SUPERNATURAL, NATURAL, AND INTENTIONAL

“It feels like we are living the ‘Acts of the Apostles, not unlike Apostle Paul’s itinerant missionary journeys,’” my wife shared with one woman we met in Singapore. The woman questioned Grace, knowing that I love living like a river flows (I wondered how she got that vibe from me) she was curious how Grace, a homebody type, would respond. This was the second time I heard my wife articulate her response in the same way. The first time I heard her, I resonated resoundingly. Ever since, the thought lingered, and I have been mulling over the transient imagery of yore off and on. As imagery is “the representation of one thing by another thing,” as described by Mary Oliver, both The Book of Acts and “the river flowing, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding” imageries are helpful representations of what this Asian trip has been about. Along with the Acts of the Apostles’ vivid verbiage, my wife also used “surprised by joy” multiple times with me and others along the trip. Since joy is a primal relational emotion based on “someone is glad to be with you,” I concur completely. 

The phrases in the 13th Chapter of The Book of Acts “so, being sent out by the Holy Spirit,” (v. 4) “continue in the grace of God,” (v. 42), and “the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (v. 52) all detail our acute awareness of how God is moving in the midst of us. Though ultimately sent out by the Holy Spirit, we were also sent out by our church (communities of our dear family, friends, and supporters) and sustained by the grace of God and the support of the people and being filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit along the travel. One has to wonder why Luke used both joy and the Holy Spirit. Our elemental joy comes from God being glad to be with us every step of the way and so joy portrays the pinnacle of human emotion that comes closest to being in union with God. Just perhaps. . .

My big picture mind organizes and describes the expanding movement of the Acts of the Apostles in three interdependent ways: supernatural, natural, and intentional. Supernatural is the arena where God is not hindered in any way. The Holy Spirit is compared to wind, in both Hebrew and Greek translations, unhindered and free as well as invisible but undeniable. God gets to be God in doing God’s work, unhindered and untethered. We as humans witness them as miracles, wonders, and even mysteries. Our rightful and only response is awe and inspiration resulting in deepened trust in God’s goodness and unconditional love. Supernatural is also the arena where reasons and explanations fall short. Thus, it cannot be fully known and understood. During a morning walk in historic Georgetown, Penang (Malaysia), I felt a deep sense of God’s presence and peace. Spotify played a random song, Angel, by Forestella (a group I never heard before), I was captivated by the song and thought of all the “angels” in my life. The ones I know and the ones I do not. My natural world intersected with the supernatural world of God, inexplicably and unexplainably. Lastly, the supernatural keeps the mortals humble, in a good poverty mindset, and in the grey (seeing the reality dimly at best), groping for words for clarity, and thus our words are almost always approximations. Which invariably is one reason why we need one another to shed light, listen, and learn. 

Natural is the arena where God invades our lives and makes them plain. God is so much at home in the natural that God remains hidden and unimagined in our day-to-day lives. God comes to us and thus becomes accessible in the natural through all five physical senses. Humanity’s five senses become the meeting point between the supernatural and the natural. One of the most critical spiritual disciplines is related to discernment and awareness of God in the natural. It seems that God stoops down too much to a point where God is not being seen. Natural is also where ordinaries of life rule the day or the extraordinary incarnates into the ordinary. We break breads, share, listen, laugh, cry, and be together. We work, rest, play, get sick, and get well. God does not ignore the naturals as infantile, immature, or inferior. Instead, God fully expects us to live as full humans, full natural humans if you will, experiencing all emotions, trials, sufferings, joy, and love. Natural is where the rubber meets the road and makes our spiritual life relevant and grounded and thus serves as a sweet aroma of Christ incarnated in humanity.

Intentional is a practical way for me to focus and keep the main thing, main thing, which is to live out Christ in me and I in Christ. I remain engaged intentionally, planning, moving forward, assured that God is with me. This is where I don’t sit still or wait, I move, in faith, being confident I travel the same road with God. In planning for this trip, there is a rhythm of waiting, but also there is a time to act, decide where to go, who to meet, and what to do. Paul and Barnabas had their own method to their madness which was to visit synagogues upon entering towns wherever there were synagogues. A couple of times when there was no synagogue, think Philippi, Paul went to the river to pray, looking for the spiritually aware and the awake, and there he met Lydia. And the rest is history. Intentional is what we must do to manage walking our path and build rhythm and routine to act, an act to experience God and to share with the world what God is doing. 

The dance between supernatural, natural, and intentional requires being in step with the Holy Spirit, my soul, and others. As such, I am learning to listen and discern and move. 

Though we don’t come anywhere near to what Apostle Paul and his traveling companions endured, being flocked, ridiculed, ship-wrecked, bitten by a poisonous snake, hungry, sleep deprived, misunderstood, betrayed, etc, we still experienced our privileged modern problems and hassles of dizzying travels. We were cheated, denied entry, suffered stomach issues and colds (tested twice for COVID but came out negative), almost a broken toe, blister, or simply stared at for looking different. We have way more stuff than Paul and his companions, but far less than what we used to have had we stayed at home. And discovering we don’t need much to live life, one suitcase per person. We have slept in 17 different beds (and still counting) in more than 10 cities. We received generous hospitality and gifts from people everywhere. We offered hospitality, created space, listened, and shared. We served as a courier of monetary gifts and care packages, as a broker of joy and prayers linking multiple communities, together solved some problems and raised new ones. We gave courage and received courage to be and do. We laughed until we shed tears of joy and cried until we laughed. 

The biggest gift of them all has been the discovery that my personal pilgrim journey matters and intersects well with people in Asia. My story can be a source of gift and encouragement to Asian people, and I can draw parallels from others’ stories with little or no effort. A few distinctives of my spiritual journey have been that of freedom, expansiveness, and generosity that rest on God’s amazing love. As an evangelist and apostle of such freedom, I now have a broader embrace and focus on Asia, with Korea at the forefront. I do not know how I know, but I know. And I would not have known that had we not traveled the way we did, like the river and wind.