Last summer I was very surprised to hear Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz both respond with the answer “creativity” when asked what it took to do what they have done. I am not sure that I know exactly what they meant, but here is a possibility: Maybe in that sport trying to do that many races goes against conventional thinking. Maybe to even “imagine” that one could compete in so many different swimming styles at an Olympic level was literally to dream. Maybe in order to get to such a high level, he had to rearrange his life, his schedule, his training, everything…and maybe it took an unbelievable level of creativity to design a lifestyle, training program, and schedule that could even begin to give him a chance at realizing it all.
A few months ago I was asked, “What do you think is the biggest problem that teens in your group face today?” After talking through it a while, I realized that their biggest hurdle was the result of what may be our biggest failure. I was able to sum it up like this: We have worked harder at teaching them restraint than we have at fostering aspiration. Maybe this isn’t just limited to youth groups. Maybe on a whole, Christianity has been watered down to abstaining from sin to the detriment of the second half of this verse. Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2Timothy 2:22 Christianity isn’t about killing desire. It is about advancing passion and desire towards greater things. Don’t waste your time on this empty, shallow stuff that will leave you spinning your wheels, but go after these other things that will propel you into deeper living. Yet the message that most of us get today from Christianity is “Don’t do bad things and be nice.” I propose (knowing I’m by no means the first) that maybe what we do and what we say should be sending a message that is more like this: Passion, desire and aspiration are not your enemies. The enemies are the dead-end activities that use you up leaving you with less than you came with. Run from those and bring your passion, desire and aspiration into a way of living that will cause them to grow into something big enough to feed your soul and the soul of many others.
Could it be that one of the biggest challenges the religious of today face is that they have been told how to live, but they have not been shown how to be alive? Coming to understand that there is a difference between living and being alive is one thing. Learning to be “alive” is a horribly mountainous other. There is so much literally trying to suck the life out of us, most of which has been created at the hands of humans, that a lot of our energy is used up on escaping the high walls of the rut. You may be well aware of what to avoid, but after successful avoidance will you have any idea what then to do with yourself? That is the problem. Beyond the struggle to recognize this need for aliveness, lies the more difficult question of “What now?”
This is where creativity is needed – creativity that allows you to see your life wide open – creativity that finds solutions – creativity that rearranges. My hope for this generation and for those specifically at Awaken is that they begin to see what passionate and full living is. Not in a ritualistic, black and white, this step after that one sort of way, but in a here is how to question, to seek, to risk, to explore, to pursue, sort of way. Maybe this is the fullness of life that Jesus was talking about. It is a fullness that is not dependent on circumstances, but one that indulges in the journey of passion and desire as we are being reconciled to the Source of passion and desire. I hope you can make it to The Awaken Student Conference in November and hope together we can move deeper into full living.
Michael Rhodes (Keynote Speaker for Awaken ‘09)
