(Note: this is the Categorie introduction for level 2 or the second stage in the Path of the Postmodern Cleric.)

2) Best Navigation Through this Blog:

Back to Cleric Path Introduction or Glance at How to read this book

Go directly to other Parts of the Path

1) Spiritual Roots
2) Unique Trunk Identity
3) Healthy Branches
4) The Canopy of Wisdom & Wealth

3) Links to Posts about Core Concepts

 

Summary

God isn’t working around your identity, He’s actively counting on it. Your identity isn’t in God’s way its part of God’s way. Your Unique Identity matters, but the only way to discover who you are is through a relationship with the one whose image you were created in.

The tricky part about trunk is that there’s only one thing going on. All the other phases have items working in concert–roots, branches, the canopy of leaves/twigs/blooms/fruit.

I tip over this issue constantly. The path runs 180 degrees opposite to the rest of the world. The world runs outside in but you walk the path from inside out. I address this concept most in the lens called Be/Do/Have, but here’s a quick version it.

We learn from our environment that if you have enough (relationships, training, money, etc.) then you’ll do the right things to be the person you’ve always wanted to be.  I catch myself thinking things like, if I just had this I could do that or be that. It’s simply not the right direction of flow.

Trunk is about being authentically you. It’s about learning more about you and how to appreciate yourself. I’m not saying to stand around patting yourself on the back, I’m simply saying your actions (do) must arise from who you really are in order to have an impact.

When you learn about and appreciate who you really are you’ll discover how to stay focused and refreshed so you can give more to the people you care about.

So far the path has been about receiving good from God and giving it away, but there is a you who receives the good things. We can easily get the wrong idea that who we are doesn’t matter in the process but it does. Receiving is the secret ingredient at the beginning of Be/Do/Have. Everything about receiving from how God chooses to speak to you to the troubles he’s allowing in your life will explain to you more deeply who you are in the eyes of your creator.

God doesn’t put you in a place of darkness to punish you, he puts you there, instead of anyone else, because your the one he built to handle that darkness for him. When you receive good things in the right way they’ll transform you into your best self–from glory to glory.

This is a super exciting phase of the path and I’m eager to write more about it. Seeing yourself through Gods eyes brings the single focus which allows your actions in the next phase to work in harmony to move you forward instead of pulling you apart.

 

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