Claim 1: Mulholland argues that the culture around us tries
to fit us all into the same mold, and that the image of Christ does not treat
us that way. “It is only in Christ that we find our individuality,” he wrote
(pg. 34). I don’t know quite why this strikes me as a new idea. It makes sense
that the God who created each one of us uniquely with an individual set of
gifts and talents would want us to develop in that. Maybe my thought process
wasn’t consciously reaching that conclusion because of the tendency to attempt
to follow set formulas for spiritual formation. Or maybe because it seems as
though Christ would have one image to which we must all conform. But instead,
“We become compassionate persons in an infinite variety of models. We love and
serve like Jesus in unique ways” (pg. 34).
Claim 2: God does not force that process of transformation
upon us. This is one of those things that we’ve all heard is true, and
Mulholland simply reiterates it. It’s also something I often wish weren’t true.
I wish God would knock the fleshly me out of the way and just fix me up the way
I ought to be. But instead, He asks us to surrender to Him, calling us to join
Him in partnership with His work in our lives. This is part of the
individuality thing. God is not trying to make all of us into cookie cutter
versions of Himself. Instead, He takes individual people through a process,
based partly on their willingness to offer “a consecration, a release of
ourselves to God at each point of our unlikeness to Christ” (pg. 38).
Question 1: What are the ways in which I am practically
carrying out the transformation of Christ in my life? I am to be looking more
like Him in my relationships with others, as Mulholland said (pg. 42). It’s so
much easier to focus on my inner self and to simply hold onto everything I’m
learning and experiencing. But that’s not why it has been entrusted to me! I am
to carry it further out to others – how am I to measure and practice that
without it becoming a rote, legalistic practice? Well, that’s partly dependent
on whether or not I am allowing God’s love to fill and overflow from my life.
Because when I am truly participating in Christ’s love, I won’t be able to help
but share it with others.
Insight 1: God picks the places of our life that our unlike
Christ to work on (pg. 37) and furthermore, these parts of us are not some sort
of parasite that must simply be plucked off the surface…they are a deeply
embedded part of who we are (pg. 38). Both of these things make perfect sense –
it’s just that we don’t typically think of it that way, probably because it’s
prone to be discouraging. We don’t like that God picks our worst places to be
most heavily at work. This is probably in part because we want to be able to think
we are doing a pretty fair job of it on our own, with just a touch of
helpfulness now and then. But the fact is that the problem is far too deeply
engrained within us for us to ever be able to root out the problem on our own.
Taking up our cross requires death because we must daily die to ourselves in
order to become more like Christ (pg. 38).
Insight 2: God doesn’t just call us to some theoretical learning about being like Christ. He calls us to live it out through the practice of loving other people (pg. 43). I think this would definitely be a potential weakness of the monastic movement. By being so cut off from all the other people in the world, they can be acting in a very selfish manner. They are entirely focused on themselves and being changed inside. But if that is never carried out in the real world by interacting with those who need to receive God’s love, it is purposeless. God does not desire a relationship with us merely so that we attain some sort of perfection, but so that we can bring Him glory by living out His love in relationship with others!
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