--Misioneros Del Sagrado Corazón en el Perú.

The Last Sunday of Epiphany- The Transfirguation-
Getting Stuck
When we get overwhelmed with something awesome (or awful, I suppose) we get stuck.

After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. --Mark 9:2-4

That is actually the way the brain is set to work. The basic, primitive limbic system contains the pleasure center that, once it experiences please from a particular event will want to repeat that event. That's how addiction can get started from the very first use of a chemical... or the desire to seek out one mountain top experience after another.

Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.) --Mark 9:5-6

It is getting stuck! It is the desire to repeat the same things over and over to get that first-time experience. It is the chasing after that spiritual "high" that makes us feel- really feel- even if it is so awesome it invokes fear. It is one of the reasons why disciples lose their ability to go make new disciples. Instead of making disciples and becoming more dedicated disciples themselves they keep trying to replicate- for themselves first and foremost- the experiences that they have had in the past.

In my recent reading, I have discovered that there is a theme happening- it is all about having a relationship with God and Jesus. Manning's Signature of Jesus, Gregory's Dinner With a Perfect Stranger and Miller's Searching for God Knows What have been very strong on that. Being a Christian is not about reciting some special prayer or knowing some special spiritual laws or reciting certain verses in proper King James English. Being a Christian is to be in a relationship- a unique and powerful relationship that changes you and the world.

To be stuck on an experience and always trying to get it again is to have a relationship with an event, not a person. Addiction is a relationship with a chemical or experience or both. To move from that into the possibility of something even greater and more important is to start by saying:

I can't make it happen again at my own whim. I am powerless. But God isn't. Jesus isn't. I better just get to know them- be in relationship with them and see what they have in mind.

I am sure the first thing they will say is:

Let's get down off this mountain top and find some people to expand this relationship with. It's going to get kind of lonely up here with just us.