Creative Dislocation

In Theolog, a blog by Christian Century, Richard Kauffman writes of “creative dislocation”, a term that now has been perking in my mind for the last few days. What a good understanding of something many of us have or could experience. It seems to give greater validity to this experience by naming it and to encourage participation in it. Kauffman writes:

Christians often practice a little-known spiritual discipline called “creative dislocation” without realizing it: we engage in creative dislocation by going on a spiritual retreat or on a mission trip into a foreign environment—the inner city or a third-world country—where the usual markers of our lives are taken from us, and we’re subject to someone else’s way of doing things. When we’re dislocated, we begin seeing in fresh ways. We look for the familiar in the unfamiliar, and we see what is familiar to us in new ways. If we’re paying attention, we see the presence of God in new ways. (more…)