Spiritual Insomnia

I couldn’t sleep last night. After speaking at our local winter FCA rally, I got home late. My mind was still buzzing at 1:30 this morning when I finally went to bed. After tossing until almost 3am, I dozed off… until 6:30. That happens to me a lot.

So my mind wandered into Fight Club, a movie I’ve seen at least a hundred times, and the I Ching of my life (next to the Scripture). “When you have insomnia, nothing is real. Everything is a copy…of a copy…of a copy.” So states Ed Norton’s character in the movie. BTW, his character’s name is never revealed in the movie…he is Everyman.

Basic truth: Every one of us was born an original. From our fingerprint down to our DNA, there is no one else exactly like any other one of us. We are each remarkably and wonderfully made. You were born an original.

But most of us will die a poor, pathetic copy. Society’s relentless pursuit of squeezing us into a mold never quits. We look like everyone else. Talk like everyone else. Work the same jobs, eat the same food, desire the same stupid gadgets as everyone else. Color inside the lines. Walk single file. Don’t make waves.

The problem is that we were created to be a receptacle of the Divine. To be ordinary is to be only ‘more of the same’. As a human made in God’s image, my being screams out against this with every pore. To be ‘just another one of those’ is deadening agony to me. It has actually driven some people to their death. But it was never God’s intention for you and I to be a copy of anything…except Christ.

Each of us wants to be extraordinary. We were built to count for something. Anything. Placed in a specific context to count in ways that no one else does. That is our destiny.

So what happened?
Climbing the spiritual mountain is sometimes exhausting. The fact is that very few people will ever climb a (real or spiritual) mountain. Most of us will drive or ride up to the top, get out, and take some nice pictures to show our friends. Spiritually, it’s not much different. We don’t want to pay the price to ‘climb’ when we can just ride our way to the Summit.

By the way, you can’t get ‘Summit quality’ gear at the mall. That’s also true spiritually.

And, if you’re going to climb, you need a partner to hold the rope. A copy (who rides his way up just to take pictures)

Thoughts?