Book Two Chapter Seven

SEVEN

Working the Lines

What is a handshake? Used for greetings and farewells or to seal an agreement, in human relations the handshake is a signal acknowledging that communication or the transfer of information can take place. That is about all that the encyclopedia says on the topic. A handshake may also presuppose acceptance and/or common ground. As in most other things, there is a scope to handshaking that implies many levels between the extremes. A weak and listless handshake may come from a person of bohemian inclinations; a person to whom little matters; a person to whom everything is pretty much the same. On the other hand, may be found the firm grip of someone with a cause; someone who is out to prove himself in some way; and you can pretty much guess that he is about to try and sell you something. People rarely find themselves accidentally clasping hands; one has to either reach out and take the other hand, or reach out and accept the other hand.

Handshakes occur most between friends. They occur also between friendly people, as well as those who use friendliness to achieve goals. Sometimes they occur between enemies, as when a bargain of peace is struck. However, as in a dance, one of the two will play the prominent role. That is as it should be: in terms of the fulcrum, one up and one down. We think of a handshake as a means whereby a balance is struck between two differing forces. It is a thing that works. A handshake done wrongly tells a different story. Two bohemians quickly exchange a limp, cold handshake, and whereas normally it’s all pretty much the same, now they repel one another. Two salesmen stand locked in a monumental handshake, trying to out-squeeze the other’s grip. A proper balance must include both a dominant and a subservient element, else the purpose is lost.

To witness the handshake done wrongly, see Numbers 20:11-12, “Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed Me not, to sanctify (bless) Me in the eyes of the children of Israel (rather than yourself), therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”

Moses, after being instructed to do a thing in a particular way, let his feelings get in the way of obedience. In doing so, he sought to temporarily assume the dominant position, and the balance was lost. After a long and exemplary career, Moses was fired on the spot. God turned away from a gainsaying Moses, and the mantle of leadership was transferred to a more subservient host.

For gainsaying see Romans 10:20-21, “But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought Me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after Me. But to Israel He saith, All day long I have stretched forth My hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.”

Here, I would like to list four synonyms for the word ‘gainsaying’ - they are: contradictory, dismissive, contentious, and antagonistic. A balance between man and God is not equality. We must never adopt a familiar attitude with God. What good is it to see or hear or know if we do not act on it? The proper balance is the dominance of superiority and the submission of subservience. Both the fulcrum and the mirror agree: if God reaches out to you - reach back.

Man’s trouble is clearly seen in Proverbs 1:24, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded.”

Luke 18:13, cited earlier, provided us with the ‘body language’ of balance. Compare the case of Moses’ self-promotion with the case of Ezra found in Nehemiah 8:6, “Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.”

This is the handshake done rightly. Notice men reaching back toward God; notice the straight-line balance between man humbled and God exalted. If God reaches down to you - reach up. This is no isolated theme, but one returned to often.

See Psalms 134:2, “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord.”

Bless the Lord. It is not simply an empty ritual of physical posturing: lifting hands mirrors your own spiritual willingness; your open-mindedness, for it is your mind that spirit communicates with.

For open-mindedness see Job 11:13, “If thou prepare (open) thine heart (mind), and stretch out thine hands toward Him.”

Your physical act of lifting up your hands completes the straight line of balance between man humbled and God exalted. It is the turning of the part of you that may be communicated with back to the mirror. The physical act mirrors the spiritual response.

For just what lifting your hands actually is see Psalms 25:1, “Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.”

And our willful humility just may be the exaltation of our angelic other: see Psalms 86:4, “Rejoice the soul of Thy servant: for unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.”

Now, therefore, we ask this: if lifting up hands is the same as lifting up the soul, what are the

mechanics involved? I have previously suggested that as our corporeal sense of self includes the

brain housed in the body, our spiritual sense of self includes the mind housed in the soul. That the

spiritual identity is a concept that must necessarily be filtered through our corporeal identity, we have

reviewed and accepted. The result of the filtering is an augmented corporeal identity (actually the

corporeal identity plus the mind): just a little thing we like to call our ‘soul’. But if, in a higher

reality, the soul is a spiritual body inhabited by a portion of God (the mind), then our turning back

to the mirror assumes a wholeness and a balance that is seen upon a straight line between a dominant

and a subservient.

The subservient follows suit: is the mirror image of the dominant. If then we are crying out to God, Who is communicated through our angelic other, does the soul likewise cry out to the corporeal self? Might it be along the lines of two shipwrecked men adrift on the sea? The fog has dropped a solid curtain between them so that they must cry out to one another: “Here!” “Here!” They swim toward the voice. Ask yourself if the next verse depicts a mirror image of something spiritual.

Psalms 88:9, “Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Lord, I have called daily upon Thee, I have stretched out my hands unto Thee.”

Those things we connect to God, we call holy; in other words: ‘special’ maxed out.

I want to study the wording of 1 Timothy 2:8, “I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.”

Men are called upon to lift their hands. Those hands are called holy. Is it the restraint upon wrath and doubting (a more conductive state of mind) that makes raised hands holy? Are raised hands special? Is it because they are raised in relation to the communication of prayer? I have asserted that raised hands are equal to lifting the soul. In lifting the soul, man is actually lifting up his corporeal identity augmented by the addition of the mind.

But according to the fulcrum theory, a corporeal ‘up’ would be associated with a spiritual ‘down’. Don’t be confused. Lifting up the soul is just that: exaltation of the angelic other. The lifting of hands, thus the lifting of the soul is, for our part, a humbled state: returning to the mirror, and with lowered face, calling out for the help we’ve finally realized we cannot do without. Our angelic other has called to us; we swim toward the voice. Raised hands is a picture of subservience; of a proper, or holy

handshake.

If our desire is to achieve the exaltation of our spiritual identity, to raise our future wholeness closer to God, then we must willingly work the lines of balance. To close out this section, let me draw your attention to a couple of corporeal illustrations of balance. Christ was once asked if a particular man was in a bad state because of his parent’s, or his own, sins. The answer given was that neither case was the cause, but that the reality of God could be seen in the healing. Of course, it was immediately of benefit to the healed man, but in a broader scope, the healing was accomplished as an illustration of balance.

See Matthew 12:13, “Then saith He to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.”

See also Mark 3:5, “And when He had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts (closed-mindedness), He saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.”