The Modern Christian Mystic: Bringing Heaven to Earth by Clendenin Jon

Author:Clendenin, Jon [Clendenin, Jon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Benches in Heaven
Published: 2018-03-01T16:00:00+00:00

From Multiplicity to Singularity

Allow me to present just one personal example of how mediation and contemplation can flow beautifully together, of how a sanctified imagination can flow into divine union. And how flowing from mediation to contemplation is in fact transitioning from multiplicity to singularity.

Transitioning from multiplicity to singularity sounds like something only a mystic does, yet, it’s something everyone does every day. When I’m at home, I’m a father and a husband. Hopefully, I’m good at being both. At work, I’m an engineer by trade. For my trade, I need to leave my family to concentrate solely on the task at hand.

Today, I’ve put aside for a moment those other things and I’m an author. Like being those other things, at times it involves sacrifice and God’s grace. It’s something I do, because I know God has called me to be an author. The point being, to be any good at one, at least for periods of time, I must stop being the others.

This morning, I started my day as an author. If you’ve read any of my books, you will know that that means I started my day on one of my ‘benches in heaven’ in one of the heavenly places which belong to me. On such benches, I spend quality time alone with Jesus.

The Lord has shown me, when I am writing (as I am right now), that in heaven, I’m at my writer’s cabin in heaven which He has prepared for me. The cabin is situated on a hill top. It has a covered front porch with a porch swing where I can sit and look out over a beautiful valley. The Golden Retrievers that I have owned and have died, like playing in the yard next to the cabin, as well as coming up and lying down on the porch next to me. Inside is the simple furnishings of a bed, a table and a writer’s desk. At the cabin, I’ve laid aside being a father, husband or engineer to only be a writer. In other words, in being there, a special grace from God has been given me to be an author. And yet, at the cabin, except for the dogs, who keep me company (and they don’t talk), I am alone.

Also at the cabin, the act of being a writer is in full gear. Ideas, thoughts, outlines, Bible verses and grammar swirl in my mind and spirit. Though I have taken the first step from multiplicity to singularity, I need to complete the journey. To do so, I walk from my front porch, down the path lined with roses, to my first bench in heaven which is situated on the brow of the hill. As I walk, I leave writing behind. As I walk, I breathe in deeply the intoxicating smell of the roses. As I walk, I can see in the distance, the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on the bench waiting for me.

At the bench, there is only one thing, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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