Holy Disruption

At our last Center for Spiritual Nourishment gathering, I talked about Holy Disruption under the broader subject of love and the cross. I typically have an hour for Conversations with Manny. These conversations are designed to enhance our spiritual practices. It isn’t a lecture, and so you wouldn’t find me doing all the talking. It is a conversation, and so others are invited to share their thoughts without any judgment.

I love the fact that I can do that. Most importantly, I love the opportunity of hearing others share their deepest thoughts. If you haven’t been able to join us on the second Saturdays of the month, I highly encourage you to do so. You will find great joy in many of the subjects and activities that are offered for your spiritual enrichment. I also believe that it is through these opportunities for spiritual development and growth that we can identify moments of Holy Disruptions in our lives.

Holy Disruptions happen when we least expect them to. Holy Disruptions happen when we feel set on a particular course, and then we are jolted by God’s overarching presence. Holy Disruptions happen when certain events in our lives make us feel abandoned by God. Holy Disruptions happen when life seems so quiet and comfortable. Holy Disruptions happen when everything seems to be on an even keel. And when they do happen, they not only reveal a part of us that was previously hidden, but they also tell us more about ourselves and help us reimagine our lives going forward.

There’s a famous Daoist fable, that of the Empty Boat. A monk decides to meditate alone, away from his monastery. He takes his boat out to the middle of the lake, moors it there, closes his eyes and begins his meditation. After a few hours of undisturbed silence, he suddenly feels the bump of another boat colliding with his own. With his eyes still closed, he senses his anger rising, and by the time he opens his eyes, he is ready to scream at the boatman who dared to disturb his meditation. But when he opens his eyes, he sees it’s an empty boat that had probably got untethered and floated to the middle of the lake. At that moment, the monk achieves self-realisation, and understands that the anger is within him; it merely needs the bump of an external object to provoke it out of him. From then on, whenever he comes across someone who irritates him or provokes him to anger, he reminds himself, “The other person is merely an empty boat. The anger is within me.”

I’d like to implore you to think about this story for a minute. I have a few questions that I hope would guide you as you reflect on the story. What was the Holy Disruption in the story? What did the monk come to know about himself? How did the monk reimagine his life going forward?

Holy Scripture is replete with lots of people who experienced Holy Disruptions. This about Abram and his call from the Ur of the Chaldeans to a new land. This about Moses and the Burning Bush. Think about David and his anointing. Think about Jonah and his time in the belly of the whale. Think about the disciples of Jesus-fishermen who were suddenly called to follow Jesus. Think about the woman of Samaria who met Jesus at the well. Think about Paul, the persecutor of the church. Think about Cornelius, the Gentile whose conversion became a flashpoint in early Christianity.

In addition to the above-named people and incidences, there have been instances in the life of faithful Christians over the centuries which tell of the Holy Disruptions that they too may have experienced in their lives.

Furthermore, I’d like to invite you to think about our community of faith, Christ Church. We’ve always had a Holy Disruption, but one notable disruption, especially as we celebrated Refugee Sunday, was the call to respond to the Refugee crisis.

Lastly, think about your own self. I may not know about all your Holy Disruptions, but I can certainly say that we have all had Holy Disruptions in our individual lives. And these Holy Disruptions always set us on a different course because they bring the cross into focus.

Carolyn Gratton, in her book The Art of Spiritual Direction, writes this:

“A cross comes into being when a horizontal thrust (one’s human life) is interrupted by a vertical thrust (for the sake of the gospel).”

For Carolyn, then, a cross or Holy Disruptions become possible or come alive for the sake of the gospel - which is pretty telling. I hear her make the point that the goal of a disruption is to bring the message of the gospel to light. The cross, in itself, which we can also refer to as disruption or interruption, isn’t the end, nor is it the goal. The cross, disruption, or interruption is a means to an end, a vessel for a greater purpose.

The point of any cross, disruption, or interruption is for us to ask, what is this cross teaching me about myself, what is the cross revealing to me about myself, my relationship with others and ultimately, my relationship with God?

If scripture’s encouragement is for us to give thanks in all things, both good and bad, how does a disruption become holy?

It depends on how you see it-the glass can be half empty or half full. It all depends on how you see it.

Here’s a story of a Holy Disruption... Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. Years and years later, the same brothers appeared before Joseph. Joseph immediately recognized them, but they didn’t recognize him because they never thought that he would rise to the level of being the Prime Minister of Egypt. They thought he was probably dead or laboring on some fields.

When he finally revealed himself to them, he opened their eyes to see what he saw about himself-they had planned to harm him, but God had planned it for good. God had a different purpose for what they did. They thought that they were eliminating him, but God had a different agenda for him. God, he may have told them, has a weird sense of humor.

This is what he saw about himself: that despite all the trauma, he could still see the hand of God in his life and guiding his affairs. And because he could see God’s hand, those disruptions became for him a Holy Disruption. Through these different crosses that he had to carry, Joseph gained a deeper understanding of himself and his relationship with God, and because of that, he could forgive his brothers.

To get to that point on our spiritual path, where we see the hand of God in virtually every aspect of our lives is not easy, but it is doable. It may not be apparent at first, but should we dare to look intently and with purpose, we can see the hand of God. And because we can see the hand of God, crosses, interruptions and disruptions can be our Holy Disruptions. More than that, I believe that there’s always a teachable gift in the crosses of our Holy Disruptions.

To embrace our Holy Disruptions is to reimagine how, going forward, our lives can be. 

Manny+