This podcast addresses another critical biblical theme for leaders during this Covid-19 pandemic– detachment, that we might follow Jesus, allowing him to birth what he desires in and through us. God has revealed, through this present crisis, our attachment to our plans, our need for security and control, etc. and our strong self-will.
In this podcast, I draw from Meister Eckhart, a Dominican theologian, pastor, and scholar from the 13th century in Germany who has done some of the most profound thinking around detachment in church history. He defines detachment as a “cutting off or cutting away” of every created thing to which our self-will has attached itself. As Jesus said, “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39).
As Eckhart says: “to be empty of all created things is to be full of God and to be full of created things is to be empty of God. (And) if you truly have God and only God, nothing will disturb you.”
According to Jesus, this level of detachment requires a miracle from God. He reminds us with what he told the Twelve after the rich young ruler walked away: “With human beings this is absolutely impossible but not with God. With God absolutely everything is possible” (Matt. 19:26). That is great news!
I close the podcast with an invitation to cultivate the spiritual practices of silence and stillness before God as foundational to positioning ourselves before God so he can do this work. Eckhart argued, and I agree, that this is core to God’s way to cutting our self-will out of us so there is space for his new births to come to fruition in and through us.
Enjoy!
Blessings Pete Scazzero
