Down The RabbitHole
I sit here, in a slew of chaotic business robotics and meaningless antics, with corporate lackies foaming at the mouth at the next consumerist-capitalist target they can milk from emerging conglomerate companies that 'claim' they want premium customer service but really want to give opportunity for their spoiled, blue-collar whiners to have a soapbox on which to spout their stories of sadness and woe while third world countries struggle for clean breathing air and drinking water...and all the while, I'm smiling internally, knowing that a sea of tranquility is coming...like a quiet wanderer down a back country road in the friscillating dusklight, slowly approaching, but nearing nonetheless.
This tranquility and peace comes from a place that some people refer to as fake and surreal while others have described and experienced it as being 'actually' magical - not a magic cheaply shown by persons who pull rabbits from hats but a magic that is real - a magic that runs as deep as the stories of C. S. Lewis and Tolkein, hinting at that indescribable something that guides, protects and desires to know us intimately. Everyone has arrived at where they are, on a spiritual plane, through many venues. For me, I have found God there, time and time again. It's as if the actual land has a glowing source just beneath the grass that is detected but never seen. My feet feel light - my head less heavy. The cold and technical superficial din of the world is drowned out and two things become expemlified - nature and people.
But the greatest thing is that once people are removed from the drone and placed into this setting, it exposes the core. For some, this process is negative and they never want to return. For others, they feel no 'core' or 'magic' essence and see it as a place of games and trickery and leave feeling betrayed. And yet, for others, the magic is found and does not stay there - it sticks to their feet and shoes and clothes and when they leave, it comes with them. It may not be as evident as it is while you are there, as the glowing and the supernaturality of the land is missed, but the magic manifests in a different way on the outside.It becomes less airy - more hard and fastened to your memories and bones, giving strength to unseen places. And those who know it and taste it are addicted in a way that is sometimes incomprehensible. It leaks on to others - some are scared, frightened and yet some are attracted.
Wherever you can find those places in life, I urge you, brothers and sisters, to go there. You may not be able to stay long but the visit will always help you on the long, long road of this life. I'm going, and I hope to be more alive upon my return, for this world wears me down. So, as I look back upon the path thatI have already burned through this field, I say that these little stops alongthe way make the journey all that much more worthwhile.
No Quarter
My last few blogs have been post-modernistic dead-tech rants of some sort that have taken a heap out of me. I knowwhat Todd feels like in the sense that when you blog, youalways feel like it has to be good, noteworthy or epiphanal.But I don't feel epiphanal today. I'm just working, trying tostay alive and beat the heat.
I think that depression, anxiety and stress are all integrallylinked. If you have a job you like, or at least spend yourdays doing something minutely meaningful by your ownstandards, stress is not necessarily a bad thing - it justmeans there is a lot to do but you don't mind doing it andhave the underlying knowledge that it will get done.On the flipside, however, if you LOATHE your job or occupationand find no meaning or intrinsic value in your means toobtain monetary re-imbursement, stress is always a badthing because it signifies more BAD things to do that constantlypile up and wait for no man. Thus, this kind of bad stressleads to anxiety because you get the feeling of 'thereis much to do and how can i cope when i hate doing it'ultimately leading to a 'what am i doing with my life' typestatement - depression.
And there you have it.
Social Justice, Useless Morality and the Conquest Therein
Christians. A sea of boiling masses, formed with much zeal from their beginnings, eager to overflow on up out of the banks of containment and lay to waste all living things opposing their opinions. Why does it have to be this way? Why must most North American Christians go through a 'second conversion' experience to see all the living things they killed with their opinion-angled truths in the early days? Why do some people never have a second conversion and stay ignorant? Why does Donald Miller have to write books about the jack-assery of Christians and set up a booth, on a very socialist/left-wing college campus, and personally apologize to people for our doings? Why do we speak in a language that only an elect group understand while the outsiders shrug their shoulders at the foreign dialect?
The real guts of the issue lie in this question: Who do we blame- The church or just our dumb-ass human selves? I think that, for whatever reason, North America, from its very un-humble beginnings, positioned its citizens into a Culture that bred fear that can be seen in a few key bullet points.1. Fear the enemy.2. Fear the stranger/outsider.3. Fear any opposition.Even from the foundings of this landmass we stand upon, there is massive controversy (you can read about it in Wikipedia) about Christopher Colombus and whether he truly was a hero or a monster. To this day, Americans praise the Italian discoverer's exploits as patriotic (i.e. Columbus Day, Columbus, OHIO, etc.) but even Columbus' own diary arguably seals his own fate as he knowingly engaged is such heinous acts as mass genocide and slave trading. Columbus saw his opportunity upon encountering Early Native Americans, but instead of working with them to better the land and resources and future opportunities for both parties, he saw the foreigners as dangerous and slaughtered them.This is an attitude passed down to us from the beginnings of our landmass - fear the foreigner.
To Christians, at least the North American variety, the foreigner or space of the other is inhabited by the 'sinner' who needs forgiveness but does not know it. Though anyone who clearly understands scripture as a whole knows that we are all in need of redemption at the core of our being, this is something that can only be decided and understood on a personal level, or, on a 'heart' level - a place where no man really has the eyes to see. Even though many argue that outward action reflects the happenings of the heart, I disagree. I disagree because...people are stupid, intimidated, jealous, anxious beings who don't really know HOW to act and guage their actions mostly upon the measuring stick of their peers or where they seek acceptance. One's heart may be utterly frayed and busted up while their outward appearance reflects happiness, contentment and sheer joy to everyone who views them.
When Jesus met with the woman at the well, before He made any pre-dispositions about her situation (which he knew already, for obvious reasons), he listened. He met her, eye to eye, and heard her speak rude, insolent words: The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (John 4:9). In that era, any woman speaking to a man in this nature, or in an 'out of turn' fashion, would have been due for discipline of some kind, most likely physical. If anyone had the right to discipline this crazy, multi-partnered, loud woman for her nefarious actions, it was Jesus. But He didn't. He took the high road - addressed her and accepted her for who she was, and then spoke to her situation with grace, encouraging her to go back and make things right in her life.
This must always serve as a constant reminder when we approach the space of the 'other', or, for the purposes of this journal, the foreigner. If the One whom we claim to have relationship with, love and follow reacted with only acceptance, grace and constructive encouragement to the foreigner - then who the hell are WE to form opinions about people because of their outward appearance and actions. The work of the Spirit happens on a level that we are almost completely blind to - no one but Jesus truly knows what a person has uttered in private, inside his head or cried out in search of substance. As I once heard Bill Hybels say to a conference of over-eager teens, "As Christians, our job is not behaviour modification, but to be carriers of the Spirit of transformation". (Amen, Bill. I've heard many people rip you off since then and not cite your words properly, but at least the intent is there.)
We are to be conductors - glowing arrows pointing to the source of our light that gives people hope - not picketing, argumentative and haggling with people in useless moral battles of no consequence. We must never let morality replace spirituality but I fear it has been already sort of happening for a while now.
Fight the good fight friends - let the foreigner into your living room instead of locking him out, and like my friend Jared once wisely said "Get down on the floors, on your hands and knees, and scrub with people in their problems" and then, just maybe, they'll be interested in just What makes you the way you are.
Let's stop the moral warring - it goes nowhere and it's not what we're here to do.Ephesians 6:12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
