Gym Spritual

Not from the Gospels today, but the morning. I am on the treadmill, trying to push the speed up to the point where I break a sweat. It's hard to do this and read my fabulous, favorite new book, The Wisdom Jesus, by Cynthia Bourgeault. She's an Episcopal priest and teacher of contemplative prayer. I think she's awesome, even if I have to work to get what she's talking about sometimes. She says Jesus is tricky because he's trying to get us past our "egoic operating system of dualistic perception". Most people won't bang their heads against such abstraction, and then what good does it do? How is that a Jesus for everybody?

Then I start to get it. Basically, it's the way we tend to see our world - good/bad, in/out, better or worse - and all in terms of ourselves. How do I stack up? Does he have more than I do? Am I going to get mine? Then she starts to dish about Paul's notion of kenosis - self-emptying love, based on God's abundance and extravagance. Those of you who are more experienced students of the New Testament are probably well-versed in this, but it's a new one on me. Especially coming from Paul, not my favorite person. Jesus says we can get to the divine within ourselves not by purifying it or protecting it (as taught by the ascetics, including John the Baptist and lots of uptight people of various religious persuasions) but by spending it recklessly, the way God does on us. Then God's love is present in the world. Suddenly I see this in all kinds of parables and teachings: The sower who throws seeds everywhere, including stupid places where it could never grow; the hidden treasure and pearl of great price, where the finder blows his whole budget for this one thing, the dad in the prodigal son story; the good shepherd who lets all his other sheep wander off to save the one. It's in the instruction to not hide your light under a bushel (oil was precious in those days, usually saved for emergencies by most) and especially to lose your life to find it.

And I am so grooving on this, seeing how it applies to people of all different beliefs and talents and personalities, not just Christians. It sounds so simple, and cliched to say that love is the most important thing, that this is the reason for anyone to pursue a spiritual path, to learn how to do this. We learn how to connect to the source of that love and to offer it to others, or as Bourgeault would say, we are connected to God when we do this extravagant practice of love.

Meanwhile, I am also plugged into the overhead TVs showing CNN. Between spiritual insights I am caught up in Michelle Obama's inaugural ball gown (gorgeous, and well, sure if you're tall and thin like her you can wear anything) and the Academy Award picks (so political, these things). Afterwards, I'm in Brew Ha-Ha! our local coffee shop - love this sabbatical - and annoyed as hell as a young mom talks loudly and continually to her friends about school uniforms and swim practice and some juicy gossip about someone they know who is preggers even though her husband had a vasectomy three years ago... and I can't tune her out. While I'm reading my spiritual book, thank you very much, and I wonder who it is?

Doing this Jesus stuff in the real world might be harder than it looks.