Quite frightening being an expert. Some years back I took part in a few days on the enneagram, so now am quite an expert on that. How many books have a I read on it, I hear you ask… well that depends on whether you mean ‘read’ as in content, or read as in read the title on the cover. Assuming the latter – I can answer ‘3’, so I pretty much now know everything I need to know. And now that Gayle is working with Authentic Lives, I of course know so much more (core process, future self… see I have totally grasped two concepts). I am fast tracking myself on being an expert, and in the process my insights are indeed quite amazing, nay frightening. So I am sure with my credentials laid out you are ready to read on.
Fear. Fearful over the future. Unsure, so not ready to ask the question that might disturb my security. There are people like that. (And pulling on my enneagrammic background, that is not putting people into a box, it is simply helping you / me identify the box we are in.) Hold that thought.
I am increasingly seeing as I read Scripture that it does not give us all the answers, indeed within the pages there is some significant debate (not to mention some cheeky words that seem to be put in God’s mouth – how did that stuff in Deuteronomy get in about the king, when God was not too keen on the idea of a king?) Anyway makes Bible reading harder, but so much more is required. The more being essentially, ‘so what about you Martin, how do you line up and why?’
It seems then that the Christian faith is the way to go if we are ready to embark on a journey where we do not have all the answers, where inner rest in God (I would probably instinctively write ‘Jesus’ cos I am not that good as a well-balanced Trinitarian) is exactly that – a resting place – that clams anxieties, soothes stress, that gives a deep assurance that all will be well, because of that Passover / first Easter.
Christian faith meets fear. Now what?… Depends some on what we consider the Christian faith consists of. If it is one of certainty, and one that clearly has a world view that everything outside of my context is ‘evil’ (after all the whole world is in the hands of the evil one) we will quickly find a way to trust wherever there teachings of certainty are being propagated. We might even gravitate toward a Christian community where the leadership have a developed world view (not to mention eschatology!!!) that explains everything, assures us that our fears are indeed justified, but encourages us to stick in with them and we will come out all right – certainly in the end even if persecution is already here. That persecution is not yet putting us in prison, but is evident in the censorship of free speech, and the narrowing of acceptable opinion in the name of tolerance. It leaves me free to live, but I can see that the persecution is everywhere (except my home, phew!!!), and all the while I know where things are headed, these are the signs of the times. Welcome to the world of the Christian sect (not cult) that in the more developed end also has cult-like leaders. (Developed also can be spelt ‘charismatic’. And I write as one who is definitely at home with the label charismatic.) The Christian world being remarkably similar to the world that saw the development of the sects of the New Testament… and the early Christian faith was viewed as yet another (deviant) Jewish sect, so I am not using the word too pejoratively. (Those sects seemed to find fertile ground when Israel was more separated from the world… post-Exile, blah de blah.)
Oh yes… Back to my expertise. There are groups who are made up of a leadership who more or less are of a certain enneagrammic personality. And the people who are part of those movements are more-or-less part of another enneagrammic personality. A ‘union made in heaven’. Well not actually in heaven, and very much a union made on earth.
Fear meets Christian faith… Or, if we, with all our uncertainties, meet a Christian faith that says Jesus is our security (I should have used a Trinitarian term there, but am working on that) and will be with us beyond the end of the age (slight adjustment to Matthew’s pre-70AD rendition), what a journey we can embark on. A ‘I don’t know about…’ response to so much, but a ‘presence of God with me’.
Fear… meets certainties. Or fear meets a Person to journey with. Now what will I choose? I suspect the path I choose will determine who I embrace.
And given it is Sunday morning and you are begging for more to read, here is an article I read this morning. I found the description of the ‘fourth generation’ of warfare very insightful.