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If you like this blog, chances are good that you are a “zagger” like me.  When the herd is going one way, we go the other.  We don’t zag for the sake of being different, we zag because we will not break faith with our awakened hearts. 

In case you haven’t noticed, the vast majority of our world is under anesthesia or lives unconscious. We do as we are told, we step in line and adopt all the values and roles that our culture and its institutions dish out. We are not bad people. We are not stupid. We either are not awake enough to see the operating principals of our systems, or our fears imprison us into compliance to the wrong systems. The story line of all deep spirituality is our liberation from captivity to the wrong systems and our entrance into a higher community (Isaiah 61:1).

This blog is designed for those who are finding themselves in the Great Exile. Exile is the arid space when we just don’t have a team or a home.  It’s an inward and sometimes downward journey that begins in solitude but grows into solidarity. The exiled are those who struggle with compliance to the established systems, not out of rebellion or anger, but integrity to the truth we can no longer ignore. We enter when playing the big game is no longer worth it.

As we start 2017, it is my goal to awaken and invite as many as possible into exile. While other coaches are promising the stars, I’m offering you what first looks like suffering. Of course, exile is not where we end up, it is only the discovery grounds of faith and our true self. If I could take people directly to the other side, I would, but like many of you have discovered, beauty comes from ashes (Isaiah 61:3). The ruin of our false life fertilizes our true life, so what is the point in expanding the fake one?

In order to do this, I am going to start off with a series that will illuminate the “mall map” with the hope that we can find the “You are here” star. For us to see this, will require our wide-angle lens because we are examining cultural and personal consciousness in its most common stages. Whether you call this integral theory, spiral dynamics, stages of faith, or something else, I’m certain that once we can pinpoint our stages of awareness on a map, then and only then will we have the means to outgrow it.

Our personal and global transformation is the heart of true spirituality. Transformation is that for which we all long and are waiting (Romans 8:22-23). We are all sick of politics and power plays. We are tired of the lies, the hypocrisy, and the endless line of disappointments. We’ve had enough of dissatisfying relationships and dead end, meaningless busy-work. We are done with distraction. It’s time to get real. It’s time for the truth even if its painful.

This year, let’s not lump a bunch of effort and activity on top of last years blindness. For 2017, let’s start with ruin. Let’s ruin our overinflated ego’s. Let’s ruin our childish fears and assumptions. Let’s ruin once and for all our racism, classism, sexism, and elitism. May we ruin our certainty and all the fortresses that are built upon “otherness.” Let’s enter the lonely exile where we question things again. Let’s start with wonder and insist on love. Let’s exchange noise for intimacy, connections for connectedness, fragmentation for integration, independence for interdependence. These are the changes we really want in 2017.

The next few weeks will launch the willing into a new space. A naked, vulnerable, and undeveloped identity will emerge out of a ruined false self. May we have the eyes to see beyond the ashes and enter the land of promise and faith and truth. I hope you will join this very big family.