My Friend Alexander And My Journey Into Mysticism

Alexander John Shaia is a mentor and a friend to me. On some days he feels more like a brother. Other days more like a friend I’ve known for years. And other days, still, a wise sage who has taken me under his wing as he makes his way through his own spiritual journey.

One of the things I appreciate most about Alexander’s work is the way he carries himself within that work and the way his work dances upon a beautiful path out in the wilderness of faith called “Mysticism”.

What is Mysticism?

Well.

I don’t have a concrete definition, but I’m understanding it to be a movement within faith (the Christian faith, for myself) that embraces mystery, contemplates questions, wraps its arms around doubts, values wonder and awe, holds rather loosely to concrete answers … all so much so that anyone who walks upon the Mystic path lives his/her/their life without having anything to prove or anything to protect.

Yes:

Nothing to prove.

Nothing to protect.

And so Alexander, for instance, has some ideas that are fairly radical. And by radical I don’t mean that they are way out there; rather, I mean that they get back to the roots of the way followers of Christ thought and moved through the world in the earliest centuries of our faith. Some consider him a heretic, some might even say “dangerous” to Evangelical Christianity … but Alexander walks this path where he has …

Nothing to prove.

AND.

Nothing to protect.

And what I mean by that is that he doesn’t tout his ideas as superior to everyone else’s and he doesn’t shame anyone for thinking differently than he does or for not being as far down the road as he is. And when someone attacks him or his ideas or his journey or his books or whatever … he doesn’t take out a sword to protect himself.

Just the other day, in fact, we were texting each other and he said that if someone doesn’t like what he does or what he thinks, he feels free to honor the path that person is on and recognizes that there is one ocean, but many different rivers flowing into that ocean and he’s OK if someone doesn’t choose to row their boat down his river.

And questions - I come at him with MANY questions. Some of them he has answers for, others he has no answer for. But my questions don’t rattle him. They don’t phase him. If he knows the answer, he shares it. If he doesn’t know the answer, he tells me so. If he has a variety of ideas, he shares them. But the questions don’t make him uncomfortable. Instead, it’s almost as if he enjoys them - he enjoys being in the midst of the questions because the questions create wonder and awe in both of us as we go back and forth in possibilities.

I’m sharing all of this because as I make my way through this deconstruction / reconstruction journey I’m finding myself much less concerned with being understood or being right.

Yesterday I put up a post about how I don’t think Jesus wants us to evangelize. A few people shared it and on one of my friend’s Facebook page a group of Evangelicals tag teamed him, blew up his comment feed, and completely tore apart every idea I shared.

One guy said I have a “poor hermeneutic”.

Another guy said I’m “dangerous”.

Another said I “clearly have something against evangelism”.

2 year ago Glenn would have marched in that comment section and lit it up. I would have ripped the torches and pitchforks out of their hands and would have put them where the sun doesn’t shine, if you know what I mean.

And honestly, I felt those feelings welling up in me yesterday and at one point I started writing a response to one of the critics to “prove my point” to them and “protect my point” by explaining what I wrote in a different way.

But then.

I don’t know.

Something in me just stopped my thumbs from typing, highlighted what I wrote, and hit delete.

“Why bother?”, I thought to myself. “Why do I feel the need to prove myself to a Liberty University graduate? And why do I feel the need to protect my ideas against this mob attack? We’re all on the way to the same ocean, their boat is just on a different river. What if I just let them be? What if I just honor their journey? What if I just … don’t bother chiming in?”

I put my phone away and went about the rest of my day, pondering the idea that Jesus doesn’t want us to evangelize and letting this new discovery bring more illumination to my own journey and more wonder to my own walk with the Divine.

And I didn’t give up. Like, I didn’t hit delete because I thought, “wow, maybe they’re right. Maybe I really am a moron. Maybe I really am doing the wrong thing. I can’t take this anymore, I’m done.” Not at all. Instead, I hit delete and put my phone away because I was genuinely OK with the fact that those people didn’t understand what I was saying and didn’t care to try and understand.

“That’s their river”, I thought.

I hope that one day I can be as Mystical in my faith as my friend Alexander. That’s my goal - to live my life in wonder, to salivate at the idea of having a question I have no answer for, and walking my path without having anything to prove or to protect.

Have you ever had someone in your life that you want to be like? Alexander is my person.

And so if you come across me on social media or run into me out there in the real world once COVID-19 eases up a bit and you notice that maybe I’m more quiet or maybe I’m more mellow or maybe I’m not interested in proving my points or debating my ideas or arguing my viewpoint … it’s because I’m on this journey and trying to figure out how the ways of the Mystics fit into the world and life of Glenn Siepert.

Much love,