My Grandfather, William T. Iverson, (95 years old now) has always been a mystic on a mission to love the hell out of humanity and see the shalom (holistic peace) of the Kingdom of God be put on display everywhere he went and in everything he did… Most of what I saw him doing my entire life has been loving people with so much patience and unconditional love while always sharing his life and resources without abandon… And he always loved to share the truth he’s ever discovering in the person of Jesus. He always shared with people about Jesus, and always asked good questions to get people thinking…

I was getting a new cell phone the other day and found myself using one of his riddles I’ve heard him use 1000 times (Usually at a restaurant with his waiter/waitress) It led to a 30 minute discussion with my sales rep and the seeds of a friendship and an exchange of numbers and desire to get together to “talk more.”

His riddle always went something like this…

If you were stuck in a cave and came to a fork in the cavern with two different passages both claiming to lead you to freedom… One says christ, the other says truth… which do you choose?

He then tells them to think about it and give him their best answer and why. Most people, especially here in the US, say “christ” and then proceed to tell him they are religious and believe christ is the way out. My Grandfather then will ask, “how do you know that you’re following the true christ? There are many counterfeit christ’s promising to save you and bring you the freedom you long for. What if following the next version of christ, who is promising escape, isn’t the answer, but gets you even more lost in the cave and more confused? You see, if you seek true truth, you will find the true Christ, and he is the way, the truth and the life… the TRUTH will always set you free… so seek truth”

It was such a clever way to get people to think… to help people escape their often cultural/religious pre-suppositions and plant seeds of truth-seeking in them that he was confident would lead them into the right questions… questions that would expose the false “saviors” in their lives and point them to the one who loved them most and could bring the truest truth into their existence that was so easily confused by the noisy deceptions of all the pseudo saviors this world tries to offer us. I loved watching him do this time and time again… and he never seemed to come off arrogant or self righteous… he was always funny and kind, non-assuming, self-deprecating and quick to let people know he too was on the journey and kept seeking truth at every fork in the road and it hadn’t steered him wrong… I never saw anyone take offense or feel annoyed at him. Even if they didn’t agree, or were busy and needed to move on, you could see they appreciated the thoughtful interaction from this old bald man with a crooked smile and gleam in his eye. As he got older and older, I watched him become less and less concerned about what people thought about him, and more concerned about them possibly meeting the living Jesus… the ever present truth who kept showing up in the cave with him… present through it all and near to him, even when he too chooses the wrong path…

He had a deep contemplative peace that seemed to transcend circumstances or the concerns of this world… It wasn’t that he was distant, or removed from the realty of this world, or so obsessed with some “pie in the sky” abstract idea that he was of no earthly/practical use… No… he was very present, available to the moment… more human than anyone I know, yet filled with a strange confidence and attractive humility that makes you feel like you can relate to him no matter what you’ve been through. When he spoke to people like this, they felt like the most important person in the room…

I feel so privileged to learn from him up close over the years, and to follow this path toward contemplative peace he is always inviting me into. I’m always learning as I go through my own journey, and come to forks in the road where I either need to face the hard truth of the narrow path, or settle and embrace the most recent/convenient pseudo savior promising some fast-food-microwave version of the freedom I long for.

So here’s these 4 Cs my grandfather once shared with me. A sort of pathway to peace and freedom I’ve continually expanded on as I learn and grow in my own way, in this current culture we find ourselves in… Like my grandfather always said… God doesn’t have grandchildren… every generation must know him as father if they know him at all.

I’ve been talking and writing about these 4Cs in my journal for years now and will probably be writing and talking about these for the rest of my life… It’s a great framework to help us think and live as humble contemplative truth seekers…. sojourning through this wilderness toward the city of peace we all long for…

The 4 Cs

Chaos – we are in chaos in this world and seek various types of certainty to escape the chaos and have some type of “righteousness” or purpose.

Certainty – we embrace certainty to escape the chaos but eventually it becomes our prison and leads to self righteousness, arrogance, a controlling spirit and demonizing others with different experiences existentially and culturally in order to feel worthy and accepted by the “gods” of our understanding or power systems of the world. Certainty needs enemies to survive. Eventually, certainty can even require horrendous actions to reinforce its ideologies and will use any power or resources at its disposal  to silence or cancel anything that contradicts or threatens it.  These actions will often bring systemic chaos into the lives of those with less power or resources. For the person trapped in the prison of their own certainty, cultural supremacy becomes necessary to maintain the illusion of power and temporal wealth certainty promises.

Contradiction – eventually our certainty is confronted by the contradictions in reality. Usually contradictions arise through sharing life with “the other” and hearing others’ stories and perspectives. Catastrophic events, others’ abuse of power and/or inflicted trauma from those in power can open up doors to questioning the status quo compliance that systems or certainty will require in order for one to succeed within their construct. Contradictions will shine light into inconsistencies and open up the door for new thinking and perspectives. This will either lead you back to chaos and searching for a new certainty through pride and/or narcissism, or it will humble you enough to allow for healthy deconstruction and move you into the contemplative and a genuine and deeper seeking of truth.

Contemplative – You move into a space where you know more than you have ever known and therefore know less. Like an astronomer you know the universe more than ever but also realize how much you don’t know. The dualism of certainty and need to demonize others to justify “righteousness” or purpose is swallowed up in the beautiful mystery of the gospel resulting in a deeper curiosity and compassion in the midst of the beautiful yet broken world we find ourselves in.  A genuine love for God, self and others is cultivated in the soil of the contemplative mind and the discovery of new levels of truth and reality become a joyful life-long quest releasing grace and courage into one’s life. Truth seeking becomes an eternal journey you love inviting others into. Finding the areas in your life you might be wrong, or living in an unhealthy manner, no longer become threatening but rather are ever becoming an intriguing opportunity to grow more into your truest self.

For those of us seeking true truth, I believe we begin finding it in the very person of Jesus, the way, the truth and the life. We begin experiencing a growing relationship WITH our Creator instead of a transactional religion FOR some functional deity of our own design. Our RESPONSIBILITY now becomes AVAILABILITY to the reality of Christ in us, the “hope of glory” as the mystic Paul says… to be and ever become exactly who we most truly are in terms of who He truly is, 24 hrs a day, one day at a time.