God-sufficiency not self-sufficiency, Rebellion is a must
Few things run more counter to the constant craving of my ego-self than personal powerlessness. Yet in my experience, nothing brings me more deep inner peace than letting go of power and control. It is the price that must be paid if I want to live a life of peace through grace, in the living-God space.
Paul of Tarsus writes, “…Power is made perfect in weakness…For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2Cor 12:9-10). This is a difficult but beautiful revolutionary expression of a spirituality that places Spirit-dependence over self-reliance. God-sufficiency over self-sufficiency. Without doubt, this was a tall order when it was written two thousand years ago, and it is perhaps more so today.
There is a personal and counter-cultural revolution required to pursue a life of absolute dependence on the living God.
A deep desire for personal power and control underpinned everything I ever believed about myself in the first forty years of my life. These desires were not only like nectar for my ever-thirsty ego but were perfectly enabled and encouraged by a Western world that is fully enamoured with these same traits.
The promise of personal power and control may not be openly stated, but I believe this is among the highly addictive underpinnings of the lure of Western culture. Of course, there is a Faustian pact—In this scheme of things, I must completely link my desire for personal power and control with the powers that be in the human realm.
Not that I was aware of this unholy bargain or my interrelated ego-driven compulsions during the first four decades of my life. Blind that I was, introspection of any sort simple had no place in my modus operandi. I might have always had the soul of spiritual rebel deep within in me, but it got stunted by my addiction to self-sufficiency.
Now, with the eyes of a much older mystic man, nearly thirty years on, I’m still in the phase of daily radical renunciation of power and control. The illusion of these additive desires still manifests within me, and in my enculturation to wacky ways of power and control in the world all around me.
Letting all this go every day and embracing personal powerlessness is the daily revolutionary mystic challenge. The revolution of yesterday is done and dusted. Today requires a new rebellion of strength through weakness. I must fully embrace heart peace, comrades, that lets God-sufficiency through grace take priority of place.
We misfit mystic of heart just might be among the greatest revolutionaries of our age. Indeed, few things are more revolutionary in the face of our often-hidden desire for power and control than choosing daily to let it all go.
There is a price for deep inner peace. I know of no path to heart peace that does not include constant surrender. The mystic revolutionary must stand aside and even opposed to any prevailing culture that promotes power and control. We are in the business of God-sufficiency, not self-sufficiency or enslavement to earthly powers. Ours may be a silent revolution each day, or we may be out on the street peace banner held high with or sisters and brothers in the struggle. But one way or another, rebellion is a must.
The mystic revolutionary Paul of Tarsus was right on the money. It’s all about Spirit sufficiency, not self-sufficiency. Power is made perfect in weakness…When I am weak, then I am strong. Absolute dependence on the living God is an act of rebellion, comrades. The mystic revolution is on. Rebellion is a must.
– Cormac Stagg, author of The Quest for a Humble Heart