As a kid, I loved playing with legos. I remember how I would continually build a robot using these oversized pieces of legos. I would build it and then tear it apart so that I can start over and build it again. My fascination with legos turned into drawing. But I got stuck to only drawing this three-story dream house of mine. It seemed like every time I had paper in front of me, that was the only thing I could draw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over time my interest in legos and drawings turned into computers. When I was 12, I disassembled my dad\u2019s first laptop. I thought it was broken and I wanted to fix it, but I didn\u2019t know how to put it back together. However, I kept going with computers, building and repairing computers, and learning from my mistakes. That eventually led me to web development. I became both the engineer and the architect of websites, which I still do today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even from a young age, I recognized that everything in life starts in pieces. Everything has building blocks. Life has stages of development. You start with a foundation and then you build on top of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In college, I took a few courses on Psychology and it was one of my favorite subjects. I wanted to know how the mind works. I remember learning the stages of human development and how they brought clarity about humanity that I\u2019ve never seen before. And just like how I learned how to disassemble legos and computers, I started doing that with myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At some point in my early twenties, I hit an existential crisis. I knew something was missing like when a piece of lego is missing or when I didn\u2019t know how to put my dad\u2019s laptop back together, or a code that isn\u2019t working on a client\u2019s website, or you just don\u2019t know what to create. I didn\u2019t know what I was searching for or what I was building towards. I had no blueprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I looked for the missing piece in different groups of the community, different friends, different projects I could put my hands on, or hobbies that held my interest. I became a sponge of what everybody else loved while forgetting what I loved for myself. I was looking for belonging externally, only to find out I never really belonged to myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I began asking the questions: \u201cWhy do I believe what I believe? Why do I act in a particular way in certain situations and not in others? Why do I love certain things and not other things? Why is my personality the way that it is?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My love of Psychology expanded into a fascination with neuroscience, biology, spirituality, physiology, and genetics, all the while looking at the scriptures hoping to explain this phenomenon called the human experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Belonging is first an inside job. I didn\u2019t realize this until the Lord spoke to my heart and said, \u201cBuild your internal world to look like My world.\u201d That invitation made me realize that up to that point, my Christianity was more about an external involvement rather than an internal belonging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was compensating my need for belonging through involvement because that is what I thought belonging looked like. It didn\u2019t help that I was insecure about who I was, so involvement became a source of validation. But that kind of involvement isn\u2019t the same thing as belonging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How could I authentically belong to something if I didn\u2019t know how to belong to myself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reading this admonition from St. Theresa of Avila brought so much weight to the importance of this,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI do not know if I have explained this clearly: self-knowledge is so important that, even if you were raised right up to the heavens, I should like you never to relax your cultivation of it; so long as we are on this earth, nothing matters more than humility. And so I repeat that it is a very good thing \u2014 excellent, indeed \u2014 to begin by entering the room where humility is acquired rather than by flying off to the other rooms.\u201d (Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n From there, my moments of deconstruction<\/a> became more like an unraveling of revelations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s interesting to hear Jesus\u2019 response when the religious people of his day asked what the greatest commandments were in the Old Testament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.\u2019 This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: \u2018Love your<\/strong> neighbor as yourself.\u2019 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.\u201d \u2013 Matthew 22:37-40<\/p>\n\n\n\n Listen to the emphasis on YOUR<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This scripture is impressing upon us the value of our attachment; that sense of responsibility that comes with ownership. Loving God and loving others begins with you. You don\u2019t get to love God or others through someone else; Not a church, a priest, a king, or any other medium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It begins with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then with all YOUR heart, soul, and mind. (Luke adds strength to the list.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s interesting how the ancient scribes distinguished the different faculties of our being. It\u2019s as if they knew intuitively, what we now know by science; that each of these actually affects and influences the way we behave and make decisions. Each has their own voice, language, and tone of telling us what they need. And, YOU are that integrated center that aligns all of them to look like His world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGuard YOUR heart for out of it flows springs of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOut of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhere YOUR treasure is, there YOUR heart will be also.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And when Jesus said that \u201cthe Kingdom of God is within YOU\u201d that speaks of ownership. The gospel is about owning your internal world, integrating all the faculties to will one thing; this inner kingdom you\u2019ve been gifted with to mirror His world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus starts his famous Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes. In it, he said the pure in heart will see God. According to S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard<\/a>, purity of heart is to will one thing, where your attention and intention are focused on that one thing. I wonder if that\u2019s what Jesus meant? That to fully see God, without any distortions or shadows, we cannot be a divided being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s interesting to me is when Jesus shared these words, He was talking to the sinners, to the outcasts, to the rejects, to the oppressed, to the sick, to the unworthy, and to the untouchables of his society. He was inviting them to come to him and rest, but at the same time, empowering them to own what they do have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Jesus, the war they thought they were fighting isn\u2019t the war at all. The war is within them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLove YOUR enemies\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDo not worry about YOUR life\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen YOU give to the needy\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen YOU look at a woman\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n You get the pattern. It\u2019s an internal confrontation of our tendency for self-protection and self-preservation. So Jesus begins the beatitude by blessing those who are poor in spirit, and then those who mourn, and then those who are meek, and then those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, then those who are merciful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then those who are pure in heart\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n That if we have any hopes of having a purity of heart, we have to go through and acknowledge when we are poor in spirit,<\/p>\n\n\n\n so that we can begin to mourn,<\/p>\n\n\n\n and step into meekness,<\/p>\n\n\n\n so that we can know how to hunger and thirst for righteousness<\/p>\n\n\n\n and be able to show mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You don\u2019t leave one stage without taking the previous stage with you. You take what you went through and you take it to the next. It\u2019s as if the Lord is showing us the building blocks or the pathway to be mature and what it means to be whole and integrated, a different way of being human \u2013 a new creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After purity of heart comes peacemaking. The Lord knows we needed that then and we need it now more than ever, because how can we ever become peacemakers if we aren\u2019t at peace with ourselves?<\/p>\n\n\n\n So it begins with us and then works itself outside of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus begins the beatitude with blessing the poor in spirit and ends it with blessing those who are persecuted saying, \u201ctheirs is the Kingdom of God.\u201d This whole thing is about cultivating an ongoing and increasing ownership and stewardship of the Kingdom that begins inside of us then works itself outside of us..<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a cycle.\u00a0Each with their own seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Death and a Resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the process of incarnation where your life becomes an unfolding story of grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You start poor, and then you grow. And you keep growing. Until life happens again. You\u2019re weary, betrayed, tired. You\u2019re back to grief. And you feel like you are back to the beginning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But you\u2019ve actually matured. You\u2019ve gained deeper ownership of the Kingdom inside of you. The breaking enters you into a deeper sense of belonging to yourself so that you can integrate all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength to perfect love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then the journey starts again because isn\u2019t that the point of the Gospel?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s this transformative and generative journey where you are continually conformed into the image of Christ through the work of the Spirit within you so that you can actually take the command to love God and to love others as yourself a step further \u2013 to love others as Christ loved you \u2013 to be able to lay your life down for one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the journey we are invited to join in. That\u2019s the unfolding story of grace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jesus begins the beatitude with blessing the poor in spirit and ends it with blessing those who are persecuted saying, \u201ctheirs is the Kingdom of God.\u201d This whole thing is about cultivating an ongoing and increasing ownership and stewardship of the Kingdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":274,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128,126],"tags":[195,196,90,197,198,199],"class_list":["post-60855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healing-and-wholeness","category-kingdom-culture","tag-beatitude","tag-development","tag-grace","tag-incarnation","tag-stewardship","tag-wholeness",""],"blockli_fields":{"post_type":"","post_action":"","post_type_icon":"","background_image":""},"bb_bookmark":{"bookmark_id":0,"is_bookmarked":false,"bookmark_date":0},"app_bookmark":{"bookmark_id":0,"is_bookmarked":false,"bookmark_date":0},"comments_count":"0","content_native":[{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" As a kid, I loved playing with legos. I remember how I would continually build a robot using these oversized pieces of legos. I would build it and then tear it apart so that I can start over and build it again. My fascination with legos turned into drawing. But I got stuck to only drawing this three-story dream house of mine. It seemed like every time I had paper in front of me, that was the only thing I could draw.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"As a kid, I loved playing with legos. I remember how I would continually build a robot using these oversized pieces of legos. I would build it and then tear it apart so that I can start over and build it again. My fascination with legos turned into drawing. But I got stuck to only drawing this three-story dream house of mine. It seemed like every time I had paper in front of me, that was the only thing I could draw."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" Over time my interest in legos and drawings turned into computers. When I was 12, I disassembled my dad\u2019s first laptop. I thought it was broken and I wanted to fix it, but I didn\u2019t know how to put it back together. However, I kept going with computers, building and repairing computers, and learning from my mistakes. That eventually led me to web development. I became both the engineer and the architect of websites, which I still do today.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"Over time my interest in legos and drawings turned into computers. When I was 12, I disassembled my dad\u2019s first laptop. I thought it was broken and I wanted to fix it, but I didn\u2019t know how to put it back together. However, I kept going with computers, building and repairing computers, and learning from my mistakes. That eventually led me to web development. I became both the engineer and the architect of websites, which I still do today."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/heading","render":" Even from a young age, I recognized that everything in life starts in pieces. Everything has building blocks. Life has stages of development. You start with a foundation and then you build on top of it.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"Even from a young age, I recognized that everything in life starts in pieces. Everything has building blocks. Life has stages of development. You start with a foundation and then you build on top of it."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" In college, I took a few courses on Psychology and it was one of my favorite subjects. I wanted to know how the mind works. I remember learning the stages of human development and how they brought clarity about humanity that I\u2019ve never seen before. And just like how I learned how to disassemble legos and computers, I started doing that with myself.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"In college, I took a few courses on Psychology and it was one of my favorite subjects. I wanted to know how the mind works. I remember learning the stages of human development and how they brought clarity about humanity that I\u2019ve never seen before. And just like how I learned how to disassemble legos and computers, I started doing that with myself."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" At some point in my early twenties, I hit an existential crisis. I knew something was missing like when a piece of lego is missing or when I didn\u2019t know how to put my dad\u2019s laptop back together, or a code that isn\u2019t working on a client\u2019s website, or you just don\u2019t know what to create. I didn\u2019t know what I was searching for or what I was building towards. I had no blueprint.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"At some point in my early twenties, I hit an existential crisis. I knew something was missing like when a piece of lego is missing or when I didn\u2019t know how to put my dad\u2019s laptop back together, or a code that isn\u2019t working on a client\u2019s website, or you just don\u2019t know what to create. I didn\u2019t know what I was searching for or what I was building towards. I had no blueprint."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" I looked for the missing piece in different groups of the community, different friends, different projects I could put my hands on, or hobbies that held my interest. I became a sponge of what everybody else loved while forgetting what I loved for myself. I was looking for belonging externally, only to find out I never really belonged to myself.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"I looked for the missing piece in different groups of the community, different friends, different projects I could put my hands on, or hobbies that held my interest. I became a sponge of what everybody else loved while forgetting what I loved for myself. I was looking for belonging externally, only to find out I never really belonged to myself."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" I began asking the questions: \u201cWhy do I believe what I believe? Why do I act in a particular way in certain situations and not in others? Why do I love certain things and not other things? Why is my personality the way that it is?\u201d<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"I began asking the questions: \u201cWhy do I believe what I believe? Why do I act in a particular way in certain situations and not in others? Why do I love certain things and not other things? Why is my personality the way that it is?\u201d"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" My love of Psychology expanded into a fascination with neuroscience, biology, spirituality, physiology, and genetics, all the while looking at the scriptures hoping to explain this phenomenon called the human experience.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"My love of Psychology expanded into a fascination with neuroscience, biology, spirituality, physiology, and genetics, all the while looking at the scriptures hoping to explain this phenomenon called the human experience."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/heading","render":" Belonging is first an inside job. I didn\u2019t realize this until the Lord spoke to my heart and said, \u201cBuild your internal world to look like My world.\u201d That invitation made me realize that up to that point, my Christianity was more about an external involvement rather than an internal belonging.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"Belonging is first an inside job. I didn\u2019t realize this until the Lord spoke to my heart and said, \u201cBuild your internal world to look like My world.\u201d That invitation made me realize that up to that point, my Christianity was more about an external involvement rather than an internal belonging."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" I was compensating my need for belonging through involvement because that is what I thought belonging looked like. It didn\u2019t help that I was insecure about who I was, so involvement became a source of validation. But that kind of involvement isn\u2019t the same thing as belonging.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"I was compensating my need for belonging through involvement because that is what I thought belonging looked like. It didn\u2019t help that I was insecure about who I was, so involvement became a source of validation. But that kind of involvement isn\u2019t the same thing as belonging."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" How could I authentically belong to something if I didn\u2019t know how to belong to myself?<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"How could I authentically belong to something if I didn\u2019t know how to belong to myself?"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" Reading this admonition from St. Theresa of Avila brought so much weight to the importance of this,<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"Reading this admonition from St. Theresa of Avila brought so much weight to the importance of this,"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" \u201cI do not know if I have explained this clearly: self-knowledge is so important that, even if you were raised right up to the heavens, I should like you never to relax your cultivation of it; so long as we are on this earth, nothing matters more than humility. And so I repeat that it is a very good thing \u2014 excellent, indeed \u2014 to begin by entering the room where humility is acquired rather than by flying off to the other rooms.\u201d (Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle)<\/em><\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"\u201cI do not know if I have explained this clearly: self-knowledge is so important that, even if you were raised right up to the heavens, I should like you never to relax your cultivation of it; so long as we are on this earth, nothing matters more than humility. And so I repeat that it is a very good thing \u2014 excellent, indeed \u2014 to begin by entering the room where humility is acquired rather than by flying off to the other rooms.\u201d (Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle)<\/em>"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" From there, my moments of deconstruction<\/a> became more like an unraveling of revelations.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"From there, my moments of deconstruction<\/a> became more like an unraveling of revelations."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/heading","render":" It\u2019s interesting to hear Jesus\u2019 response when the religious people of his day asked what the greatest commandments were in the Old Testament.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"It\u2019s interesting to hear Jesus\u2019 response when the religious people of his day asked what the greatest commandments were in the Old Testament."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.\u2019 This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: \u2018Love your<\/strong> neighbor as yourself.\u2019 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.\u201d \u2013 Matthew 22:37-40<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.\u2019 This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: \u2018Love your<\/strong> neighbor as yourself.\u2019 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.\u201d \u2013 Matthew 22:37-40"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" Listen to the emphasis on YOUR<\/em>.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"Listen to the emphasis on YOUR<\/em>."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" This scripture is impressing upon us the value of our attachment; that sense of responsibility that comes with ownership. Loving God and loving others begins with you. You don\u2019t get to love God or others through someone else; Not a church, a priest, a king, or any other medium.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"This scripture is impressing upon us the value of our attachment; that sense of responsibility that comes with ownership. Loving God and loving others begins with you. You don\u2019t get to love God or others through someone else; Not a church, a priest, a king, or any other medium."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" It begins with you.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"It begins with you."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" Then with all YOUR heart, soul, and mind. (Luke adds strength to the list.)<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"Then with all YOUR heart, soul, and mind. (Luke adds strength to the list.)"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" It\u2019s interesting how the ancient scribes distinguished the different faculties of our being. It\u2019s as if they knew intuitively, what we now know by science; that each of these actually affects and influences the way we behave and make decisions. Each has their own voice, language, and tone of telling us what they need. And, YOU are that integrated center that aligns all of them to look like His world.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"It\u2019s interesting how the ancient scribes distinguished the different faculties of our being. It\u2019s as if they knew intuitively, what we now know by science; that each of these actually affects and influences the way we behave and make decisions. Each has their own voice, language, and tone of telling us what they need. And, YOU are that integrated center that aligns all of them to look like His world."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" \u201cGuard YOUR heart for out of it flows springs of life.\u201d<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"\u201cGuard YOUR heart for out of it flows springs of life.\u201d"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" \u201cOut of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.\u201d<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"\u201cOut of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.\u201d"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" \u201cWhere YOUR treasure is, there YOUR heart will be also.\u201d<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"\u201cWhere YOUR treasure is, there YOUR heart will be also.\u201d"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" And when Jesus said that \u201cthe Kingdom of God is within YOU\u201d that speaks of ownership. The gospel is about owning your internal world, integrating all the faculties to will one thing; this inner kingdom you\u2019ve been gifted with to mirror His world.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"And when Jesus said that \u201cthe Kingdom of God is within YOU\u201d that speaks of ownership. The gospel is about owning your internal world, integrating all the faculties to will one thing; this inner kingdom you\u2019ve been gifted with to mirror His world."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/heading","render":" Jesus starts his famous Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes. In it, he said the pure in heart will see God. According to S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard<\/a>, purity of heart is to will one thing, where your attention and intention are focused on that one thing. I wonder if that\u2019s what Jesus meant? That to fully see God, without any distortions or shadows, we cannot be a divided being.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"Jesus starts his famous Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes. In it, he said the pure in heart will see God. According to S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard<\/a>, purity of heart is to will one thing, where your attention and intention are focused on that one thing. I wonder if that\u2019s what Jesus meant? That to fully see God, without any distortions or shadows, we cannot be a divided being."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" What\u2019s interesting to me is when Jesus shared these words, He was talking to the sinners, to the outcasts, to the rejects, to the oppressed, to the sick, to the unworthy, and to the untouchables of his society. He was inviting them to come to him and rest, but at the same time, empowering them to own what they do have.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"What\u2019s interesting to me is when Jesus shared these words, He was talking to the sinners, to the outcasts, to the rejects, to the oppressed, to the sick, to the unworthy, and to the untouchables of his society. He was inviting them to come to him and rest, but at the same time, empowering them to own what they do have."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" For Jesus, the war they thought they were fighting isn\u2019t the war at all. The war is within them.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"For Jesus, the war they thought they were fighting isn\u2019t the war at all. The war is within them."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" \u201cLove YOUR enemies\u2026\u201d<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"\u201cLove YOUR enemies\u2026\u201d"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" \u201cDo not worry about YOUR life\u2026\u201d<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"\u201cDo not worry about YOUR life\u2026\u201d"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" \u201cWhen YOU give to the needy\u2026<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"\u201cWhen YOU give to the needy\u2026"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" \u201cWhen YOU look at a woman\u2026\u201d<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"\u201cWhen YOU look at a woman\u2026\u201d"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" You get the pattern. It\u2019s an internal confrontation of our tendency for self-protection and self-preservation. So Jesus begins the beatitude by blessing those who are poor in spirit, and then those who mourn, and then those who are meek, and then those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, then those who are merciful.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"You get the pattern. It\u2019s an internal confrontation of our tendency for self-protection and self-preservation. So Jesus begins the beatitude by blessing those who are poor in spirit, and then those who mourn, and then those who are meek, and then those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, then those who are merciful."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" And then those who are pure in heart\u2026<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"And then those who are pure in heart\u2026"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" That if we have any hopes of having a purity of heart, we have to go through and acknowledge when we are poor in spirit,<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"That if we have any hopes of having a purity of heart, we have to go through and acknowledge when we are poor in spirit,"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" so that we can begin to mourn,<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"so that we can begin to mourn,"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" and step into meekness,<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"and step into meekness,"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" so that we can know how to hunger and thirst for righteousness<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"so that we can know how to hunger and thirst for righteousness"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" and be able to show mercy.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"and be able to show mercy."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" You don\u2019t leave one stage without taking the previous stage with you. You take what you went through and you take it to the next. It\u2019s as if the Lord is showing us the building blocks or the pathway to be mature and what it means to be whole and integrated, a different way of being human \u2013 a new creation.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"You don\u2019t leave one stage without taking the previous stage with you. You take what you went through and you take it to the next. It\u2019s as if the Lord is showing us the building blocks or the pathway to be mature and what it means to be whole and integrated, a different way of being human \u2013 a new creation."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" After purity of heart comes peacemaking. The Lord knows we needed that then and we need it now more than ever, because how can we ever become peacemakers if we aren\u2019t at peace with ourselves?<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"After purity of heart comes peacemaking. The Lord knows we needed that then and we need it now more than ever, because how can we ever become peacemakers if we aren\u2019t at peace with ourselves?"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" So it begins with us and then works itself outside of us.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"So it begins with us and then works itself outside of us."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/heading","render":" Jesus begins the beatitude with blessing the poor in spirit and ends it with blessing those who are persecuted saying, \u201ctheirs is the Kingdom of God.\u201d This whole thing is about cultivating an ongoing and increasing ownership and stewardship of the Kingdom that begins inside of us then works itself outside of us..<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"Jesus begins the beatitude with blessing the poor in spirit and ends it with blessing those who are persecuted saying, \u201ctheirs is the Kingdom of God.\u201d This whole thing is about cultivating an ongoing and increasing ownership and stewardship of the Kingdom that begins inside of us then works itself outside of us.."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" It\u2019s a cycle. Each with their own seasons.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"It\u2019s a cycle. Each with their own seasons."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" A Death and a Resurrection.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"A Death and a Resurrection."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" It\u2019s the process of incarnation where your life becomes an unfolding story of grace.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"It\u2019s the process of incarnation where your life becomes an unfolding story of grace."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" You start poor, and then you grow. And you keep growing. Until life happens again. You\u2019re weary, betrayed, tired. You\u2019re back to grief. And you feel like you are back to the beginning. <\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"You start poor, and then you grow. And you keep growing. Until life happens again. You\u2019re weary, betrayed, tired. You\u2019re back to grief. And you feel like you are back to the beginning. "}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" But you\u2019ve actually matured. You\u2019ve gained deeper ownership of the Kingdom inside of you. The breaking enters you into a deeper sense of belonging to yourself so that you can integrate all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength to perfect love.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"But you\u2019ve actually matured. You\u2019ve gained deeper ownership of the Kingdom inside of you. The breaking enters you into a deeper sense of belonging to yourself so that you can integrate all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength to perfect love."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" And then the journey starts again because isn\u2019t that the point of the Gospel?<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"And then the journey starts again because isn\u2019t that the point of the Gospel?"}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" It\u2019s this transformative and generative journey where you are continually conformed into the image of Christ through the work of the Spirit within you so that you can actually take the command to love God and to love others as yourself a step further \u2013 to love others as Christ loved you \u2013 to be able to lay your life down for one another.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"It\u2019s this transformative and generative journey where you are continually conformed into the image of Christ through the work of the Spirit within you so that you can actually take the command to love God and to love others as yourself a step further \u2013 to love others as Christ loved you \u2013 to be able to lay your life down for one another."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":" That\u2019s the journey we are invited to join in. That\u2019s the unfolding story of grace.<\/p>","content":[{"type":"text","data":"That\u2019s the journey we are invited to join in. That\u2019s the unfolding story of grace."}],"data":[],"style":{"textAlign":"left","color":"","dropCap":false,"parent_style":{}}}],"app_access":{"can_access":true,"restrict_message":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60855"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1400173,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60855\/revisions\/1400173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwrv.org\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Love the Lord YOUR God<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Seeing The Beatitudes as Stages of Spiritual Formation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Process of Incarnation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A Common Thread<\/h2>","content":"A Common Thread","data":[],"style":{"align":"left","parent_style":{},"header":"h2","fontSize":"27px"}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":"
The Search for Belonging<\/h2>","content":"The Search for Belonging","data":[],"style":{"align":"left","parent_style":{},"header":"h2","fontSize":"27px"}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":"
Love the Lord YOUR God<\/h2>","content":"Love the Lord YOUR God","data":[],"style":{"align":"left","parent_style":{},"header":"h2","fontSize":"27px"}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":"
Seeing The Beatitudes as Stages of Spiritual Formation<\/h2>","content":"Seeing The Beatitudes as Stages of Spiritual Formation","data":[],"style":{"align":"left","parent_style":{},"header":"h2","fontSize":"27px"}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":"
The Process of Incarnation<\/h2>","content":"The Process of Incarnation","data":[],"style":{"align":"left","parent_style":{},"header":"h2","fontSize":"27px"}},{"type":"core\/paragraph","render":"