You Are A Problem

All this is to say, if your present community sees your spiritual journey as a problem because you are wandering off their beach blanket, it may be time to find another community.  One should never do that impulsively.  But, if after a time you are sensing that you do not belong, that you are a problem to be corrected rather than a valued member of the community, maybe God is calling you elsewhere and to find for yourself that 'they' aren't so bad after all.

-- Peter Enns

As another year comes to a close, and I reflect back on the beginning of 2019, I couldn't anticipate what all would happen, especially when it included a very personal experience of the above.   But, the truth is, pain is often a kind of soil.  So, I am eager for what will grow out of it and am grateful that there are so many people, in many different kinds of community, who want to do the same.

While it is often true that hard things tend to dominate the scene, there were many significant things about 2019 that weren’t painful. We participated in so much goodness, experienced many joys, and were more alive than ever.

In other words, while we may have been ‘a problem’ for some, we know in fresh ways that we are more than that, too.  Thank God for his unending invitation to being more than we, or others, think we are.

In The Middle

I've noticed...that, as a 9 on the Enneagram, I have a constant low-grade scanner that is monitoring both threat and opportunity.  As a default, I am not too focused on either, but am aware of both.  I don't tend to obsess over possible threats, but I do watch for them, especially through a lens of threat to my perception of harmony.  On the other hand, when I am confronted by dis-harmony, I tend to look for opportunity.

In other words, the respective ends of my 'scanner' are 6 (on the threat end) and 3 (on the opportunity end).  And, I most often live in the middle, of the two.

I'm not claiming this is a great way to live...but, it is the one I seem most often familiar (comfortable?) with.

The Source of Our Separation

Too much of Christianity is built upon absolute certainty and not enough on divine mystery.

-- Mark Wingfield


The source of our disease and violence is separation from parts of ourselves, from each other, and from God. Mature religion is meant to re-ligio or re-ligament what our egos and survival instincts have put asunder, namely a fundamental wholeness at the heart of everything.

-- Robert A. Johnson

Tax-to-GDP Ratios

The US moved down because of recent tax cuts.  But, the budget deficit rose 26%, too!

What If: Calling

Why is it that we can often so much more easily see the beauty and courage in someone else, than we can ourselves?

What If...this is not as much a defect, as a calling?

Things We Can't See

What we see is what we know.

But, there comes a time when we know things that we can't see.

Christmas

'Poem for the week' -- "Christmas":

The bells of waiting Advent ring,
The Tortoise stove is lit again
And lamp-oil light across the night
Has caught the streaks of winter rain
In many a stained-glass window sheen
From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green.

The holly in the windy hedge
And round the Manor House the yew
Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
The altar, font and arch and pew,
So that the villagers can say
'The church looks nice' on Christmas Day.

Provincial Public Houses blaze,
Corporation tramcars clang,
On lighted tenements I gaze,
Where paper decorations hang,
And bunting in the red Town Hall
Says 'Merry Christmas to you all'.

And London shops on Christmas Eve
Are strung with silver bells and flowers
As hurrying clerks the City leave
To pigeon-haunted classic towers,
And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.

And girls in slacks remember Dad,
And oafish louts remember Mum,
And sleepless children's hearts are glad.
And Christmas-morning bells say 'Come!'
Even to shining ones who dwell
Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.

And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A Baby in an ox's stall ?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me ?

And is it true ? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant,

No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare -
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.

-- Sir John Betjeman, 1954

MERRY

Visual: Just Another Tree?

Visual - "Just Another Tree?":

...perhaps not:  Celebrating an Eternal Advent

Vastness

Ever noticed...that there is a spiritual quality in vastness?  The ocean, mountains, the skies...all intimate something beyond our grasp of it, and in such a beckoning way.

Perhaps this is some of the appeal we feel from many of the songs of Christmas, which reference the context of stars to announce God’s activity on earth.

Suffocates The Expansive

Fear suffocates the good news that God's grace is expansive.  Fear cannot tolerate that someone else's story is different than mine.  Fear nurtures a suspicion that others are not just different, but rejected, by God.  Such fear reeks of sin.  God's grace converts such fear into love.

-- Eric Barreto

Christian Doomsayers Have Lost It

Leading social indicators are trending their way, but somehow it is only Trump who stands between us and the apocalypse.

We are facing an existential moral crisis.

That at least is the view of many Christians who have given their full-throated support to President Trump. Some of them will privately admit that he is deeply corrupt, but the justification for their support of him goes something like this: Mr. Trump may be unethical, unscrupulous and morally dissolute, but he is by far the lesser of two evils.

After all, they insist, Mr. Trump may be personally immoral, but he is also a viciously effective street fighter for their cause. He is also the only person preventing a takeover of America by the Democratic Party and progressives — and that, they insist, would produce a moral calamity nearly unmatched in American history.

The view that Mr. Trump is all that stands between America and a moral cataclysm was encapsulated by Eric Metaxas, an influential evangelical author and radio talk-show host, who said...continue here.

-- Peter Wehner

I find this piece, at the very least, interesting (if not compelling).  Wherever we come down in our attempts to grasp the nature of what we are collectively experiencing, it is helpful to consider more than one perspective.  Because if it isn't, perhaps 'the end IS nigh'...and, that, would be one of our own choosing.

We Are The Cavalry

From Michiana Chronicles:

To our west, behind the white spot-lighted spire of the wide brick school building, an even wider sunset had concluded. For the passerby on the sidewalk, most everything about our house must have looked dark. The big maple in the front yard, the flower bed, the pale blue of the house’s front wall had all faded to shades of green-gray and blue-black. To one side of the dark red door, a square of window light, and in a small room bright with yellow walls, three people sat at a table talking. What was the conversation? The passerby, the late walker on the sidewalk, would never know. Inside, at that table, we talked politics and climate change, but we were all the while circling around the question of hope.

Was it too late for hope? Were people too tired to hope? In times like these, was hope naive or essential...?  Continue or listen here....

-- Ken Smith

Our Pain Is Never Wasted

Instagram: bobgoff

What brings us to tears, will lead us to grace.  Our pain is never wasted.

-- Bob Goff

I recently received an unexpected email from someone—reminding me how the above is true.

Ideas

Ideas catalyze action. Encounter catalyzes ideas.

When Inspired

A movement only exists when people are inspired to move, to do something, to make the cause their own.

-- Simon Sinek

It seems so obvious when this is happening...and when it isn't.

Encounter

I'm wondering...if what makes Truth true, at least to us, is when it is encountered.

Though part of it, encounter is more than the simple experience of something.  A unique element of encounter, perhaps, is that it requires something of you—it takes something from you and, in doing so, gives something to you.  More than information—encounter impacts you, it changes something in you, it leaves a mark.

Encounter makes you wonder...about things—about what is true, the nature of truth itself, how it relates your existence and, perhaps more importantly, how you relate to it.

Ask The Question

The only clear line I draw these days is this:  when my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor...Jesus never commanded me to love my religion.

-- Barbara Brown Taylor

So, who is my neighbor?

Yes, that question can be used to avoid something.  But, it is actually a good question, if we mean it.  If I mean it.  Otherwise, it is just theoretical and doesn't impact much of anything—which can certainly be the case with things...like religion.

Will I choose my neighbor?  If so, I have to ask the question.

Introduction To Joy

How to be less cynical and more honest about the subversive truth that lurks just below the surface of pretty much everything.

-- Rob Bell


Joy is a right-now thing; it is about what is happening right now.  In other words, we can't really experience joy, if we're not in this moment—if we are preoccupied with the future or the past.

We so enjoyed Rob Bell's recent presentation, "Introduction To Joy".  He gets so much flak from certain religious people—you would think he is a demon or something.  I wonder if these people have ever really seen or heard him speak in person.  I find what he is doing so refreshing and powerful, especially in our continually emerging post-Christian culture.  He is propagating truth at profound levels.

It is interesting that one of our more famous seasonal hymns also positions joy as a function of the current moment.  In the words, of the hymn:

Joy To The World...

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

In this case, joy is broadcast to the world in celebration of the birth of Christ.  When we get fresh (and often surprising) realization that what we long for IS in fact still happening, our most unfettered response is often joy.  Joy in the moment.  Joy in the fresh encounter with possibility.  Joy from a renewed kind of wonder—that something we are hoping for...still IS—especially something like the refrain says...the wonders of God's love.

What if our ability to experience joy is linked to our ability to wonder about any given moment?

“I know it’s bad – but everyone’s doing it”

“I know it’s bad – but everyone’s doing it”

The optimists who got excited about the ‘everyone has a microphone’ promise of the Net 20 years ago overlooked two flaws in human nature:

First, given sufficient reward (money, attention, fame, notoriety) some people will show up and say and do things that they know are wrong.

Second, if enough people are in the first group of bottom fishers, many other people may decide that those behaviors aren’t as wrong as they thought they were. The internet ends up normalizing bad behavior, because bad behavior captures our attention and gets noticed. We multiply the outliers in our imagination and come to the erroneous conclusion that their behavior is common, when it actually isn’t.

There are two ways forward, and both are up to us: First, we can start paying more attention (rewarding) good behavior. And second, we can start modeling precisely the sort of discourse and contributions we hope to see from others.

The best antidote to a culture shifting to bad behavior is to re-normalize good behavior.

-- Seth Godin

No Longer Embedded

The free market consumer ideology has produced a social disorder; people are no longer embedded in a culture that serves the common wealth, the common good. 

-- Peter Block, Walter Brueggemann, John McKnight


Though there remain counter-argument examples, this is also hard to deny on many fronts.

Narrative

Narrative is a big part of the structure of our lives; of my life, too.  It is comprised of the stories we tell ourselves; the version of things we want (need?) to maintain.  I have a narrative.  I keep it going.  I use it, in whichever direction I find useful.

Ironically, even though we appear to consciously repeat it to ourselves, narrative is often unconscious and self-perpetuating...and, interestingly enough, can function as a means of off-setting things in our lives that we are actually feeling.  It is interesting to consider how our narratives are subconsciously used to distance us from what our feelings are communicating to us about what we are experiencing, rather than lead us towards them.

To further distance ourselves, from ourselves, we now seem regularly embroiled in yet another iteration of the narrative-complex.  My narrative is submerged in the narrative of the group I am connected to.  In other words, I don't reflect nearly as much on my own narrative as the one that represents my group (nation, political party, community, church, family, etc.).  This is highly problematic.

And, to make matters worse, even the narrative of the group I associate myself with easily becomes largely a counter-narrative.  I am associated with 'us'.  And 'we' are not associated with 'them'—what they're doing or (perhaps even more) what they're saying.

This use of narrative has so perpetuated itself (rather than simply 'us', or, even 'me') that very few actually ever talk to someone outside of their own group to notice what is both true and untrue about what their narrative is saying.  When this happens, we also miss what is true and untrue about our own narrative, about my own narrative.

One of the greater ironies of this whole thing is that narrative, by definition, is a thing designed to tell a larger or whole story.  It is an attempt to connect things or events to make a larger point.

And, that, is mostly what it is no longer doing—pointing to a larger essence of what is true or, at the very least, one that is large enough for all.

In Little Matters

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters.

-- Colin Powell

Vulnerability

I've noticed...that few things open up and encourage relationship quite like vulnerability.

And, few things close or hinder it quite like its opposite.

Advent Creates People

Advent creates people, new people.

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Does it?  If so, why? How?

I think this is true—we are changed thru a posture of active waiting.

Full First?

When Giving Is All We Have

'Poem for the week' -- "When Giving Is All We Have":

                                              One river gives
                                              Its journey to the next.

We give because someone gave to us.
We give because nobody gave to us.

We give because giving has changed us.
We give because giving could have changed us.

We have been better for it,
We have been wounded by it—

Giving has many faces: It is loud and quiet,
Big, though small, diamond in wood-nails.

Its story is old, the plot worn and the pages too,
But we read this book, anyway, over and again:

Giving is, first and every time, hand to hand,
Mine to yours, yours to mine.

You gave me blue and I gave you yellow.
Together we are simple green. You gave me

What you did not have, and I gave you
What I had to give—together, we made

Something greater from the difference.

-- Alberto Ríos

Embrace Uncertainty

Instagram: bobgoff

Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won't have a title until much later.

-- Bob Goff

Stretched

Sometimes you get stretched.

But, most of the time, it has to be your choice (willingness) to stretch yourself.

Unfortunately, too often it seems, only the first sentence is what actually happens.  And, perhaps, that is largely symptomatic of much of our society with our experience of things—ideas, people, etc—that are different from our own experience.


You have to cross the line into otherness, away from pulling on sameness.

-- Richard Rohr

The Question You Ask

The question you ask will determine the knowledge you acquire.

-- Joel Sutton

Hesitate

I've noticed...the more aware I am of need, the less I hesitate to pray.

Lack of Consciousness

Sin always proceeds from lack of consciousness.

-- Richard Rohr

That which is essential is invisible...

From Michiana Chronicles:

A memory of American idealism. A memory of Congress on its best days. Maybe those days feel like long ago. Maybe they have been few and far between. But Lt. Col. Vindman brought the idealism of those days along with him. He evoked its essential and invisible presence for all to see. And he sought to calm his father with the thought that on the best days a citizen is safe in America telling the truth. On the best days, something invisible and beautiful animates Congress. On other days, its just wood and paint and marble, pretending to be a great and honorable institution. Members of Congress can inhale that spirit and be rejuvenated, I’m pretty sure. But citizens will have to shame some of them into doing it.  Continue here....

-- Ken Smith

Visual: Whites

Visual - "Whites":

Estes Park, CO

More pics here....

The Thanksgivings

'Poem for the week' -- "The Thanksgivings":

Translated from a traditional Iroquois prayer

We who are here present thank the Great Spirit that we are here to praise Him.
We thank Him that He has created men and women, and ordered that these beings shall always be living to multiply the earth.
We thank Him for making the earth and giving these beings its products to live on.
We thank Him for the water that comes out of the earth and runs for our lands.
We thank Him for all the animals on the earth.
We thank Him for certain timbers that grow and have fluids coming from them for us all.
We thank Him for the branches of the trees that grow shadows for our shelter.
We thank Him for the beings that come from the west, the thunder and lightning that water the earth.
We thank Him for the light which we call our oldest brother, the sun that works for our good.
We thank Him for all the fruits that grow on the trees and vines.
We thank Him for his goodness in making the forests, and thank all its trees.
We thank Him for the darkness that gives us rest, and for the kind Being of the darkness that gives us light, the moon.
We thank Him for the bright spots in the skies that give us signs, the stars.
We give Him thanks for our supporters, who had charge of our harvests.
We give thanks that the voice of the Great Spirit can still be heard through the words of Ga-ne-o-di-o.
We thank the Great Spirit that we have the privilege of this pleasant occasion.
We give thanks for the persons who can sing the Great Spirit's music, and hope they will be privileged to continue in his faith.
We thank the Great Spirit for all the persons who perform the ceremonies on this occasion.

-- Harriet Maxwell Converse


It is actually a bit challenging not to recognize how much those who were here before us (even in this land) knew about the fullness of the nature of existence, Who holds all things together, and what our most natural response is—Thanksgiving.

Overflowing With Fullness

Everything one presumes as empty is really overflowing with fullness.

-- Elizabeth Jacobson

A day to recognize this and what, deep down, we all know and are grateful for is at our door....

Fear of Change

People don't fear change. People fear sudden change. People fear revolutions. People don't fear evolutions.

-- Simon Sinek

Yes, we've lost some things (even really good things) because things change.  But, can you imagine where we would be today if they didn't?

Thank God things change.

The Connection

Ever noticed...the connection between gratitude and joy?

What If I Don't Feel Grateful?

At this time of year, I want to feel grateful.

But, today I don’t.  As I reflected on this, feeling even a little bad about it, I realized that just because I don’t feel it, doesn’t mean that I’m not.  I am grateful.  And the lack of feeling it is allowing me to bump up against the distinction.  It has opened me up today to noticing what is going on—that my lack of a particular feeling reminds me of what I still know.  I am grateful for so many things—things that I might forget, if left only to the form of what I feel.

Today, it is my mind that calls out to my experience of what I know—to the gratefulness I have for Tami and so much of the life we have shared together, for my kids and the relationship we have with each one of them, for my parents and the heritage they have given me, for my job and the opportunity it provides to meet people in meaningful ways, for the bounty of the goodness of God that I am increasingly becoming aware of—on and on it goes.

Feeling it...is actually just a small part of gratitude.  So, I’m grateful for this recognition and what the lack of feeling it has revealed to me today.

Contact Methods

How Have You Experienced Generosity?

I saw this recently:

It struck me as a timely reminder of things I want to be about:

• experiencing generosity (both in giving and receiving)
• practicing gratitude

Outweigh

You have to decide that love can outweigh fear.

-- Kate Bowler


As is the case most weeks, I'm guessing you can see again the connection between this week's posts; like the observation above with yesterday's post and that one with the day before.  We need to move more towards the shared common good and less towards the good that only profits ourselves individually.

This IS a decision—because the default only leaves the status quo in place.  While fear is a weighty force, love is a greater one.  But, if we really believe the Peace Prayer, we have to choose it—to take the action of body and spirit, not just of the mind.

Unable or Unwilling

When we try to find personal and individual freedom while remaining inside structural boxes and a system of consumption, we are often unable or unwilling to critique those very structures.

-- Richard Rohr

Red for Ed: 5 Common Misconceptions About the Issues Facing Teachers

Indiana is the latest battleground in the Red for Ed Revolution. I’ve been covering this movement on my various platforms for the last few weeks and I have been at once inspired and disgusted by the reactions I’ve seen. I’ve been truly moved and encouraged over the last week as I’ve watched school district after school district cancel classes for November 19th–the date that has been set aside for a large Red for Ed rally at the Indiana Statehouse–to support the teachers’ first amendment rights to be heard. As of this writing, more than 75 districts have called off classes for that day, including many of the largest districts in the state. Many districts are planning e-learning days for that day and others will make up the missed day at a later date. More than 10,000 teachers have already registered to attend and I’d expect to see well above that number actually attend. This kind of grassroots democracy is what makes America such a unique and invigorating place. It’s what makes us America. Yet, not everyone seems to be as thrilled by this as I am. I’ve been monitoring the push back on social media and, while I’m never going to let that bring me down, it does dampen the excitement a bit to read the comments of so many misinformed people...continue here.

-- Gary Snyder

When and Why

I'm wondering...if what is true always exists, when do I notice it?  Why do I notice it?

Peace Prayer

'Poem for the week' -- "Peace Prayer":

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

-- St Francis of Assisi

Peace is a collective thing.

The Bible Is Not A Manual

The Bible is not a manual.  The Bible is not a manual.

I should just end right there—hoping that the point will be clearer, only as it sinks in.  So what? Why are you saying that?  Who cares? Why does it matter?

I’m saying it because in certain traditions, the Bible end up getting used as if it were a manual.  And, what doing that often leads to is a significant misunderstanding, not only of the Bible, but of the nature of what the Bible speaks to—the nature of life.

Perhaps a little framing of the concept would help.  What is a manual?  When do we use a manual?  What is the motivation of a manual?

For most people, manuals are clearly some of the least interesting literature available.  In that way, we don’t keep them for purposes like, say, entertainment.  Often, in fact, we lose them because we put them somewhere out of the way; somewhere (if we remember where) where we think we can find them, when we need them.  Many times, we end just throwing them away because of the answer to this question, “when is the last time I used this anyway?”.  But, manuals do have a clear purpose.  And, they do provide a valuable function.  We use a manual when we want to know exactly how to do something.  We may have relied on other kinds of knowledge and found that it is not solving something we are trying to do or need.  Where is the manual?!

In other words, we use a manual mostly to fix something, when we can’t figure how to do so another way.

I’m afraid, we often treat the Bible like the manual I’m describing.  And, when we do, we are largely missing the point, not to mention the value, of what it truly is.

To offset the manual imagery, I suppose one could get a little closer to the true nature of the Bible by describing it as a guide.  If we use it only verbatim, we will eventually end up with some real problems—ones that we’ve created and ones that don’t seem to much represent the larger sweep of Scripture.  It’s not that the Bible doesn’t contain specifics, it does.  But, the larger narrative is pointing in a direction and providing us with deep insights into the nature of what God is interested in as He interacts with people throughout time.  The Bible captures many things about this interaction—both ways, between God and mankind.

Perhaps another way to put it, the Bible is a description of how to get from one place to another—obviously, I'm not talking about literal geography here.  It describes the way, the nature of it, where we are and where we could be, tendencies of the traveler, and the power (love) of the Guider to encourage us to continue on, even when it is hard to do so.

If nothing else, the Bible is something that should open us up to the domains of experience that a manual never seems to capture.  It points us to that experience, an experience that actually transcends in terms of detail what even the Bible could ever fully capture.  This is why the Bible itself says that we will be provided with something that will truly guide us in our experience of truth—a Spirit.

Once we can accept this premise, we are more free to notice the approach the Bible uses to provide its value.  I tend to think that one of the more valuable images that describes the nature and function of the Bible is that it is primarily story.  It is filled with stories.  In fact, you would not be wrong to say that the whole thing is a story.

Here is where, in certain traditions, we might almost immediately notice an objection rising within us.  And this is because we have come to believe that we need something more than a story to guide us.  Why is that?  Is that because we know that stories, though they are contain truths, are not often actually true?  They are depictions of truth, but not truth itself—and, we need truth itself.  Or, we think we do—especially the function of believing we know exactly what truth is.

But, actually, think about what makes almost all truth true—true in the sense that we remember it, that we use it, that we tell about it.  Is it not story that enables this for us?  Isn’t it stories that bring the truth to bear on us—when we need it, when we’re surprised by it.  Jesus, in fact, talked in story form all the time.  Why?  To reveal truth.  Why is the Old Testament full of stories?  I’m thinking, for the same reason.

Stories give us access to things that manuals do not.  They open us up to understanding that manuals aren’t, frankly, interested in.  They peak our imagination to things that otherwise we would miss.

We miss a lot of this when we reduce that nature of what something is—like when we make or use the Bible like a manual.  Our manualizing of Scripture, it seems to me, is largely defensive anyway.  What has made us end up using the Bible this way?  Even needing to?  I’m guessing that it is when we feel attacked (in this case, by the culture) that we end up using things in ways they weren’t intended to be used—to protect ourselves, to defend ourselves.

But, the Bible is much more about something that can open us up to all the possibility of God, not something we should use to defend ourselves.

It is a mistake to look to the Bible to close a discussion; the Bible seeks to open one. 

-- William Sloan Coffin

Rather than a book of answers, the Bible instead walks us toward life; it introduces us to the wisdom of the ages, it invites us to be open to all that we haven't yet recognized and that we don't yet know.  It is part of the on-going, breathing, living word of God in us!

The Bible is just not a manual.

Ephemeral Harvest

Another delightful edition of Michiana Chronicles:

One day late last autumn, I strode in the house, flung off my coat and hollered, "Riely, do we know what time the moon rises?"

"Look on the mirror," he hollered back. We weren't mad-hollering; we were just excited. We'd hatched a plan to drive up to Lake Michigan for dinner at the Roadhouse, and then watch the Harvest Moon rise as we rode home.  The post-it note on the mirror read 7:19. Working backward, as is his wont, he proposed a well-timed schedule. I proposed, as is my wont, that we take the prettiest route possible.

"And let's go down the darkest roads for the trip home," I said, and Riely agreed.

This is what it's like when you know the territory. It's the polar opposite of travel to new and exotic destinations, but it too has marvels to behold...continue here.

-- Molly Moon

Exactly As You Are

You are loved exactly as you are.

-- Rob Bell


Oneness is less a goal toward which life is pressing, as it is a return to the truth in which we have always been held.

-- Catherine T. Nerney

What Is Inhibiting Us

The further I go, the more it seems apparent that the issue of the goodness of our existence is not predicated primarily on our ability to control what we are (not that self-control is unimportant).

But the higher reality we start to recognize is that the goodness of our existence is more related to the goodness that we let flow from us.  Trying to control our badness primarily is both counter-intuitive and not very efficacious.  In other words, a hyper-focus on it is mostly just a waste of energy.

It is what flows from us that is the startling surprise of so much that is good.  And, whatever is bad, is primarily about blocking the flow of that goodness.  So, it is that to which we should become increasingly aware and trained at identifying and working with.

Goodness is not simply the absent of badness, which is quite easy to end up assuming—because of the all effort it takes to focus on badness.  Goodness is something innate within us; that is naturally outward flowing; that is often blocked by our lack of awareness of the realities of goodness.  It is the things that are blocking us from seeing and knowing our goodness, of experiencing the movement of that goodness towards other things, that comprise the fundamental nature of badness (sin).

The limitation of our awareness is what is inhibiting us from being who we truly are, of truly making a difference towards manifesting the goodness of life.

Holding On

To hold onto nothing is the root of happiness and peace.

-- Angeles Arrien

It is interesting to me how often peace and happiness, though not the same thing, go together.  Not to mention (I guess I am actually mentioning it...), how so many times holding on to something is actually working against things like peace (and, likely, happiness).  The irony is that our grip tends to reveal what we believe we need to do to get peace or happiness.

The observation above reminds me of the recent All Saints Day post.

Avoidance vs ??

Ever noticed...that sometimes people try to disguise avoidance by claiming something else—like they are just really busy all the time or they're just being patient with the process?

They're not busy (or being 'patient'), they're avoiding you...or, perhaps something in themselves.

Either way you can tell the difference; how would you describe it?

The Most Diverse Movement in History

We must abandon this absurd idea that Christianity is a Western religion.

-- Kanato Chophi

Continue here....

Abnormal

Abnormal

Are you hesitant about this new idea because it’s a risky, problematic, defective idea…

or because it’s simply different than you’re used to?

If your current normal is exactly what you need, then different isn’t worth exploring. For the rest of us, it’s worth figuring out where our discomfort with the new idea is coming from.

-- Seth Godin

It seems to me that this applies to new ideas in so many categories.

Visual: Awe-ful Color

Visual - "Awe-ful Color" (unedited):

Winona Lake, IN

Unbecoming

Therapy is not about becoming new, but is about unbecoming all the things that you thought you had to be to be loved.

-- Hillary McBride


If it sounds too daunting and exhausting to step fully into who you really are, consider how much energy it takes to pretend to be someone you're not.

-- Emily McDowell

Highly Dependent

Whether we recognize it or not, are we not all aware, even if only subconsciously, that we are highly dependent on others to care for us?  The point might not really be whether we are or not (dependent), rather the degree of our awareness that we are.

Even if this cannot be fully acknowledged along the way, we can often catch ourselves anticipating it as we approach the idea of our death.  How difficult will it be? Who will be there to help me? Who will protect my dignity in it, when I’m most vulnerable?

As we face death, we do everything we can to avoid it, not so much because we don’t want to impose on someone else in those kinds of ways, but because of how diminished we feel; how vulnerable we feel. What would happen if no one was there, if no one would love me, if no one would protect me?

In some ways, even before these particular catch-you-off-guard moments, we live in the same avoidant way.  We are just more capable of masking it, trying to reduce our sense of dependency—at the very least, to make it less obvious.

All the way along our journey, we are simply more highly dependent on others than we realize.

Waiting For You To Notice

Whoever you are, you are human.  Wherever you are, you live in the world, which is just waiting for you to notice the holiness of it.

-- Barbara Brown Taylor

Instinct

I've noticed...there is a fine line between being able to operate from our instincts and operating only from our instincts.

Where Goodness and Evil Really Lie

People often asked Dr. Jung, “Will we make it?” referring to the cataclysm of our time. He always replied, “If enough people will do their inner work.” This soul work is the one thing that will pull us through any emergency. —Robert Johnson

Historian René Girard (1923–2015) demonstrated that the scapegoat mechanism is probably the foundational principle for the formation of most social groups and cultures.  We seldom consciously know that we are scapegoating or projecting. As Jesus said, people literally “do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). In fact, the effectiveness of this mechanism depends on not seeing it! It’s automatic, ingrained, and unconscious. “She made me do it.” “He is guilty.” “He deserves it.” “They are the problem.” “They are evil.” Humans should recognize their own negativity and sinfulness, but instead we largely hate or blame almost anything else.

Unless scapegoating can be consciously seen and named through concrete rituals, owned mistakes, or “repentance,” the pattern will usually remain unconscious and unchallenged. It took until the twentieth century for modern psychology to recognize how humans almost always project their unconscious shadow material onto other people and groups, but Jesus revealed the pattern two thousand years ago. “When anyone kills you, they will think they are doing a holy duty for God,” he said (John 16:2). We hate our own faults in other people, and sadly we often find the best cover for that projection in religion. God and religion, I am afraid, have been used to justify most of our violence and to hide from the shadow parts of ourselves that we would rather not admit.

Yet Scripture rightly calls such ignorant hatred and killing “sin,” and Jesus came precisely to “take away” (John 1:29) our capacity to commit it—by exposing the lie for all to see. Like talking with a good spiritual director or counselor, gazing at the Crucified One helps us see the lie in all its tragedy.

Remember, Jesus stood as the innocent one who was condemned by the highest authorities of both “church and state” (Rome and Jerusalem). This should make us suspicious of power. But those in power do not want us to see this, and that’s why religion has concentrated so much on the private sins of the flesh. More often we admire and accept public sins in our public figures: pride, ambition, greed, gluttony, false witness, sanctioned killing, vanity, et cetera.

As John puts it, “He will show the world how wrong it was about sin, about who was really in the right, and about true judgment” (16:8). This is what Jesus exposed and defeated on the cross. He did not come to change God’s mind about us. It did not need changing. Jesus came to change our minds about God—and about ourselves—and about where goodness and evil really lie.

-- Richard Rohr

The Key To Raising Brilliant Kids? Play A Game

We all want to raise smart, successful kids, so it's tempting to play Mozart for our babies and run math drills for kindergartners. After all, we need to give them a head start while they're still little sponges, right?

"It doesn't quite work that way," says Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a professor of psychology at Temple University and co-author of Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children with Roberta Golinkoff. She's been studying childhood development for almost 40 years.

So how does it work? NPR Education reporters and Life Kit hosts Anya Kamenetz and Cory Turner talk with Hirsh-Pasek about the "six C's" that kids need to succeed — collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creative innovation and confidence — and why raising brilliant kids starts with redefining brilliant.  

...

Pushing down the kind of math, reading and writing skills to younger and younger ages ain't gonna give you No. 2 because you're not building a full, whole child human being.

The science says that the human brain was actually built to endure wonderful, long-term relationships. One of my friends says it's a "socially gated brain."  

...

...if it's really the case that we have this socially gated brain, and if we learn everything through relationships, or at least everything starts through relationships, I think collaboration is the most foundational piece of little humans trying to become bigger humans.  Continue here....

-- Cory Turner, Anya Kamenetz interview with Kathy Hirsh-Pasek

All Saints' Day

'Poem for the week' -- "A Circle":

A Circle expands forever
It covers all who wish to hold hands
And its size depends on each other
It is a vision of solidarity
It turns outwards to interact with the outside
And inward for self critique
A circle expands forever
It is a vision of accountability
It grows as the other is moved to grow
A circle must have a centre
But a single dot does not make a Circle
One tree does not make a forest
A circle, a vision of cooperation, mutuality and care

-- Mercy Amba Oduyoye


In light of the above, on this All Saints' Day, consider this observation adapted from the chapter titles of the author’s book:

• Jesus is a model for living more than an object of worship.

• Affirming people’s potential is more important than reminding them of their brokenness.

• The work of reconciliation should be valued over making judgments.

• Gracious behavior is more important than right belief.

• Inviting questions is more valuable than supplying answers.

• Encouraging the personal search is more important than group uniformity.

• Meeting actual needs is more important than maintaining institutions.

• Peacemaking is more important than power.

• We should care more about love and less about sex.

• Life in this world is more important than the afterlife (Eternity is God’s work anyway).

-- Philip Gulley

Perhaps, these are our expanding circles.