What the artist gets.

After a night observing art that was of a more abstract nature, I reflected on what I saw and experienced and decided that one of the most interesting aspects of the night was listening to the conversations taking place. You have probably seen the paintings similar to the ones I was viewing and heard someone remark with a statement similar to "I think I could do that, it looks like splatter painting..." which I did hear, but I also heard other, more interesting conversations. Some of the people were walking around telling each other what they saw, others were describing an emotion, others were talking about how much they were worth or which one they would like in their home. Still some just sat and let the paintings sink in. some people knew the history of the artist and what made him important while others had never heard of him. All were there experiencing the art for different reasons and from different starting points.
Art is a funny thing it seems to me that it is often misunderstood and sometimes overly valued to a point of worship. But some where in the middle we see that artist gets things that we need to understand. C.S. Lewis when talking about his journey toward finding and understanding God uses the word Joy as describing a longing or a wonderment that draws us to something more, he describes the first time that he experienced this joy when looking at something his older brother had created. This longing or “Joy” is often captured by artists in different ways, using paint and canvas an artist has the ability to make observations of the world and push the viewer to rethink, to dream, or just to enjoy in a new way. The artist gets in some way what Lewis described as Joy.

Half Full ?

My day started well, though I did leave the house without eating anything. I know for some that this is a normal event, but I'm of the type that has to has to eat breakfast. so on my way out I am debating on whether or not to stop at McDonnell's or the bagel shop, or to risk it, and see if I can find anything at work. I decide to go for it, hoping to find a bagel and cream cheese or something. so as I am half regretting half at peace with my decision I hit awesome traffic leaving my community. sweet! good enough excuse to swing in and get something delicious from the bagel shop. I get my delicious western breakfast bagel sandwich and return to the slow going road, but much content with a good cup of coffee and great breakfast. I arrive at work parking a little bit of a drag no worries I have a new sweet bag. I get to my desk set up my laptop... sit down to start in grab a sip of my coffee, but it was cold.? then I realize that it was last weeks half full cup of coffee on my desk, in my mouth.. spit and return to my hot coffee to wash out my mouth. I still quiver thinking about it, yuck!  

Kings

It is harder to let God be lord of my life than it would seem. 

I think that it is easier to obey a king of a country or a "worldly king" (to use christian speak) than it is to make God king of my life. A worldly king only has say over the temporal and shallow realities of our lives where a king that is also God and creator wants to be king over more than that. God is king over the internal and deep parts of my life,, and that is scary! Scary because it is much harder to trust a king with these areas then it is with the rest. Most people it seems only half trust politicians and leaders anyway, and we are only trusting these "kings" with things that matter only so much and history has taught us how to over-through them if it gets too bad anyway. God on the other hand is much more powerful so if I give God a little control over some things that might be OK because then I still have not lost all, but if I give total control that is it, there is no overthrowing and what if God cannot be trusted, instead I will give control of my life to lesser kings and gods that I can through away or get rid of if they fail me. And I remain "in control."

  

(partial reflection on psalm 98)

Making Friends

Everyone on some level understands the feeling associated with the experience of the first day at a new school, you probably did not know anyone, and you wondered what people would think. then after the initial day you realized you have to begin to make new friends, which is not easy. 

perhaps some of us are better at this then others, for me making friends has not been a supper natural ability, which may be due in part to my lack of moving around, I have pretty much resided in one area my whole life and even when I did move to a new school I had someone I knew there that knew everyone, and I am typically Ok with not having a ton of friends as long as I have a few close ones.  I also am not an extrovert or a naturally outgoing type of person. 

That aside we still all go through different periods of our lives that we have to make new Friends whether it be because we switch schools or moved into a new stage in our life or maybe it is something more dramatic like you moved to a new state or country

So after pondering my lack of ability to make new friends and how hard relationships can be to start and maintain I checked my facebook page and realized I am not so bad at making friends after all. According to my profile I have doubled the amount of friend I had in one months time. (yea!) So with out doing much I have made like fifty brand new friends in 30 days. Turns out i'm grate at making new Friends. If only they had facebook when I was younger. 

The other.

{This is an old post that I had saved as a 'draft', I did not know that was
possible, any way here it is.}


Communication theory has said that we develop a concept of our self by engaging with other people. We express ideas through symbols (words, body language) these symbols are interpreted by another person then returned to us, we interpret and then re-express... Though this is a overly simple and dumbed down explanation, the idea is that we develop our sense of self through interaction with the other. If this is true we need other people in order be ourselves.

The loss of words

Have you ever noticed how sometimes our language just does not cut it. That there are things that words cannot express. Take art, somtimes It seems that art has the abilty to speak louder and with more clarity to the truth of somethings, and most often without words. 

The same is often true when answering the question " how do we know we are loved?" We can be told that we are loved, but it is always more powerful when we see or experience being loved. In those moments it is as if the language goes past words and speaks directly to the inside in some way that I don't get and sounds cheesy, but you know what I am talking about if you have paid any attention to art. That leads to this question.

Have you ever seen God speak to someone? 

I think I have. 

It is pretty cool to watch the story be told. The story often is of some trivial event in a persons life, take a some what random phone call, but to the person it seems to have carried a disproportional amount of weight. The phone call comes as an answer or an encouragement. See for that person the trivial phone call has come in the midst of an on going inner dialogue of sorts with God, and until then God has seemed some what absent or quiet as the person talked. but then when we have stopped talking, God speaks not through the phone, but to the inside. God says all the things that we have heard God say in the past through the word, but this time it is deeper and louder. "I love you, I'm with you, I will complete what I have started..."  and that person has heard God speak. 

  

Who Knew ?

I recently learned that Psalm 95 has been traditionally read by the church at the out set of the day, so I spent so time reading it. As I was read the psalm I noticed that it seems to tells a story, and as that story is told I could not but help to see it as a call to worship. The psalmist calls the people to worship God, to recognize the worthiness of God, and to do it through song. As the psalmist continues, the story tells what happens when Israel, or when we, neglect to worship. Israel's hearts were hardened and they turned away from God, and God left them there, away from the presence of God, left them to their own destruction. 

Who knew that Singing could save my life. 

The Narrative (section 2)

In the movie, The Return of the King, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, there is a scene in which Frodo and his companion, Sam, are being lead into the heart of Mordor, which is the land of the enemy, in order to destroy the ring. It is evident that carrying the ring has began to take its’ toll on Frodo. This is when Frodo begins to see this journey is, perhaps, his last. However, as they begin to set out one morning, Sam takes account of their food stock and states that there should be enough. When questioned by Froto as to what he means by enough, Sam replies with “enough for the return trip home.” Sam was operating by a different narrative than Frodo; Sam's narrative brought hope while Frodo’s was one of defeat. When Sam's narrative that ends with them returning home was shared with Frodo, it brings hope and light into Frodo’s story. They both were on the same quest in the same land, but somehow Sam operated by a different narrative, and his narrative brought life.

In The End

I heard a discussion on the best way to die the other day. I know a little "morbid ?" if that is the right word.  One of the individuals was talking about how we have come to the place were we as a society generally view deaths like going in your sleep  or without pain as the best way to go.  he contrasted that with the view that was widely held in medieval times that people hoped to be saved from a sudden death and wished for a long death, because it was not death they feared so much but God. That is if they had a long death, they had time to make right with God and their enemies or family. We have come to a place today where perhaps the scariest part of death is the knowledge of death, knowing that we are going to die is the scary part. We then do are best ignore or to mask the reality of death, we hide from it. "death then is what happens when the doctor can do nothing else." 

 It was a striking conversation to me (especially the fearing God part) and got me thinking so I thought I would share, sorry for the downer of a thought 

but  I have not posted in a while so...

Im thinking of killing this blog... 

I am more popular than I was

I have a face book account, (is that what it is called, account? or page, maybe??) and it turns out that I have more friends than I thought I did, it's great! If i had known earlier that it was this easy to make friends I would have signed up for face book a long time ago. "Good by loneliness hello friend list," the list of friends that never seems to stop growing, i am up to 58, i think. Its a good thing i don't have to spend any time with most of them, cause that would suck.

The Narrative

Have you ever found yourself telling a story, and about half way through it just is not going anywhere, So you deicide to spice it up and you add some outrageous ending that is not true. Like; "... then i pulled out my 357 which happened to be in my bag at the time and..." Ok maybe not. But we tell stories to each other, good or bad, and in the process we define the world around us. In our stories we express who we are and what we believe to be true about the world, about ourselves and about others. The hearers of our stories learn from and interact with our created realities and tell their own stories in response, and in addition to. 

we need to tell good stories, stories that expose the truth about the world in which we live, or else we are doomed to live a lie. 

maybe a little dramatic ? 

or more of a half thought? 

The Other.

{This is an old post that I had saved as a 'draft', I did not know that was

 possible, any way here it is.} 

 Communication theory has said that we develop a concept of our self by engaging with other people. We express ideas through symbols (words, body language) these symbols are interpreted by another person then returned to us, we interpret and then re-express... Though this is a overly simple and dumbed down explanation, the idea is that we develop our sense of self through interaction with the other. If this is true we need other people in order be ourselves. 

New Goal

I have gone surfing twice in the last seven days and it turns out that I am not as talented as I would have liked to think. Both days I was accompanied by guys that were much more talented, as  a result I found that I picked up 3 or 4 things that I could be doing differently each time, either by observing, messing up or the loving taunt of my fiend. the learning curve is steep and I am grateful for the practice in humility. 

It is now a new goal of mine that I should always be involved  in something that I am not very good at, so that I never forget to be a learner. Of course this is very easy for me at my present stage in life, but I like to think that one day I will be at least a partial  expert in something. Even when that happens I will continue to find things to do wich I am not even equal to those around me, so that I remain in a position of humility and learning. 

Free will

in answer to the question, how does the story of God hardening pharos heart effect our view of free will? 

 have heard it said that Pharo already chose to be against God, so the act of God harding his heart was not changing is will but letting him continue to act against God as previously chosen. 

that being one answer 

i think to more properly answer the question one would have to engage in the question of what are we actually talking about when we say, free will. in no way will i ever try to tackle that question, but it seems to be that there may be something to saying that God violated pharos "free Will" and made it impossible to choose anything but to be against God and the Israelites because his heart was hardened. with that in consideration,

The Bible does not tell us of another time that God has intervened in this way, or that it is something God does. But if God did what would it change for us ? I don't think it should change anything, except maybe increase our realization that God is God and we are not. 

i don't blog enough

i am now in two new classes this quarter, and they should be very stimulating.

that or they will kill my spirit and crush my ego because they will cause me to discover that a really am not the brilliant intellectual i imagine my self to be. 

 I have two nagging thoughts chewing on my brain cells at the moment.

one is having to do with understanding the bible through a narrative approach.

and two is the Question. What is politics? 

oddly enough the two classes that i am currently taking are titled, narrative approach to theology and political theology 

so i will now force my self to stop for the sake of lengthiness. but i hope to post more on these soon.   

For Your Consideration.

Here are two stories that lead to Questions for consideration 

1.  i actually watched the Oscar's the other night, not sure why, but i did. So, as i was watching a bunch of movies that i had never heard of get awards, it became apparent to me that the academy seems to have an agenda that becomes very obvious with each academy award show. coarse its no secret that Hollywood is considered liberal, but it also seems that they have a different criteria that they work with each year. any way it lead me to this Question. is it possible that a movie written by a stripper about a teen pregnancy could have more impact on reducing abortions in this country then all the political lobbying combined? if it is true that abortion is about the debate between pro choice and pro life then is it possible that a movie that highlights the beauty of protecting and valuing life, even if it requires personal sacrifice, or especially as it requires personal sacrifice, could do more to shape the way a culture views and therefore reacts to abortion?

probably not, nor is Juno this Film. but i think it is worth considering.

2.  i was having a discussion with a couple of theology students the other day and one of them had just discovered somethings about some people that she really looked up to that caused her tremendous pain and confusion. this combined with a few other things led her to the place where her response to God and most things was that "there are no answers." after a short time in discussion and acknowledging that there is suffering in the world and how God might be working... she stated again that she is all about preaching that "there are no answers." this  time i questioned her. "is that really what you believe?" She paused, then replied... any way here is my question, as she stated that "there are no answers" it stuck me as not a statement of despair but of a strange sort of hope and peace, mixed with much pain. 

so what about the idea of there being no answers is comforting?

is it a generational/cultural thing? 

is it a hope/despair thing?

or is she on to something? 

Worth considering? maybe... 

am i loved?

Sometimes it is hard to be generous with love when we are not loved. 

  Walter Brueggemann describes the conflict between what he calls the powerful pull of scarcity against the good news of Gods abundance. beginning with Genesis one Brueggemann shows that the God of the Bible is the the God of abundance, he tracks through the creation story sighting the plenty of creation in which God observes "it is good" there are trees and plants and fruit... and "it is good" there are birds in the sky and fish in the sea and animals of all kinds... and "it is very good" then there is man and woman and they are told to be fruitful and multiply... And God is the God of abundance.  yet somewhere in the story the belief in scarcity emerges. pharaoh to in Egypt looks around and sees that there might not be enough "good stuff" to go around in need to get Control of all i can, - scarcity, so much so that he enslaves the people and gains control of all the lad he can. the Israelites then find themselves being led into the desert, the desert which is the picture of scarcity, yet they find Gods abundance. every morning they wake up and they find all the need, yet they cant control nor predict, yet those that needed much had all they needed and those that needed little had plenty. here we find the Sabbath as a picture and recognition that God has provided all we need, we need not gather every day. working every day is living in scarcity cause i need to get all i can cause there may not be enough good stuff. the Israelites as Brueggemann points out are in constant conflict between the myth of scarcity and the reality of Gods abundance, they hoard the manna, because they do not know if there will be enough tomorrow, there is plenty every day yet they cant Control it so the do what they can to control it and forget about Gods abundance and revert to scarcity.  Pharaoh controlled one of the most prosperous and fertile areas in the world yet... 

it is never really about the reality of the material/economy at hand, as much as it is about ones belief about it. 

what was i talking about again... 

Jesus something something something i know for the something something me so... 

Any way Walter Brueggemann is super smart dude and you should read some of his other stuff as well  

Why you know?

 So I am under the impression that the first Blog post that one is supposed to accomplish is the explanation of the Title of his or her Blog. 

So if i had an explanation it would either Be having to do with Ecclesiastes, "there is nothing new under the sun" Or it could come from the understanding that people really are aware of much of what there is to know, sometimes it is more a Question of articulation or completion of information and concepts.  But your guess is a as good as mine.