Ecclesia-- What?

Ecclesiastically lowminded. This is the adverbial phrase I have bestowed upon myself to describe my relationship with Bible studies, theological discourse, faith-based conversations, and any and all other dissertations and wonders related to my proclaimed Christianity and hopelessly irreversible Presby-geekdom.

I like words. Can you tell?

That run-on sentence really doesn't tell you much, so let’s give you some definitions.

Ecclesiastically: adverb form of the adjective “ecclesiastical” meaning; 1: of or relating to a church especially as an established institution, and 2: suitable for use in a church. This blog could one of those things, both of those things, or none of those things, but these musings certainly meet the criteria for definition number one. I’ll let you decide if they stand up for number two.

Lowminded: adjective. Technically a nonsense adjective since I just made it up, but it means of or pertaining to lesser thought. As in not thinking so much. Let me be clear, though. It does not mean uneducated, simple, stupid, dumb, mentally slow, or any other adjective relating to ignorance. It simply means that the head doesn't always “get it” and sometimes you need to go lower…like to the heart.

In Zen Buddhism there is a term—a state of being—referred to as “no mind” or “no mindedness” said to be accomplished when one’s mind is not fixed or occupied by anything and is therefore open to everything. I don’t know that I necessarily need or want my mind open to everything all at once (how would I even begin to process?!), but I do like the idea of my mind being not quite so occupied all the flippin’ time. Who among us does not need to remind ourselves that really life will be okay? Who has ever found themselves consciously saying, “Breathe. Breathe. It will all be fine.”? Who has ever wished that you could just stop thinking for awhile and go with your heart? Who has ever wished that you could listen to your heart more?

Right?

Ergo: lowminded. I don’t need everything to flood in all at once or for my mind to be so open that my brains fall out, and I do need to be able to sort and sift and work through my conscious thoughts, but I just don’t need my brain to work as much overtime as it does. It’s not like it’s getting paid time-and-a-half here, so I have to remind it to take vacations. To let my heart do some thinking for a while. To get low.

So, what does “ecclesiastically lowminded” really mean? It means letting your heart think about faith for a while. It means to store up the lessons and gifts that God bestows on you through his Word, his world, and his people and ponder them in your heart. It means to give your brain a break and allow your heart and soul to wrestle with the faith that never claimed to be easy, but always claims to be right—if we don’t royally screw it up by trying to rationalize everything.

Because there’s the kicker: nothing about my proclaimed Christianity and hopelessly irreversible Presby-geekdom ever claimed to be rational. Oh sure, the people of the PC(USA) are poster children for Robert’s Rules of Order and I don’t profess in the slightest that we have it all figured out (‘cause we definitely don’t) but we do come together and speak from the heart. Sometimes I think I stay a Presbyterian in spite of myself and in spite of the decisions my denomination makes that really tick me off, but it’s my family. We don't make sense, but we’ll all senseless together.

Our God is not a rational God. He is not a logical God, and nothing he does ever really makes sense. He speaks to hearts and souls and emotions and all else that our world deems illogical. My faith—our faith—is one that was born of the heart, not the head. God so loved the world. Love is a heart thing, not a head thing. So sometimes you have to rest your brain. Sometimes you have to go lower. You have to go to the heart. You have to sing Christmas songs in Advent even though it’s liturgically incorrect because it’s what your heart longs to do. Sometimes you just have to be ecclesiastically lowminded.