What I learned from David Blaine

I don't know if you are familiar with David Blaine or not, he is a magician, seems to be a pretty weird dude in some ways. Not just normal sleight of hand magic, but Houdini type showmanship. He does stuff like:

• spent a week buried in a plexiglass coffin [no food, just water] under a clear tank full of water so people could look down and see him
• stood on a 100 ft. tall, 22 inch diameter tower for 36 hours,
• spent 63 hours encased in a transparent block of ice

Anyway, I watched a documentary on him and one of his stunts was to live in a glass box, suspended by a crane next to the Thames River in London, fasting, for 44 days. In the interview, he talks about doing absolutely nothing for 44 days, not even eating. He said that [paraphrased] your values change, what you value changes, your priorities are re-arranged. That wasn't too surprising, however, what he said next I found very thought provoking. He said that as soon as he was out of that box, his values and priorities began to revert to what they had been before, and now, he finds it very difficult to even remember what his thoughts were during that time, so much so that he is thankful he wrote them down.

Anyway, I thought that was interesting, and wanted to share it with you. I think sometimes we [I] get this unrealistic fantasy of what it is like to live in that 'other dimension'. To make the jump to never-never land, where I'm all spiritual all the time, my priorities are right all the time...but it just hasn't happened yet. Oh, there have been times, times of acute personal failure, or intense times of prayer and fasting where I see more as I am seen, but those times just don't seem to last very long for me.

Probably the most consistent time I have like that is weekly communion, where I spend a few minutes in honest, no-holds-barred self-examination in the light of the sacrifice of Christ. [Sidenote: If you only commune at Easter, Christmas, or maybe quarterly, you are missing such a powerful time of weekly connection with Christ...I know the argument, but arguments aside, no it doesn't get 'old' or 'routine' to me any more than it gets old to swap sincere I love you's with my wife...but I digress...]


To me it is similar to bouncing on a trampoline and seeing into a neighbor's yard each time I bounce up, but then having the view blocked by the privacy fence each time I come down. It looks like the people there are always having fun, in a beautiful yard...why can't we be like that, no weeds, no arguments, no selfish passive - aggressive comments, no stress.  Unfortunately, I don't live at the apex of the bounce, I live on the ground.  The ground where I see the weeds, the tools that weren't put up, the playhouse that needs the door repaired, the limbs that were trimmed but somehow haven't made it into the trailer, the bricks left over from the garden project...ad infinitum.

It would be nice to live at the apex of the bounce, but reality isn't like that.  That is only a temporary, even momentary, transient state.  In fact, it might even be viewed as an imaginary state.  Not that the bounce doesn't happen, and not that what we see isn't real, but that everything we imagine about the bounce view isn't accurate.

I really try, sometimes more than others, but most of the time, I really do try to live on that higher plane.  I guess I like trampolines more than some, but try as I might, it is just that for me, a spiritual trampoline.  I see me as I might be, as I could be, as I aspire to be, and during those times it's almost like I have a new set of eyes, a new light shines on old things. But then, just like David Blaine leaving the box, I land back down here were I live and those glimpses of something greater begin to fade.

If there was ever anyone whom I believe to have lived on that ethereal plane it was the Apostle Paul. And do you know what he said about this subject? Listen up...

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. - Phil.3:12-14

He was not discouraged by those moments and their fade, he understood that those glimpses were what we are living to attain.  Paul always was "reaching forward to those things which are ahead", and how did he say he did that?

But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. - 1 Cor.9:27

Paul was so committed/convinced that he once said "Woe unto me if I preach not the gospel".  Interestingly, when Paul gave his testimony, what he always told was about the time he met Christ.  He didn't spend a lot of time talking about his own life, not that he never mentioned it (See Romans 7 where he talks in detail about the same thing I speak of in this post), however, when he told his testimony to unbelievers, it was all about Jesus, when they met, what Christ told him, why he was given mercy.  What do you talk to unbelievers about?  Do you ever share your testimony?  It's really powerful you know...and just as it's powerful for people to hear how you met and chose to follow Christ, it's helpful to fellow Christians for you not to pretend you get it right all the time, that you never doubt, that you never slack, but that you always get back up and head toward finish line.

So what about you?  Are you "pressing on the upward way"?