Hippies Looking for a Perfect World
Last year we had a pastoral visit from three British representatives of our Mission. They arrived on a Monday evening and next morning we took them up into the Andes mountains to Salento, a village where we were leading a weekly seminar titled “Cisternas Rotas”. We admire our visitors’ cheerful attitude, because they must have been terribly bored; everything was in Spanish.
Today, I invite you to the opening session of a “Broken Cisterns” seminar (in English). “Cisternas Rotas” was written in 1992 by my sister, Anita. Since then, we have led many, many groups of people through this life-changing experience. Come with us to our group in Salento…
The sixties were the hey day for the hippy movement. Peace n’ love. Flower-power brought a surge of freedom, and dizzy with this new found freedom, they laughed in the face of authority and blatantly broke the rules. Deliriously happy, they invented crazy strategies to conquer their world.
The group that sits round the table with us is a far cry from that flowery freedom. The hippies have aged. Drug and alcohol use have left their mark. Wrinkles distort their flamboyant tattoos and their long flowing hair is now a boring grey, or in the case of the majority, simply not there.
Some tell glowing testimonies of a God-experience in their youth. For some reason the glow has faded. Disillusioned with their experience of “church”, they confess they “go nowhere” and have “fallen out” with the Pastor.
What have we to offer them?
The title intrigues them: “Broken Cisterns”. They eagerly take the workbooks and flick through the pages. The content of the workshop resonates with them. They relate to the deep longings of every human being. They acknowledge they are looking for someone strong to depend on. They crave unconditional love; they long to live in a perfect world where they can enjoy communicating with someone who understands them perfectly. They confess to their need to feel satisfied and important.
Had they not looked desperately among one another for unconditional love? They were so sick and tired of the fallen world, the world under the curse, that they had constructed their own perfect world and seen it crumble. Hungry to be understood and accepted, they filled the terrible emptiness with drugs and alcohol. Life has been mean to them. They are dissatisfied, disillusioned and very unhappy.
They form the perfect group to embark on the life-changing experience of “Broken Cisterns”.
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We begin the first session with a delightful visit to the “Perfect World”, where Adam and Eve had no knowledge of fear, anxiety, worry or frustration; where they felt loved and appreciated; where they were free to be the people God created them to be. Each one independently depended on God Who had filled them totally with Himself. God made man equally balanced in body, soul and spirit. His spirit was united to God’s Spirit. He saw the spiritual world and inter-related with God Himself. In other words, he had spiritual life. He was united with God.
God gave His creation a soul comprised of intellect, emotions and will. His soul was submitted or yielded to God, because through his spirit that communicated with God, he lived in complete harmony and obedience to God. He had free will. Adam and Eve were free to choose to submit to God’s rule or government. His government is one of ‘direction’ or ‘guidance’. Man was designed to be governed by God and to govern all creation. He was perfect and his brain had 100% functioning capacity.
Everyone in the group goes home happy after the first lesson. Who isn’t happy discussing a perfect world?
Kathleen
To learn more about my book, It’s All About Him, read my blogs or make contact with me, visit my website: kathleenkeithgillon.com
