Charisma

Even to those of you who don't know me it will come as no surprise that I am not, nor have I ever been a charismatic person. Now, don't get me wrong, I wasn't always a total doof...I had a few dates in college, but I would say that for the larger portion of my life I've been only extraordinary in my "ordinary-ness." So why this post? Well, I think I'll stir things up a bit and see if I can't ramble enough that the thoughts become as clear as mud.

An imam recently asked a friend, who happens to be a protestant minister if "your people," meaning Christians, really "know what they've been given." Now, I probably disagree with the imam about what "we" have been given, but I believe that even if we change the assumption about what's been given our friend will begin to feel like he's a caller in the bankcard ad...the answer is always NO.

I think this is especially true when the average christian talks about "grace." I would say that I've met few people who can really give me a decent description of what they mean, never mind what the Bible actually says. Why is that? It may be because it's something "we" all know we need and it's something that God gives us...and that's enough to know.

Now, I've heard all the mnemonics...like God's Riches At Christ's Expense...but that doesn't really explain what we're talking about does it? So that left me wondering...and I looked up one of the scripture passages that had been hammered into my head with all the finesse of a rail spike and found that the passage actually doesn't say what most translators say, but rather says something a little more like "you are being redeemed by God's charisma."

A little later, as I was teaching a class, I tried to explain to junior high students what charisma is, since it's obviously key. Unfortunately, I think I most likely failed miserably...and it wasn't until about 18 months later that I found a passage, in a work of historical fiction, that seemed to describe this rather astutely.

It was quite remarkable, he thought. She didn't do or say anything so out of the ordinary, and yet Brianna undeniably drew people. There was some attraction about her, almost magnetic, that drew everyone near into the glow of her orbit. (Voyager, p. 43)

Good, huh? I thought so. So it becomes clear to me that this is rather like the Process Theology idea that makes use of what Whitehead referred to as that which draws us, or pulls us, in the direction we need to go. Anyway, at this moment I see faith, in the religious sense, as the ability to be drawn in, and like a metal paperclip drawn up against a magnet, to draw in other paperclips.

So anyway, as I said at the beginning, I am not, nor have I ever been a charismatic person...but I'm left to wonder if that's because I'm some sort of ceramic derivative that can't be drawn...or...I'm not close enough to the magnet to feel the pull...or...maybe the charisma cannot be passed on...or....

Anyway, this blows another hole into the argument that it is something that we do or don't do that affects our relationship to the divine...we're a little like moths, drawn inexplicably to the flame...and it matters little what we do.