Friday, August 27, 2010
Listen
In the stillness. When did you hear God today? When did you miss Him? Where did you find Him, and when can He reach you?
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Revision: Not Better To Give Than To Receive
To give is the very best way to receive, and to receive, the best way to give.
This ties in with true humility -to recognize honestly our gifts, and our weaknesses, and their benefit or injury to others. By openly embracing both our gifts and faults we are free to take responsibility for our own self-worth and our positive or negative impact on others. This ties in with treating all people as brothers or sisters, including yourself, to rightly orient and guide your approach, thoughts, dialogue and actions. This approach builds healthy relationships for yourself and keeps in mind the best interest and well-being of the other, which is ALWAYS win/win.
This is difficult because it challenges our immediate disposition to gain goodness for ourselves at all costs, which is an unsustainable way to build relationships and a waste of our gifts. Gift are given to us and benefit us when we use them for the benefit of others. We need God's Spirit, which is the voice, the light, and the spirit, given within us. We are God's Body and voice on Earth. Acknowledging and sharing this Spirit in turn is what affirms our own belonging and purpose. This is the hard lesson of the Church, so that we turn away from the fear-based isolation and stagnation of the world, and instead turn toward selfless, abundant, wild, spirited, delightful life.
Evil is that which convinces us that we have no gifts. It is the lie that we embrace when we keep our light to ourselves because we believe it is of no help to others. It is the shame inherent in the way we deprive others from God's Love within us. The good news is that the very core within us that we are so scared of exposing is the very core that provides the most joy and is most deeply craved by others. It is the courage of sharing in deep trust, the abandon in a baby's smile and the relief in our final breath. It is belonging and uninhibited gratitude, and it is always here, only distractions convince us otherwise. The solution is the practiced, maintained focus of our thoughts on Him who Is.
This ties in with true humility -to recognize honestly our gifts, and our weaknesses, and their benefit or injury to others. By openly embracing both our gifts and faults we are free to take responsibility for our own self-worth and our positive or negative impact on others. This ties in with treating all people as brothers or sisters, including yourself, to rightly orient and guide your approach, thoughts, dialogue and actions. This approach builds healthy relationships for yourself and keeps in mind the best interest and well-being of the other, which is ALWAYS win/win.
This is difficult because it challenges our immediate disposition to gain goodness for ourselves at all costs, which is an unsustainable way to build relationships and a waste of our gifts. Gift are given to us and benefit us when we use them for the benefit of others. We need God's Spirit, which is the voice, the light, and the spirit, given within us. We are God's Body and voice on Earth. Acknowledging and sharing this Spirit in turn is what affirms our own belonging and purpose. This is the hard lesson of the Church, so that we turn away from the fear-based isolation and stagnation of the world, and instead turn toward selfless, abundant, wild, spirited, delightful life.
Evil is that which convinces us that we have no gifts. It is the lie that we embrace when we keep our light to ourselves because we believe it is of no help to others. It is the shame inherent in the way we deprive others from God's Love within us. The good news is that the very core within us that we are so scared of exposing is the very core that provides the most joy and is most deeply craved by others. It is the courage of sharing in deep trust, the abandon in a baby's smile and the relief in our final breath. It is belonging and uninhibited gratitude, and it is always here, only distractions convince us otherwise. The solution is the practiced, maintained focus of our thoughts on Him who Is.
Richar Rohr's Daily Meditation for reflection
PARADOX
If God is “crucified flesh” for Paul, and that is what he has fallen in love with, then everything is a disguise: weakness is really strength, wisdom is really foolishness, death is really life, matter is really spirit, religion is often slavery, and sin itself is actually the trapdoor into salvation. People must recognize what a revolutionary thinker Paul was with such teachings as these; and we made him into a mere moralistic churchman.
So the truth lies neither in the total affirmation nor in the total denial of either side of things, but precisely in the tug of war between the two. Hold on to that, and you will become wise and even holy. But be prepared to displease those on either entrenched side.
Adapted from Great Themes of Paul
Starter Prayer:
Lose my life, find my life
If God is “crucified flesh” for Paul, and that is what he has fallen in love with, then everything is a disguise: weakness is really strength, wisdom is really foolishness, death is really life, matter is really spirit, religion is often slavery, and sin itself is actually the trapdoor into salvation. People must recognize what a revolutionary thinker Paul was with such teachings as these; and we made him into a mere moralistic churchman.
So the truth lies neither in the total affirmation nor in the total denial of either side of things, but precisely in the tug of war between the two. Hold on to that, and you will become wise and even holy. But be prepared to displease those on either entrenched side.
Adapted from Great Themes of Paul
Starter Prayer:
Lose my life, find my life
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Movie: The Kids Are All Right, 2010. (no, they aren't)
I love movies. I love to see the latest social commentary on the current state of our perception of reality. It is always a stunning insight into our collective mind. The Kids Are All Right is such a film of attempted introspection, -which is better than no attempt. Well-made in terms of craft and aesthetic execution, it portrays a family struggling with the politically-correct circumstance of a same-sex, married, female couple who have given birth to two children (ages 15 and 18 in the movie) by means of artificial insemination compliments of... Enter: groovy sperm donor. Well, shucks, need I say more? I mean, haven't we all seen this scenario a million times? If I had a nickle for every... No, wait, that was The Switch, which is just yet another movie of mistaken sperm donor identity in which the biological mother and father end up getting married and all is well that ends well bla, bla, bla. No...I guess The Kids Are All Right really is unique, because although, of course, one of the two homosexual, biological mothers succumbs to a wild heterosexual escapade with the biological father, this adulteress is eventually discovered in her infidelity of cheating on her wife with the father of her son. It really just plays out as usual from there. Subsequently, she comes to her senses, and the biological father is discarded from all future contact as the horrible, morally depraved, perverted individual he is. I mean "What type of guy donates sperm?" (Nevermind what type of women use sperm from an anonymous donor to have a baby.....that is completely different. Isn't that obvious?) Of course the solution is to vilify the male who participated in this consensual affair, forbid his further involvement with his biological children, teach them that their dad will not be forgiven for the same behavior for which they forgave their mom, and, oh, create an excellent opportunity for this movie to label all fathers nothing more than sperm donors who are behaviorally equal, yet morally inferior by virtue of gender, or something like that, -in other words, affirm the cultural nirvana of feminist bio-socio-autonomy. Oh, and the kids, you ask? Why do they have to miss out on the clearly demonstrated benefits of an involved, albeit imperfect, biological father who openly admits his mistakes? As far as their mothers are concerned, that's their problem, and ours.
The film does a good job of showing some very contructive and honest family communication dynamics and the process of recognizing and establishing appropriate boundaries inside and outside of marriage and within the parent-child interactions through the transitions from adolescence into the teenage and early adulthood. The sperm donor's sexual relationships all exist outside of marriage, without responsibilities or commitments, yet it is this very "liberty" that allows him to be objectified and discarded twice in the movie, once as a donor, and a second time as a romp for an unavailable lesbian to work out her relationship issues. In both instances he allows himself to be exploited for his sexuality only to have his humanity taken for granted. It is obvious that he has not yet learned this lesson since he treats his girlfriend in the film with the same disregard he has treated his seed and the same fashion in which the lesbian couple has treated him.
What have the kids learned? That it is OK to use others as long as "we" are OK. While the film takes some steps to be sensitive to those within our family, there is little consideration of our responsibility for how we impact others outside our family and how those people play vital roles in our lives.
The film does a good job of showing some very contructive and honest family communication dynamics and the process of recognizing and establishing appropriate boundaries inside and outside of marriage and within the parent-child interactions through the transitions from adolescence into the teenage and early adulthood. The sperm donor's sexual relationships all exist outside of marriage, without responsibilities or commitments, yet it is this very "liberty" that allows him to be objectified and discarded twice in the movie, once as a donor, and a second time as a romp for an unavailable lesbian to work out her relationship issues. In both instances he allows himself to be exploited for his sexuality only to have his humanity taken for granted. It is obvious that he has not yet learned this lesson since he treats his girlfriend in the film with the same disregard he has treated his seed and the same fashion in which the lesbian couple has treated him.
What have the kids learned? That it is OK to use others as long as "we" are OK. While the film takes some steps to be sensitive to those within our family, there is little consideration of our responsibility for how we impact others outside our family and how those people play vital roles in our lives.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Comment on KerygmaFire
This blog is dedicated to the accurate aim of religion, faith, spirituality and the Church, according to their original mission and purpose, which is to bring the message of life to the world as given to us by God. This life is always available in the presence of the constantly-creating and constantly-loving, relationally oriented, Triune God. It is the Church's evangelical mission to bring the profound understanding of this truth into our awareness and our lives so that we may embrace and receive the love that has been granted, proclaimed and won for our account.
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