I was watching a BBC movie with Kate, where a bust was thrown off of a castle. We watched it fall dramatically to the ground where it shattered upon contact with the earth. That was the first scene in the movie. It took almost the entire movie to tell us whey the figure was tossed from above. The shattering of a façade has many implications on our revolt against those people or places we see as oppressive, fake, or intolerable. Images might still be fresh in our minds, of the toppling of the Stalin figures in the Ukrainian square, during the revolution against a regime aligning itself with the Russian government. Stalin was the purveyor of oppression, death, and absolute authority. I wonder why a figure like that would still be ensconced in today’s world and why it took a revolution fifty to sixty years later to topple it?
Historically, there are many examples of figures being toppled that lead to freedom for the people. You can read in of examples in the Bible where the Israelites took down images that were erected to oppress. Sometimes, the image of authority is not all that is cast away. The defenestration of Prague, in 1618, was the physical “casting away” of people who represented oppression. A defenestration is the act of throwing a person out of a window.
What is interesting to me, is the use of the word casting. A casting is necessary for the creation of an image or bust. Casting can also mean to toss or throw. A bust or person representing authority is cast away when it is deemed unsuitable. Casting to create or destroy. What an irony.
What do we create in our lives that we cast images of in our psyche that we emotionally enslave ourselves to? Are they accurate, noble, just, good, holy, or righteous? Are they contrived, deluded, deceitful, self-serving, or corrupt? Do they start as one and become the other? In my many discussions with thousands of people and their personal preconceptions of what is right and wrong in their life, I have seen many people who have created false images of their worth, their place in life, and their value.
People who have unhealthy images of who they are I am going to refer to as castings. These castings tend to take different forms, based on the personality of the person and their self-perception. Some people create castings that are grandiose and resemble a Greek statue of epic proportions. Their vast power or beauty is to be worshiped and adored. Their grand presence is awe inspiring and/or intimidating. Nothing is out of place and all effort was put into the perception of perfection. The message is that they have reached the pinnacle of completion. Nothing can be added to enhance the casting. However, when their real life is examined, there is a constant underlying panic to perpetuate that impossible image. Of course, it is unattainable and comes crashing down on them. This often results in great depression or despair. The lie of perfection creates destruction.
The other casting people tend to hold has the opposite appearance of perfection. It is often marred and even grotesque in appearance. I once had a patient who was a sculptor. She would first make a beautiful image and then find ways to desecrate the beauty. I visited her studio one day and commented about a stunning female form she had made. She turned to the sculpture shot it a look of hate that was unmistakable, and said “I can’t wait to ruin her.” She began to tell me of how she would mutilate it. The pain in her heart ran deep. It came from a mother that never praised or loved her. There was a perfectionistic oppression in her home growing up. Her only way of handling the pain of the past was to create something beautiful and destroy it. It was her attempt to leverage revenge on the demons in her past.
Both types of castings, whether beautifully perfect or globs of clay, are inaccurate and destructive to the person. The casting of the image of who you think you are is wrong. Yes you read that correctly. I am saying that if you have created an image of yourself, it is inaccurate and every moment that passes from that image, it grows more inaccurate. It has to be! It is founded on a faulty premise. The more inaccurate it becomes the more strife and struggle it causes in your life.
People who are “religious” struggle mightily with this fallacy. The rules of religion are never attained. You are not perfect and you never will be on this earth. The oppression of rules and the law are inescapable. The maddening cycle of reincarnation, the curse of karma, the fear of Sharia law, and the unattainable perfection of the Ten Commandments are hell on earth. How can we “love our neighbor as yourself” when we can’t even love who we are? We hurt! We are in pain! Things aren’t right!
The author, Sheldon Vanauken, writes about a contrived idea he and his wife created to deal with the human love. They called it the Shinning Barrier or Pagan Love. He aptly describes how a humanist can experience and explain love. He also alludes to its inherent failure. The pagan is perpetually empty and always in contradiction. Just be good. But, where does the notion of “good” come from? What about “wrong?” How does a pagan or secular humanist explain joy and pain? I don’t mean how do they explain it to you or me. But how do they explain it to their heart and soul? Those moments when they are alone and faced with solitude, human emotions cannot be explained by nothingness.
Time to cast your casting.
It is time for freedom.
It is time for the dynamic, non-static, ever creative, beautiful person you were created to be, emerge. Your personhood cannot be limited to one image or one million pages of prose or poetry. You can be free. You were made to be free! All of the previous pigeonholes you have tried to fit your life into were not made for you. You were made to soar in the wind. You can spread your wings and fly to great heights. You can spend hours gliding in thermals with little effort at all. You can rest on the highest mountains and survey the lands perched on a rock. You can fly from tree to tree and feel the wind. You can be free.
I know you were created for a purpose. I know you have value that is immeasurable. I consider it a privilege to know you. I see people as a gift and the pinnacle of creation. That’s right. I see you and me as wonderful. The most beautiful part is that we don’t have to “do” anything to be wonderful. In fact, the harder we try to be “good” or “right,” the more we fail.
That is the power of grace. Grace is given by work done for us. We did nothing to earn it. You can never earn grace. We are never good enough for it. Grace is bestowed on us by perfection. How revolutionary is it that grace is given freely and we can do nothing to buy it, work for it, do it, or be good enough for it?
What is sad, is it that we fight the freedom that is available.
We fight against gifts.
I just watched a video that was taken in an automotive repair shop where people were called up to pay their bill. A person approached the counter and paid the bill for them. Each and every person argued with the person paying the bill for him or her. Eventually, they all allowed the person to pay, but only when they were told that it was part of a recording.
Most could not afford the extra work that was done on the car and none had budgeted for the radically increased fee. Little did the people realize the shop was fixing any problem their car had at no charge to the them. They may have come in for new tires or an oil change, but left with new brakes or replaced gaskets. Everything was done to make the car as good as possible. The bill was too high! They could not afford the repairs nor they did not budget for that cost. Yet they tried to pay for it even when someone else was willing to pay for the repairs.
You cannot pay for grace.
You cannot afford it.
The cost is too high. So how can it be free?
Jesus gave his perfection for you. Too simple? No. More complicated and cataclysmic than we can comprehend! But that doesn’t matter.
Accept the gift. It is free.
Cast away the casting you have created of your life. Watch it shatter. Accept the perfection of freely given grace. Only those who are broken can receive it. I did. I hope you do too.