SELF-DIRECTED

Iris Murdoch (1919–1999) novelist wrote,

“A self-directed enjoyment of nature seems to me to be something forced. More naturally, as well as more properly, we take a self-forgetful pleasure in the sheer alien pointless independent existence of animals, birds, stones and trees.”

A self-directed approach to Jesus and the Kingdom of God is to me little different… rather it is a natural self-forgetful intentional pleasure of discovery for what life is really all about. It is the good and truth of the Kingdom way… it is naturally supernatural. It is perhaps not so much a… ‘Boom, I’m going to heaven,” as an ‘of course’ this is the way it is supposed to be… a life of good and truth in the Kingdom Way here and now.

This is a trip from inside our heads to outside to normal and natural… from religious to real. There is no way for us to deconstruct, dismantle or dissuade this constant mental search for God. We must let loose and find God in others, in nature, in dogs and (some, very few) cats, in lakes, trees, flowers and clouds. That is often how God finds us. While being self-directed we are also being God-directed. We find God in love.

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” Jesus