Simplicity
Just as all higher mathematics depends on learning basic arithmetic, and just as all more sophisticated music depends on mastering the basics of tempo, melody, and harmony, the spiritual life depends on learning well the essential lessons of this first season, Simplicity. If these lessons aren’t learned well, practitioners will struggle in later seasons. But if in due time this season doesn’t give way to the next, the spiritual life can grow stagnant and even toxic. Nearly all of us in this dynamic season of Simplicity tend to share a number of characteristics. We see the world in simple dualist terms: we are the good guys who follow the good authority figures and we have the right answers; they are the bad guys who consciously or unconsciously fight on the wrong side of the cosmic struggle between good and evil. We feel a deep sense of identity and belonging in our in-group…. This simple, dualist faith gives us great confidence.
This confidence, of course, has a danger, as the old Bob Dylan classic “With God on Our Side” makes clear: “You don’t count the dead when God’s on your side.”
Brian McClaren
DEDICATED FAN
John Adams, Guardians drummer, provided the soundtrack to Cleveland baseball for nearly 50 years.
Adams died Monday morning at the age of 71. He had dealt with numerous health complications in recent years.
His drumbeat was the heartbeat of every Cleveland baseball season for the past half-century, year after year, through miserable slogs during chilly evenings on the lakefront to those magical moments that only October can deliver. That ballpark memory you clutch onto dearly? Adams’ steady beat was its soundtrack.
Hall of Fame /Shame
Hockey legend Bobby Hull died Monday…he was a Hall of Famer on the ice and (at times) a hall of shamer off it…we aren’t supposed to celebrate the gifts he gave us because of the latter…I don’t accept this way of thinking…it encapsulates us all in our worst moments without recognizing any good…it’s a nasty way to live…and die…
We should acknowledge the dark sides of those we admire…it prevents idolatry. Acknowledging only the dark side leads to nothing but shame and a false sense of holiness…
The time to give a full overview of someones life is not an hour after they died…
Phoenix Preacher
Four movements in the faith journey
There are four major movements in the overall journey. They are :
- moving from forgiveness to acceptance,
- from taking in to giving away,
- from fear to inner peace,
- and from responsibility to simple response.
They generally follow naturally as faith and trust deepen, as we can relinquish that which we cling to and release ourselves into God’s arms.
The Critical Journey
Absence of God
“Once the creator was removed from the creation, divinity became only a remote abstraction, a social weapon in the hands of the religious institutions.”
Wendell Berry
RISK
The French poet Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1919)
“Come to the edge” he said.
“No” I said, “I’m afraid.”
“Come to the edge,” he said.
“No” I said, “I can’t. I will fall.”
“Come to the edge,” he said.
So I came. And He pushed me
And I flew.
via Steve Elliott
Spiritual Mentorship
David Brooks in his book “Second Mountain” describes how he was mentored in his faith journey:
Anne [Snyder] answered each question as best she could. She never led me – She never intervened or tried to direct the process. She hung back. If I asked her a question she would answer it, but she would never get out in front of me. She demonstrated faith by letting God be in charge. And this is a crucial lesson for anybody in the middle of any sort of intellectual or spiritual journey: Don’t try to lead or influence. Let them be led by that which is summoning them.
View from the Lanai
So I am thinking about this woodpecker that shows up on the street lamp and bangs away on the aluminum cover. What ever is he thinking? Then I think maybe I’m a lot like him sometimes. Just making noise? So much to think about!
STILL ON THE JOURNEY