Return to the Sacred

How do I even begin to deconstruct touring the Middle East?

I touched ruins from the Bronze Age (Exodus, Egyptian Empires), the Iron Age (Israel, Judah, Persian, Greek), the Classical Times (Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine), the Medieval Times (Crusades, Mongols, Ottoman Empire), and Modern Times (WWII, Palestine).

I walked the road to Damascus, kneeled at the cross on Golgotha, prayed in the empty tomb, swam in the Dead Sea, boat-rode the Sea of Galilee, preached on the Mount of Beatitudes, stormed a Crusader Fortress, worshiped God in the Temple of Baal, stared at John the Baptist’s beheaded head, peered the Promise Land on Mt. Nebo, filmed the sunrise from the tip of Mt. Sinai, hiked Petra, walked shoeless in the Great Mosque, baptized in the Jordan, read the Dead Sea Scrolls, smoked a cigar in the Parthenon in Greece, and sang ‘Away in a Manger’ in Bethlehem.

Needless to say, the past three weeks have impacted my ministry, life, and spirituality - forever.

The entire trip I was surrounded by the sacred. Whether it was Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Muslim, Crusader, or Jewish – I surrendered my time and study to the sacred spaces of history.

We left the normalcy of everyday life and hunted for these spaces with abandonment. We would go to three or four a day. Now to be honest - it was always hot, it never rained, and over time rocks began to seem redundant. But as a pastor I can’t help but make the connection that spirituality mimics my Middle East experience. Through time, suffering, heat exhaustion, and perseverance we found the greatest wonders of the world. These wonders told us something about life, God, and our selves.

It taught us that if we search hard enough we will find sacred space. Mt. Nebo exists. The Road to Damascus exists. The Temple of Baal in Palmyra, Syria exists.

Spirituality is the same way. It may seem hidden at first or on the other side of the world but if we search long enough and keep moving forward - we too will locate sacred spaces of spirituality. And when we go there spiritually – it changes everything.

Spirituality should never become stagnant. It must be on the move. It must be given the freedom to explore new spaces. When it does it reveals a story of how life dies in some way and resurrects in another. Spirituality continually dies and resurrects. We grow in our relationship with God and old customs die to the readiness of liminality.

What do I mean by liminality? I mean the places where we experience transition. It is the place where we find ourselves shifting from one paradigm to another. We give up our definition of life and reality and submit to the present moment. We go from ‘business as usual’ to remain betwixt in a threshold of consciousness. It is the place where God meets us; it is the place where we finally get out of our own way and embrace the shadow of change.

This is an important definition because I am convinced if we do not strive to find spaces of liminality (sacredness) then we will start idolizing normalcy. We end up believing normalcy is the only reality and our lives shrivel.

Three weeks in the Middle East taught me life is worth searching for sacred spaces. Spirituality is worth exploring. Both take you to a place where God is seen anew. We step out of normalcy and embrace a life that is dying to return to the sacred.