 

How about you, do you surround yourself with people that are further along than you to help you avoid this complacency and arrogance trap of spiritual teenager hood, so you can move up to a more mature faith?

📖Tomorrows Reading

 1 Corinthians 3

Coaching Opportunity

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