Ordinary Mysteries was released early this morning. You can now find it wherever books are sold. This is the Trade Paperback edition. We had a successful fundraiser for the ELCJHL and sold more than 100 books, raising approximately $1500 for Hospitals, Schools, and People. Thank you. You can order it here if you really hanker for that hardback edition. There are four copies left.
The paperback edition is also available at a discount exclusively at my bookstore. Not only is it likely to be less expensive there than elsewhere, but you'll also be supporting me directly and the non-profits I donate and support. The e-book version is only $7. That eBook will load onto your Kindle, Nook, and iPad, you name it. The paperback is $20 plus shipping, but I can add a few pluses to the first 25 orders. I’ll sign them and include a bookmark and several sample cards from the Table Talk card deck, which will be available in May. As will the audiobook version. (I came down with a head cold yesterday, so I thought it best if I did not record with a congested sinus, though it could be pretty entertaining when you set the playback to plus 4x)
Finally, there is a comprehensive study guide available. It’s free on my website. Just click here. The guide is a valuable resource for individuals who wish to delve deeper into the readings and the questions. It's also perfect for small groups, serving as a stimulating discussion guide. By the way, if you do have a small group, I’m more than happy to join you for a discussion session, what I like to call an “author talk.” In the old days, that was a car or a plane ride, but nowadays, it’s a Zoom call. Let me know if you are interested.
I’m quite pleased with this book. I think it’s my best one yet, and I love the artwork done by my brother. By the way, you should look at his other work at arthazelwood.com
I know that people like to sample books, so here is another chapter from the book. Next week, I’ll be back with a new essay.
An Excerpt from Ordinary Mysteries: Faith, Doubt & Meaning
WE ARE LINKED TO THE INFINITE
“We are lived by powers we pretend to understand.”
—W.H. Auden
Have you ever had an experience where you sensed you were in the presence of God?
I’m guessing the answer might be yes, but perhaps you’ve never thought that your experience was spiritual. These are unexplained encounters, and involve phenomena that run counter to our everyday life experience. Some people have wildly bizarre encounters with the Holy while others have more ordinary events, and still others may have had some sort of “thing” happen that they believe they cannot share with anyone. I’m convinced almost everyone has had some type of encounter, but some may be reluctant to describe the experience.
The American psychologist William James discusses this idea in his classic book, The Varieties of Religious Experience. He distinguishes between primary religious encounters, direct personal experiences, and secondary religion, which involves teachings about the faith or organizational aspects. Most of what happens in American church life today is secondary religion—information, analysis, and description. When I preach or teach on a Scripture passage or describe a theological concept, I am practicing secondary religion. It’s secondary because it’s about the religious experience.
Primary religion is the direct experience of the Holy, such as encounters with phenomena, hauntings, or numinous creatures, conversations with angels, or experiences of gentle calm. Those encounters can be mountain-top experiences or subtle reminders of the blessing of being alive. They can be out in nature, inside your living room, or around the corner from your place of work.
The quote above from the poet W. H. Auden is from his poem titled “In Memory of Ernst Toller.”[1] The line “We are lived by powers we pretend to understand” has a broader application to the two realms I wrote about in the first chapter of this book. Auden captures in just a few words the profound truth that we humans are influenced by forces that lie beyond our rational, conscious, and materialist perspective.
Auden’s words suggest that something other than our rational ego-centered mind is influencing our thoughts and actions. Namely, that there is a presence that is among us, within us, and around us. We could give many names to this presence, but I’ll focus here on its spiritual significance. We encounter glimpses of this presence throughout our lives—a feeling, an intuition, perhaps a vision, or even a voice. For example, in my book Everyday Spirituality, I describe the experience of my friend David, a struggling alcoholic, who “saw” a nurse at the foot of his bed as he recovered in a hospital.
The next day, David was transferred from NBC television in New York City to a small affiliate in Kalamazoo, Michigan. There,
for several years, he worked in local radio sales and continued to drink. As many an alcoholic will attest, he was possessed. He could not stop. Over time he made several attempts at a rehab and Alcoholics Anonymous—and also had multiple close calls with death.
It all came to a head one night, when David consumed so much alcohol that he had to be hospitalized. But to this day he has no recollection of how he got to the hospital.
One evening, David awoke to the presence of a nurse at the foot of his bed. He saw a large African American woman dressed in a white uniform, like the traditional nurse’s uniform, including the white cap that was a staple of the uniform in a previous era. She looked at him and said: “What are you doing with your life?”
The next morning as the sunlight came into his hospital room, he asked the attendant if he could speak to the nurse.
“I’m the on-duty nurse, sir,” said the small, slight, older white woman.
“No, I mean the other nurse. The one who was here last night.”
“I am the night duty nurse, sir. I’m the only one who’s been on this floor all night.”[2]
What did my friend David see? Was it an alcohol-induced hallucination? Was it an angelic being? Was it a dream? Was it a messenger? Was it an unseen power, as Auden would suggest?
Australian philosopher David Tacey recently defined spirituality as “The power of eternity yearning to be in time,” echoing William Blake’s “Eternity is in love with the productions of time.” This line comes from Blake’s masterpiece The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. I contend that people in our time seek the eternal. We yearn for encounters with the infinite because it helps give our lives a sense of meaning and purpose.[3]
The expansive interest in astrology and yoga can be understood as a desire to encounter mystery, wonder, and the infinite. Empirical forms of religious experience are on the rise in Buddhism and Hinduism, emphasizing meditation. In the Christian tradition, we see this in the global increase of Pentecostalism, focusing on a direct encounter with the divine. I recall a visit years ago to a Vineyard Movement worship service that featured a wide range of people speaking in tongues, rolling on the floor, and dancing in the aisles.
A recent article in the New York Times by Ruth Graham described new alternatives to traditional church baptisms, including baptisms in the ocean, in horse troughs, even in hot tubs. When asked to describe the motivation behind the trend, “We live in an age where people like experiences,” said Mark Clifton, pastor of Linwood Baptist Church in Kansas. “It’s not that it looks better, but it feels better. It feels more authentic. It feels more real.”[4] One could easily argue that this trend is gimmicky, but my point in highlighting it here is to illustrate the desire for an experiential religion.
The advertising industry has also watched this growth. Products and experiences are marketed to us with a clear message: Satisfying your personal desires is the ultimate fulfillment—just buy this product, vacation, or automobile. Perhaps this explains what surveys consistently reveal: the number one recreational activity for Americans is shopping. We seek our recreation and re-creation in the acquisition of goods and services.
But many late-modern people find the acquisition of things inadequate for living a whole and meaningful life. We long for something more profound.
How can we humans, living in a digital age, rediscover and reconnect with God? I offer the following as possibilities. Of course, there are likely other ways, but I’ll focus on five ways we connect with the spiritual realm.
The Arts: I consider music, painting, sculpture, dance, and drama to be among creative expressions that have a sacred quality. My wife often describes singing as her spiritual discipline. It feeds her and gives her great joy, but it also somehow connects her with something deeper. My brother is an artist in the San Francisco area. Through various print imaginings, he reveals insight into both ancient and contemporary events. A friend just took up pottery, and another has returned to her love of dance. “I don't care if I look like a fool. I’m feeling a spirit alive in me while I move,” she said.
Relationships: I’m thinking of the long-lasting relationships we have with significant people in our lives. Through these, we learn more about ourselves than in any classroom, book, or therapeutic exchange. Is God present in that life of loving relations? I think so. The Greeks had three words for love. In Sanskrit, there are over one hundred words for love, yet in English, we rely on modifiers to help us explain love. Romantic love is different than brotherly love. Erotic love is not the same as compassionate love. What we experience in those first few weeks and months of a romantic relationship evolves after ten years, thirty years, or longer. We grow and change as individuals and in relationships. If God is Love, as the Bible says, our lifelong experience of evolving love is a spiritual encounter.
Nature: A walk in the woods, a swim in the lake, a bike ride along a country road. What is it about the natural world that opens us up to the sacred? Perhaps more than any other practice, people report mystical encounters taking place in the natural world. We now have scientific evidence of the benefit of simply being outside for twenty minutes. But before all the neuroscience, humans lived in the environment of trees, rivers, and open plains. As late-modern people in a technological age, we forget that we are animals, and our roots are in the natural world. The history of religion in the world contains stories of people encountering God in the created world—in a burning bush, underneath a Bodhi Tree, in the river Jordan, or in a desert cave.
Are you looking for a way to connect with God? Take a walk outside.
Dreams: Dreams provide opportunities to experience a sacred realm and possibly an avenue to the soul. One author called them God’s forgotten language, while another wrote of dreams as unopened letters from God.[5] The parade of night visions that cross our awareness while we sleep allows us to experience the Holy. I look forward to each night as I hit the pillow, and often ask myself, What will the dream maker show me tonight? Next to my bed sits a small journal where I can record my dreams. They come to us without charge . . . a symbol of the ongoing gift of grace from God. It is in dreaming that we enter a world of mystery and wonder. While some comment that they do not recall their dreams, and others write them off as insignificant, there is ample evidence of the healing and meaning of dreams.
Most dreams are representations of what goes on inside the dreamer.
Dreams usually speak of the evolution of forces inside us,
The conflicts of values and viewpoints there,
The different unconscious energy systems that are trying to be heard,
Trying to find their way into our conscious lives.[6]
Prayer/Meditation: While words can shape our experiences, I fear they can also cover up the direct encounter with the Holy. I’ve read beautiful prayers for decades, but not one can match the experience of the sacred. Our meetings with the numinous are ineffable. So often, when we hear the word prayer, we think of written or spoken prayers. Sadly, many prayers seem to be telling God what we want, need, desire. Is it possible that a healthy relationship with the divine involves a two-way conversation.
But prayer should not be something we seek to perfect, as the poet Mary Oliver reminds us in this line from her poem Praying. “… this isn’t a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak.[7]
I’ve illustrated a few practical ways we can seek out the numinous, but let’s be clear that it is more often the case that God finds us, rather than us finding God. Therefore, the Holy often surprises us in its appearance. But we can put ourselves in a place of awareness and openness.
“The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of his life.”[8]
—C. G. Jung
Until next Time,
James Hazelwood is the bishop of the New England Synod—ELCA Lutheran. He is also a Spiritual Director and Coach in Depth Psychology and the Christian Mystical Tradition. He is the author of several books, including Ordinary Mysteries: Faith, Doubt, and Meaning, which is available now.