R: REDSHIFT OR REFLECTION

Since I cannot decide between two “R” words today, I’m going for a double-header, with a shortened version of each of the two, and, as is often the case, I begin the writing without knowing how it will end. I have a sneaking suspicion that the one topic will inform the other and, if so, I can only discover it as I write. I’m opening further the window on my inner world today, allowing readers to discover along with me a synergy between these two seemingly unrelated “R” scientific ideas. This is my own glorious process: I learn as I write!

The first word is REDSHIFT, a frequent idea in complex cosmological discussions of relativity, which actually has its origins in a fairly simple concept known as the Doppler Effect. It isn’t rocket science or astrophysics to note that sound coming toward you (such as a siren) is higher pitched, while sound travelling away is lower pitched. This is because the source of the sound waves is in motion and that motion actually changes the wavelength and frequency the stationary observer receives even thought the source does not change the wavelength or frequency it is emitting. The Doppler effect was a relatively easy one to observe and prove, but the cosmological question that arose was: Is there a similar shift with all kinds of waves emitted from a source in motion?

The answer is yes. The Doppler effect applied to sources of light came to be called redshift, due to the fact that stars in motion away from the earth emit light that we receive as longer wavelength—toward the RED end of the visible spectrum. This optical redshift was first observed with solar radiation in 1871 and simulated with mirrors in the lab in 1901. Objects emitting light and moving away from us shift toward the red end of the spectrum while objects moving toward us do a blueshift. Taken on the largest scale, redshift observance is the basis of much of the expanding universe idea.

The words of Scripture are a large light-emitting object in my personal universe, but, even after all these years, I still notice my ability to “shift” them! I am pretty sure that there have been times that I have “redshifted” God, reverting to the view Moses had in his cleft of the rock experience: a God moving AWAY from man, allowing the view of only His “back parts,” to use the King James wording for Exodus 33. In these times, I hear the promises of the words and sense a glimmer of hope, but I factor in my “honest” assessment of my own humanity, and end up feeling that I am chasing God’s sound from behind while His tone grows lower and sterner in frequency.

It is that small edge of frequency change—that shift in perception--that makes all the difference. I need to encounter the Scriptures and the God of the Scriptures in direct contact to really comprehend the goodness of their promise! They are “God-available,” not “God-achievable”! And, if ANY shift is going to be made in my comprehension of God or His words, it should be a blue one, for the New Testament definitely reveals a God who is in motion toward us, not speeding away!

But this redshift perceptual adjustment related to God is rooted in traces of a natural self-image. And, the notion of self-image brings me to the other R word for the day: REFLECTION.

When light strikes a mirrored surface, it changes direction in completely predictable ways, such that it creates an image for us, seemingly behind the mirror. These everyday optics are woven seamlessly into the fabric of our own self-monitoring, and, clearly, both sexes have demonstrated personal relationships with mirrors and appreciation for the laws of reflection! But, we do the same with our inner world. We bounce our own particular wavelengths off of those who surround us, using them as MIRRORS to reflect back to us who we really are, sometimes accurately and sometimes like horrific funhouse versions—versions that factor in their own histories of distorted light-bending! Reflection can be our friend or our enemy: It is all-important which relational mirrors we choose—and we can choose them.

James, the quieter writer of Bible words, makes an amazing statement about the Scriptures, when he compares them to a MIRROR—and this thought will (I now see the connection) lead me back to redshift! While most people view the Bible and its concepts as a standard, a law, a mountaintop to be aspired to through patient and steady climbing, James compares them to a REFLECTIVE OBJECT. We humans stumble over this profundity—it is just too simple and good to be the case, it seems.

A mirror only reflects what is in front of it. Could James be telling us that, in fact, the blinding glory and moral high ground (especially when it comes to “impossible” tasks like loving your enemy and forgiving your offenders) described for us by the Bible is not just a map to followed, but also a DNA to be expressed? Could it be that the words of the Bible are there to point us INSIDE to the place where God freely shares His own life—an ingredient list, so to speak, of what was really used in His loving manufacture of the real us? (Instead of a list of hard tasks to accomplish and be miserable while so doing…) Is God that willing to grace us? James implies that when you see God, your reflection is there.

REDSHIFT and REFLECTION as I have considered them today both point to our view of ourselves and our place in the cosmic scheme. If we could remove the distortion of performance from the light of God’s words—lose the redshift—how empowered would we be? How incredibly sad that the God who made us and loves us has been also used against us by voices that demand we eek out a righteousness ourselves by effort and strain. Make a blue shift toward the true wavelength of grace (if you like that metaphor) or try an approach to God that sees Him as a mirror not a manual (if that one suits you). Either way, you will discover a world beyond the limits of your history and natural perception.

I will close with an R word of cataclysmic proportion--one of my favorite descriptors of the landscape of the Spirit: RESOURCED. When you see yourself as RESOURCED, you are liberated from the need to be perfect in and of yourself! When you see God’s universe as a place of RESOURCE, you settle into a self-image that is not needy or impoverished, but rather replete with the dignity fitting a creation of God. Whatever you need—even if it is the ability to perform or behave well in those “hard” inner tasks like faith or forgiveness—it is AVAILABLE, moving toward you not away from you! Look in the mirror and see. You are resourced. It is real. It is relevant. It is all found in the realm of relationship. I can’t even believe I’m going here but, yeah, I must complete the “R” theme with the conclusion: you have REASON to REJOICE! (Crosby, Stills & Nash: “…you have no choice….”) This wildly RESOURCED universe is the mystery that the truly “poor in spirit” get to discover!