God’s Best Friend

There is a TV ad that shows a lovely puppy running to his food bowl while the announcer says, “He’s preparing to become your best friend.” Then I looked over at my dog Toby and thought, “What happened to you?” Because Toby expects me to prepare to become his best friend.  His nickname is Toby Wan Kenobi because he uses his Jedi mind tricks to get me to let him out the door or to remind me that it’s breakfast time/dinner time/cookie time. No barking or whimpering, no noise at all. Just the expectation that I will be tuned in to his thoughts and desires. I usually am.  Something in Toby’s wiring got switched up and our relationship is upside down. 

It struck me, “Did my wiring get switched up?” Do I have the expectation that God should be tuned in to my every thought and desire? How did I get this relationship so upside down? What happened to me?

Enter the 1st day of Advent. Enter the 1st Beatitude. 

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Matthew is quite clear: the Kingdom of Heaven has an upside-down perspective from how I view and live life. Only I am the one that is upside down. Nothing seems as it should, and what I think is normal human living is probably wrong. I’ve been walking on the ceiling only I just don’t know it because everyone else is as well. 

Who in their right mind would consider that the top spot in the divine empire goes to the one who puts themself last and doesn’t lust after the top spot in the first place? And who would guess that my seeking to elevate others above myself would make me more powerful than if I sought only to elevate my own position?

I need to be rewired because my weakened, frayed wires simply aren’t capable of handling God’s extra voltage. That is what “kingdom” is about. Power. Empire. Dominion. And the Kingdom of Heaven is no different, in that respect. But what is mind blowing is what power in God’s Kingdom actually looks like, how it truly behaves. Whether AC or DC, I can’t begin to channel God’s current without burning up. That is, of course, until I get a new kind of wiring. A super conductive kind.

That is what the Beatitudes will do when I meditate on them and focus on putting them into practice in my life. And then, not just putting them into practice, but actually finding myself being transformed by them. Yes, the Beatitudes are God’s transformers, transforming me into the kind of wiring necessary for his Spirit Current (SC) to flow through, in order to turn this world right-side up again. 

I also need to get my mind tuned into God’s thoughts and desires; not the other way around. If I can tune into my dog’s desires, why not into God’s?

But I can’t do it by myself. One little filament does not a cable make. I need  others. We wrap around each other, strengthening each other. Sometimes it might feel like we are twisting ourselves into a shape that feels irregular and unnatural. Maybe it is. But if the Spirit of God is going to flow through us into this world, then we will need that stronger cable. 

Come with me these next four weeks as I pound out and ponder what it means to be poor in spirit. I need all the help I can get.