Unlearning
I’m learning to be grateful for unlearning. What misery it would be if we had to retain what we learn as certainty for our lifetimes! Unlearning is a part of learning. And this gives us freedom and humility, then, to explore who you are, Lord, and your world with your people.
Isn’t repentance also a form of unlearning? Dallas Willard paraphrases Jesus’ words in Matthew 4:17 like this: “‘Rethink your life in light of the fact that the kingdom of heaven is now open to all.’”[1] Because repentance is just that. It is a rethinking, seeing what’s real, turning towards it, shedding the counterfeit, and walking through the door. There’s an unlearning involved.
Aimee Byrd
Scott Erickson on Instagram:
“It’s painful to outgrow the form you’ve called your home for such a long time. We all go through some form of this. Hometown. Perspective. Even religious practice. And religious practice is hard because all religious practice is about identity and where we feel like we belong.
So when you feel the claustrophobia and the tightness… it’s overwhelming to think you don’t fit anymore and you need to change in some way.
But the wonder and the gift of transformation is this:
Awakening to the truth that your shell was never your home…
The ocean is.
Satisfaction and human flourishing
…satisfaction is central in how many contemporaries think of human flourishing. Satisfaction is a form of experience, and experiences are generally deemed to be matters of individual preference. Everyone is the best judge of her own experience of satisfaction. To examine whether a particular experience fits into a larger account of the world is already to risk relativizing its value as an experience.
Miroslav Volk
Better a Liar than a Bullshitter?
It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction. A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and he is to that extent respectful of it. When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements to be false. For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may pertain to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose. (pp. 55-56) On Bullshit
The Importance of Sharing Wisdom
…one important feature of sharing wisdom: it is more like playing a musical piece for a
friend than treating her to a meal. When I serve a meal to a friend, what she eats I no longer have; in contrast, when I play music for her, she receives something that, in a sense, I continue to possess. When I share wisdom, I don’t part with what I give; to the contrary, I may come to possess it in a deeper way.
Miroslav Volk – A Public Faith- How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good
Aging
John Perry, the main character in the novel “Old Man’s War”, describes the aging process in a direct and little bit coarse way, which only a senior citizen can get away with: “The problem with aging is not that it’s one damn thing after another—it’s every damn thing, all at once, all the time.”
View from the Lanai
Asbury Revival
Social media, local and national news has been saturated with reports , pictures, video, articles, including a Tucker Carlson segment on Fox News regarding the revival that broke out on February 8th and continues today. An extraordinary event; revival is a work of God through the Holy Spirit; and defies rational explanation.
I am thankful that thousands of people are having an encounter that will echo in their hearts and minds for the rest of their lives. Undeniably personal and profound, the ultimate impact of those experiences remains to be seen. Without question, lives are being changed. That’s what happens when we meet God.