Thread by @jmariemorgan

🧵: There are many reasons why I think adding #contemplativePractices to Christianity is important.

But the main one is that the reason why we sin is often less about what we actively do

and more about the precursors to sin that we’re not self-aware enough to detect.

1/14

.Now, you may be wincing at the word "sin" and I think that's fair (I wrestle with it myself).

But for the sake of this 🧵, "sin" describes behavior that harms/dishonors the dignity of another person according to God's perfect imagination for wholeness between all things.

2/14

.So much of the sin or 'falling-short-of-God's-perfect-imagination-for-cosmic-wholeness' that we do

happens because we're unfamiliar with the sensations within ourselves that precede the harm we do to others.

3/14

.We're so rarely quiet enough with ourselves or curious enough about ourselves to ask, "What do I feel or think shortly before I do [_______]."

And so we do harmful things to others on repeat either without noticing that we have or without the information we need to change.
4/14

.For example, the exclusionary/bullying behavior we tend to associate with #MeanGirls is often preceded by

the desire to be preferred over others

or the desire to feel dominant (i.e., to see our will enacted upon an "other"-- whether an object or person).

5/14

.Now, the reality is that these desires to be preferred and to feel dominant are mutations of healthy human needs that we all have.

We all NEED to belong but our relational wounds and traumas sometimes twist this need into the desire to be "preferred" over someone else.

6/14

.We all NEED to feel effectual (i.e., like we have some significant influence on the things and people around us), but our relational wounds and traumas often twist this need into the desire to dominate and manipulate others.

7/14

.It's worth pausing & saying here that I deeply believe humans are neurobiologically wired to love other humans well

But the things that happen to us throughout our lifetimes can deeply change our capacity for caregiving and connection.

We so rarely CHOOSE to love poorly.
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.But imagine a world where #MeanGirls, for example, were able to pause-- in the moment-- and detect that precursor, that desire to be preferred over others and to dominate others.

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Imagine they were able to see- in real time- that those desires are just twisted versions of the need to belong & to feel effectual

This would empower them (if they wanted to, of course), to make another choice: to seek consensual connection instead of excluding & bullying
10/14

.But because we don't know these things about ourselves--

things like the desire to 'other' someone or to exploit resources so there's more relational room or more stuff for us--

we multiply harm without a clue to where it began.

11/14

.And so a contemplative Christianity teaches us that we cannot shame ourselves into changed desires and changed behavior.

It teaches us that an essential means toward wanting and doing the things Jesus wanted and did is slowing down enough to deeply know our inner selves.

12/14

.This used to be pejoratively called "naval-gazing" or even "self-absorption." And sure: there's valid reason to avoid an imbalance toward focus on the self.

But make no mistake: knowing NOTHING of one's inner self is how sin abounds.

13/14

.To deeply know oneself
for the sake of others

is how we help God's imagination for wholeness between all things come to life.

14/14

.Footnote: #ContemplativePractices slow us down and help us intentionally explore the connection between our emotional world, our thought world, our core belief world, and the things we believe about God.

This exploration then becomes the source of our doing.