Waving or Drowning?

This is How I Know We Evolve [UPDATED]

Image via https://www.facebook.com/political.awareness.cdtsr
 

Yesterday was a day of sadness for me. From considering the violence in the Middle East and Northern Africa, to contemplating the sheer stupidity of hate-filled people hell-bent on destruction while hiding like cowards behind the false-idol lie of "freedom", to standing at a window here watching an angry crowd fan the flames of long-standing pain and mistrust, it was a sad day. Sorrowful, as in full of sorrow.

We have so far to go.

And then I saw this photo, and I remembered.

I remembered the trajectory we are on. Despite the setbacks, despite the reversals, despite the forgetting, We were born in love at that first spark so many billions of years ago. 

With Spirit's guidance we are growing in love. We are evolving into love.

As history has taught us,

You can curse love.
You can attack love.
You can even crucify love. 

But you cannot kill love.

 

UPDATE - I would be remiss if I did not point out what is made obvious in the photo above: 

Often it is our sisters who lead the way.

In the comments our friend Steve Frost refers to Richard Rohr. Here's another quote from the good Father which would seem to apply:

"...[W]omen have been ecouraged, and at times forced, to work on their inner lives much more than men have. When you don't have exterior power, you go inside to find your power, and in many cultures this interior power has become a major strength for women. Surely they appear to be more comfortable than men with emotions, tears, touch, social skills, discussion of interior states, and sustenance of relationships. Thus they have a huge head start in understanding spiritual matters."

Richard Rohr, On the Threshold of Transformation

Jesus, Moses, The Buddha, And Mohammed

Yesterday I briefly put it out there that Brian McLaren's new book Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?: Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World had been released. I want to take a minute to make the point again, as I think this is a vitally important book, coming at a vitally important time.

Here's a great introduction from Brian, produced by our friends at The Work of the People:

Click on image to watch video

From what I've seen, heard, and read so far, it would be  mistake to think of this as a book about inter-faith dialogue. It seems to me that this is about being a Christian in the 21st century. As the subtitle suggests, this is about Christian identity. This is a vital, key distinction.

Buy a copy and read it. Heck, buy 6 copies and give 5 away. This is an important book at a critical time.

Get the Kindle version
Get the paper & ink version 

Evolutionary Quotes: Spirit is Manifesting

We live in an age when the leading edge of Spirit is manifesting as the impulse to see the other as a neighbour and to not allow artificial differences to block our natural empathic impulses. Christ breaks down the walls that separate us, at the artificial boundaries we have constructed to justify our beliefs, prejudices, and false divisions that cause us to walk right by suffering and refuse to respond. Christ is the Heart of the evolutionary impulse that interrupts our carefully mapped-out agendas and calls us to follow our own hearts to the other side of the road to do what we knew to be natural and right before we were taught otherwise.

Bruce Sanguin, The Advance of Love: Reading the Bible With An Evolutionary Heart 

Afterthought: Something is happening friends. Of course it's happening all the time in us as individuals, as Spirit coaxes us along, with Jesus as the example. But I'm convinced that something bigger is taking place, and we as a species are on the move. These are interesting days.

Each Stage a Colour

As is no doubt obvious from these posts, it's been something of a struggle to figure out how to introduce the idea of Spiral Dynamics (for those who haven't heard of the concept before) and to focus on the evolutionary nature of our faith. I am absolutely convinced that this model goes a long way to explaining, well, almost everything. And applying it to the faith of following Jesus has been a massive reframing experience for me. 

Image via shutterstock

Today I simply want to add some colour to our conversation so far. Literally.

When I first introduced the Spiral Dynamics model to you I intentionally left out a major element of the model. It wasn't critical to our understanding, but adding this element will make our ongoing conversation about the model a little easier. When I summarized the eight stages or waves, I neglected to tell you that each stage is represented by a color, as well as a name.

Archaic-Instinctual / BEIGE
Magical-Animistic / PURPLE
Power Gods / RED
Mythic Order / BLUE
Scientific Achievement / ORANGE
The Sensitive Self / GREEN
Integrative / YELLOW
Holistic / TURQUIOSE

Going forward it will be easier to talk about Green reactions, the strengths of the Blue wave, etc.

We've also talked about the fact that there're many different developmental models, with different numbers of stages. Thankfully they all overlap to a great degree, and they can also be simplified in the same ways. It might be helpful to chart some of these waves so we can get an idea of their relative levels. We'll have some of those comparisons here in the future.

Yes, there is a lot of hierarchical language in play here. How are you doing with that major hurdle? Based on my own experience is the biggest point of resistance in accepting the concept.

I appreciate the emails I've received from those who want to talk more about this, but don't necessarily want to leave a comment. I understand. Keep them coming.

See:

"I Think Something Is Wrong..."

All the World's a Stage... or Stages

All the Church is a Stage... or Stages