Once upon a time there were a people in exile.
A nation had placed its culture, economic livelihood, and lifestyle on the backs of Hebrew slavery. The leader of this nation was the Pharaoh of Egypt. The slaves had not always been slaves, in fact their introduction to the nation enacted a series of economic changes that saved the nation from famine. However through racism, culture, economic changes, and specifically a leader who was persuaded by the temptation of power, the Hebrews were being used as Egypt’s bitch.
People were using people in way that they shouldn't be treated
The people in exile cried, and God heard their cries.
An artist came forward who used a wooden stick to communicate that the exile was defeated. With a series of symbols, Moses communicated that the realities that underpinned the Egyptians’ world were faulted. The world in which Pharaoh had established was cruel, unkind, and not the way people should treat each other. This was not met with zero resistance. In fact the resistance escalated to the point where the Hebrew nation was cornered against a body of water that articulated the choices that that their oppressor was giving them. Be our slaves or drown yourselves.
The artist Moses planted a signpost in the sand that articulated a new way of doing things. His stick partnered with the compassion of God opened the sea. The people in exile did not drown, nor return to be Egypt’s bitch. They walked on dry ground to their freedom. And their oppressors were swallowed up.
Standing on the backs of others without their consent or blessing to get what you want is a faulted way of life. In this story, God says that those that build their life on the forced backs of others will be washed away. Moses took symbolic action that communicated how exile is defeated and that there is a different way of life.
Once upon a time there were a people in exile.
This scenario is a little more complicated as there are some layers to the exile. First of all, nationally, Israel thought of itself in exile, because it was under a larger government that only partially respected them. Rome had a sort of agreement with Israel, pretty much to keep the peace. Caesar knew that if he didn’t give Israel pockets of partial sovereignty that a revolt would happen that he could not control. So as a result, people like Herod were put into leadership because they understood the Jews enough to keep them at bay.
This wasn’t an easy way to live, and because of Israel’s history, they were looking for “a Moses” to take them out of political exile. They called this person the Messiah.
However, though Israel was experiencing political exile as Rome’s bitch, there was a subterraneous form of exile going on. Israel’s communication of who its God was, had pushed its culture, economic livelihood, and lifestyle into a class system that encouraged rejection of the other. The leaders of this movement, though very learn-ed in their history of God’s interaction with their people, were trapped into practicing a set of rituals that encouraged cultural popularity over graciousness, rejection of the sick, and other actions that eclipsed the message of God’s care for creation. Specific calendar days were spent neglecting the help of others, and the leadership kept these practice in place by either the punishment of social exile, or in some cases death. The people of Israel were being used as its religion’s bitch.
People were using people in way that they shouldn't be treated
The people in exile cried, and God heard their cries.
An artist came forward who used nature around him to communicate that the exile was defeated. With a series of symbols, Jesus of Nazareth communicated that the realities that underpinned the Religious leaders’ world (and Rome for that matter,) were faulted. The world where it was not OK to heal on the Sabbath, that wouldn’t touch a leper, that practiced ritual OVER people was cruel, unkind, and not the way people should treat each others; especially in the name of God. This was not met with zero resistance. In fact, the resistance escalated to the point where Jesus was executed on a Roman Cross which articulated the choices that that their oppressors were giving the world around them. Be our religion’s bitch or die.
The artist Jesus planted a signpost in the sand that articulated a new way of doing things. One Easter morning, a large stone in front of a tomb partnered with the compassion of God and opened up. The Messiah slotted to free a people politically from Rome had done something much more. Those who understand the significance of Easter morning realize that there is no longer a need to follow a religious, political, economic, or social organization that is based on the mistreatment of others. There is no longer a fear of drowning, or a need to return to be Egypt’s bitch. The people who understand the resurrection of Jesus walk on dry ground to their freedom of conscience.
Standing on the backs of others without their consent or blessing to get what you want is a faulted way of life. In this story, God says that those that build their life on the forced backs of others have no hold on the liberty of those that understand Easter. Jesus took symbolic action that communicated how exile is defeated and that there is a different way of life.
Once upon a time there were a people in exile.
A nation had placed its culture, economic livelihood, and lifestyle on the backs of African slavery. Nearly a century went by with the practice of human servitude within the ebb and flow of 15 presidents in leadership. Since the establishment of the United States, slavery was a controversy that was firmly planted in the ground of the southern states.
People were using people in way that they shouldn't be treated.
The people in exile cried, and God heard their cries.
On April 12, 1861 a war began that defended two thought patterns: One that said “this nation must be built on the backs of human servitude”; and one that disagreed with this axiom. Nearly 620,000 people died to uphold these ideas. Swords clashed against swords, swords hacked at bone and flesh, guns and bayonets ended the lives of those on both sides. Though the north won the war, it took more than 100 years to work out the kinks of what it meant. Because of the color of skin, there continued to be prejudice, cultural fear, economic detriment, and separation.
People were still using people in way that they shouldn't be treated.
The people in exile cried, and God heard their cries.
A group of artists came forward who used a bus seat to communicate that the exile was defeated. With a series of symbols, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall, and the Little Rock 9 communicated that the realities that underpinned the white United States world were faulted. The world in which Jim Crow had established was cruel, unkind, and not the way people should treat each other. This was not met with zero resistance. In fact the resistance escalated to the point where leaders were incarcerated and highschool children were kept at bay by attack dogs and high pressure water from fire hoses. This articulated the choices that that their oppressors were giving them. Stand down or we will make you stand down.
The artist Martin Luther King Jr. planted a signpost in the sand that articulated a new way of doing things. His “I have a dream” speech partnered with the compassion of God opened civil rights legislation for this country. The people in exile did not continue to be hosed down. They walked on dry ground to equality.
Standing on the backs of others without their consent or blessing to get what you want is a faulted way of life. In this story, God says that those that build their life on the forced backs of others will lose moral highground, and ultimately be seen for what it is. Rosa, Martin, and the others took symbolic action that communicated how exile is defeated and that there is a different way of life.
We don’t live in a perfect world. In fact that is the point of what I am saying today. We live with exile all around us. Because of the way people are they are tempted to ALWAYS act like lobsters in a pot - consistently pulling each other into the boiling liquid so that we ourselves can escape, or be on top. It is our Job as a church to look at how people are treated and speak out symbolically against life “OK” with exile. We as people who understand the meaning behind Easter Sunday, must realize that we are free. Free from political, religious, social and economic underpinnings that demand the mistreatment of others. We are the bearers of this news. We are St. Francis’s naked body it the snow in opposition to the money that won’t be given to the beggar. We are to look for the bus seat that will make the tired Rosa Parks Sit and rest and make it into space for the weary traveler. We are to oppose the mistreatment of others to our death, even death on a cross.
What are symbolic ways of articulating God's image on a world that is slotted against this?
How do we enact healing and forgiveness in a world that only acts on payment for services rendered?
Are we slanted toward power, or love of the person that is closest to us in vicinity (neighbor)?
Are we slanted towards humans turned in on themselves, or towards real relationship in which difficult confrontations and healing occurs?
We must plant signposts in the sand that articulate a new way of doing things. And when people ask, “what are you doing?” Which is what they ask of all of these artists. Answer them with a fresh story about the human race being welcomed back from exile. And maybe if you look beyond the artist, you can see a loving God that inspired them to paint their picture.
If this line of thinking inspires you, Today I would like you to do two things.
I would like you to meditate on a current form of exile that effects you, or that you are exposed to every day. And I would like you to come up with some sort of symbolic act that communicates that this form of exile is defeated. And if you have the guts to do it, Post the results here.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Jesus says hate your dad.
Who likes their father?
Who loves their father?
Who loves their mother?
Who loves their brother or sister?
Who loves their life?
Who loves Jesus?
Who loves Jesus so much that they will lay down their life to accomplish his purposes?
Jesus lived in a family centered society where bloodlines justified much of what people did. Justified war. Justified life in separation from those of the country-side because they weren't of the same lineage. Your power came from your family. To see the contrast in where Jesus was teaching from, think about our society which pays tribute to family in lip service, however economics are what justifies what our society does. Economics justifies war. Justifies life in separation from those without finances. Our power and importance comes from our pocketbooks in America.
As a further understanding of where our two societies differ. If you remember the parable Jesus told about the prodigal son. To us today, many people would find offensive the concept that the prodigal son took the inheritance and squandered it. This was seen as bad back then, however what would have been seen as worse was the fact that he left his family to begin with. Why would he do such a thing? What a fool.
I make this distinction not to say how much better life was in the bible. It wasn't. Though they valued family and relationships more than we do societal, it was still so fucked up that Jesus had to yell WAKE UP. And when he did people didn't like what he had to say.
So imagine if you will you are part of a society that values beyond all things bloodline and family. The Donald trumps of this world were those whose families had cajoled and wheedled their way to the top generationally. One day Jesus is teaching in a house, and word comes through the crowd that his mother and brothers want to see him. This is priority in this society. This is family. The red sea of people would at this point part for Jesus to see Mary and his brothers. This is what is proper. And Jesus seizes the opportunity to teach where our true alliances should be: He says “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
He is saying bloodline is insignificant compared to the loyalty he has to those that are functioning within God's kingdom. Those who are a part of what God is doing here on earth are his FAMILY. Do you realize that Jesus is using his own mom to underline his bond with someone who is having God's will be complete within them. This was not cool.
In Luke 14 there are tons of people around him, they were literally following him, traveling from this house to this house, some out of their home town. Jesus stops and says “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.
Now for some of you this statement of hating your family may be good news. You're like: this is for me. You may say: Jesus this is my kind of religion. I'm already there.
Some of you who have better moms and dads may be a little offended. Why is Jesus telling me to be a hater? Is Jesus anti-family values?
But even if you had the best family in the world. You truly will not understand the bomb Jesus dropped by saying this. If you have any inkling that this could be difficult, in this society it was a crowbar to all they saw as important. A shattering of the power structure. How do I make it without my family? Hate my family?
It's father's day, so I thought I'd help everyone out today by revealing Jesus' plan for some of us to become a good fathers. Simply said, he taught us: to be a good dad, we need to hate our dad. I guess it works to become a good mom as well. We have to hate our mom. To become good, we have to hate our family.
What are the power structures in this world that are more important than becoming a child of the light? Where has retaliation taken the place of forgiveness? Where has business taken the place of compassion? Where has your needs taken the place of putting others before you?
To become a good dad we need to put to death our need to gain power over others. To be a good dad we need to hate those things that are in our life that arbitrarily mean that we are more powerful. To be a good dad we need to take a path of singularity where we are becoming good people. Jesus had a very simple way to articulate the complexity of how you become a good dad. He said "Follow me."
Happy father's day.
Who loves their father?
Who loves their mother?
Who loves their brother or sister?
Who loves their life?
Who loves Jesus?
Who loves Jesus so much that they will lay down their life to accomplish his purposes?
Jesus lived in a family centered society where bloodlines justified much of what people did. Justified war. Justified life in separation from those of the country-side because they weren't of the same lineage. Your power came from your family. To see the contrast in where Jesus was teaching from, think about our society which pays tribute to family in lip service, however economics are what justifies what our society does. Economics justifies war. Justifies life in separation from those without finances. Our power and importance comes from our pocketbooks in America.
As a further understanding of where our two societies differ. If you remember the parable Jesus told about the prodigal son. To us today, many people would find offensive the concept that the prodigal son took the inheritance and squandered it. This was seen as bad back then, however what would have been seen as worse was the fact that he left his family to begin with. Why would he do such a thing? What a fool.
I make this distinction not to say how much better life was in the bible. It wasn't. Though they valued family and relationships more than we do societal, it was still so fucked up that Jesus had to yell WAKE UP. And when he did people didn't like what he had to say.
So imagine if you will you are part of a society that values beyond all things bloodline and family. The Donald trumps of this world were those whose families had cajoled and wheedled their way to the top generationally. One day Jesus is teaching in a house, and word comes through the crowd that his mother and brothers want to see him. This is priority in this society. This is family. The red sea of people would at this point part for Jesus to see Mary and his brothers. This is what is proper. And Jesus seizes the opportunity to teach where our true alliances should be: He says “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
He is saying bloodline is insignificant compared to the loyalty he has to those that are functioning within God's kingdom. Those who are a part of what God is doing here on earth are his FAMILY. Do you realize that Jesus is using his own mom to underline his bond with someone who is having God's will be complete within them. This was not cool.
In Luke 14 there are tons of people around him, they were literally following him, traveling from this house to this house, some out of their home town. Jesus stops and says “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.
Now for some of you this statement of hating your family may be good news. You're like: this is for me. You may say: Jesus this is my kind of religion. I'm already there.
Some of you who have better moms and dads may be a little offended. Why is Jesus telling me to be a hater? Is Jesus anti-family values?
But even if you had the best family in the world. You truly will not understand the bomb Jesus dropped by saying this. If you have any inkling that this could be difficult, in this society it was a crowbar to all they saw as important. A shattering of the power structure. How do I make it without my family? Hate my family?
It's father's day, so I thought I'd help everyone out today by revealing Jesus' plan for some of us to become a good fathers. Simply said, he taught us: to be a good dad, we need to hate our dad. I guess it works to become a good mom as well. We have to hate our mom. To become good, we have to hate our family.
What are the power structures in this world that are more important than becoming a child of the light? Where has retaliation taken the place of forgiveness? Where has business taken the place of compassion? Where has your needs taken the place of putting others before you?
To become a good dad we need to put to death our need to gain power over others. To be a good dad we need to hate those things that are in our life that arbitrarily mean that we are more powerful. To be a good dad we need to take a path of singularity where we are becoming good people. Jesus had a very simple way to articulate the complexity of how you become a good dad. He said "Follow me."
Happy father's day.
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Put that around your neck and wear it
C: I’m a gift giver. My love language is “gifts”. I love giving gifts and I love getting them…when they are thoughtful. If you aren’t going to be thoughtful, just give me the five dollars or whatever and let me go shopping. Seriously. It REALLY IS the thought that counts with me. There have been times over the course of my life where I have been randomly prompted to give a gift to someone…this happened recently and I asked the person in this story for their permission to tell it.
About a month ago, I visited an art blog that I frequent and saw a photograph of a locket from an etsy site. I immediately clicked on the photo, was taken to the etsy page and quickly purchased the locket for my friend, Angie. Inside the locket it says, “I am enough”. It was one of those moments where I didn’t even have to think about it. It was automatic, “Angie needs this necklace.” I didn’t discuss purchasing it with Geoff, I just purchased it. A week went by and no necklace…then two weeks….I began to wonder if the meaning of the message would no longer be of importance to my friend. “Was I really prompted to make that purchase?” “Has too much time lapsed and now it won’t be received with meaning?” These are all things my crazy gift giving mind goes through when purchasing a gift, any gift, for someone. I want it to be the right one, at just the right time, with just the right meaning for the person. Three weeks had passed and finally the necklace arrived. I decided I had indeed purchased the necklace for Angie and so it was definitely hers and I was just the messenger who got to take part in delivering her gift. I approached Angie at church and gave her the necklace. She immediately put it on and said, “You have no idea how much I needed this, this week.” I recently (for the purpose of this message) asked Angie why the necklace meant so much to her. She responded via text, “When u have something that causes u to doubt yourself or always feel u should be further along than u are. Then out of the blue someone who loves u listens to God and God tells u through them YOU ARE ENOUGH! U start to believe it’s true. This happened to me when Crystal gave me a locket that said You Are Enough….I start to believe it and when I doubt I open the locket.”
Two weeks later, for my birthday, my parents purchased a locket for me (via my sister, Sherri) from the exact same etsy site. Mine says, “Hope lives here”. I so needed to be reminded of that in that instant. I was brought to tears in front of my family because my closest people saw that Hope Lived HERE. I needed that. With all the failures I have had in my life that haunt me, I need to be reminded of the hope that lives in me….My parents and my sister did that for me.
G: We have been listening to the audio book, “I’m Proud of You: My Friendship with Mr. Rogers” by Tim Madigan. It’s a book that highlights the correspondences between Fred and Tim throughout their life. We have been literally sobbing through the entire thing.. Specifically whenever Mister Rogers pens a letter. In the book, Tim writes about his impending divorce and because of his deep friendship with Mr. Rogers, he is apprehensive to tell his friend the news, more so, than even telling his children. He writes:
And on that sunny December afternoon in 1997, I was sure I had finally found something I could say or do that would finally render Mister Rogers incapable of unconditional regard. He was a man who had devoted his life to children and their families, and I was a man about to destroy his own. ... I finally summoned my nerve, went inside to our computer, and typed out a letter to my friend, tears of remorse streaming down my cheeks. After years of counseling and struggle, my marriage was probably ending and I was the one ending it, I told Mister Rogers in my letter that day. Could he forgive such a person? Could he continue to love such a man?
His reply arrived within the week, dated December 20, 1997, two full pages on the stationery of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, written in Fred's pinched, meticulous, highly distinctive hand. I did not make it through the first paragraph before I again began to cry.
My dear Tim,
Bless your heart. I feel so for you—for you all—but, Tim, please know that I would never forsake you, that I will never be disappointed with you, that I would never stop loving you. How I wish we could be closer geographically! I'd get in my car, drive to your house, knock on your door, and, when you answered I'd hug you tight.
You are a beautiful man, inside and out, and those who care about you are privileged to share your pain...As for suffering: I believe that there are fewer people than ever who escape major suffering in this life. In fact I'm fairly convinced that the Kingdom of God is for the broken-hearted. You write of "powerlessness." Join the club; we are not in control: God is.
Our trust and affection run very deep. You know you are in my prayers-now and always. If you ever need me you have only to call and I would do my best to get to you, or you to me...
...You are my beloved brother, Tim. You are God's beloved son.
The weight of our own imperfections can be so devastating. Tim had quite an advantage to have a friend that would know everything about him. Yet still value him in midst of his imperfections. The truth of our inadequacy has quite a weight, but when someone sticks close despite our failure. Somehow that weight lifts. Or it is at least easier to manage.
Jesus talked to people who were tired of the weight they were carrying. He said in Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
The yoke is a necklace an ox wears for plowing. And when a new ox is learning how to “wear this yoke” they pair him up with a more experienced ox. Jesus is saying that you can share this burden that you have with him, and he will show you how to manage it. There is a relationship here... a teaching here. And just like Fred Rogers to Tim Madigan, the promise of someone being there to lighten your load.
C: What we would like you to do, is take about 2-3 minutes to close your eyes and think about a time when someone, genuinely prompted by God gave you a truth that lightened what you had been carrying around your neck. Please post your stories below if you wish.
I have a failed marriage under my belt, failed friendships, failed integrity, failed attitude, failed sisterhood, failed work ethic….the list goes on…and on, quite frankly. Those of you that know me well, know my story of literally spending about three months on the couch, ring less, jobless, penniless, directionless and for the lack of a better word, broken hearted about all of it. During those three months I conversed (aka yelled like a baby) with God about my devastation. Thankfully, in the midst of that, I had beautiful friends who did not give up on me, but embraced me, in all my disgruntled stupidity and are STILL friends with me to this day, which is a true gift of which I am eternally grateful. After about three months God said, “I love you.” Which I thought was complete B.S. And He reminded me again, “I love you.” In that moment, I realized I AM LOVED. WE ARE LOVED. Once I began functioning out of love instead of shame, guilt and fear, it changed the myopic lens at which I saw not only myself, but others as well...and God. The love we receive (from God) usurps the broken heartedness we experience. It doesn’t magically take it away; it usurps it.
G: Over the pillared halls of many knowledge institutions the statement "the truth will set you free" is chiseled for all to reflect on. Its not the entire verse... the entire verse can be found in John 8:31-32 it says:
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
There is a little bit of contingency there. The truth is not absent of relationship. It is only in the context of learning with Him to be like Him that we can become persons increasingly capable of handling the truth. The truth has a vulnerability about it. It has a nakedness about it. And when we stand ALONE in that brokenness and vulnerability, many times we simply interpret it into something we need to hide. Or we go the opposite, and it becomes US. We ARE the perfect couple, or we ARE the major fuckup.
Jesus is saying, “Be with Me and Learn from Me, and I will show you not only how to become someone who can weather the broken heartedness that comes with knowing who you are. But better than that, I will show you who you really are.”
THAT is the truth that sets us free.
C: Once again, I’d like you to close your eyes for a moment. Only this time, I would like you to picture yourself with your head down. Picture what is weighing you down. A dear and trusted friend is approaching you. They embrace you and whisper a truth to you. What is it? What do you hear? What do you feel? What do you see? What do you smell? What do you know?
My dad recently gave me a buckeye that my grandfather, his father, carried around with him for luck. Apparently a buckeye is a symbol of luck – it kind of looks like a petrified turd, but it’s a buckeye. All you Southerners know what I’m talking about. The thing is, neither my dad nor I really believe in luck, but we do believe in the connectedness that symbols bring to us. When I carry this buckeye around in my pocket, I feel connected to my dad.
We have our own “buckeyes” here (small, round pieces of wood). What we would like you to do is write down what you envisioned your dear friend telling you that lightened what you had been carrying around your neck, on these discs. These are to help you feel connected and remind you that the truth of God’s love usurps the broken heartedness we experience. Small tokens to remember and feel connected.
About a month ago, I visited an art blog that I frequent and saw a photograph of a locket from an etsy site. I immediately clicked on the photo, was taken to the etsy page and quickly purchased the locket for my friend, Angie. Inside the locket it says, “I am enough”. It was one of those moments where I didn’t even have to think about it. It was automatic, “Angie needs this necklace.” I didn’t discuss purchasing it with Geoff, I just purchased it. A week went by and no necklace…then two weeks….I began to wonder if the meaning of the message would no longer be of importance to my friend. “Was I really prompted to make that purchase?” “Has too much time lapsed and now it won’t be received with meaning?” These are all things my crazy gift giving mind goes through when purchasing a gift, any gift, for someone. I want it to be the right one, at just the right time, with just the right meaning for the person. Three weeks had passed and finally the necklace arrived. I decided I had indeed purchased the necklace for Angie and so it was definitely hers and I was just the messenger who got to take part in delivering her gift. I approached Angie at church and gave her the necklace. She immediately put it on and said, “You have no idea how much I needed this, this week.” I recently (for the purpose of this message) asked Angie why the necklace meant so much to her. She responded via text, “When u have something that causes u to doubt yourself or always feel u should be further along than u are. Then out of the blue someone who loves u listens to God and God tells u through them YOU ARE ENOUGH! U start to believe it’s true. This happened to me when Crystal gave me a locket that said You Are Enough….I start to believe it and when I doubt I open the locket.”
Two weeks later, for my birthday, my parents purchased a locket for me (via my sister, Sherri) from the exact same etsy site. Mine says, “Hope lives here”. I so needed to be reminded of that in that instant. I was brought to tears in front of my family because my closest people saw that Hope Lived HERE. I needed that. With all the failures I have had in my life that haunt me, I need to be reminded of the hope that lives in me….My parents and my sister did that for me.
G: We have been listening to the audio book, “I’m Proud of You: My Friendship with Mr. Rogers” by Tim Madigan. It’s a book that highlights the correspondences between Fred and Tim throughout their life. We have been literally sobbing through the entire thing.. Specifically whenever Mister Rogers pens a letter. In the book, Tim writes about his impending divorce and because of his deep friendship with Mr. Rogers, he is apprehensive to tell his friend the news, more so, than even telling his children. He writes:
And on that sunny December afternoon in 1997, I was sure I had finally found something I could say or do that would finally render Mister Rogers incapable of unconditional regard. He was a man who had devoted his life to children and their families, and I was a man about to destroy his own. ... I finally summoned my nerve, went inside to our computer, and typed out a letter to my friend, tears of remorse streaming down my cheeks. After years of counseling and struggle, my marriage was probably ending and I was the one ending it, I told Mister Rogers in my letter that day. Could he forgive such a person? Could he continue to love such a man?
His reply arrived within the week, dated December 20, 1997, two full pages on the stationery of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, written in Fred's pinched, meticulous, highly distinctive hand. I did not make it through the first paragraph before I again began to cry.
My dear Tim,
Bless your heart. I feel so for you—for you all—but, Tim, please know that I would never forsake you, that I will never be disappointed with you, that I would never stop loving you. How I wish we could be closer geographically! I'd get in my car, drive to your house, knock on your door, and, when you answered I'd hug you tight.
You are a beautiful man, inside and out, and those who care about you are privileged to share your pain...As for suffering: I believe that there are fewer people than ever who escape major suffering in this life. In fact I'm fairly convinced that the Kingdom of God is for the broken-hearted. You write of "powerlessness." Join the club; we are not in control: God is.
Our trust and affection run very deep. You know you are in my prayers-now and always. If you ever need me you have only to call and I would do my best to get to you, or you to me...
...You are my beloved brother, Tim. You are God's beloved son.
The weight of our own imperfections can be so devastating. Tim had quite an advantage to have a friend that would know everything about him. Yet still value him in midst of his imperfections. The truth of our inadequacy has quite a weight, but when someone sticks close despite our failure. Somehow that weight lifts. Or it is at least easier to manage.
Jesus talked to people who were tired of the weight they were carrying. He said in Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
The yoke is a necklace an ox wears for plowing. And when a new ox is learning how to “wear this yoke” they pair him up with a more experienced ox. Jesus is saying that you can share this burden that you have with him, and he will show you how to manage it. There is a relationship here... a teaching here. And just like Fred Rogers to Tim Madigan, the promise of someone being there to lighten your load.
C: What we would like you to do, is take about 2-3 minutes to close your eyes and think about a time when someone, genuinely prompted by God gave you a truth that lightened what you had been carrying around your neck. Please post your stories below if you wish.
I have a failed marriage under my belt, failed friendships, failed integrity, failed attitude, failed sisterhood, failed work ethic….the list goes on…and on, quite frankly. Those of you that know me well, know my story of literally spending about three months on the couch, ring less, jobless, penniless, directionless and for the lack of a better word, broken hearted about all of it. During those three months I conversed (aka yelled like a baby) with God about my devastation. Thankfully, in the midst of that, I had beautiful friends who did not give up on me, but embraced me, in all my disgruntled stupidity and are STILL friends with me to this day, which is a true gift of which I am eternally grateful. After about three months God said, “I love you.” Which I thought was complete B.S. And He reminded me again, “I love you.” In that moment, I realized I AM LOVED. WE ARE LOVED. Once I began functioning out of love instead of shame, guilt and fear, it changed the myopic lens at which I saw not only myself, but others as well...and God. The love we receive (from God) usurps the broken heartedness we experience. It doesn’t magically take it away; it usurps it.
G: Over the pillared halls of many knowledge institutions the statement "the truth will set you free" is chiseled for all to reflect on. Its not the entire verse... the entire verse can be found in John 8:31-32 it says:
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
There is a little bit of contingency there. The truth is not absent of relationship. It is only in the context of learning with Him to be like Him that we can become persons increasingly capable of handling the truth. The truth has a vulnerability about it. It has a nakedness about it. And when we stand ALONE in that brokenness and vulnerability, many times we simply interpret it into something we need to hide. Or we go the opposite, and it becomes US. We ARE the perfect couple, or we ARE the major fuckup.
Jesus is saying, “Be with Me and Learn from Me, and I will show you not only how to become someone who can weather the broken heartedness that comes with knowing who you are. But better than that, I will show you who you really are.”
THAT is the truth that sets us free.
C: Once again, I’d like you to close your eyes for a moment. Only this time, I would like you to picture yourself with your head down. Picture what is weighing you down. A dear and trusted friend is approaching you. They embrace you and whisper a truth to you. What is it? What do you hear? What do you feel? What do you see? What do you smell? What do you know?
My dad recently gave me a buckeye that my grandfather, his father, carried around with him for luck. Apparently a buckeye is a symbol of luck – it kind of looks like a petrified turd, but it’s a buckeye. All you Southerners know what I’m talking about. The thing is, neither my dad nor I really believe in luck, but we do believe in the connectedness that symbols bring to us. When I carry this buckeye around in my pocket, I feel connected to my dad.
We have our own “buckeyes” here (small, round pieces of wood). What we would like you to do is write down what you envisioned your dear friend telling you that lightened what you had been carrying around your neck, on these discs. These are to help you feel connected and remind you that the truth of God’s love usurps the broken heartedness we experience. Small tokens to remember and feel connected.
Monday, January 03, 2011
The Heart of the beginning.
It was the beginning. A man went to work with his brother. He worked nights because that was when nature was most on his side. Tonight it wasn’t on his side. He would go home to his wife empty handed. Their relationship was good, but spending a whole night and not having anything to show for it always was hard. They had to take care of bills, they had to take care of the boat payment. He knew it was going to be a fight. And she knew how to cuss even better than him. And he was a sailor. A fisherman really. Maybe this was the reason he hadn’t gone home yet. As his boat was approaching the shore from that terrible night, people seemed to be up early. A local celebrity seemed to be in town and the crowd was thronging. Pushing this guy closer and closer towards the water Simon and Andrew’s boat was to be docking right where this crowd was most crazy. As they approached the craziness, they began washing out their empty nets.
Jesus climbed into Simon’s boat and continued to teach people about a reality where people are very safe within a heavenly father’s rule. However awkward the situation of a strange celebrity entering YOUR space was, it at least prolonged Simon going home to fight with his wife about being a failed fisherman. Plus it was cool to hear what this guy had to say close up. After Jesus had finished, he told Simon and Andrew to push out a little ways. Simon knew that it was the only way this guy Jesus was going to get some peace as there were about a hundred people on the lakeside shore and they weren’t going away anytime soon. As they pushed out, Simon felt the peace that he enjoyed about the water, that he learned from his dad. Jesus directed them to go further out and told them to put down their nets. Reluctantly, and emphatically informing Jesus of their terrible luck last night, they threw out thier net. Suddenly the net began getting heavier and heavier. As they began pulling it up they had to ask Jesus and a couple other boats to help them it was so heavy. There was so much fish!
Recalling what this celebrity was saying earlier, Simon got scared. He told the figure with dread “Get away from me, for I am a sinful man.”
This was the beginning. Many think this comment is a normal response of anyone who is in the presence of holiness. And it could be just like Isaiah’s revelation of the throne. But on a second look, the reverential response of awe to this divine power for peter seems more like a superstitious dread of the supernatural stemming from a slavish fear of God. The response of someone who doesn’t know the Father of Jesus. Powerfully impressed with the superhuman knowledge revealed in connection with the great catch they just received, he regards Jesus as a supernatural being, is this zeus? Is this the crackin? And he dreads Jesus as one whom it is not safe to be near, especially a poor and sinful mortal as himself. He remembers "I was about to have a screaming match with my wife. I was going to go to the local bar so that dealing with zero fish could be more bearable at 10 am." This was Peter’s beginning, no knowledge of a Gospel which magnifies the grace of God. His piety, sufficiently strong and decided, is not of Christian type yet, it is legal, one might almost say pagan in essence
It was the beginning. A man just had finished praying under a tree. His local rabbi said that might be a good thing to do. The fresh air and the piety would be a good way to spend his time. He was an active member in his synagogue, but he always felt he would never measure up to some of the people that were there. One of his friends that attended was a little more enthusiastic then he was, so when he arrived on the scene Nathanael judged what he had to say accordingly. “Nathan I have found the Messiah! It‘s Jesus of Nazareth” This wasn’t a usual thing for Phil to say, yet whenever someone comes to you with an answer for the political injustice of your entire country, and that answer comes from a no-name town in eastern Oregon, you might say what Nate said which was: “can anything good come from Nazareth?”
There was sufficient amount of prejudice of Galilee coming from the more metropolitan areas to have this come from a prideful Judean mouth. Yet Nathan was from Galilee, and as much an object of Jewish contempt as were the Nazarenes. His inward thought was, “ Surely the messiah can never come from among a poor a despised people such as we are… from Nazareth or any other Galilean town or village.
It was the beginning. And he allowed his mind to be biased by a current opinion originating in feelings with which he had no sympathy; a fault common to men whose piety, though pure and sincere, defers too much to human authority, and who thus become the slaves of sentiments utterly unworthy of them. He said this because Nathanael really thought that greatness is not available in and around his vicinity. Though skeptical, he approached a Nazarene who told him that he saw him praying under the figtree.
It was the beginning. And a man resided in Capernaum. He absolutely knew who Jesus was. No man could live in that town without hearing the “mighty works” done in and around it. Heaven had been opened right above Capernaum. Lepers were cleansed, demoniacs dispossessed; blind men received sight, and palsied men received the use of their limbs. The daughter of a distinguished citizen was re-animated into one of the living again. Yes “His fame went abroad into all the land.” Everyone wondered and talked about the various miracles that were abroad, but for Levi there was something more that made him want change. Who knows what he had to turn from. Extortion, fraud, shaking down half the land. Breaking a couple kneecaps. Or maybe he was the “nice” tax collector, and repenting for him was simply retiring. Regardless, if he was greedy… he no longer wanted to be. If he oppressed the poor, he now began to abhor the concept. It was the beginning and he wished to follow someone who was taking burdens off of people rather than putting them on.
It was the beginning, and a dangerous man entered the ranks of the followers of Jesus. There were some publicists that would have frowned on the acceptance of Levi. But at least he was someone who was for the current parties in power. This man wasn’t. This man might bring political suspicion to the Cause of Jesus. Yet Simon the Zealot was called and accepted. And what a potential for bloodshed within the bunks of the 12. The tax-gatherer and the tax-hater. The unpatriotic Jew who degraded himself by becoming a servant of the alien rule; and the Jewish patriot, who revolted under the foreign yoke. Not an accident, but a prophesy of the future.
Our New year gives us cause to ask what are WE at the beginning of. I want to go a step beyond losing weight, drinking less, or whatever and ask us what is beginning in our heart today. What is it inside you that is beginning.
Maybe there is nothing that is beginning in you. Or worse maybe you look at the survey of people that I exposed before you and you see fools. You see a man who doesn’t know who God really is, or you see a man who doesn’t have any self esteem, or you see a man that just made poor decisions in his life, or someone who has sold out. The beginnings of this heart of judgement is one that will be the same next year… maybe your beginning is to be more able to see things that are wrong with others.
But I bring these guys up because we don’t usually look at their beginnings, we look at their accomplishments, their “Sainthood” their ability to be SPIRITUAL in the RIGHT way. But they had a beginning too. And if you look at Peter, Nathanael, Matthew, or Simon the Zealot, you will see their embarrassing (or maybe not so embarrassing) beginning. But I want to highlight that at each of these beginnings was a humble heart that actually wanted answers.
Peter and Andrew DID want Jesus to show how they might be fishers of men, Nathanael DID want Christ to teach him to really pray to a living God, Matthew wanted his life to be the way of lifting burdons, and Simon wanted to live in the Kingdom of the true Israel. They all wanted a life that was different than what they had. Their heart was ready for Jesus to change the course of who they were. What does your heart want to begin? Is there a call?
Is there something in you that is beginning to be an enthusiast? Like James and John maybe your heart’s beginning to heat up, and, as an unbelieving world would say, your heart is turned by a dream about a divine kingdom to be set up here on earth, with Jesus for its king. My encouragement today is to let that dream possessed you, and rule your mind like it has for others beginnings before you. This vision of a life on earth as it is in in heaven will shape your beginning and compel your destiny, like Abraham, today, I encourage you to let your humble beginning start. Leave your country and go forth on what might be a very humble prayer that asks Jesus “I want to follow you… I will follow you… How do I do it?”
Jesus climbed into Simon’s boat and continued to teach people about a reality where people are very safe within a heavenly father’s rule. However awkward the situation of a strange celebrity entering YOUR space was, it at least prolonged Simon going home to fight with his wife about being a failed fisherman. Plus it was cool to hear what this guy had to say close up. After Jesus had finished, he told Simon and Andrew to push out a little ways. Simon knew that it was the only way this guy Jesus was going to get some peace as there were about a hundred people on the lakeside shore and they weren’t going away anytime soon. As they pushed out, Simon felt the peace that he enjoyed about the water, that he learned from his dad. Jesus directed them to go further out and told them to put down their nets. Reluctantly, and emphatically informing Jesus of their terrible luck last night, they threw out thier net. Suddenly the net began getting heavier and heavier. As they began pulling it up they had to ask Jesus and a couple other boats to help them it was so heavy. There was so much fish!
Recalling what this celebrity was saying earlier, Simon got scared. He told the figure with dread “Get away from me, for I am a sinful man.”
This was the beginning. Many think this comment is a normal response of anyone who is in the presence of holiness. And it could be just like Isaiah’s revelation of the throne. But on a second look, the reverential response of awe to this divine power for peter seems more like a superstitious dread of the supernatural stemming from a slavish fear of God. The response of someone who doesn’t know the Father of Jesus. Powerfully impressed with the superhuman knowledge revealed in connection with the great catch they just received, he regards Jesus as a supernatural being, is this zeus? Is this the crackin? And he dreads Jesus as one whom it is not safe to be near, especially a poor and sinful mortal as himself. He remembers "I was about to have a screaming match with my wife. I was going to go to the local bar so that dealing with zero fish could be more bearable at 10 am." This was Peter’s beginning, no knowledge of a Gospel which magnifies the grace of God. His piety, sufficiently strong and decided, is not of Christian type yet, it is legal, one might almost say pagan in essence
It was the beginning. A man just had finished praying under a tree. His local rabbi said that might be a good thing to do. The fresh air and the piety would be a good way to spend his time. He was an active member in his synagogue, but he always felt he would never measure up to some of the people that were there. One of his friends that attended was a little more enthusiastic then he was, so when he arrived on the scene Nathanael judged what he had to say accordingly. “Nathan I have found the Messiah! It‘s Jesus of Nazareth” This wasn’t a usual thing for Phil to say, yet whenever someone comes to you with an answer for the political injustice of your entire country, and that answer comes from a no-name town in eastern Oregon, you might say what Nate said which was: “can anything good come from Nazareth?”
There was sufficient amount of prejudice of Galilee coming from the more metropolitan areas to have this come from a prideful Judean mouth. Yet Nathan was from Galilee, and as much an object of Jewish contempt as were the Nazarenes. His inward thought was, “ Surely the messiah can never come from among a poor a despised people such as we are… from Nazareth or any other Galilean town or village.
It was the beginning. And he allowed his mind to be biased by a current opinion originating in feelings with which he had no sympathy; a fault common to men whose piety, though pure and sincere, defers too much to human authority, and who thus become the slaves of sentiments utterly unworthy of them. He said this because Nathanael really thought that greatness is not available in and around his vicinity. Though skeptical, he approached a Nazarene who told him that he saw him praying under the figtree.
It was the beginning. And a man resided in Capernaum. He absolutely knew who Jesus was. No man could live in that town without hearing the “mighty works” done in and around it. Heaven had been opened right above Capernaum. Lepers were cleansed, demoniacs dispossessed; blind men received sight, and palsied men received the use of their limbs. The daughter of a distinguished citizen was re-animated into one of the living again. Yes “His fame went abroad into all the land.” Everyone wondered and talked about the various miracles that were abroad, but for Levi there was something more that made him want change. Who knows what he had to turn from. Extortion, fraud, shaking down half the land. Breaking a couple kneecaps. Or maybe he was the “nice” tax collector, and repenting for him was simply retiring. Regardless, if he was greedy… he no longer wanted to be. If he oppressed the poor, he now began to abhor the concept. It was the beginning and he wished to follow someone who was taking burdens off of people rather than putting them on.
It was the beginning, and a dangerous man entered the ranks of the followers of Jesus. There were some publicists that would have frowned on the acceptance of Levi. But at least he was someone who was for the current parties in power. This man wasn’t. This man might bring political suspicion to the Cause of Jesus. Yet Simon the Zealot was called and accepted. And what a potential for bloodshed within the bunks of the 12. The tax-gatherer and the tax-hater. The unpatriotic Jew who degraded himself by becoming a servant of the alien rule; and the Jewish patriot, who revolted under the foreign yoke. Not an accident, but a prophesy of the future.
Our New year gives us cause to ask what are WE at the beginning of. I want to go a step beyond losing weight, drinking less, or whatever and ask us what is beginning in our heart today. What is it inside you that is beginning.
Maybe there is nothing that is beginning in you. Or worse maybe you look at the survey of people that I exposed before you and you see fools. You see a man who doesn’t know who God really is, or you see a man who doesn’t have any self esteem, or you see a man that just made poor decisions in his life, or someone who has sold out. The beginnings of this heart of judgement is one that will be the same next year… maybe your beginning is to be more able to see things that are wrong with others.
But I bring these guys up because we don’t usually look at their beginnings, we look at their accomplishments, their “Sainthood” their ability to be SPIRITUAL in the RIGHT way. But they had a beginning too. And if you look at Peter, Nathanael, Matthew, or Simon the Zealot, you will see their embarrassing (or maybe not so embarrassing) beginning. But I want to highlight that at each of these beginnings was a humble heart that actually wanted answers.
Peter and Andrew DID want Jesus to show how they might be fishers of men, Nathanael DID want Christ to teach him to really pray to a living God, Matthew wanted his life to be the way of lifting burdons, and Simon wanted to live in the Kingdom of the true Israel. They all wanted a life that was different than what they had. Their heart was ready for Jesus to change the course of who they were. What does your heart want to begin? Is there a call?
Is there something in you that is beginning to be an enthusiast? Like James and John maybe your heart’s beginning to heat up, and, as an unbelieving world would say, your heart is turned by a dream about a divine kingdom to be set up here on earth, with Jesus for its king. My encouragement today is to let that dream possessed you, and rule your mind like it has for others beginnings before you. This vision of a life on earth as it is in in heaven will shape your beginning and compel your destiny, like Abraham, today, I encourage you to let your humble beginning start. Leave your country and go forth on what might be a very humble prayer that asks Jesus “I want to follow you… I will follow you… How do I do it?”
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
This will not be on a Bookmark
When I first became a Christian, life was magical. I woke up listening to Christian radio. My prayer time in the morning was as real and pleasant as sunshine in my room. There was an instance in my early conversion where I actually witnessed color differently. It was like I was seeing brighter. More beautiful colors. I wasn’t high. But I was on something.
I drank in sermons from everywhere because I was so thirsty. Enrolled in Bible college. Fought with my dad on how I needed to stay at bible college, instead of staying with my university education. I had extreme devotion to Jesus.
At this point I probably didn’t read this passage in Hebrews 12
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? [...] 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:7, 10-11 (NIV)
I’m pretty sure I didn’t read this at the time, or if I did I would not have understood the gravity of what it talks about. Because I’m sure at the time a prayer that would have gone up would be. YEAH GOD DISCIPLINE ME. And it would have been a genuine prayer. And God may and did grant it. But it sounds a little S&Mee
These early experiences of color, teaching, devotion, and crazy prayers, moved me down a path where I decided to follow Jesus. And three years later I found myself talking to a friend on the side of the road crying. I was explaining to him how all of these magical experiences had dried up. If I was still seeing colors differently, I didn’t remember how I used to see them. I was knee deep in my studies, but none of it was feeding my soul. And I told this person that I simply felt that God wasn’t near me any more.
As people who inhabit time, we live our life in undulation. This means that while our spirit can be directed toward an eternal object, our bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change. As a result our nearest approach to constancy, is undulation—the repeated return to a level from which we repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.
When I was crying on the side of the road, I just thought I did something wrong. Maybe I wasn’t praying hard enough or I wasn’t worshiping long enough. Little did I know that this removal from God’s presence, from his magical world. Was God’s very point. It was him giving me freedom. This Trough, this discipline of living life without “EXTREME COLOR” was letting me freely become his son. Many times when we experience hardship, all we can see is the pain.
But sometimes we have to see things from another perspective. CS LEWIS had a gift for articulating God from other perspectives. This is a snippet from a letter written by Uncle Screwtape in the “screwtape letters,” his perspective is one of an undersecretary to the devil, and he is writing to his nephew Wormwood, who just graduated and has his first project. A Human host. We don’t have much context, but in this scenario Wormwood Is trying to teach why as a devil, they need to not coast during the troughs of someone’s life
The Enemy [GOD] allows this disappointment to occur on the threshold of every human endeavour. It occurs when the boy who has been enchanted in the nursery by Stories from the Odyssey buckles down to really learning Greek. It occurs when lovers have got married and begin the real task of learning to live together. In every department of life it marks the transition from dreaming aspiration to laborious doing. The Enemy takes this risk because He has a curious fantasy of making all these disgusting little human vermin into what He calls His "free" lovers and servants—"sons" is the word He uses, with His inveterate love of degrading the whole spiritual world by unnatural liaisons with the two-legged animals. Desiring their freedom, He therefore refuses to carry them, by their mere affections and habits, to any of the goals which He sets before them: He leaves them to "do it on their own". And there lies our opportunity. But also, remember, there lies our danger. If once they get through this initial dryness successfully, they become much less dependent on emotion and therefore much harder to tempt.
…You must have often wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to over-ride a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo. For His ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with Him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve. He is prepared to do a little overriding at the beginning. He will set them off with communications of His presence which, though faint, seem great to them, with emotional sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation. But He never allows this state of affairs to last long. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs—to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best. We can drag our patients along by continual tempting, because we design them only for the table, and the more their will is interfered with the better. He cannot "tempt" to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles.
…Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.
Have you ever seen the bookmark or fine piece of Christian artwork entitled Footprints? Its about a guy dying, seeing his life as a beach. He was walking with Jesus and both of them were making footprints in the sand. When he looked back during the hard times of his life he noticed that there was only one set of footprints. When he inquired to Jesus why he left him during those times, Jesus replied. I didn’t leave you alone… I was carrying you.
I think it is funny that according to Screwtape, it is God’s plan to allow us to walk on our own. It is the way we can freely become his “child” without God’s intervention. To live faithfully through the difficulty of life.
We live our life in undulation our hardship can easily be seen as that… hardship. but if we look at it in light of eternity, these troughs of hardship in which God seems absent, our cries, our prayers, our confusion is far from non-devotion. because it is these cries and stances that allow us to freely stand on our 2 feet. Housing the character of God within us. This stance without the support of our senses seeing God in Dazzling Color, is what God calls true devotion.
I drank in sermons from everywhere because I was so thirsty. Enrolled in Bible college. Fought with my dad on how I needed to stay at bible college, instead of staying with my university education. I had extreme devotion to Jesus.
At this point I probably didn’t read this passage in Hebrews 12
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? [...] 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:7, 10-11 (NIV)
I’m pretty sure I didn’t read this at the time, or if I did I would not have understood the gravity of what it talks about. Because I’m sure at the time a prayer that would have gone up would be. YEAH GOD DISCIPLINE ME. And it would have been a genuine prayer. And God may and did grant it. But it sounds a little S&Mee
These early experiences of color, teaching, devotion, and crazy prayers, moved me down a path where I decided to follow Jesus. And three years later I found myself talking to a friend on the side of the road crying. I was explaining to him how all of these magical experiences had dried up. If I was still seeing colors differently, I didn’t remember how I used to see them. I was knee deep in my studies, but none of it was feeding my soul. And I told this person that I simply felt that God wasn’t near me any more.
As people who inhabit time, we live our life in undulation. This means that while our spirit can be directed toward an eternal object, our bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change. As a result our nearest approach to constancy, is undulation—the repeated return to a level from which we repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.
When I was crying on the side of the road, I just thought I did something wrong. Maybe I wasn’t praying hard enough or I wasn’t worshiping long enough. Little did I know that this removal from God’s presence, from his magical world. Was God’s very point. It was him giving me freedom. This Trough, this discipline of living life without “EXTREME COLOR” was letting me freely become his son. Many times when we experience hardship, all we can see is the pain.
But sometimes we have to see things from another perspective. CS LEWIS had a gift for articulating God from other perspectives. This is a snippet from a letter written by Uncle Screwtape in the “screwtape letters,” his perspective is one of an undersecretary to the devil, and he is writing to his nephew Wormwood, who just graduated and has his first project. A Human host. We don’t have much context, but in this scenario Wormwood Is trying to teach why as a devil, they need to not coast during the troughs of someone’s life
The Enemy [GOD] allows this disappointment to occur on the threshold of every human endeavour. It occurs when the boy who has been enchanted in the nursery by Stories from the Odyssey buckles down to really learning Greek. It occurs when lovers have got married and begin the real task of learning to live together. In every department of life it marks the transition from dreaming aspiration to laborious doing. The Enemy takes this risk because He has a curious fantasy of making all these disgusting little human vermin into what He calls His "free" lovers and servants—"sons" is the word He uses, with His inveterate love of degrading the whole spiritual world by unnatural liaisons with the two-legged animals. Desiring their freedom, He therefore refuses to carry them, by their mere affections and habits, to any of the goals which He sets before them: He leaves them to "do it on their own". And there lies our opportunity. But also, remember, there lies our danger. If once they get through this initial dryness successfully, they become much less dependent on emotion and therefore much harder to tempt.
…You must have often wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to over-ride a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo. For His ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with Him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve. He is prepared to do a little overriding at the beginning. He will set them off with communications of His presence which, though faint, seem great to them, with emotional sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation. But He never allows this state of affairs to last long. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs—to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best. We can drag our patients along by continual tempting, because we design them only for the table, and the more their will is interfered with the better. He cannot "tempt" to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles.
…Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.
Have you ever seen the bookmark or fine piece of Christian artwork entitled Footprints? Its about a guy dying, seeing his life as a beach. He was walking with Jesus and both of them were making footprints in the sand. When he looked back during the hard times of his life he noticed that there was only one set of footprints. When he inquired to Jesus why he left him during those times, Jesus replied. I didn’t leave you alone… I was carrying you.
I think it is funny that according to Screwtape, it is God’s plan to allow us to walk on our own. It is the way we can freely become his “child” without God’s intervention. To live faithfully through the difficulty of life.
We live our life in undulation our hardship can easily be seen as that… hardship. but if we look at it in light of eternity, these troughs of hardship in which God seems absent, our cries, our prayers, our confusion is far from non-devotion. because it is these cries and stances that allow us to freely stand on our 2 feet. Housing the character of God within us. This stance without the support of our senses seeing God in Dazzling Color, is what God calls true devotion.
Friday, June 04, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Zippy and Friends
After re-entering children's television with Bettylou, I was take by the cleverness of Yo Gabba Gabba. How they would teach you to brush your teeth with songs that would burrow into your skull. As I realized this was an amazing teaching method, I also realized the untapped potential in utilizing this method to deal with one of the more fundimental of human evils... Anger. Here is my attempt at exploring it with the help of some amazing friends.
Zippy: Hey Everybody, I’m in a Kids TV show.
What’s that? It’s a BEE.
Spelled with the letter B. Let’s see what he’s buzzing about. Hi BEE
Bee: I’m so pissed off!
Zippy: What?
Bee: Oooooooooooooh!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so angry!! Ooooooooooooh!
Zippy: What’s going on!?!
Bee: Ooooooooh! Oooooh!!!! Eeeeeerrrrrrrrggggghhhhhhh!
Zippy: What the!!?!
Bee: I feel like I want to punch something! Or someone! EEEEEEERRRRRGH! My blood is boiling and I can’t! I can’t! I can’t fucking breathe!!! My friend said something to me and so I yelled at him and I hate him and I also keyed his car!
Zippy: Hey Bee calm down. When did this happen?
Bee: (throwing things, shoving things) THREE WEEKS AGO! I HATE HIM! Don’t talk to Knuckles anymore. He’s a loser, a freak and he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about!
Zippy: When was the last time you talked to Knuckles?
Bee: THREE WEEKS AGO!
Zippy: Three weeks ago? That’s quite awhile…what did he say to you to make you so angry still?
Bee: He said Clyde Shooter my favorite Basketball player on “the Hornets” was a klutz. I KNOW I’m going to find him and STING HIM in the damn face! Sting him in the face! Sting him in the face! Sting him in the face!
Zippy: Whoa. Do you realize, if you sting him, he could have an allergic reaction and die or at the very least have a scar?
Bee: I hope he gets a scar! A scar on his damn face!
Zippy: Do you realize if YOU sting him, you will die?
Bee: I DON’T CA – wait, what? What?
Zippy: You’re a bee. If you sting someone, you die right after. Why don’t you just call and talk to Knuckles and sort it out? I’m sure he didn’t mean to hurt you.
Bee: (running around in circles) AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
Zippy: Bee, calm down. Seriously, you’re going to hurt yourself, or someone else. Listen to me, Bee. Don’t Bee Angry, Bee Constructive, Bee Calm. Look, anger isn’t a bad thing, it’s like when you get a side ache, you know something is wrong with you physically, right?
Bee: Yeah?
Zippy: Well, anger is the same way. It can tell you when something is wrong socially. When someone has done or said something that is morally wrong against you. It’s ok to be angry, but it’s been three weeks. That’s probably too long. Have you done anything constructive by being this mad?
Bee: I cleaned my hive top to bottom seven times in one day and I keyed Knuckles’ car and I told a bunch of people about how pissed I am and they all agree I should be mad at him!
Zippy: Ok, but where has that gotten you? You haven’t pollinated any flowers, you haven’t brought back any sweet honey to your hive and your friends are getting tired of hearing the same story about how mad you are without you taking any positive action. Also if Knuckles finds out that you keyed his car. You might get in trouble. If you let this continue to build, you’re going to end up being jumpy and mad, running from trouble and eventually end up stinging someone, hurting them and dieing yourself.
It Sounds like our friends are going to teach us a way to de-escalate our anger… By counting to TEN.
SONG - Count to Ten
[Break - what I do when I’m angry? #1]
Zippy: Hey Knuckles!
Moose: Hi Zippy.
Zippy: Why the long face?
Moose: haha. Very funny.
Zippy: haha…But seriously, Knuckles, you don’t quite seem like yourself today. What’s up?
Moose: It’s that Fucking asshole!
Zippy: What in the world? Who are you talking about!
Moose: This fucking asshole slipped in one of my pies.
Zippy: I love pie! But he slipped on one?
Moose: No my moose pies, ya know… Dooty. Anyway he fell and hurt his ankle. Now he’s suing me! If he would have been looking where he was going, he wouldn’t have stepped in my dooty and fallen like the klutz he is! He is such a fucking asshole!
Zippy: Whoa, Knuckles, LANGUAGE!
Moose: I know, I know, Zippy, but he IS a fucking asshole! He’s suing me for something so stupid! Yes, he stepped in MY dooty and hurt his ankle, but it’s not my fault! Now I have to get a lawyer and then possibly have to pay out the ass to this douche bag just because he wasn’t looking where he was going.
Zippy: Wow, Knuckles. Do you really think the guy is a fucking asshole?
Moose: Yes!
Zippy: Really? Do you know him?
Moose: Yes. He’s my neighbor, he lives in that basketball over there, and we’ve had some BBQ’s over the years together. But this…this just sealed the deal. I knew something was fishy with him when he paved part of my forest for a basketball court, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until now.
Zippy: Wait, isn’t this the same neighbor that helped you and Mrs. Knuckles build your deck and the same neighbor that gave you money toward your mission trip to Alaska?
Moose: Yes. But he’s turned into a money sucking hound!
Zippy: Have you talked to him about this?
Moose: No….After he fell I just laughed, because he had my poop on his jeans and he yelled at me, so I just walked off.
Zippy: Wow, Knuckles, so you just left him there in your poop and didn’t check to see if he was ok? You didn’t try to help him? I have a hard time believing your neighbor is a money sucking hound or an asshole or a douche bag – you’re the one rejecting him and that’s pretty devastating. He has done a lot of things for you … kind things for you. Do you think maybe if you called him up to check on him, you could figure something out outside of court?
Moose: Hmmm….I don’t know.
Zippy: Is he really an asshole?
Moose: No, he’s Clyde.
Song - When you call me a Jerk I’m no longer a person
[Break - what I do when I’m angry? #2]
Bee: STING HIM IN THE FACE! STING HIM IN THE FACE! STING HIM IN THE FACE!
Zippy: Whoa Bee! What’s going on!
Bee: I found out it was because of HIM that my favorite center from the Hornets has been out of commission the past couple games. STING HIM IN THE FACE! STING HIM IN THE FACE!
Zippy: Hold on!
Bee: OOOOOOOOH
Zippy: I know you are angry, and you have every justification in the world to sting knuckles in the face. But I saw something recently that might make you change your mind.
Bee: No Way
Zippy: Hold on behind this tree, and listen to our conversation before you do any face stinging. OK?
Moose: Hey Zippy
Zippy: Hey Knuckles why the long face?
Moose: Ha Ha Oh man that never gets old
Zippy: Ha Ha I know. You look better though.
Moose: Yeah I reconsidered that my neighbor wasn’t a fucking asshole after all. Clyde is a Basketball Player and so when he slipped on my moose pie…
Zippy: mmm I love pie
Moose: ha …when he slipped on my dooty and hurt his ankle he thought his season was over. I went over to his house and told him I was sorry for laughing at him. And that if I could give him some money for his medical bills I really want to make it up to him. Apparently that was all he needed. His ankle had healed well over the last 3 weeks, and he didn’t see any reason to keep a lawsuit against me being neighbors and all.
Reconciliation does feel better than the contempt I was feeling for Clyde.
Hey you know? Come to think about it? I haven’t talked to my friend BEE in about three weeks… since Clyde’s accident. That’s not like us. I should see if everything is OK.
Zippy: Hey Bee! Did you hear all of that.
Bee: Yeah…
Moose: Bee is everything OK?
Bee: I’m mad at you for calling my favorite player a klutz. I know it was because he slipped on your poop. I was going to get revenge when zippy asked me to listen behind that tree. I see that you patched it up Clyde, but I still am so angry.
Moose: I’m sorry Bee. What can I do to make it right.
Bee: I don’t know.
Zippy: Hey Bee, you know one thing that you can be proud of yourself about is that you still could hear me. Your anger didn’t control you. That you were willing to put your revenge aside long enough to hear what knuckles was saying. If our focus is in the right place, when we get angry but we will still keep our integrity. The anger doesn’t rule us, we can use it as a positive gage to know when something is wrong socially, instead of over-reacting or cutting off relationship from others.
Bee: I just wish I could NOT be angry. Zippy: That’s the hard thing about anger though. Its not something you can really shut off. Anger is something that comes from your heart. You can’t just stop it… it’s a part of who you are. When we indulge in it for 3 weeks it doesn’t just go away in a second. And usually it gathers its brothers contempt and malice and justifies revenge.
I know you want to DO the right thing and not be intensely angry at your brother. But because anger comes from your heart. You have to BECOME that kind of person that would naturally give the benefit of the doubt. Plus… You’re not a DO you’re a BEE. When you are someone who isn’t angry it is easy to not be angry.
Bee: Well How do I BEE someone who isn’t angry?
Zippy: When that question gets a hold of you, and you really are interested in answering it. What you can DO is trust God to walk you through the steps is takes to BEE someone who isn’t angry. God is the one that changes hearts.
Don’t be a do be a bee
Be the kind of person that would naturally do
Reconciliation Only comes from the heart
it’s not something that you do it is something that we are.
[What do I do when I get angry] #3 Zippy: Well guys its almost time to go
EVERYONE: OHHHH
Zippy: but first lets remember what we learned today.
We learned that We can de-escalate our anger by counting to ten
We learned that calling someone names really shows us that we have contempt for them, and it is blinding us in giving them the benefit of the doubt
And we learned that in order to be the kind of person that isn’t angry we have to become that kind of person in our heart first.
LETS DANCE IT OUT
BYE EVERYBODY!
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