Bear with me here. I’m processing this. This has been on my mind for months, and this is the closest I’ve come to getting it out. Please feel free to respond and put in your two cents.
There is a repeated theme in fantasy literature that there are places where the boundaries between the supernatural world and the physical world are thinner, where our actions in the physical world can affect the supernatural world, and visa versa.
I know it’s not always the best idea to get your theology, or even world view, from fantasy literature, but sometimes it speaks truth in a way that no other sort of story (or text book) can. Hence C. S. Lewis writing The Chronicles of Narnia, or J.R.R. Tolkien writing The Lord of The Rings. Actually, the truth in mythology is a big reason why C. S. Lewis became a Christian (or so legend says).
The thing is, this principle isn’t just in my favorite fantasy literature; it’s all over the Bible. Look at Job: Satan talked to God – in the spiritual realm – and then Job’s physical world came shattering down around him. Look most of the last third of Moses’ life, as he led the Israelites around the desert. Look at the miracles Elijah and Elisha performed. Look at Jesus.
There is an overlap.
And maybe this is because we are not just physical beings, but spiritual as well. We live in a culture that currently believes that Science and Logic will always have the last word. And yet there are so many unanswered questions in our lives that Science and Logic will never be able to answer. So many heart longings that make absolutely no sense, but that make us miserable until we pursue them. We are spiritual beings.
And so, as both spiritual and physical beings, sometimes what we do in the physical world echoes into the spiritual – our actions, our words. Not always, but sometimes.
This is the part I’m not sure about. I don’t know where the overlap is. Is it everything? Is it only the important stuff? Is it in the quiet moments? I’m willing to bet ceremonies like weddings and baptisms are a few of those times. And those moments when you inexplicably feel loved. Or when you just know that you know that you need to do something, or say something to someone, even if it doesn’t make any sense to you.
I don’t know exactly what the implications are. I know there are some. I know there is some sort of important life application here, but other than just becoming more aware of the consequences of your physical actions, and learning to listen to the spiritual side of you (um, otherwise known as the conscience the Holy Spirit has put in you…or the Holy Spirit Himself), which are both HUGE things, I don’t know.
But I know it’s important.
So, talk to me.
In His Chrysalis 