In most spiritual traditions, resistance is generally seen to be profoundly detrimental to our spiritual well-being.
There are good reasons why spiritual traditions take a dim view of resistance.
When we fall into resistance, we brace against life. We constrict; we become paralyzed. Resistance causes us to step out of the natural flow of being that is the essence of life. It risks rendering us unresponsive to the gentle movement of God’s Spirit. It hardens us against life, closing us to the subtle presence of the Spirit who is more able to guide when we soften and open than when we harden and resist.
But, there is a place for resistance.
It is unrealistic and naive to refuse to acknowledge that there are forces at work in the world and in my own life that operate in opposition to the life-giving power of love. In response to the reality of the force of death at work in life, Peter says,
Discipline yourselves; keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. (I Peter 5:8,9)
The word Peter uses here to describe that power we must resist is the word “diabolos“. “Diabolos“, or “devil” in English, is not a funny little man dressed in red, with horns, a long tail, and a pointy fork running around prodding unsuspecting victims into moral peccadilloes. The power Peter describes as diabolos is much more serious and subtle than the popular caricature “the devil” might lead us to believe.
In my book Shadow Dancing: Living With the Dark Side, I wrote
Diabolos is the word most commonly used in the New Testament to describe this force that is working against God’s purposes, and it expresses an aspect of this force that is particularly important. Diabolos consists of two Greek words: dia, which means through, and ballo, meaning throw. So, literally the word means to “throw through.” If you throw a ball through a window, you probably will separate that window into many fragments. Diabolos, then, is any force in life that tends toward fragmentation, division, and separation. (Page, Christopher. Shadow Dancing: Living With the Dark Side. Toronto: Path Books, 2008, pp. 47,48)
The devil is not a person. The devil is a force in life that actively pursues disintegration. In the life of faith disintegration is resisted because it always works in opposition to the power of love that seeks to reveal reconciliation as the central force of the universe.
Commenting on the second day of creation as it is described in Genesis 1, the first century CE Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa said,
Because separation [that is to say, disunion] was brought into being on the second day, as is indicated in ‘Let [the firmament] separate water from water’ (Gen. 1:6), [the statement 'It was good' does not occur]. (Sefer Ha-Aggadah, 10:28)
It is a curious idea that God might have brought into existence on the second day, that which God could not pronounce “good”. But, it reflects the deep awareness at the heart of all true spirituality that the force we call God, always works against “disunion” and towards integration. God is that force in life which brings together.
Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth that they were to share with God in a “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18).
The true purpose of religion is to resist the forces of disintegration that cause separation and fragmentation and to cooperate with and affirm the forces of “reconciliation” wherever these forces are at work. If you want to see God at work, look for healing, wholeness, and integration. Here there is no need for resistance.
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June 9, 2012 at 9:03 am
Tress
I like it too!
June 9, 2012 at 9:18 am
lindsay
Yes, love it!
June 9, 2012 at 10:12 am
jaqueline
Genesis 1: 17 and 18 ~ “God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.”
So if the act of separation was undesirable perhaps we would expect that ‘it was good’ would not appear here either?
What if the ‘it was good’ is absent and the second day because the separating of the waters was prep work….and although that was enough for the day, the purpose of the separation had not been accomplished…namely to enable to the forming of the dry land and gathering of the waters on the third day…Perhaps it is ‘it was good’ that is the declaration of completion, not the announcement of ‘the third, fourth day’ etc.
As an artist, I understand the need to separate in order to create. To bring the possibility of order through delineation and division. Craftspeople are familiar with this…are not so essayists? I cannot help but wonder that avoiding and fearing separation will result in stagnation.
God’s intent for separation is to create. A baby must separate from it’s mother. The rain must separate from the clouds. In order to produce warmth, the energy of wood must separate in the form of fire. These separations, it seems to me, happen from within the nature of the entity itself. Yet each still have an element of outside help. A knife separates the baby form the mother; a mountain enables the separation of the rain form
the clouds, human hands or lighting ignite the wood.
When thinking of a stone smashing through a window it seems to me to be talking about a force that is coming from the outside; something that is not integral to the thing that is being smashed. It’s intent and purpose is to destroy, the opposite of creation. Perhaps we should not look at the fact of separation as the work of the devil, but look at the intent..AND if the separation results in new life or death. Is this not the hope of Christ, that his entering into death means that what is broken, even beyond repair, is infused with new life and is deeply reconciled in Him?
The hope of religion, it seems to me is not that destruction or separation never happens ( we are in that sort of world and our hope has to match reality) but that even when something has been smashed with the intent to destroy and cannot return to it’s former unspoiled unity, there is the possibility of reconciliation and beauty and glory. For instance, how would we have stained glass windows if we did not have broken glass?.