Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming. With space our intelligence is absolutely intimate; it is rationality and transparency incarnate. The same may be said of the ego and of time. However, if for simplicity’s sake we ignore them, we may truly say that when we desiderate rational knowledge of the World the standard set by our knowledge of space is what governs our desires. Cannot the breaks, the jolts, the margin of foreignness, be exorcise from other things and leave them unitary like the space they fill? Could this be done, the philosophic kingdom of Heaven would be at hand. However, God is inescapable. He is God only because He is inescapable. And only that which is inescapable is God. There is no place to which we could flee from God which is outside of God. “If I ascend to the Heavens, Thou art there.” It seems very natural for God to be in Heaven, and very unnatural for us to wish to ascend to Heaven in order to escape Him. However, that is just what the idealist of all ages have tried to do. They have tried to leap towards the Heaven of perfection and truth, of justice and peace, where God is not wanted. That Heaven is a Heaven of human’s making, without the driving restlessness of the Divine Spirit and without the driving restlessness of the Divine Face. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18

However, such a place is a “no place;” it is a “utopia,” an idealistic illusion. “If I make hell my home, behold, Thou art there.” Hell or Sheol, the habitation of the dead, would seem to be the right place to hide from God And that is where all those who long for death, in order to escape the Divine Demands, attempt to flee. I am convinced that there is no one amongst us who has not at some time desired to be liberated from the burden of one’s existence by stepping out of it. And I know that there are some amongst us for whom this longing is a daily temptation. However, everyone knows in the dept of one’s heart that death would not provide an escape from the inner demand made upon one. “If I take the winds of dawn and dwell in the midst of the sea, Thy Hand would even fall on me there, and Thy right Hand would grasp me.” To fly to the ends of the Earth would not be to escape from God. Our technical civilization attempts just that, in order to be liberated from the knowledge that it lacks a centre of life and meaning. The modern way to flee from God is to rush ahead and ahead, as quickly as the beams before Sunrise, to conquer more and more space in every direction, in every humanly possible way, to be always active, to be always planning, and to be always preparing. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18

The practice is all too common of presenting a guru to the literary public in a most fulsome and adulatory manner. Those followers who write as if their spiritual guide is a faultless person, never blundering in any way and ever angelic in all ways, do their guide a disservice. They deprive one of one’s humanity and others of the hope of attaining one’s condition. One’s reliability and competence, one’s trustworthiness and holiness, as a guide, are not diminished if one’s limitations and faults as a human being are acknowledged. Their followers put these people forward as being flawless demigods, not knowing that by doing so they render a disservice to the people themselves as much as to the cause of truth. What is worse, they throw confusion into the path of all aspirants, who form wrong ideas as to what lies ahead of them and what they ought to do or be. The traditional attitude of some towards a guru attains fantastic degrees of utter materialism. We have observed disciples drinking water in which the guru’s feet were washed, and kissing the bumper of the Ultimate Driving Machines on which on rode. They are in part the result of improper teaching they have received. They mistake servitude to a guru for service to humankind. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18

However, God’s Hand falls upon us; and I has fallen heavily and destructively upon our feeling civilization; our flight proved to be vain. “When I think that the darkness shall cover me, that night shall hide me, I know at the same time that the darkness is not dark to Thee, and that night is as bright as day.” To flee into darkness in order to forget God is not to escape Him. For a time we may be able to hurl Him out of our consciousness, to reject Him, to refute Him, to argue convincingly for His non-existence, and to live very comfortably without Him. However, ultimately we know that it is not He Whom we reject and forget, but that it is rather some distorted picture of Him. And we know that we can argue against Him, only because He impels us to attack Him. There is no escape from God through forgetfulness. “Where could I do from Thy Spirit? O, where could I flee from Thy Face?” The poet who wrote those words to describe the futile attempt of humans to escape God certainly believed that humans desire to escape God. He is not alone in his conviction. Humans of all kinds, prophets and reformers, saints, and atheists, believers and unbelievers, have the same experience. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18

It is safe to say that a human who has never tried to flee God have never experienced the God Who is really God. When I speak of God, I do not refer to the many gods of our own making, the gods with whom we can live rather comfortably. For there is no reason to flee a God who is the perfect picture of everything that is good in humans. Why try to escape from such a far-removed ideal? And there is no reason to flee from a God who is simply the Universe, or the laws of nature, or the course of history. Why try to escape from a reality of which we are a part? There is no reason to flee from a God who is nothing more than a benevolent father, a father who guarantees our immortality and final happiness. Why try to escape from someone who serves us so well? No, those are not pictures of God, but rather of humans, trying to make God in one’s own image and for one’s own comfort. They are the produces of human’s imagination and wishful thinking, justly denied by every honest atheist. A God whom we can easily bear, a God from whom we do not have to hide, a God whom we do not hate in moments, a God whose destruction we never desire, is not God at all, and has no reality. Friedrich Nietzsche, the same atheists and ardent enemy of religion and Christianity, knew more about the power of the idea of God than many faith Christians. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18

In a symbolic story, when Zarathustra, the prophet of a higher humanity, says to the Ugliest Man, the terminator of God, “You could not bear him to see you, always to see through and through…You took revenge on the witness…You are the terminator of God,” the Ugliest Man agrees with Zarathustra and replies, “He had to die.” For God, according to the Ugliest Man, looks with the eyes that see everything; He peers into the human’s ground and depth, into his hidden shame and ugliness. The God Who sees everything, and man also, is the God Who has to die. Man cannot stand that such a Witness lives. Are we able to stand such a Witness? The psalmist says, “O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me.” Who can stand to be known so thoroughly even in the darkest corners of one’s soul? Who does not want to escape such a Witness? And who does not want to become one who can deny God in theory and practice, an atheist? “Thou knowest when I sit down, and when I stand up…Walking or resting, I am judged by Thee; and all my ways are open to Thee.” God knows what we are; and He knows what we do. Who does not hate a companion who is always present on every road and in every place of rest? Who does not want to break through the prison of such a perpetual companionship? “Thou discernest my thoughts from afar…Lord, there is not a word on my tongue which Thou knowest not.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 18

He who is Christ is he who brings the new eon, the new reality. “There are many of us on this Earth and there have been at times many, many more. Immortality as we use this word is a grant of immunity from old age an illness; but not from violent annihilation. And so we live with mortality as do all others under the Sun,” (Page 389 of The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice). An ontology of the New Being follows upon a dynamic awareness of the extent to which the realm of creaturely being is justified by faith. The criterion of all theology is its ability to preserve the absolute tension between the conditional and the unconditional. We have not now the refuge of distinguishing between the “reality” an its appearances. Facts of thought being the only facts, differences of thought become the only differences, and identities of thought the only identities there are. Two thoughts that seems different are different to all eternity. We can no longer speak of heat and light being reconciled in any tertium quid like wave-motion. For motion is motion, and light is light, and heat heat forever, and their discontinuity is as absolute as their existence. In yet another way, too, ideal and real are so far apart that their conjunction seems quite hopeless. To eat our cake and have it, to lose our soul and save it, to enjoy the physical privileges of selfishness and the moral luxury of altruism at the same time would be ideal. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18

However, the real offers us these terms in the shape of mutually exclusive alternatives of which only one can be true at once; so that we must choose; and in choose terminate one possibility. An individual who is attempting to live one’s life in a person-centered way brings about a politics of family relationships, and marriage or partner relationships, which is drastically different from the traditional model. The child is treated as a unique person, worthy of respect, possessing the right to evaluate one’s own experience in one’s own way, with wide powers of autonomous choice. The parent respects oneself also, with rights which cannot be overridden by the child. In the relationship between partners, married or otherwise, issues are confronted with as much openness as the partners are capable of. In other realms there is much freedom for each partner to pursue a life direction, to make choices, to engage in work or other activities in one’s own way. In these relationships the eventual choice is possessed in the person, as does the responsibility for that choice. The relationship is one of a changing expression of feelings and attitudes, with the other endeavouring to hear and to listen acceptantly, but with a right to one’s own feelings an attitudes as well, which also need to be acceptantly heard. It is a most difficult kind of relationship to achieve, which would certainly not be worth the investment were the results not so rewarding. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18

One facet of this complex scene is the manner of relating to (I was going to say the rearing of) children. I am acquainted with a number of parents in their twenties, thirties, and forties who have been exposed to a person-centered approach—through student-centered classes, workshops, encounter groups, therapy or a combination of these experiences. These parents have a new way of dealing with the child, from infancy through late adolescence. One’s earliest tears and wails, one’s beginning smiles and one’s mouthing of sounds are efforts to communicate, and an earnest and respectful attention is given to those primitive communications. The effort is also made to allow the child the right to choose, in any situation in which one seems capable of bearing the consequences of one’s choice. This is an expanding process, in which increasing autonomy is given to the child and adolescent, autonomy bounded only by the feelings of those who are close to the younger. If this sounds like a completely child-centered family, it is not. The parent has feelings and attitudes too, and tries to communicate these to the child in a way this smaller person can understand. The results are fantastic. Because they are continually aware of many of their own feelings and those of their parents, and because these feelings have been expressed and accepted, the children develop as highly social creatures. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18

They are sensitive to the feelings of others about them, and though at times they may be confronting, it is only occasionally that they consciously attempt to hurt another. Thus there are two disciplines in their lives: the self-discipline that is always inherent in autonomy with responsibility, and he flexible boundaries—and hence discipline-set by the feelings of those who are close to them. Why may not the World be a sort of republican banquet of this sort, where all the qualities of being respect one another’s personal sacredness, ye sit at the common table of space and time? These children are not good material for a traditional school, which expects to mold them into conforming robots, but they are extremely eager learners when exposed to a climate that encourages learning. They are a great hope for the future. They are accustomed to living as independent beings, openly relating to others, and they expect to continue in that fashions—in the school life, their work life, and in their relationship to partners. These children are growing up with a minimum of repressed feelings—feelings denied to awareness out of guilt of fear—and with a minimum of inhibitions imposed by others through external controls. They come closer to being truly free creatures than any adults I know. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18

I do not wish to paint too rosy a picture. I have seen some of these parents forget, temporarily, that they have rights, with resultant spoiling of the child. I have seen parents and children revert temporarily to the old ways—the parent commanding, the child resisting. Both parents and children are sometimes exhausted, and react badly. There are always frictions and difficulties to be communicated and worked through. However, all in all, in these families we find parent and child in a continuous process of relating, a developing series of changes whose final outcome is not known but is being shaped by an infinite number of daily choices and actions. The politics of control an obedience, with its pleasing static security, is gone. The politics of a process relationship between unique persons, a very different politics, takes place. It is a gift we can approach things at all, and, by means of time and space of which our minds and they partake, alter our actions so as to meet them. Contradiction, shown to lurk in the very heart of coherence and continuity, cannot after that be held to defeat them, and must be taken as the universal solvent—or, rather, there is no longer any need of a solvent. However, we must also recognize a second factor that leads many to think that spiritual formation to Christlikeness is impossible. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18

 This is widely held view that being more like Christ is the low level of spiritual living among professing Christians is to be regarded as “only natural,” only what is to be expected—lamentable as that may be. According to this view, human nature, flesh, life, and its World are all essentially vile, rotten, and worthless, an especially on the inside. Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Hitler, as examples, were equally vile in their hearts, this view would say. However, for various constraints from God and the situation in which God had placed her, Mother Teresa could have behaved just as wickedly throughout her life as Hitler did. This outlook, which has sometimes been referred to as “miserable sinner” Christianity, feeds on a number of misunderstandings. One is that the ungodly condition of the human heart and life described in the Bible is essential to human beings as such, and therefore remains true until we pass from this life and take a ne form. (That of Angels, perhaps. See Luke 20.36.) This account of things often associates wickedness with the body—that dripping, dirty, lustful thing—and holiness, therefore, with getting rid of the body. Fortunately, a careful study of the biblical sources makes it clear that such a view of the body is false. Here we can say littler more than that. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18

Another misunderstandings is that, unless the “miserable sinner” account were true, we might rise to a position where we could deal with God on the basis of merit. To fend off any appearance of self-righteousness you will sometimes hear the greatest of Christians saying things like, “I am just as wicked as anyone else.” Was not the apostle Paul saying, long after his conversion, that he was the leading sinner among sinners (1 Timothy 1.15)? However, on the other hand, one can hardly imagine that Paul, at the time he wrote these words, was still the same person inwardly, full of rage and self-importance, that he was when caught up in the persecution of Christ through his people. Such a person des not write words like those in Philippians 3.7-14 or 4.4-9. And one does not say, as he did to the Corinthians, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ,” reports 1 Corinthians 11.1, nor admonish other to “flee from youth lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love an peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart,” as reported in 2 Timothy 2.22. Some people maintain that the “law of love” has replaced even the moral commands of Jesus, and that our only rule is to “love our neighbour as ourself.” They quote the apostle Paul, who said, “One who loves one’s fellow people has fulfilled the law. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18

“The commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not covet,’ and whatever other commandments there may be, are summed up in this one rule: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Loves does no harm to its neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law,” Romans 13.8-10. Some people understand Paul to say that the New Testament principle of love has replaced the Old Testament principle of law. That is, whereas the Jewish nation in the Old Testament lived under a number of specific moral laws, the Church in the New Testament has “come of age” and now lives by the higher principle of love. Since love must be voluntary and cannot be compelled, so the thinking goes, love and law are mutually exclusive. However, if we realize the moral law is a transcript—a written reproduction—of the moral character of God and that “God is love,” as reported in 1 John 4.8, we see that we cannot distinguish between law and love. Both express the character of God. They are, to use a figure of speech, two sides of the same coin. In our case, love provides the motive for obeying the commands of the law, but the law provides specific direction for exercising love. God gave us a brain, are we not to use it in His service? It is bizarre—especially when a commitment to Christ is a commitment to believe in things that go far beyond the surface of life. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18

People, to deny ourselves the wealth of the accumulated saints of the centuries is to consciously embrace spiritual anorexia. Great Christian writing will magnify, dramatize, and illuminate life-giving wonders for us. Other have walked the paths we so want to tread. They have chronicled the pitfalls and posted warnings along the way. They have also given us descriptions of spiritual delights which will draw us onward and upward. We need to fill our minds with good stuff. It is a good idea to commit to reading two or three good books this year. What amazing instruments reside in the three or four pounds between our ears, instruments with greater capacity than a thousand buy New York City switchboards. The mind is greater than all the computers put together, for it can possess the mind of Christ and think God’s thoughts after Him, wear His heart, and do His works. What an eternal tragedy it is, then, to have this mind and have it redeemed, yet not have a Christian mind. We must protect our minds. We must refuse to allow our culture’s media to write our program. We must say no to the wastelands that invade our homes. An we must make a conscious effort to submit to the Divine Programmer through reading His Word. There has got to be some holy intellect. Train yourself to be Godly. For physical training is of some vale, but Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18

Prayerfully commit yourself to reading and studying God’s Word. In what ways do you know you need greater discipline of min? What are your greatest struggles in this area—perhaps lustful pleasures of the flesh? self-pity? dwelling on past pain? pride? worry? other? What can you do, practically and spiritually, to experience growth toward wholeness in these areas? Scripture repeatedly acknowledges the existence of natural moral law: true moral principles rooted in the way God made things, addressed to humans as humans (instead of to humans as a believing member of the kingdom of God) and knowable by all people independently of the Bible (Job 31.13-15, Romans 1-2). Among other things, what this means is that believers need not appeal to Scripture in arguing for certain ethical positions, say, in the debate about ending a pregnancy. There is the natural moral law. God has revealed enough of His moral law in the creation for the state to do its job. “And it came to pass that as he (Lehi) read, he was filled with the Spirit of the Lord. And he read, saying: Wo, wo, unto Jerusalem, for I have seen thine abominations! Yes, and many things did my father read concerning Jerusalem—that it should be destroyed, and the inhabitants thereof; many should perish by the sword, and many should be carried away captive into Babylon. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18

“And it came to pass that when my father had read and seen many great and marvelous things, he did exclaim many things unto the Lord; such as: Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty! Thy throne is high in the Heavens, and thy power, and goodness, and mercy are over all the inhabitants of the Earth; and, because thou art merciful, thou wilt not suffer those who come unto thee that they shall perish! And after this manner was the language of my father in the praising of his God, for his soul did rejoice, and his whole hear was filled, because of the things which he had seen, yea, which the Lord had shown unto him,” reports 1 Nephi 1.12-15. Guide us in Thy way, O Christ, and mercifully show the fountain of wisdom to our thirsting minds; that we may be free from sorrowful heaviness, and may drink in the sweetness of life eternal. Holy Lord, I have sinned times without numbers, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, of failure to find thy mind in thy word, of neglect to seek thee in my daily life. My transgressions and short-comings present me with a list of accusations, but I bless thee that they will not stand against me, for all have been laid on Christ; go on to subdue my corruptions and grant me grace to live above them. Let not the passion of the flesh nor lusting of the mind bring my spirit into subjection, but do thou rule over me in liberty and power. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18

I thank thee that many of my prayers have been refused—I have asked amiss an do not have, I have prayed from lusts and been rejected, I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness. Go on with thy patient work, answering “no” to my wrongful prayers, and fitting me to accept it. Purge me from every false desire, every bas aspiration, everything contrary to thy rule. I thank thee for thy wisdom and thy love, for all the act of discipline to which I am subject, for sometimes putting me into the furnace to refine my gold and remove my dross. No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin. If Thou shouldst give me choice to live in pleasure and keep my sins, or to have them burnt away with trial, give me sanctified affliction. Deliver me from every evil habit, every accretion of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of thy grace in me, everything that prevents me taking delight in thee. Then I shall bless thee, God of Jeshurun, for helping me to be upright. Be Thou, O Lord, our protection, Who art our redemption; direct our minds by Thy gracious presence, and watch over our paths with guiding love; that among the snares which lie hidden in this path wherein we walk, we may so pass onward with hearts fixed on Thee, that by the track of faith we may come to be where Thou wouldest have us. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18

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