Professor of Pastoral Counseling David Augsburger spoke about some of the concepts of his latest book, Dissident Discipleship, in a "fireside chat". This was the second in a series of these gatherings, sponsored by Fuller’s Office of Alumni/ae and Church Relations, designed to offer alumni/ae and friends the opportunity for discussion and dialogue with a Fuller faculty member in a more intimate setting.
The premise of his Dissident Discipleship book, Augsburger explained during the gathering, is that there are three poles of spiritual orientation: mono-polar, bi-polar, and tri-polar. Mono-polar spirituality, the first step, “is an opening of the soul, the beginning of soul-making. It seeks a spirituality that discovers the sacred within, the holy in nature, the numinous mysteries of one’s inner depths and their connection to the universe.”
Bi-polar spirituality, Augsburger went on to describe, happens when the God of our own creation and celebration dies and we encounter a God who is sovereign and truly other—“who stands above all human manipulation, beyond our strategies of control.” Moving into this phase can be a shattering kind of death experience, he said, when we can no longer say “my God is my own.”
Tri-polar spirituality, he said, occurs when we realize that love of God cannot be split from love of other. Love for God and neighbor, two aspects of one and the same love, become inextricably united. “It begins in the radical, subversive walk of living out love without conditions, exceptions, exemptions; it ends in following the ultimate dissident exemplar, Jesus, who said: ‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you.’” (This is From Fuller Theologically Seminary’s Web Site)
Being raised on a mission field in southern Africa service to others has been part of my life since I was a kid. In fact, I was mad at my father for the amount of time he spent on his work which left no time for me. More about service later.
The mono-polar spirituality may really be the hardest for me. It requires that I look within my own soul and I don’t like to look there. I don’t seem to have any trouble looking at others and finding their flaws, but to take a good long look deep within myself is very painful.
One day as I was walking along a beach in California when I looked down and saw a tiny flower growing. It was growing in a place I could not see how it was living and the funny thing was I never even see big flowers much less small ones. . I had left a seminar to take that walk and seeing the tiny creation of God it was the beginning of a journey. The next time I looked into my soul I saw a tiny light in the darkness of my inner being. By beginning to see the world around me I began to see inside myself.
Bi-polar spirituality is simply being willing to hand over to God what is already His. Now Bipolar has a different meaning to me. It means my illness. It means going from depression to manic highs. It means having to take medications every day. Here it means coming into a relationship with the Creator after having found the light in the darkness of your soul.
Tri-polar spirituality is more than service. It can heal the pain of your own soul. Gandhi taught service to others not just as a way to build a nation, but as a way to get people to see each other as neighbors and live in peace with one another. Jesus taught service to others not just as a way to heaven, but as a way to bring a peace beyond all understanding to one’s soul.
Helping others will get you further along the recovery path than anything else you can do. Tri-Polar Spirituality is one of the main keys to recovery.
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