reality and faith

We seem to live in a very relative world.  Perhaps this world we live in is much more emotionally and culturally based, perceived and even defined than most reasonably intelligent people would be willing to admit.

Everything seems to be relative and equally everything seems to be very relational.  It is virtually impossible to do anything in isolation and yet so many of us feel so isolated.

Perhaps it’s how we relate that really counts.

 

Our perception is all we have and we are only one … or are we?

Even reality itself may well be completely relative, …. and this could be a very lonely, alienating thing, but it’s all we’ve got …. together.

 

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It is clear that thrown into this cocktail we are also amazingly adaptive.  This can be as good as it is bad – we can change for the better or we can change for the worse.  We can absorb open-mindedness or closed-mindedness.  Mostly we seem unaware when we do this – either way.

 

So what might this reveal about our faith? … what we believe and why we believe it?

What might it reveal about our ‘reality’?

 

… and where to from here?

 

Here is an extremely interesting video clip off www.ted.com. enjoy!

 

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

 

’n padda op ‘n buite plaas

A poem I once recited at school when I was barely 10 years old was called, “ ’n Padda op ‘n Buite Plaas”   - by W.H. Boshoff (M.Rieck) and I recall resisting the whole process with fearful indignation when thrust upon to perform it publicly.  Stubbornly I performed the recitation only once and that before what I recall as an extremely large crowd of students and parents in the huge school assembly hall.  Now clearly this might be the exaggerated memories of a traumatised youth but nevertheless I remember it being a most frightening event in my young life and strangely over 40 years later I still haven’t forgotten it.

Why it remains with me to this day, I can only speculate.  It could possibly be because of the fear and pain of the moment having burned it indelibly into my consciousness or maybe because of the powerfully profound truths it conveys to us generations later?  Or maybe perhaps even at that very tender age I may have subconsciously recognised a bleeding, prophetic heart behind the playful humour?

Today we live in a world of extreme marketing and rampant self promotion.  A superficial world that takes no prisoners and leaves the dead to bury themselves as it marches on relentlessly on a seemingly hell-bent course – the ravenous devouring of its next disposable conquest.

A once proud and determined yet now bruised and scattered nation bobs dangerously in this shifting sea of rampant materialism and superficial values.

I have just returned from an almost 2 week long South African Afrikaans language, National Cultural Festival (KKNK).  It was the first one I have attended of the 17 Festivals so far and what I saw troubled me.  It seemed to me that all around me all I could see was so many people and artists trying so desperately hard to be what they think they should or would like to be.  Amidst the trendy, hip clothing and contemporary social presentations they looked lost and disheveled.  As a result I sadly feel moved to share the thoughts of this once traumatic little poem I have had so indelibly etched on my heart.

’n padda op ’n buite plaas

’n padda op ’n buite plaas
het hom mooi eenmaal opgeblaas
hy sê, hy wil, wat dit ook kos
so groot wees soos die grootste os

hy blaas hom op net soos ’n bol
sy rug word krom, sy maagie hol
maar ag, jy hoor net tande knars
want ons ou vriend het op geblaas

daar lê hy nes ’n droë beskuit
met al sy ingevande uit
dit is verdien – ons weet dit mos
’n padda word mos nooit ’n os
Uit: Gediggies vir ons kleintjies – W.H. Boshoff (M.Rieck)

the wonder of wonderful

The word wonderful in the dictionary is revealed as exciting a feeling of wonder; marvellous or strange.

For me the word conjures up mystery.

Something could be said to make us wonder if it appears in full or in part to defy definition or even description.  Something is wonderful if it leaves us perhaps speechless or somewhat overwhelmed, even mystified.  Wonderful means full of wonder, amazing.  For me it also possibly suggests that something could be confusing, vexing, disturbing, even possibly shocking.

“I wonder what that means?”

“It makes me wonder what’s going on?”

“I wonder what that could possibly be?”

And when we are stumped by God’s virtue it is often said, “the Lord works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform!”

Wonderful – such a choice, well used, even adored word.  It can be such a powerful adjective when used to intensify our statements and feelings.  Wonderful is so often appropriately used in honour of God and his ways.  It is commonly sung in the verses of songs of praise and abundantly recorded in the ancient hymns of worship and adoration.  Even our private and public prayers are very often filled with this word when we speak to or of our God.

Yet why is it that we seem to close down the mystery and wonder of God so soundly? In our theology and the definitions of God, his character, deeds, ways?  Why is it that we have so effectively developed tight, systematic theology and doctrine?  How did orthodoxy ascend to the cerebral heights it now occupies?  How is it that we define so precisely and articulately what we in worship declare as mysterious and full of wonder?  And how did spiritual methodology become so logical, so worldly, so empirical?

Could it be said that when the mystery and wonder of God seems to visit that we so easily tend to try pitch our tents and camp at mere signs (which are, as their name suggests, merely directives which point to something rather than being the destination itself) and punish wondering (perhaps because it reveals our nakedness)?

Could it be that we have somehow lost sight of the pursuit of truth being a wonderful journey and not a destination?

I wonder if this could be a sign for this generation?

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making the point

Pointillism is an amazing and fascinating artform. A style of the late 19th century which was essentially based upon impressionist techniques and the application of scientific theories of the process of vision.  Pointillism was begun by an artist by the name of  Seurat.

Originally he gave it the name Divisionism.

The style of pointillism consists of using dots of unmixed color side by side so that the viewer’s eye may mix them into the appropriate intermediate color.  From extremely close up all the dots or points are somewhat meaningless and possibly even confusing.  The closer one moves towards the canvas the more divided and disjointed the picture looks.

However, taking a step or two back brings another focus and the whole picture changes.

… and the biblical text is made up of multitudes of points, all exact, precise, and intentionally placed… . .

and the world, even the universe, is made up of multitudes of points, all exact, precise, and intentionally placed… . .  .    .     .      .        .           .                .                              .                                  .                                     .                                  .                              .                                      .                                                   .                                          .                                          .                                               .                                 .                             .                           .                 .                 .             .           .            .           .              .           .       .     .     .     .    .   .    .    .   .  .  . . …